on January 9, 2014

DRINK WATER!!!!!!!

I used to hear that phrase over and over again yelled at and hammered into us as measly Privates in Basic Training. One day I figured out why.

Me and some of my fellow squad members had been sent to the hospital to be given breathing tests to be sure we could handle some of the safety equipment we’d be training with later. Long story short, we didn’t feel we need to drink much water because we were in the A/C all day so we didn’t. BIG MISTAKE!

We went back out to training in the afternoon heat with little-to-no hydration and I quickly found myself with a SPLITTING headache and barely able to stand in formation. My buddies had to help me over to a bench after we were let loose from formation. My drill sergeant told me to sit out the night exercise we were going to do but I downed two canteens of water and within 15 minutes I was given permission to go out. I was overjoyed I didn’t have to miss that because it was BY FAR the coolest thing we’d done in Basic, but, that’s another story.

Bottom line, water is the most important thing you can put in your body during the day. You can survive quite a while without food, but, only days without water. Experts have said you should drink around half your body weight in ounces of water. So, at 170 lbs I need to be chugging down a good 85 ounces per day at least. How do I do that to make it easier to keep up? I have been known to carry a gallon milk jug and as long as I empty that every day, I know I’m good.