Day 297: Mantra Monday - Drink More Water!

Back on Day 220 I wrote about the importance of Rest, Activity and Nourishment, and decided to focus on "rest" for the week.  It was an astounding success and I'm now addicted to my earlier bedtime (FYI, I used to be a real night-owl, so 11pm counts as an "early" bedtime for me!).  I set my iPhone to ping at 10pm every night as a reminder to wind down, unplug, and get into bed.  Avoiding alcohol on weeknights helps me sleep sounder, and wake up feeling even more refreshed.  Speaking of "refreshed," my mantra for this week builds on the 3 things listed on Day 220... I'm determined to stay hydrated as a way to "nourish" my body.  So this week's mantra is pretty simple:

Drink More Water!

Visual lesson on healthy kidney function

I feel more in tune with my body when I give it what it needs.  I've become great at feeding myself a variety of nourishing foods, eating when I'm hungry, and stopping when I'm satisfied.  But sometimes I still struggle with hydration.  Back when I lived in the throes of anorexia, I restricted liquids along with food to the point that I experienced 5 episodes of kidney stones (beyond painful!) and mild-but-permanent kidney damage.  Luckily, having two kidneys that work at about 85% is an okay deal (people with two healthy kidneys can actually donate one and still live long and healthy lives!), but I don't want to push things.  I'm not invincible.

Diesel's frighteningly expensive blockage-
dissolving cat food,  next to my SodaStream!

When my cat, Diesel, almost died from a urethral blockage a few weeks ago I was reminded again of the importance of staying hydrated.  If I'm going to worry about keeping a cat waterlogged, I ought to afford myself the same attention.  So this week I'm loading up on water, tea, low-fat milk, and anything fun and lowish-sugar that I can make with my super-nifty-fizzy-drink-making SodaStream (a wedding registry must-have). Bottoms-up!

Who's with me?! Anybody else out there struggle to stay hydrated?  Any tips?  


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