Day 29 - Green Water Bottle

"Now that's some high quality  H₂O" The Water Boy

In my years of training and wishy-washy fitness drive, some things have stuck. Drinking water is one of them. When I’m focused I’m hitting a little over a gallon a day. The reason this is necessary, arguably vital for success during my training is due to the physiology of the body during a high protein diet. Water is vital for life, no arguing there. 8 glasses is recommended and sufficient for most. That’s half a gallon already.

Then, if you are like me and start your day with a hearty breakfast incomplete without the 16 oz coffee, then you need to add those 2 glasses of water back in. See caffeine is a diuretic. It steals water from the body. There is much debate over coffee and tea and how they ‘count’ towards your 8, but in my mind it’s better to replace it, well, to not ingest in at all (but who are we kidding-college student giving up coffee? I think not.) Now we’re up to 10 glasses. So Breakfast and coffee, snack with fiber…oh here we go.

My snack is 100% egg protein with a glass of supplemental fiber (the powdery stuff, you stir and chug, before is clumps in the glass - yuck). Supplemental fiber is an important addition to any high protein diet. See, what’s been shown through my self-explorative diets, blood glucose testing and an education from a very knowledgeable (and super cute) trainer is that my body responds well to a diet of high fibrous vegetables and lean protein. So I might eat broccoli, cauliflower and boneless, skinless chicken breast. Trouble is there isn’t as much fiber to combat all the protein in the shake. With the fiber and the protein shake, it’s suggested to drink 8 0z of water with each. Since this happens at least twice a day for me, I add that to my 10 glasses, now we’ve got 12 glasses of high quality H₂O. If after dinner, before bed, I’m hungry but don’t want to gnaw on another dry chicken breast, this is my go-to filler. Keeps me regular.

In addition to my protein shakes which each require a glass and workouts which I end up downing at least 2 as I’m killing it in the gym. I supplement vitamins and other aids for muscular growth and to help against fatigue. These usually come with my after workout shake. Then the post workout shake, vitamins, and supplements – that’s another 2 glasses.

Thirsty wake up call – 1 glass

Coffee – 2 glasses

Breakfast – 1 glass

Protein snack shake and fiber – 2 glasses

Lunch – 1 glass

Protein snack shake and fiber – 2 glasses

Workout – 2 glasses

Post workout shake, vitamins and supplements – 2 glasses

Dinner – 1 glass

Protein snack shake and fiber – 2 glasses

16 glasses = 1 gallon = 128 oz

This is a tribute to my tracking water bottle. It was a freebie from some bank I don’t even use at a ladies event in my home town. It kept 25 oz of water cool, but not cold, which I loved so I could drink it faster. I would try to hit at least 5 of these before 6pm so I wasn’t up all night in the potty. I loved this water bottle and treated it well, until recently when I abandoned it in a hotel room to get snatched up by housekeeping and cast away in the lost and found. My only solace is that by act of fate some staff member saw an opportunity to retrieve it and give it a second chance at life. This is the last picture I have of it. Even though my green water bottle is lost forever, I will go on remembering it as I complete my gallons from my nifty, new, camelback backpack that holds 1.5 liters and is much easier to carry. I also only have to refill once a day and I’ve gotten more than enough to cover my H₂O needs. Not to mention I can carry any gym gear, school gear and personal items as well. But I will always remember you blue…wait, no green water bottle.