Water water everywhere

Do as I say, not as I do, seems to be how I work when I am coaching. It seems that I am able to help diagnose simple hydration problems for others, yet will not do the same for myself.

The number of times I hear myself saying to others, "Do you drink much water? Because sometimes the lack of water can cause muscle cramp" is incredible, and yet I don't appear to take note of my own advice.

Bascially I dislike the taste of the water, but I do need to make sure I consume sufficient amounts to allow my muscles to work effectively, so maybe just adding some flavour to it to take the edge away would help. I need to start the process.

In the past few years when starting the beginer groups the first thing we always say to them is "you must drink plenty of fluids" so what do I do? Complain that my calves are tight, know i don't drink enough water and then complain like mad.

So step 1, rehydration programme.

I have never been one to drink large amounts of any liquid, so to try and get into the habit of drinking more I need to keep a chart so I can tick off my "glasses of water" daily.
I need to form a nice new hydration habit, and I know new habits take about 20 times of doing to get them installed in the brain, or around 3 weeks of doing to get used to it, so i need to start small and build that up, a little like the running the training needs to begin.

I cannot deal with too may changes at once, i don't know that it is possible to effectively change more than 2 things at a time, so hydration is my first priority. This in turn may lead to natural food curbage as maybe there are times when I feel hungry when in fact I am actually in need of water.

So here we go then

Habit no 1 - A pint glass of water first thing every morning for the first 3 weeks, to establish the habit, while continuing with my other drinks during the day as well.

How hard can that be?

Better draw up a chart to tick them off though just in case.