the water challenge

How water can improve your health ?

November 12, 2015 / lifestyle / recommended

We believe that every person has the power to take their health and lifestyle into their own hands. We see endless “challenges” for a healthier you in magazines and on TV. Most of them mean you need to find time during your day to squeeze in a workout.

This challenge is different. It takes no time out of your day and all you need is water!

This all began with a fellow co-worker who told us how her and her fiancée were trying to drink 8 glasses of water a day as a way to improve their skin for their upcoming big wedding day. We thought it was a great idea that they were doing it together. We later learned the numerous health benefits of drinking the right amount of water has on our bodies other than nice looking skin. This is when we decided to take on the challenge ourselves.

If you need convincing that water is extremely powerful towards your health, here are some of its benefits:

Energizes Muscles

Wherever you spend most of your days, you may not realize how much you are actually working out your muscles. Whether it be walking up and down the stairs at home or running to catch the last bus for work, without enough fluids, your muscles become tired. Hydration helps blood circulation as well as transporting oxygen and energy to muscles. Just after a couple of days of proper hydration, some of us decided to go for a jog because our muscles felt great! Who really feels like working out after an 8 hour shift? Well, with all the water we were drinking, we felt enough energy for a team work-out!

Keeps your skin looking great 

Who doesn’t want to look their best every day? It might seem like it takes time and effort to look as fabulous as you feel, however it could be as easy as drinking more water. Dehydration is one of the causes for dry skin and wrinkles. So rather than buying a bunch of chemical-filled products, try drinking more water to keep your skin happy and refreshed. After a week of doing this challenge, the front-desk team were already noticing their skin looking better. As they called it, water was their “secret magic potion” for their amazing skin.

Water is essential for your kidneys and for your colon

Water is also extremely important for your kidneys and for your colon. You can feel your muscles and energy and you can see your skin, but unless you have x-ray vision, you can’t see your kidneys or your colon. Water is essential for your health because the less water you consume, the higher your risks are for kidney stones and constipation which is why you should drink up!

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How to join our challenge ?

We feel that everyone should join our challenge to share in the positive changes in how we felt and looked. The average amount of water we should be drinking is 2.5 liters a day for men and 2 liters a day for women. Please clear this with your doctor first to make sure this is safe for you. We know that this seems like a lot, so to make this challenge not feel like a “challenge”, we compiled a list of 7 tips that really work.

1. Having a team

Co-workers, friends or family do this challenge together can help motivate you, make it more challenging, and all together more fun. Once one person finishes their first liter, everyone around will want to catch up! At first there was only the bride-to-be who told our co-worker at the next desk. He decided to join in too. The next day they told two others we were now four doing this challenge together. Once our other colleagues started questioning why we were always rushing to the washroom, the word was out and sooner than we knew it, the whole team was up for the challenge!img3

2. Refillable bottle

Not only is a big refillable bottle more convenient than getting up every so often to fill up a glass, we realized that it’s best to choose your favorite color and keep it in sight so you always remember to drink. One of our team members had the brightest yellow bottle, we called it “the sun”! He never forgot that his bottle was there waiting for him to drink. So make your bottle personalized so that you can’t miss it!

3. Making a checklist

Making a checklist and writing down the reason(s) why you are drinking this much can help you stay motivated week to week and will be a constant reminder that can be kept at your desk or on your fridge. Depending on the amount of water you need to drink a day, make a box to check off for each liter. This makes the challenge a little more visible and keeps you on track. We took this as a challenge on its own. Every time someone had a liter down, another person was quick to catch up!

4. How many times do you eat a day?

One good trick is to have a glass of water before every meal or snack. This will remind you to drink up at least 3 times a day. One of our colleagues is a “chronic snack-er”. If he had a glass of water for every snack he had, he would finish his challenge in no time!

img5. Not everybody enjoys drinking water

so make this challenge a little tastier by having lots of fruits and vegetables. They have a high water content, so it’ll make up for the water you’re not directly drinking. A lot of us found ourselves buying the fruit salad at the cafeteria downstairs rather than the bag of chips. So not only were we drinking more water but we were eating healthier too!

6. Stop and take a sip

Another simple trick is to stop and take a sip every time you walk past a water fountain. Every ounce counts! There’s a water fountain next to the elevators so every morning when we come in and every time we leave, it’s a constant reminder to take just “one more sip”.

7. Add it to an existing habit.

For example, before or after washing your face or brushing your teeth, drink a glass of water as a reminder. It’ll soon become a habit too and a part of your daily routine. Trust us when we say it becomes easier with time! We too were rushing to the washroom every hour for the first week but soon our bodies became accustomed to the amount of water we were now drinking.

As for the winner of the challenge… I guess we were all winners! All our faces cleared up for the big wedding day; so not only did the groom and bride look beautiful but so did all their guests. On top of that, we now had the energy to dance all night too!

Once you start this challenge, and start feeling and seeing the changes, you’ll want to keep going! A lot of us noticed that we had more energy throughout our days, our skin was clearing up and exercising was a lot less tiring. Remember, don’t wait until you’re thirsty to finally drink!

Be the one to initiate this challenge with your group of friends, family or co-workers and join us in our water challenge to be one step closer to your healthiest lifestyle!

At Cardiogenix, we take part in or come up with team challenges of our own more often than not. Tune in for our next challenge and see what we’re up to next! Any ideas for a challenge?