Halfway---ish!!!

Here we are at the (post) half way mark!

There doesn't seem to be a point in apologizing for being less consistent than I wanted to be. . .anyway, on the 18th day there are at least 18 gallons down the hatch.

Let me tell you about some of the most. . .interesting days.  The weekend before last I was lucky enough to go to the Happiest Place on Earth!  Hollywood Studios!  Coolest place, seriously.  And let me tell you they have great facilities, if you know what I mean.  I thought seriously about counting and photographing every bathroom that I visited during the day (I'm fairly confident that I got to them all) just to keep better track, but I didn't.  

I can't even say for sure if I actually had more bathroom visits than I would on any other day, to be honest. . .Tower of Terror, though, that thing is seriously scary.

Yesterday I went to the second happiest place on earth: The Scottish Highland Games!!  Woohoo!

Excellent food, excellent music, excellent people watching, absolute F-- in the bathroom department.  I really regretted my resolution yesterday. . .but the Scotch eggs and meat pies made up for it!  

This week's water special:

Edible flower water!

Prettier than it is tasty, I have to admit.  

 The flowers themselves were. . .perhaps edible.  They didn't really change the taste of the water too much, but they sure made it seem special and fresh.  Thanks, Publix!

Personally I've had the most success with carbonated water, especially in the evenings, especially with key lime juice, cut strawberries and bruised mint.  Fancy, flavorful and delicious.

I think I'll save the rest of the flowers for ice cubes.

Now for the good news:

I have definitely noticed that my skin, especially on my face, looks a lot more moisturized and the extra oiliness from two weeks ago has started to even out.  My dark circles are fading quite a bit.  I do feel like I have more energy during the day and with such a high quota of water to drink daily a natural side effect has been having less time (and will. . .and bladder space) to drink more than my morning cup of coffee and has certainly cut down my soda consumption.  Everything feels nicer, my hair, my nails, my skin, everything.  I'm still thirsty ALL THE TIME but other than that, everything is looking up.

One of my two awesome brothers is doing the water challenge with me.  He told me that he too is thirsty all the time but that the painful and quite dramatic very dry and cracking skin he gets on his hands every winter is so much better this time around, and he's attributing it to the extra hydration.  Also he said he's been able to kick a Mountain Dew habit and feels like he has more than enough energy during the day even without it!

Kicking an excessive caffeine habit is really, really tough.  Way to go, man!

Anyone else still in this?  If you've been doing your gallon a day I'll bet you're up to more than 20 gallons (since you're probably also thirsty all the time) and if you've been doing your half gallon that means you've had almost ten gallons of water!  That's amazing!  Think of what a difference that must be doing in your body!  And what those gallons have taken the place of!  Soda?  Red Bull?  Extra coffee?  Nothing at all?

We are in the home stretch now, and we will be ready for the vegetarian challenge, right?  We will all be so squeaky clean by the end of February!

So, who's still in this?  Are you going to keep it up after January is over?  Will you make a point to at least drink more water than before?  Are you ready to try to be vegetarian for 28 days??

Let me know how your journey is going!

Two-Gallon Tuesday! Just kidding.

Julie and I decided to put some bread out in the yard in hopes of feeding a few birds.
Right now we are in the middle of a Hitchcock film with nothing but a thin screen between us and certain death.

But these guys were nice.

Why, good morning endangered Sandhill Cranes :-)

Running away so soon??

Okay, but now the point of it all.  Drinking water.

I have to admit something: it is getting easier.  My restroom breaks are coming at a more reasonable frequency, and I just can't seem to get enough water.  The past two days I've managed to get a gallon in easily early in the evening, and had to drink more (even managed to squeeze a ginger ale in there!)
I've also decided that I do, in fact, enjoy carbonated water.

The device:

Soda Stream Five Thousssaaaaand!  Okay, Play.  But awesome.

This was a gift from a rather fabulous person (thank you Joanna!) and has really changed my mind on the whole carbonated water business.  Maybe it's because it puts the power of carbonation in my hands!  I can carbonate some water so bubbly it can pop off and fly to the moon! (*probably. . .not)

Doesn't even need an outlet!

This one came with some soda mix flavor samples (I have not tried these yet) and a canister with enough gas to carbonate 15L of water.  It has its own designated liter bottle that pops into the top of this device, then you press down to release the gas and before you know it you have your own sparkling water!  If you like it just a little bubbly, you can do that.  If you like it like I do (rocket bubbly!) then keep pressing. . .although I imagine that will make the canister run out before the 15L estimate.

So, this morning we made carbonated strawberry limeade!

Frozen strawberries. . .next time we will use fresh for sure.

 An interesting and perhaps unfortunate side effect is at the moment my hair and skin feel oilier. . .hopefully that is only because there are impurities that the extra water is getting rid of. . .I hope.  Otherwise, it's back to dehydration for this girl!  Okay, maybe not.


So, how is it going?  Are you keeping up?  Any helpful suggestions?  Any incredible transformations in this, day 6, of the water challenge?

Day 3. . .lessons in being slightly waterlogged.

I'm just starting my third day with well more than 2 gallons of water consumed.  

The first day I tried a few different "flavors" of water.

Yesterday I just drank plain ice water.

Going to the movies and sleeping through the night have both been problematic, but that's what I expected.  I went to see Into The Woods yesterday and sat through most of it wondering if I could actually explode-as I wrestled to finish my 16.9oz theater water so as not to lose precious drinking time.  Finally, of course, I had to leave.  It was the first time in my entire life I have ever left during a movie for a bathroom break.  I probably would have gotten away with it, too, had another theater not let out at that exact moment.  More time spent wondering if I could actually explode.  

How embarrassing would that be?  

Would it just be water? I thought to myself, waiting and waiting.

The first day I bravely decided to forgo my usual coffee consumption in favor of more water.  Later that day I realized that was a terrible mistake.

If you're a coffee drinker, just make time for your coffee!  I can't stress that enough!

But now for the good news.  My skin condition has already improved.  My skin is less itchy and seems more hydrated-a very welcome change to be sure.  I feel like I have more energy during the day (although I'm still knocking out pretty early at night, but that's okay I guess.)  

The big shocker, however is that the more I drink the more thirsty I feel.  I got my gallon out the way fairly early into the evening yesterday and was still so thirsty I had to drink more.  We will see how that goes.

Lovely teas that brew well in cold water.  I love Yogi teas.  They taste a little bit "thick" and have a lot of flavor.

This morning I decided to start off with a new combination of things to throw into my water.  I chopped up some fresh ginger, cut up a few key limes, and squished a little bit of mint and threw it all into the water.  

Doesn't that look refreshing??

Now, it's not going to replace coffee right away (although I know that ginger is supposed to be as energizing as caffeine. . .we will see about that later on)

In water it looks a little. . . off putting?

Sip of coffee, sip of water with stuff floating in it.

But it tastes really nice ^^

So, how is everyone doing?  Any good tricks?  I know one faithful challenger told me that warm water goes down easier than cold water--I don't know about that yet, I happen to really enjoy ice water.  We are going to try the soda maker this week and that will add another cool element.  

Any big challenges?  Notice any cool changes yet?  Let me know!  :-)

PS, I washed my hair this morning for the first time all year.  Crazy.

Happy New Year!!  And good luck!!