Hello HC Fitness Readers!
I just arrived back to my university after a weekend trip to the Catlins, an area at the southern-most point of New Zealand. It is a place of penguins, camping along the ocean, beautiful sunrises, waterfalls, and incredible shoreline formations. It was an absolutely wonderful trip!
[A picture at Slope Point, the Southern-most point of the South Island of New Zealand]
I actually feel really healthy right now! I’m working out regularly with tough workouts and making healthier choices with food I buy and eat. I feel good and am cherishing my last month and a half in New Zealand. With that said, there are always areas you can improve on, and one area I find needs a little help? Drinking water.
Water always seems to be something that I can’t quite get enough of. Eight, 8-ounce glasses of water a day, and then running to the restroom all day during class can seem less than enticing. But water has so many benefits! Although it doesn’t beat an iced cold Pepsi (my Achilles heel is soda for sure), it is refreshing and suppresses unnecessary hunger.
There are some ways to mix up the water. At St. Olaf I would always grab a few lemons from the Cage and put them in my water bottle. Or you could fill up your water bottle with some orange or lime slices you can get from the Caf. Either way, carry around a water bottle with you to classes, to the library, or the gym. I am sitting in the Common area at the University of Otago with a water bottle right near my side. I know the more I am conscious of my lack of water drinking the more I can eliminate that lack of drinking it.
[Me enjoying a beautiful view of the ocean and sunset at Slope Point]
Here is a great article I found, Water: How much should you drink every day?, published by the Mayo Clinic about water’s many benefits. It talks about the health benefits of water, how much you should have, and if the eight, 8-ounce glasses of water a day is necessary. I would highly suggest reading it, it gave me some good insights to my H20 consumption.