55. Love/Hate (Mostly Hate) Relationship

Water. It is the most influential and necessary physical factor to every thing earth. It is the one ingredient that is required by the entire realm of beings - including plants. It is gentle enough to provide life sustaining power yet destructive enough to carve huge canyons through the rocky soil of the earth; so massive that some would even call them grand. It covers 70% of the globe and makes up about 60% of the human body. It is rumored to be the healthiest thing for us. And I despise it.

You have to understand where I'm coming from. I grew up poor. This means that we couldn't afford a lot of juices or sodas or anything like that. The option we had was municipal tap water, complete with it's many "added nutrients." I should be able to rest my case on that alone but I'll press forward: this stuff was gross. It tasted like metal and always had traces of the chlorine used to treat it. To this day, despite knowing it is untrue, I shudder to think that it was just reclaim water. This was NOT cool in my book. What we could afford was generic kool-aid and bulk sugar. Thus I survived childhood.

Since then, I've carried more than a mild distaste for water. But the fact is that water really is good for you. Because of this I've tried a few times to drink it more regularly. Those times I have eventually started to feel better but there were two main problems I had. First, water didn't quench my thirst. Perhaps because of my dependence on sweetened beverages. Second, it ran through me almost instantaneously. Drinking the recommended amount of daily water had me literally running/dancing my way to the bathroom at least twice an hour. On the plus side, I got in a lot of cardio exercise and was always ready to put out any spontaneous fire.

Difficulties aside, there are many benefits to drinking more water. Here are just some of the reasons I found to drink more:

• Weight loss: Water is one of the best tools for weight loss, first of all because it often replaces high-calorie drinks like soda and juice and alcohol with a drink that doesn't have any calories. But it's also a great appetite suppressant, and often when we think we're hungry, we're actually just thirsty. Water has no fat, no calories, no carbs, no sugar. Drink plenty to help your weight-loss regimen.
• Heart healthy: Drinking a good amount of water could lower your risks of a heart attack. A six-year study published in the May 1, 2002 American Journal of Epidemiology found that those who drink more than 5 glasses of water a day were 41% less likely to die from a heart attack during the study period than those who drank less than two glasses.
• Energy: Being dehydrated can sap your energy and make you feel tired -- even mild dehydration of as little as 1 or 2 percent of your body weight. If you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated -- and this can lead to fatigue, muscle weakness, dizziness and other symptoms.
• Headache cure: Another symptom of dehydration is headaches. In fact, often when we have headaches it's simply a matter of not drinking enough water. There are lots of other causes of headaches of course, but dehydration is a common one.
• Healthy skin: Drinking water can clear up your skin and people often report a healthy glow after drinking water. It won't happen overnight, of course, but just a week of drinking a healthy amount of water can have good effects on your skin.
• Digestive problems: Our digestive systems need a good amount of water to digest food properly. Often water can help cure stomach acid problems, and water along with fiber can cure constipation (often a result of dehydration).
• Cleansing: Water is used by the body to help flush out toxins and waste products from the body.
• Cancer risk: Related to the digestive system item above, drinking a healthy amount of water has also been found to reduce the risk of colon cancer by 45%. Drinking lots of water can also reduce the risk of bladder cancer by 50% and potentially reduce the risk of breast cancer.
• Better exercise: Being dehydrated can severely hamper your athletic activities, slowing you down and making it harder to lift weights. Exercise requires additional water, so be sure to hydrate before, during and after exercise.

I really don't like water. But in the interest of better health, I'm going to stop being a baby and try to drink more. That's today's gift. That, and maybe one of those water filters. You know, just in case.