By Adriana Velez
Every May is Treat. Yo. Self. month for me, thanks to Mother's Day, my birthday, and the sheer relief of winter being over. That means I celebrate! With lots of cheese and macarons and wine and ... toward the end of the month, all my clothes were fitting a little tight. Oops. Party's over! When you start getting seam imprints on your belly from your jeans, you know it's time for a health reboot. I don't do cleanses, but I keep hearing about how magical drinking hot lemon water first thing in the morning is supposed to be. So I decided to give it a try for a week.
What's this stuff supposed to do?
Just about everything from making you lose weight to ensuring you never catch a cold ever again in your life. I thought the claims were perhaps a wee bit exaggerated, but I was willing to give it a try. So (almost) every morning, I squeezed the juice of half a lemon into a glass of hot-ish water and drank it all down at once.
I happen to love tartness, so it wasn't difficult for me to drink this concoction every morning. The two hardest parts were keeping enough lemons around, since I kept forgetting and using them for cooking, and just plain remembering every single morning. On the weekdays it became routine, but then Saturday morning hit, and I just forgot. So I started putting out an empty glass and a lemon on my counter every night to remind me.
So what happened?
1
I had more energy for my morning run. No joke -- I went from I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, chugging along the trail at 6:30 a.m. to feeling more like I had springs in my feet. This could have just been a placebo effect. I mean, there's nothing in lemon water that's supposed to give you energy. Maybe it was just that tart taste that woke me up? But it was great for my run.
2
It woke up my digestive system. Without going into too much detail, things moved along with greater efficiency. I'll say no more. You get the point.
3
It made me drink more water and fluids all day. This is something I've been meaning to do in any case, but I just never think of it. Starting my day out with a glass of water put drinking water (and unsweetened tea) on my radar for the rest of the day.
4
It warded off colds. This could just be a fluke, but while people near and dear to me were coming down with colds, I remained hale and hearty. Lemon water is supposed to be great for your immune system, and I have to think that little jolt of fresh vitamin C is probably just the right amount to help (drinking more water in general is also good).
So will I keep it up?
YES. I love this new habit, especially since it's such a tiny, easy lifestyle change to make. And I could be wrong, since it's only been a week, but I think my clothes are starting to fit me better now. Maybe it's just my imagination ... does my ass look smaller than it did a week ago? Don't answer that.
By the way, hot lemon water doesn't have to be scalding hot. Just use hot water from the tap and guzzle that baby down before you eat or drink anything else. Lemon juice can be hard on tooth enamel, so be sure to brush your teeth soon after (though since it's diluted with water, it's not that bad).
Have you ever made one tiny change that made a big difference in how you feel?
