(Sunday Paper, Year VIII, Issue 3)

Do you drink enough water?

How do you know if you’re drinking enough water?

I’ve always wondered these things, but it’s certainly up and down as far as whether I’m actually doing enough to make sure I’m hydrated.

Recently, though, I took a step to help ensure full hydration.

I had an Amazon gift card from the holidays that I wasn’t sure what to do with. (This is a common problem with me and unexpected gift cards. If I don’t have an exact idea of what I want to buy with it…it can drive me out of my mind trying to figure out what to buy with it.)

I decided now would be a good time to get one of these water bottles - the kind you see pictured above.

Kathy has one - it holds 64 ounces, and it has little markings along the side that a) tell you how much you’ve had to drink, and b) give you little words of encouragement as you progress throughout the day.

I had an old 32-ounce water bottle that dated back to my teaching years - I would always keep it in my classroom and drink it throughout the day.

Since I’ve been working from home I’ve definitely been less disciplined about drinking water during the day.

I don’t know the latest research on drinking - some people get away with drinking nothing, some people swear by it.

I know that for me, if I am somewhat dehydrated I’ll know because I get a specific kind of headache.

So I’m hoping this new water bottle will keep me from getting dehydrated.

It’s too big to bring with me if I’m traveling, but if I’m home, I’ll definitely be using it. I keep it where I can see it and every time I pass it I take a swig.

I don’t go exactly by the time markings, but I like that they’re there to give me a general idea of how my water drinking is progressing.

So far, so good, I think. I haven’t noticed a huge difference - like when I went for my long run on Friday I didn’t think the water I had been drinking had any impact on my running performance.

The biggest difference, obviously, has been that I’m peeing a lot more.

But while I haven’t felt significantly better…I certainly haven’t been feeling worse. I have to believe I’m benefiting way more than I’m suffering by doing it.

All that said, I think the real test will be in the warmer months, when I definitely pay the price if I’m not drinking enough water.

Feel free to weigh in in the comments or just reach out to me if you have strong feelings about hydration or lack thereof. I’d love to hear them.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

During my long run on Friday I listened to the Hamilton soundtrack. I hadn’t listened to it all the way through in a long time - a couple of years, I think. I kind of forgot how the musical ends. Pretty brilliant. I really enjoyed the re-listen. (And at 2 hours and 22 minutes, it occupied most of that run.)

Full disclosure: I was supposed to go to Hamilton tonight. It was one of our Christmas gifts to the girls. Unfortunately, our youngest tested positive this week, so I’m staying home with her and Kathy is taking the other two. Not a huge deal - I’m actually getting a lot done at home. And she’s mostly herself - it’s not a bad case. But still, kind of a bummer not to get the whole family down to New York on the 3-day weekend.

Notes

*So this week my friend Kevin and I decided to sign up to run the Chicago Marathon. We’re going to run with Team RMHC - the Ronald McDonald House Charities. So there is fundraising involved, and I’m hoping to knock a bunch of it out with the Super Bowl Squares pool again this year. Let me know if you’re interested - we’ll do 1 square for $30, 2 for $55, and 4 for $100, with half the pot going to prizes and half the pot to the charity.

*I mentioned running longer than the Hamilton soundtrack lasted - I ran for about 2 hours, 45 minutes on Friday, covering 15 miles. These next few weeks are going to be some tough long runs as I gear up for the Wilmington Marathon in February.

*I know you were all losing sleep over this one - I mentioned last week that I was missing one meal from the Jets-watching and -eating roundup. It was probably the best one: On October 30 mom made some chicken parm and she had some Italian bread and we made our own subs. So November 6 was the shrimp parm. (I was going through some old pictures on my phone and came across a pic of the food.)

*Looks like training for a couple of marathons in 2023 is going to keep me motivated to be posting on social media in some form - you can follow along at the links below.