Weight Loss Wednesday: Wonderful Water

Special Thursday edition! Also known as, Chuck was too lazy to write a post yesterday! Let's get the personal accountability stuff out of the way so that I can share my vast wisdom (or well-meaning rambling) with you all.


As of this morning I am at 337.8 lbs. I am up roughly half a pound for the week, but I think the following post will explain a lot of that away. 

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As usual, I will put my YouTube video here if you would prefer to listen to or watch what I have to say this week rather than reading. It is still processing, so I will update as soon as it is ready.

This week I made an active decision to drink more water. I always hear about how great water is for you, and I know it has to be better that diet soda, Kool-aid and energy drinks... so I decided to take the plunge (Yeah, yeah... if I am not allowed to use lame puns I might never speak again...)

Photo courtesy of http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

I went out last week and bought a six pac of bottled water. Any brand will do, but I bought Fiji because it has the second coolest bottle, behind Voss :) Now I just refill the bottles every day. My goal each day is to drink all 6 bottles while I am at work.

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Instagram - @Chimtot

Here are 5 things that I noticed about the way drinking more water has made me feel. Please keep in mind that I am not a doctor, fitness expert or making any claims or suggestions about what water can do for you. I am just a guy who has lost some weight, would like to lose more weight and has a blog where he voices his opinions. Plain and simple.

1. Water makes me feel full - After drinking two and a half bottles of water on Monday, I met Carley for lunch. I ordered my normal dish at a local Mexican food restaurant (Carnitas... mmmm). I ate just the meat with some salt and lime juice. No tortillas, very few chips and salsa, no beans and rice, etc. Eating just the meat, I was full. That is probably a third or a half of the calories that I used to eat with the exact same order. This might seem obvious to you guys, but I have come to realize that often when I think that I am hungry, I am actually thirsty. I also have a theory that my increased water intake might be responsible for my weight gain as I might be retaining some water weight. It will even out in time.
2. I have more energy - I am sure that I am normally dehydrated. My normal drinks of choice are so laden with sodium, caffeine and other things that they just cannot be keeping me properly hydrated. Proper energy leads to more energy.
3. No more headaches - Dehydration causes headaches. I often used to treat my headaches with an energy drink. That probably caused dehydration, and thus a headache. This lead to another energy drink... do you see the vicious cycle here? I always thought coming off the caffeine would cause headaches, but it turns out that keeping properly hydrated has helped my avoid withdrawal headaches completely.
4. My skin feels awesome - I know, I know... that is not the kind of thing you normally hear from a 340 lb. beast of a bearded man. That does not make it any less true. I cannot quantify this claim, but my skin feels softer and more healthy.
5. I am more focused and productive at work - I have actually looked around my office a few times at 3:00 and wondered if I forgot something. My daily routing has been interrupted by being completed. I have even taken on a couple of extra tasks and finished those as well. Things that I have classified as "important to do, just later" have started to get checked off on my to-do list. It feels awesome!

That leads me into bonus realization #6 from my water-drinking experiment. I am in a better mood! I am more patient with my kids, my wife and my employees. I attribute this to the fact that I am feeling better physically, therefore my mental health is also improved. I'll also add that water from a drinking fountain each day is much cheaper than stopping at the gas station and buying a soda!


Tell me what you have gained from drinking more water, or changing some other part of your routine! Share your success with me, and I will share it here on the blog! Keep working hard, and I will talk to you all again in a week!