For years I have admired Roni for only drinking water…I mean who does that??? How do you do that?… Just over a year ago I decided to stop drinking soda after reading the book “Skinny Bitch.” They made it sound so awful calling soda liquid Satan. I felt like I owed it to my body not to drink it. I remember how hard it was to stop and how surprised I was that I was actually addicted to the caffeine. But eventually, it became habit and now I can easily say “I don’t drink soda.” The best thing about no longer drinking liquid Satan is my knee.  I always used to complain about my bad knee and had to wear a knee brace almost every time I worked out.  Now I rarely use it, because my knee and ankle just don’t hurt like they used to. I put on the knee brace before my half-marathon “just in case” and took it off during the race, because I simply didn’t need it. The point of all this blabbing is that I saw enough positive results to make me not want to go back to drinking soda. Which bring me to my most recent decision… I’ve decided to only drink water, all day every day, with the exception of the occasional adult cocktail. Of course if I’m sick, I’ll drink some orange juice or tea and an energy drink if I’m exhausted. But, generally about 90% of the time I’m drinking water.  This is my 4th day of water only. I think these annoying little pimples on my face are clearing up already. Unlike Meatless Monday, that lasted for about 2 weeks; I’m pretty sure I can stick to this. I’m good at eliminating unhealthy foods and drinks when I really want to.  I stopped eating pork a few years ago and I have never turned back.  After about the 3rd day of being pork-free I felt great. Now, without hesistation I can easily tell anybody “I don’t eat bacon, sausage, ham, pork chops, pepperoni etc.” Hopefully, instead of having  juice with breakfast or high fructose corn syrup lemonade with lunch, I can save the calories and just drink water. So, I’m making the declaration and taking the plunge, by saying “I would like a water please.”
 Apparently, I have inspired my maintenance guy who is nearly old enough to be my dad, to stop drinking and complete a half marathon. So, he wanted to go and workout with me today. That seemed kind of strange, but I can’t say no to anyone that wants to go and workout with me. It was a perfect day outside, sunny low 70’s with a cool breeze. I told him that I would take him to the pretty part of the Park near the fountain and Art Hill. He walked Nyah while I ran to Week 2 of my couch to 5K podcasts.  After the third 90 second run interval, my podcast was starting to feel like cruel and unusual punishment. My calves really burned even though they looked so good as I ran.  A few minutes later I heard my own voice say it was time for the last run. I was so excited to finish, knowing that even though the distance gets longer, running gets easier as the weeks progress.  In addition to running a 10k this summer, I plan on running (jogging) the St. Louis Rock ‘n Roll half marathon in October. I used my Team in Training calendar to make up a new training schedule. I’m going to complete the Couch to 5K and then the Bridge to 10K and then continue with the half marathon training up until October.

6 Comments
  1. For a different twist try putting orange slices in your water bottle. Absolutely delicious and very refreshing!

  2. I think this is a great goal! I think I will join you and try to only drink water this week. Thanks for the post and inspiration!

  3. Thanks Maggie, I’m still sticking to it. When it gets boring I think I will add an orange, I bought lemons, but an orange sounds much better.

  4. Krissy, that’s so nice! Thanks for supporting me. You can do it! This is day 5, and it’s not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I see the fancy colored drinks and mentally want them, but biologically, I’m not craving it, which is a good thing.

  5. You go girl!!!! I started drinking only water a few years ago. Now, if I get slack, or don’t drink as much as I normally do, I CRAVE it! It’s such a deep thirst! So stick to it, and after a while, your body will want and need it, and it will tell you so, as well. I must know, why no pork? Was that in Skinny Bitch too? I must read this book!

  6. OMG Candice, you are so right, it is the strangest thing to CRAVE water. I’m not talking about thirsty, but literally, crave it like I crave chocolate chip cookies with pecans. This is day 7, and I’m still going strong! The ladies in the book recommend a vegan diet from what I can remember. I certainly have no plans on doing that, but a lady taught me long ago, even you get one little nugget of information from every book or seminar or class, then you got what you needed. So my little nugget I got from the book was eliminating soda. I stopped eating pork about 3 years ago. My good friend that I used to work with (a.k.a. the co-worker friend in older posts) is a 7th day Adventist Christian. He brought me all of these pamphlets and books and biblical scripture on pork. I read the books and did my own research within the bible and Google, and determined that was something I no longer wanted in my body….I haven’t turned back since. I also have high blood pressure (as do both parents and all 4 grandparents, kinda genetic), so I definitely won’t be going back to it, under my doctor’s advice, because it’s so salty.

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