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The Magical Properties of Water

by

How fitting I should discover this tip in the RealAge Tips of the Week on the same day that I finish writing the section on Poseidon in my dissertation (and his rivalry with the goddess Athene):

It quenches your thirst, it’s practically free, and it gives you energy to boot. What’s this magical energy drink? It’s water.

I first discovered the energy-boosting properties of water when I worked in D.C.  Finding myself slowing down in the afternoon, I would grab a cup of coffee, but that wouldn’t work. Not sure when I discovered that drinking a glass of water served as the necessary pickup.

I stopped drinking coffee in the afternoon and reached instead for a glass of water.  A new study confirms what I observed, showing “that slight dehydration can send your energy into a nosedive.”

Even today, when I’m feeling lethargic, I find a few gulps of water often do the trick.  Indeed, whenever I’m driving long distances and find myself thinking of nodding off, I stop and get some water (which often creates other problems down the road, but it does increase my alertness).

Guess Poseidon really does represent our instinctual energies–as I wrote in my dissertation.

Comments

  1. AS someone who works outside (when I’m doing the pool and spa stuff, not teaching), I have been a strict proponent of noting but water. I used to stop and get the occasional soda or slurpie, but nothing beats good ol’ H2o.

    Also, forget baseball caps and other head garments when you’re working outside. Wide brimmed straw hats are absolutely the only way to go. Even when it’s 110, they let your head breath and you stay relatively cooler than with any other hat. There is a reason you see Chinese and Mexican farm laborers wear nothing but straw when they’re working.

  3. Sonicfrog:

    Also, forget baseball caps and other head garments when you’re working outside. Wide brimmed straw hats are absolutely the only way to go.

    In lieu of a wide-brimmed hat, I find that putting a microfiber kitchen towel under a baseball cap, so that most of the towel is hanging down to cover your ears and the back of your neck, works wonders to keep me much, much cooler than a cap alone. (Note that this is basically an improvised version of the Frawnch Foreign Legion hat.)

    You could also use a bandanna, I suppose, but I’m a huge fan of microfiber towels. (I’ve been using them as my only bath towels for several years now — they’re so freakin’ absorbent that I can dry myself from the hair on my head to the bottom of my feet with one kitchen-sized towel. Obviously, can’t wrap it around my waist when my housemates are home, but that’s what bathrobes are for.)

  4. 2: I saw that movie with my nephew and we both were very disappointed. While the books are usually better than the movies regardless, the movie did a VERY poor job of telling the story. Tis a shame too because my nephew really really likes the books. Yet it was a good “teaching moment” in how Hollywood can do a hatchet job on fine stories.

  5. I have not seen “Percy Jackson…” but suspect that it will not do the books justice, since movies rarely do justice to the novels upon which they are based.

    But then, my favorite movie, The Godfather, was adapted from Puzo’s novel, and I’ve never heard anyone say, “Wow, Coppola did such a hatchet job on the book.”

    And to make sure that I don’t completely hijack the thread, I will agree with Danny’s assertion about water. Given my love of strong coffee in the morning and india pale ales in the evening, increased water intake during the day is particularly important and so easy to forget.

  6. What is significant to me about water is that it is essential to life and the water molecule is a trinity.

    Jim Lileks took ‘Nat to see “Percy Jackson…” and reports that she was very disappointed with the liberties the filmmakers took.