H to the 2-OH!
About how much water do you drink each day? Do you know? You need water to live - not sodas, energy drinks, "sports" drinks, or coffee.
I've been refilling these Starkey Spring Water glass bottles with my filtered tap water to take with me on the go lately and I'm keeping track of how much I drink each day. I'm not keeping a log of any sort, I'm just making a mental note of how much I'm drinking.
How's it going for me? Well, I can definitely say that I haven't been drinking this much water since about 6 years ago. Water was never really something that I wanted. It always felt like a chore to drink it. I grew up on sodas and juices and would hardly ever have a glass of water with a meal (I mean, I literally have no memory of ever having a glass of water with a meal when I was younger!).
Years ago when I started training Parkour, I made the decision to stop drinking soda so much. At first I just cut back a lot on it, and then I completely stopped drinking it. I remember feeling good about that decision! But then... somehow... I got hooked on coffee. It doesn't help to work at a Target that has a Starbucks in it. I was slamming 2-4 mochas on most of my work days. I'd be jittery and shaky but just ignore it because of all the "energy" I felt like it was giving me. At least back then I was drinking quite a bit of water, too.
Fast forward to present day - for many, many moons now I have been drinking cans of sparkling Yerba Mate teas, juices, non-mainstream sodas (because "if it's not Coke or Pepsi, it's not bad for me", right? Wrong...), almond milk drinks, coffees, smoothies - just about anything other than straight-up water. Well I had enough of it and finally put my money where my mind has been for at least several months now. I dropped caffeine all together and started drinking water all day. I'm a little over 1 week into this journey of flooding my body with the goodness of mother nature's original delicious liquid. The best part? I haven't had any headaches, I've been sleeping well, and I actually have more energy now than I did when I was saturating my body with caffeine and sugar.
This is a decision I am wholeheartedly happy with and plan to stick with for as long as I possibly can and I don't feel any temptation to go back to the drinks of yesterweek (made that word up, you can use it, it'll make you cool).
So why am I sharing this with you all anyway? The decision to drink water came from a yearning to put my training to work in another way. I like challenging myself and I like testing out my discipline occasionally. Caffeine (and sugar) are known to be an addictive substance that many Americans are consuming at alarming rates on a daily basis. We know there are health problems that arise from that over-consumption, so why do we keep choosing it?
Me? I have the excuse that "I was raised on it". That wasn't enough for me anymore. I'm an adult, I know it's not good for me, and I am finally doing something about it and taking responsibility for the bad decisions I've been making. Honesty is a value of art du déplacement - and if you can't be honest with yourself, how are you going to get anything done? How would you make any change to be the person that you want to be?
If you don't know how much water you're drinking each day, do you really know whether you're getting enough of it?!
So... where's your agua?
Read about Street Movement's (Denmark) "Drik Vand" (Drink Water) campaign with an abundance of glorious reasons for everyone to switch to water - including how it ties into Parkour/ADD and how it can improve the public's general perception of our discipline. Make sure you watch their awesome video there also!