Resolution

Resolution:  a firm determination.  Perseverance.  Tenacity.  Fortitude.

New Year's resolutions.  Eh.  I'm not big on them.  To me, it's just an opportunity to set myself up for failure because by the second week of January, most of my new year's resolutions are out the window. "If I'm content with my current state of being," I reason, "why create a goal that I don't want to and, in turn, won't reach."  It's a decidedly unsatisfactory way to start off a new year.  Habits from past years persist and I'm unwilling to change them simply because it's a new calendar year.

This year, however, I made a new year's resolution that I've actually kept.  I think it's because I really wanted and needed to do it.  I didn't just come up with a spontaneous change and hope that it'd stick for the sake of having a new year's resolution. 

My resolution was simply to drink more water.  It sounds overly simple and easy, but let me explain.  In the recent past, I would be getting ready for bed and notice that I was parched.  I'd chug a glass of water and that'd be it.  It started to dawn on me, though, that I had been completely dehydrating myself throughout the day.  When I thought about it, some days, all I had to drink the entire day was 1 cup of coffee.  Other days, I'd just have a cup of coffee and something with dinner.  I didn't drink anything because I didn't feel thirsty.  I finally realized at night, when I did feel thirsty, it was my body begging me for the liquid nourishment it needed.

Since about a week before new years, I promised myself I would start taking better care of my body by drinking more water.  Now, I not only drink when I'm thirsty, but I have a glass of water by my side at all times and make a deliberate effort to drink several glasses per day.  Also, I never sit down to a meal without a glass of water.

Immediate effects.  I've only been doing this for a short time, but I already feel tremendous benefits!  Drinking water has helped me combat mid-afternoon fatigue and headaches (probably due to dehydration).  It has also reduced my mid-morning and mid-afternoon hunger pangs.  And finally, the most dramatic difference - my skin!  It feels and looks so much healthier!

I've kept my resolution so far and it has been a really good thing.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to pee.