Not a great way to start the first week of 2107.... I woke up every hour on the hour until the alarm went off at 5am. My own fault that happened, I created the situation and today I am going to do the best that I can so there's not a repeat tonight. I suck at being tired......
How many times have you said....
"I can't sleep"
"Yet another sleepless night"
"Insomnia sucks"
"I just want to sleep through the night"
"I get to sleep and then keep waking up"
"I toss and turn and then just when I fall asleep it's time to get up......"
and then when the alarm does go off and you drag yourself out of bed you go and chug down a cup of coffee to wake you up. Nothing wrong with a cup of black coffee in the morning but when that one cup turns into 3-5 and you are using caffeine to get you through the day, then Houston we have a problem.
Here's a question for you.... How much water do you drink during the day?
1 glass, 1x600ml plastic bottle, 1x 1litre plastic bottle?
Of all the things that you have ever tried or even thought to try, I wouldn't mind betting that drinking more water was not on your list of things that would help you get a better nights sleep.
A few years back I inadvertently did a semi-experiment on myself. Went to the Australian Open and drank 3-4 litres of water during the day - no issue with the heat and no issues with sleeping that night. Next day - not so much water, felt the heat terribly and had a horrible nights sleep. Not terribly scientific I know but guess what, when I don't drink enough water during the day, I have a crap nights sleep.
We all know that we should drink plenty of water, yet far too many of us don't.
What's your reason for not drinking enough water?
Don't like the taste?
Water is "boring"?
Forget to drink it?
Don't like having to go and pee all the time?
Water is water, it's not supposed to make your taste buds sing, put a smile on your dial or set of fireworks. It's water! If you really can't stand the taste of the tap water then get a water filter, still don't like the taste, add some chopped up fruit. Slices of oranges, lemons, chopped up pieces of watermelon, strawberries, kiwi fruit, or even pineapple can make tap water more palatable. One thing that I used to do a lot to improve the taste of water was fresh coconut water - crack open a drinking coconut, drain out the liquid, add 3 litres of water and store in the fridge. Leave the fruit juice and cordial on the shelf.
Plain soda water or mineral water is fine if you want some bubbles for a change.
Peeing.... this is where you have to realise that going from 1 glass of water a day to 1 litre of water a day in a day just isn't going to work. Essentially you are saying to your poor shrunken bladder that you want it to run a marathon when it can't even run to the letter box and back again without getting puffed. You need to train your bladder, and the rest of your body for that matter, to cope with the increased water load.
Here's your water training plan for the year.
How ever much water you are currently drinking per day now, drink 1 extra cup - that's 250mls. And do that for the next 2 weeks.
Then drink another 250mls for the next 2 weeks.
Keep doing that until you are regularly drinking 2-3 litres of water every single day. Sure there will be days where you will drink less and some days you'll drink more (those are the days you've trained - HARD).
Also eating more unprocessed veggies will up your water intake as well.
2017 Transformation Tip. Keep a diary of your water intake and also your sleep quality and see if you notice an improvement in your sleep as your hydration levels improve.
Drink more water to sleep better = positive changes in your metabolism = better health and body shape. Win Win.
Hydration ensures the body's chemistry works optimally.
Water consumption affects mental and physical performance.
Bottled water
Hydration Strategy
More Water for Better Fat Loss
The next Metabolic Precision Transformation Challenge starts on 12/2/17.
Click HERE for more information.
