Water

Thursday:

I thought I'd weigh in on this water thing that is going around, the idea that you should drink 1/2 your weight in water in ounces every day. Of course I have to convert kilograms to pounds, then ounces to millilitres for this to make any sense to me. But I like maths, I can do it.

This would mean a slender model-type woman might need to drink about 6 or 7 cups of water a day - and I am very sure most drink a lot more than that - and one blogger that I follow is required to drink 17 cups a day, which seems like far too much. (And that person has other fluids on top of the 17 cups of pure water.)

I'm a bit worried about that amount. My husband's mother once made herself very ill drinking too much water (not sure of the details) by diluting her electrolytes too much or something. So I'd say don't do it if it makes you feel sick or dizzy. Your body needs water, but not so much you are diluting or peeing out a lot of essential nutrients and electrolytes.

The old standard was 8 cups a day and I've even heard a nutritionist say that that includes fluid you are getting from food - you don't need to actually drink 8 cups of water.

Of course humans are extremely adaptable and we can survive on very small amounts of water. That doesn't mean it's the healthiest. I'm not saying to stop drinking. And we are so out of tune with our bodies (many of us) that we don't realise we are thirsty.

At my current weight, if I use this rule I would have to drink about 11 cups a day. I consider it a win if I manage 6.

In summary, I have no idea how much people "should" drink. But I don't think a formula like the 1/2 body weight thing is a sensible way to go about it.

It's not working

Saturday:

So I stopped tracking calories and worrying about carbs and I stopped weighing myself everyday and just tried to focus on eating "real" food and moving my body. I wanted to be less obsessive about the whole subject of food and weight and somehow naturally evolve into a healthy person.

It's not working.

My new scale isn't very accurate, but I think I've put about two kilos back on. In about a week. The two kilos it took me months to lose.

I don't blame the real food/exercise combo because I haven't actually been following those guidelines well at all. Lots of junk, and the only exercise has been my zombie training run every second day -- about 35 minutes of mainly walking.

The problem is that when I relax the rules, I somehow give myself permission to go wild.

Maybe I shouldn't need strict rules of eat this/don't eat that, but I do. Apparently "eat real food" wasn't a firm enough guideline for me. I kept giving in to all sorts of food-like substances.

The fact that it is school holidays of course doesn't help, I am outside my normal routine and we are going to places like the movies where (for us) snack food is part of the event. But I think I would have had similar results anyway.

Another barrier has been the pollen. Hayfever is really making me feel awful every day. I comfort eat. Again, that is a contributer but I am in full control of what I put in my mouth -- hayfever or not.

I tend to have way too many "just on special occasions" events. Snack foods at the movies. Dessert when my dad is visiting (which he didn't eat! He never does). Chocolate cake because I feel yuck and I deserve it to make me feel better.

So I need to tighten the reins again.