Tuesday, April 02, 2013

operation h2o results.

I challenged myself to drink nothing but water and green and herbal tea for a month. That month was March. And I did it!


Here are my thoughts about "Operation H2O":

My goal was to drink more water (and tea). And I did. I didn't measure it or anything, but I know I did because any time I would have drank pop/beer/coffee/juice, I drank water or tea instead. Because I couldn't have other drinks, I was more conscious of having to drink water, so I filled up my cup more often. I had to order a new 18L jug of water for my apartment before I normally would have had to. And I had to pee a lot more often. (TMI? Sorry.)

People thought it was silly. And they told me so. Or they asked, "Why?!" with a look on their face. Other people seemed to get it once I explained it. But it's okay that some people didn't. At times, I thought it was silly and wondered why I was doing it. But I'm glad I did. Hooray for water!

There were times I wanted to "give in." There was that really frustrating day at work and all I wanted was a hazelnut latte. There's a coffee shop right across the street from work and it would have been so easy to give in to my craving, but I didn't.
There was the night I went to a newly-opened German restaurant with friends and the owner gave us free beer. FREE beer! I wanted one, but I said "No, thanks." I turned down FREE beer! (This is when I really got some looks.)
There was the morning at work when I was really tired and just wanted one cup of coffee. But I had green tea instead.
And then there were the dinners with friends when everyone else ordered beer or pop or lemonade and it would have been so easy for me to as well, but I asked for water.

There were times I did "give in." Two times, to be exact.
The first was on the very first day of the month, at my school's Chinese New Year dinner for the entire staff. There was free beer and wine and baijiu and I didn't have to drink it but I wanted to and I justified it: It was my first CNY dinner, the drinks were free, blah blah blah. Anyway, I don't regret it because it was a special occasion and I had a good time and another reason that I'm not ready to talk about on the blog yet.
The second was a little over a week ago, on a Friday night, when I went out to dinner with one of my students and his family. His dad offered me a beer, opened it for me, and ordered wine at dinner. I felt like it would be rude to turn it down, especially since I would usually accept them. Maybe if I had been in Canada I would have tried to explain my situation, but there was a bit of a language barrier ;)

I realized a couple things. I like water and am happy as long as I can drink some kind of hot drink (tea, for example). I don't need anything else. That being said, I did miss drinking a cup of coffee on Saturday and Sunday mornings. And it would have been nice to drink that free beer, or to have a beer with friends on a Friday night.

So, from now on, moderation will be the name of the game.

P.S. I thought for sure I'd want a cup of coffee yesterday morning, seeing as how it would be the first day I could. I drank water. I thought for sure I'd get my free latte during my afternoon break. I drank green tea. But, I did go out for a beer with friends last night. And I enjoyed every sip.

(Photo by Elise Cripe)

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