Less effort for caffeine

Reducing caffeine was part of my health goal, but it turned out that I don't have to put much effort in it, because right now, I drink very little caffeinated drink! This is most probably because whenever I feel like drinking, I would reach for plain water first, then I don't feel like drinking any other types of beverages.

So I would say that my caffeine intake has reduced so much.

But I still drink tea, on some mornings, but it's usually once a day only. And a cup of black tea has about 47mg of caffeine. Sometimes I drink Milo, and I was quite doubtful about Milo not having much caffeine, but I found that in a serving of Milo (2 teaspoons), there is 2.2 mg of caffeine. So usually I would make a Milo drink from about 5-6 teaspoons of the powder.. so I'm guessing I get about 6.6mg of caffeine.

On some days I get some sort of a relapse, and I drink more than one cup of a Milo/tea/coffee. Like today! I had Milo in the morning, and I drank Nescafe Latte during lunch. I think it was because of the stress.

But for me that's not a problem. I'm not worried much about my caffeine intake, I have become progressively less dependent on caffeine, unlike before. Now when I have a craving for some flavoured drink, I sometimes opt for fruit juices and yoghurt drinks instead of caffeinated beverages.
 I am also still maintaining my water intake.. 1000ml per day.

So that's good, yes?

=)

Thank you, haze!

Well, I am not saying that I am happy with the haze being here. I wish it'll go away, because I have been dying to breathe fresh air again, and since my house is not air-conditioned, I need to sleep with the windows open, otherwise it will be so hot!
BUT.

One positive thing about this haze (there's always something good out of every situation) is that it makes it easier for me to finish 1000ml of plain water everyday without much effort, because breathing in the smog makes me feel like I need to clean my oesophagus with lots of water LOL. Ok fine, weird reason, but yeah!

So, haze, I wish you'd go away NOW, but still, thank you!

Second goal: achieved!!

Finally, I reached 1000ml per day!
I had my 500ml bottle today, finished it after Health Psych class, then I refilled it again, and I finished it after my last class today! Hah, amazing! So happy!
Now what I need to do is to keep up with this!
♥♥♥

Changes!

Before I started this 'health mission', I noted that I always felt parched, I felt dehydrated. Sometimes I got headache.

But now, I realize that I always feel, hydrated. I guess I feel less lethargic, as in, I feel like I have more water in my body now, do you know what I mean? Haha! And I notice that I am going to the bathroom more frequently now gahaha but that's an improvement. I guess.

Another good thing that I really like is that I am now more inclined to reach for mineral water than any other drinks. Of course, I still love other drinks, but somehow I will feel incomplete if I don't drink at least a bottle of water in a day.

So yay!! I can't believe Health Psych is actually helping me change a bad habit that I've been meaning to change for a long time.

Amazing!
But 1000ml goal, achieving soon!

Second goal: err, not accomplished?

Well guess what?

1000ml is quite a challenge to accomplish.
I've been drinking more than 500ml of water per day (I know because my bottle of 500ml is always finished a long time before the end of the day, and I go back home, I drink more plain water), but to drastically consume 1000ml of plain water per day is quite difficult.

I should go slow.
But I might have a way to solve this problem...

Stay tuned ;)

Second goal

500ml of plain water per day?
Achieved! I am so happy. These past two weeks I have been drinking AT LEAST 500ml of plain water everyday, then plus all the other beverages (Milo, fruit juices, green tea, yoghurt drinks) I have regularly, I would say that my daily fluid intake is improving.
Even my caffeine intake has reduced so much. I have actually stop being so 'in love' with coffee like before, I drink tea probably once a day, sometimes not at all.

So, my next goal is to increase the plain water consumption. 1000ml per day, how about it?

For a second I considered making some sort of table to record my fluid intake, but I decided against it, because I know myself. If I start recording what I drink everyday I will start feeling very constrained by this health goal, and come on, who would record how much they drink on a daily basis? It's enough that I know and remember, because for this health goal to become permanent I have to make it part of my daily life, and I think I can speak for most people that nobody records how much they drink per day -_- haha.

Why we all need water

Just to illustrate the importance of water, I include this video here.

Water mission II

This was not part of my plan, but the other day I managed to finish 1.5 litres of mineral water in a day! Woot woot.
To be fair I was sick, so I needed to drink a lot.
And because I was sick too, I drank very little caffeinated beverages - just one mug of hot tea.
Turns out I CAN actually survive without my usual 'teh ais'.
But I am kind of missing it now..
Uh-oh!

Water mission

My goal was to drink at least 500ml of plain water right?

Well most days I managed to finish one whole bottle of 500ml plain water, and plus I also drank other types of beverages, so I guess I am making a progress!
To be fair, the weather has been hot lately, so it is sort of helping me to achieve my goal. hehe.

But I am not consistently doing this, so right now I am trying to keep drinking at least 500ml of plain water everyday and make sure I do it everyday to the point that it becomes a habit, then I will increase the water intake.

Slow and steady does it! =)

The long awaited health contract

I am the kind of person who would make a list of things to do, but never really complete the list. There is a chance that the same can happen to my health goals of drinking more water. So to make this more serious, I shall have a written contract with my friend as a witness and also as a supporter to my 'cause'.

Yes, I should've posted this before I set my goals and all, but well, it's never too late to do this! Here it is!

(you can click the picture to view it in a larger size)

=)

Effect of caffeine

I was doing some readings for my other subject regarding GABA (an inhibitory neurotransmitter) when I came across some revealing information about caffeine.
People tend to say that caffeine makes you feel more awake and energetic, but honestly, I don't see that effect on me. Maybe because I take caffeine on a daily basis so it has become just a part of my daily diet.
But after I read this, it became clear to me what kind of effect caffeine might have on me.

You see, GABA is a neurotransmitter that basically calms down our nerve activity. People with anxiety disorders tend to have less GABA, so they get anxious and freaked out more easily. Taking up caffeine actually stops the release of GABA, so you can imagine what this would cause.
This would explain why I am sooo jumpy sometimes. Caffeine is stopping my GABA to work properly!

However, there is an issue of caffeine causing dehydration. I was trying to confirm if this was true, but websites such as MayoClinic and WebMD actually brushed the statement off as a myth. They claimed that caffeine can only become dehydrating if consumed in large quantity, about 5 to 7 cups of coffee per day.
In fact, I read about a study that also found no significant results regarding caffeine and dehydration. So I believe that it is not a problem to drink at least one mug of tea everyday, provided that I drink lots of water throughout the day.

So do I want to stop drinking caffeinated beverages or not?
No, but I want to reduce it. Though it might not be dehydrating, caffeine might make me feel more jittery and jumpy.. so maybe reducing it will be a good idea for me.

Cheers ;)

First goal

I find that it is so hard to start this change.

Today I drank tea during breakfast, then I bought a cup of Cafe Latte (about 300ml I think)  from Cinnabon a few hours later and drank very little water till now.

I have to be serious about this.I know I cannot change drastically because that is not good for my body. So I will do this step by step. My first goal is to at least drink 500 ml of plain water per day. That is the minimum amount I should have every day.
Never mind about the caffeinated drinks.. I think I am going to focus first on drinking plain water, then maybe slowly I will reduce my caffeine consumption.

I should have my health contract to be more persistent in this, so let me just go find someone to be my witness and I will put the contract up here later.

Setting baseline

You know this 500ml bottle of SeaMaster drinking water that we can buy for 60 cents? These past few days I noticed that I almost never finish up the bottle before I got home from classes. In fact, when I saw that I had emptied out half of the bottle in class, I felt so proud. Haha, that was just sad.
On some days, I actually forgot to drink, or worse on the day that I forgot to buy water, I just didn't drink plain water. Horrible! Just imagine, I couldn't even finish 500ml of plain water per day.

You know what I notice though? On the day I drank very little of plain water, I still felt parched even though I drank a lot of other types of beverages. Sometimes I actually got headache, but I would say this was also caused by the amount of caffeine I consumed.
These days I drink a lot of iced tea with milk, or more commonly known as 'teh ais'. I usually have one mug of tea per day, but there was this one day when I drank two glasses of 'teh ais' after having my lunch because it was too hot. Instead of opting for lots of plain water that re-hydrates me, I actually drank a lot of dehydrating beverages to quench my thirst. Only now I see how 'smart' I was.
I also drank a lot of Milos. Ask my uni friends, they know how much I drink Milo. However, apparently Milo has very little amount of caffeine compared to coffee, so I don't think Milo is a problem at the moment.

So there you go, less than 500ml of plain water each day, and more than two cups of caffeinated beverages per day. Not so healthy, don't you think?

What do I want to change?

I have this problem of not drinking enough plain water every day. It's not that I don't like drinking water, I do, but I tend to forget a lot. I can go on the whole day not realizing that I have not had a single drop of plain water. (In fact, I just realized now that I have not drank water today!)
Call it a bad habit or something, but after every meal, I find that I need to drink something flavoured instead of plain water. It feels weird to drink plain water after I finish my meal. So you see, plain water is sort of not part of my everyday routine.
But that is going to change, starting from now.

People say that we should drink at least 8 glasses of water each day, but apparently that would not be enough considering our hot and humid climate here in Malaysia. According to the Institute of Medicine, females should have at least 2.2 litres of fluid intake per day, and this actually includes all kinds of beverages, but I aim to drink mostly plain water throughout the day because there's no sugar in it unlike all the other drinks I normally have, hence it's healthier.

Aside from my plain water issue, I am also a caffeine addict. Every day I must have at least one mug of caffeinated beverages - coffee, Milo, or tea. Each 240 ml of instant coffee can contain up to 173 mg of caffeine while tea has a lower amount of caffeine. I thought Milo was right up there with coffee and tea in terms of its caffeine level, but apparently it has just one fifth of the caffeine amount of coffee.
The thing about these caffeinated drinks is that they are mostly diuretics, which means they cause you to lose water more quickly, hence you become dehydrated more easily. So in achieving my goal to hydrate myself better, cutting down on my caffeine consumption would help.

So starting this month, I should have less tea, less coffee, less Milo (well, this one is arguable but we'll talk more about this later haha) and more plain water.


Sounds easy enough to achieve? We'll see!