Water, water everywhere, and ev'ry drop to drink...

(apologies to S.T. Coleridge)
Welcome to 12WBT water challenge week! It's fairly self-explanatory, our aim for the week is to drink only water (including its variants) as a beverage. No soft drinks (obviously!), juices, milk, alcoholic beverages, tea or coffee (green tea and herbal teas are acceptable).
Quite honestly, it couldn't have come at a better time for the Duchess...

The glassware is my touch of irony for the day...

I feel like I've already achieved really well on cutting out soft drinks. Since this round of 12WBT started on 14th March, the only soft drink I've had was a lemon, lime and bitters when we went out for a meal last week. No coke, flavoured mineral waters or takeaway post-mix, which previously had featured a little too prominently in my nutritional intake. I'm not much of a drinker at the best of times, so the alcohol isn't a big deal for me, as it is for some others.
My big challenge is my one coffee a day, first thing in the morning. I've decided that I'm going to keep it, and compensate with extra water over the course of the day. The problem is that, on days I don't have my coffee for whatever reason, my mood always seems lower and this inevitably leads to a loss of discipline when it comes to treat foods.
How much water we should actually all be drinking is up for discussion. 12WBT says 2 litres each day, not including the water you're consuming while you're exercising. This table from Pinterest says that, for my weight, I should be consuming 3.4 litres a day! (Apologies for the imperial units)

However, I've done some research on Australian websites (some even actual medical ones!), and the consensus seems to be that we should all be drinking between 2 and 3 litres a day, but that there is so much variation due to individual factors that body weight alone can't be used to determine optimum water intake. Our food generally accounts for about 20% of fluid intake, so that also needs to be taken account of. And the good news (for me) is that the research now shows that caffeinated drinks are not nearly as dehydrating as previously thought, so I won't need to feel too bad about keeping up my one coffee a day.
My top ten reasons for drinking plenty of water:

1. (as Michelle Bridges says in her challenge video) After breast milk, its the only fluid humans are actually evolved to consume. 
2. Unlike virtually all the alternatives, it's sugar, calorie, carb and fat-free. Your body actually burns about 100 calories of energy for each 2 litres of water you drink - the colder the better.
3. It's great for your skin! I can feel the difference in terms of smoothness and clarity within days of upping my water consumption.
4. Having plenty of water available to your system allows effective removal of toxins and waste, which can otherwise accumulate in your body and leave you feeling blerghhh (that's a technical term!). This quality, together with the necessity of water for proper metabolic processes, is why water consumption is so important to effective weight loss.
5. Water aids effective digestion. Most obviously, life feels better when your bowel is working at it's best. But water is also important to the upper GE tract - as a periodic sufferer of reflux, I can attest to this!
6. Being properly hydrated enhances the benefits of exercise. Oxygen and nutrients are delivered to cells more effectively, aiding metabolism, meaning you feel more energetic and your muscles can work and repair at their full potential.
7. Drinking plenty of water is a headache cure, in that many headaches are the result of dehydration.
8. It's proven to reduce the risk of many cancers. Not sure whether this is due to additional water for healthy cell-reproduction, or whether it's because you're not polluting your body with the alternatives... probably both!
9. Apparently drinking plenty of water lowers your risk of heart attack considerably. The figure quoted in an article I read was 41%, but this obviously relates to a particular set of parameters around existing risk factors, amount consumed etc.
10. Your kidneys function far more happily if you drink plenty of water. The higher your blood glucose, the more water you need to drink for your kidneys to process it. Water consumption is thus critically important in managing diabetes or pre-diabetes symptoms.

So, the writing's very much on the wall - to feel your best, you need to drink between 2 and 3 litres of water a day. Lets do this!!!