Chapter 1 from the CHANGE JOURNAL.
Water is life. That’s why it is critical to not only use it to wash yourself and brush your teeth. Every living creature must regularly drink sufficient amounts of water. There is a simple rule of thumb for human beings: We need one liter of water per 25 kg of body weight each day.
That’s a lot. But considering that our bodies use up about two or even two and a half liters of water daily (with athletes topping that amount significantly), this seems reasonable and means that they repeatedly need to refill the tank.
The human body needs water to dissolve, transport, and excrete practically all aspects of its metabolism. A varying share serves as a coolant. If we drink too little water, we can suffer from headaches, fatigue, memory loss, or a lack of concentration. So our brain can’t do without it either because it even consists of about 90 % water.
Okay, so water is essential. What steps can we take to stay hydrated?
Regular intake is crucial! This begins as soon as you wake up: You should start your day by drinking a large glass of water. While you sleep, the body loses about one-half a liter – even without waking up in a pool of sweat. Besides, your body has gone without for several hours. You should drink smaller amounts of water distributed as evenly as possible throughout the day. Stockpiling a water reserve doesn’t work. The body can only process certain quantities and excretes excess amounts.
Could it be something other than water? Generally speaking ... yes, but many liquids don’t work as well. Coffee and tea, soda and juice, milk, and beer – all of these liquids can hydrate, but they all require more or less intensive processing by the body. Even if they do not necessarily draw water from the body (as it has been long said for coffee): Nothing beats water.
You can track your fluid balance on all calendar templates of the CHANGE JOURNAL. Each of the six light blue drops represents half a liter of liquid. If you mark each of those six drops daily, you’ll have consumed three liters of “pure” liquid.
“How well are you supplying your body with precious water? Let’s track that every day!” The best way to do this is to drink pure water: Half a liter equals one drop. Every other drink (with sugar, sweetener, alcohol, caffeine, etc.) counts as a one-half drop. This means drinking a whole liter of cola would only equal one drop in our protocol.
Do you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables? This also benefits your body! But to keep it simple, we’re just tracking the sheer fluid intake, okay?
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