Always the Advocate

I've never been much of a drinker. I don't think it ever really occurred to me except in too-hot-to-bear summer weather when my mom was making iced tea by the bathtub. And you thought I meant alcohol.

But then again, I never really drank a lot of that either, especially since I turned my life around. Back in the days when I did, though, it was never something I needed or a way to prove my own significance like so many I hung around with at the time; I was simply expressing myself in a new way until something different came along.

I remember last summer when it suddenly struck me that water was probably healthy. Doctors and family had been telling me for years that water was delicious, nutritious and cool, but it wasn't until I had a medical check-up and found out I was severely dehydrated that I began to seriously change my ways. For several months I was drinking up to six or seven glasses a day, and I felt amazing! Not only did I have the clearest skin of life, I also had so much more energy and far fewer headaches.

But, as everything always seems to go, all good things must come to an end. In this case, it was summer and the accompanying heat wave. With the last warm-tinted breezes and bikini-wearable days went any desire to take any water into my body. And that's where the story ends.

...Until it picked up again several weeks ago. Half way through the semester I realized that instead of gaining the "freshman ten" (the ten pounds every college freshman in the history of the planet has always gained as a rite of passage into adulthood, until me), I had in fact LOST ten. Due to my already heightened insecurity on the topic of weight, I set out to gain fifteen pounds by the end of the semester. The only problem with my daily eating regime was the inevitable break-outs I knew were bound to erupt with that kind of volume of snack food entering my body in such a short amount of time.

The solution? Water.

I started with three glasses a day. Which progressed to four. Then six. I was finally at an average of eight glasses a day when I eventually plateaued. Since then, not only has my pees per day ratio gone up, but so has my self-esteem and skin-wonderfulness. Although I am currently at only about three or four glasses, I still feel amazing for it.

I know that some of you may not believe me, and others think I'm drugged up again. So not the case! Water is refreshing, tastes delicious (especially if you add small slices of cucumber, lemon wedges or do it the old fashioned way: use an old 7-Up bottle instead of a fancy $40 job), and cleanses your system from impurities you never even knew you had!

So like I said, never really been one for drinking. The thing is, though, I plan on looking this way until at least forty, and there's no way that's going to happen without a little bit of sacrifice. So why wait until I'm 35 to start taking care of myself, when I'm fully capable of starting today?