Whoohoooooooo!
Water water, tasty, healthy, flush your body waters and Zzzzzzzz's.
Good day beautiful people,
We are back from a 3-day high holiday break, I had a lovely easter with my family and was touched by many inspiring/awakening things I learned about Jesus. I will do a post on that another day as today the focus is on 1 thing we as humans often take for granted.
Water.
I grabbed this great short article on the physiological importance/benefits of water by Marjie Gilliam at thegear.ca; and am passing it along to you because we all need to know this:
Water is your body's most important nutrient, is involved in every bodily function, and makes up 70- 75% of your total body weight. Water helps you to maintain body temperature, metabolize body fat, aids in digestion, lubricates and cushions organs, transports nutrients, and flushes toxins from your body.
Everyone should drink at least 64 ounces per day, and if you exercise or are overweight, even more. Your blood is approximately 90% water and is responsible for transporting nutrients and energy to muscles and for taking waste from tissues.
If you are not getting enough water, your body will react by pulling it from other places, including your blood. This causes the closing of some smaller vessels (capillaries), making your blood thicker, more susceptible to clotting, and harder to pump through your system. This can have serious implications in hypertension, high cholesterol, and heart disease. Recent studies have also linked the lack of water to headaches, arthritis, and heartburn.
Have you have ever gotten up in the morning feeling bloated, or tried on a ring or shoe that fit yesterday but is too tight to wear today? Chances are your body is trying to tell you something. If you have a problem with water retention, excess salt may be the cause. Your body will tolerate a certain amount of sodium, however, the more salt you consume, the more fluid you need to dilute it. To overcome this problem, always drink plenty of water.
What if I told you that being dehydrated promotes the increase of body fat? Water contributes to energy storage along with glycogen. Without water, extra amounts of glucose remain in the bloodstream until reaching the liver, the extra glucose is stored as fat. Your body takes water from inside cells in an effort to compensate for a dehydrated state, including fat cells. Less water in your fat cells means less mobilization of fat for energy.
One of the liver's primary functions is to metabolize stored fat into energy. The kidneys are responsible for filtering toxins, wastes, ingested water, and salts out of the bloodstream. If you are dehydrated, the kidneys cannot function properly, and the liver must work overtime to compensate. As a result, it metabolizes less fat. So remember, if you are trying to decrease the amount of fat on your body, drink plenty of water.
Luckily, water is a great natural appetite suppressant. There are three ways we get water into our bodies. We get it from the foods we eat, the fluids we drink, and as a by-product of metabolism. It is always better to drink pure water instead of soda, tea, or coffee. These products actually increase your need for fluids because most contain caffeine, which is a diuretic. Diuretics force out stored water along with certain essential nutrients.
Unbelievably, although unhealthy, the practice of dehydration is sometimes used in sports. Athletes may dehydrate in order to "make weight", competitive bodybuilders may dehydrate before a contest in order to look leaner and more muscular. This is a dangerous habit, as athletes and exercisers need more water than less active people. Reducing water in the body as little as 5% can result in as much as a 20-30% drop in your physical performance, 10% reduction can make you sick, and 20% can mean death. With water pollution on the rise, it is best to drink filtered or bottled water whenever possible.
Time to drop some important water facts on ya!
783 million people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water. That is roughly one-eighth of the world's population. (who)
More than half of Africa's people lack access to safe drinking water (UN)
The average person in the United States uses between 100 and 175 gallons every day at home. (UN)
The average person in the developing world uses 2.64 gallons of water a day. (UN)
2.2 million people in developing countries, most of them children, die every year from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. (WHO)
If all the world’s water could fit into a one gallon jug, water available for drinking would be the equivalent to only one tablespoon. (UNFPA)
It takes 5 liters of water to make 1 liter of bottled water.
It takes 2,900 gallons of water to produce one quarter pound hamburger (just the meat) (WHRNET)
Each flush of the toilet uses the same amount of water that one person in the Third World uses all day for washing, cleaning, cooking and drinking. (WHRNET)
More people in the world own a cell phone than have access to a toilet. (UNICEF/WHO)
In North America, we take for granted our access to clean water ,unless you are in places such as Flint Michigan or Pennsylvania's Delaware River Basin (amongst others), then you are probably just beginning to learn about water scarcity and the dangers of the impact modern choices are having on our water supply.
It is actually an older documentary and the war is already on for water but all of us need to see this film and the next films I link to.
I am not here to preach to you, I am here to be part of creating awareness in the hopes of affecting change. I am dropping small info blurbs with links that you can click on to find out more(see above). As well as some videos I believe every person on this planet needs to see. The reason this is in this post & being included as part of the 30-Day Challenge prep is because detoxing creates an environment on many levels for positive change. Self-Love spills over into love for all and often brings up very powerful emotions and need to better ourselves and our environment.
There is a Gasland 2 as well
We North Americans are, let's face it, quite coddled, self indulgent, and down right spoiled.
We are blissfully ignorant of the abundance, ease of access, and wealth of blessings in our lives; the worst part being is we have perfected two very unattractive traits because of our ignorance.
1) A selfish belief that we are entitled to whatever, whenever, however, with regardless to impact on others. This becomes a focus on attaining more once we have what we thought we wanted/needed, and then insisting we should have it at all costs while someone else pays the price.
2) The incessant whining, griping and complaining we do about EVERYTHING and ANYTHING!
Please understand that I am not judging you, I have been just as guilty of these sins as we all have.
I just realized at one point that things were not going to fill the places of sadness, insecurity, longing, or distress. I also realized that constant complaining and choosing to be a victim would never help or empower myself or others'.
I needed positive change in my life, Jesus was the way and God showed me a different path. I found places, people, alternatives, and balanced ways to re-establish wellness that has a positive effect on us all. I did not look back, I have and continue to make strives for balanced wellness in my journey and that is why it is in this post and part of this detox.
We are not well and our planet is dying, we need to include our global impact in the choices we make. Think you cannot do anything because you are one small person?
You need to understand the strength in your buying power as a consumer. Don't believe it? Look what happened in the past two weeks, although I do not advocate sugar-laden condiments as a healthy food item, I am going to use it to illustrate my point. In the last 2 weeks a major grocery chain decided it would pull French's tomato ketchup off shelves, owing to poor sales. What this grocer did not realize is that consumer's in Canada were very well informed as to the real reason this was happening and went off on Social media, kicked up a huge fuss/frenzy, that the news media was reporting on it as well. It turns out that Heinz "tomato" ketchup laid off tons of it's employees, stopped using tomatoes from Canada and was basically selling an inferior product that was impacting the lives of Canadian citizens. Many people believed that Heinz was using pressure tactics to remove French's ketchup in retaliation to French's starting their own line of ketchup, hiring many of the laid-off worker's, and using said Canadian tomatoes. Case in point? The grocer bowed to growing public demands and pressures, we now have French's back on the shelves.
Why does this matter?
It is freaking HUGE because it lets those planet destroying, people before profits minded, job cutting while plundering our pockets gluttons, know that WE are the ones who actually hold the power through our purchases and loudly voiced opinions.
Every time we purchase an item we are telling corporations, governments, media, our planet, and ourselves, where our priorities lie, what we are willing to tolerate, and whether or not our choices matter.
That is why when you buy soda, small bottled water, sugar laden, GMO riddled, non-organic, chemical-filled, clear cutting/habitat destroying, nutritionally void, water impacting, non- biodegradable items, you are sending out 2 messages loudly and clearly.
Firstly, you are not accepting responsibility for the choices that you are making. By choosing ignorance, passing the buck onto others and pretending you have no impact, you are a huge part of the problem and not interested in the life altering/life shortening truths we are now faced with.
Secondly, you are letting those in power know that you hand over your desire for health, a productive and full life with high quality; and that you are fine with their desires for money which lead to the ultimate destruction of us all.
This may seem dramatic but the truth usually is because we enjoy being deceived, as it does not require us to leave our comfort zones. If you drink water, eat food, breathe air, then what is happening to our planet and our impact on it are vitally important to you. Even more so if you have children, their future depends on the choices of today.
I know this is a lot to take in but I want the next chapter, to become a turning point in our lives. We cannot fix everything overnight, nor can we allow ourselves to become overwhelmed-trust me, I know how easy that is. We can all do small things that have greater impact in the grande scheme of things. I know you came for detox water recipes and help with prepping for a healthy personal investment, you can still have those but I ask that you commit to loving yourself even further by agreeing to making small, simple, effective changes.
I do not buy small bottles of water anymore, soda pop is not something I particularly enjoy so that is not a purchase I make either unless I am really sick & need ginger ale. Certain items I refuse to buy if they are not organic, and believe me, I am on a SERIOUSLY tight budget; but I still make the effort. This means I cut back in other places and make better choices.
Pledge the next 5 things as part of loving yourself and this planet, this will have a positive outcome that we can all appreciate and benefit from.
1-No more buying those small bottled waters, get a container that you can re-use and DO IT! If you want flavour, use the recipes that follow for fat flush detox waters and enjoy the benefits and tastiness!
2-No more soda pop or sugar laden drinks/juices. Make your juices or go to the juice bar and have one special item that is better for you and the planet.
3-Read labels before you buy, if you cannot pronounce what is on it, do not know what the "ingredients" are or where they are sourced from, leave it on the shelf.
4-Try to purchase NON-GMO and or Organic whenever possible, and remember Natural does not equal healthy.
5-Ask one other person to make these pledges with you. Passing it on=strength in numbers, together we are unstoppable.
Detox waters are a big thing these days and that is because they have all the benefits of water while delivering an added boost to the metabolism through ingredients that support optimization. You can find loads of recipes all over the web and a very simple one is adding half a sliced lemon and lime to a litre of water but I like to take mine up a notch. The next two recipes are super easy, use ingredients that taste good, are not expensive, and really help flush the fat! I make a full container of these every day and drink the whole thing, then re-fill it 2-3 times more before the ingredients are no longer good. Always keep your detox waters refrigerated when they have ingredients sitting in them.
SPICED APPLE DETOX WATER
Ingredients:
1.5 Litres water
1 Apple peeled and sliced (the kind of apple is up to you)
1 Stick of cinnamon
2-3 Films of licorice (see pics below)
2-3 Slices of ginger with or without skin
Method:
Add all ingredients to a large container, cover and refrigerate at least 15 minutes before drinking. I leave mine overnight for the best flavour. Drink as often as you please, do not eat the ingredients, leave them in the container. The ingredients can be topped off with fresh water every day, up to 3 days before they are no longer useable.
Films of what's? Yeah, licorice films, those are sticks of whole licorice (not to be confused with the candy) that are sliced down and sold in bulk health food markets or in Asian stores. They are not expensive, have a nice taste, and are a great addition to these waters. Do not worry, I do not like licorice candy but these films do not taste like that.
And done!
The next detox water is so fun and refreshing, it turns a pretty pink hue and has a mild tanginess to it that brightens your day!
LIME MINTED STRAWBERRY DETOX WATER
Ingredients:
1.5 Liters Water
3 Strawberries sliced (Can be fresh or frozen)
2 Slices of fresh lime
6 Fresh mint leaves
Method:
Add all ingredients to a large container, cover and refrigerate at least 15 minutes before drinking. I leave mine overnight for the best flavour. Drink as often as you please, do not eat the ingredients, leave them in the container. The ingredients can be topped off with fresh water every day, up to 2 days before they are no longer useable.
Here's apic I found on Pinterest where they added cucumbers, lemon slices, strawberries, lime slices and mint. Get creative and have fun making any combo of flavours you like, I am seriously going for mango, mint, and cucumber next.
Just so you know:
And:
Have a blessed day and wonderful start to the week.
