My two-year-old daughter doesn’t balk at all the water I give her to drink. But when I told my 7-year-old son to drink a glass of water, he said, “But I’m not thirsty. Can I have root beer instead?” Suddenly I got a flashback to my early years. There was never a dull moment with my family growing up, but I didn’t learn the importance of drinking water. Water just tasted bad to me, and I chose not to drink it. I didn’t have a clue that I was depriving myself of the most important factor for enjoying good health: drinking plenty of water.
What turned me around was something I learned in my late 20s while watching a show on television. An object lesson was used to teach the importance of drinking water. In essence, if you washed your dirty dishes with orange soda, they wouldn’t come clean. In fact, they would be sticky and disgusting. Water is required to get the dishes clean. Well, what about the inside of our bodies? If we only drink sugary beverages and never drink water, how will our insides be cleansed?
The object lesson somehow persuaded me to overcome my dislike of the taste of water and begin to drink H2O regularly. It didn’t take long before I became accustomed to the taste of water, and I even began to like it. Drinking several glasses of water a day became my practice, to the exclusion of virtually every other beverage.
My health improved remarkably as a result of drinking water. I had more energy than I could remember having since early childhood. I experienced fewer aches and pains after exercising. Best of all, I became regular for the first time in my life. My bowels finally had a chance to work the way they were meant to; and I felt like I’d gained a new lease on life, all because I started drinking water.
I’ve realized it’s time to persuade my son about the importance of drinking water. I already tried the dirty dish object lesson, and it didn’t take. Since he likes science, perhaps I should go the route of medical evidence. Here are a few persuasive arguments that may do the trick:
• Did you know that our brains are 90% water and without plenty of water, our brains don’t work as well as they could? An easy way to be smarter in school is to stay well hydrated. (Hydration means the condition of having adequate fluid in the body tissues.)
• Drinking plenty of water is necessary to be energetic. The reason for that is because water creates electrical and magnetic energy in every cell of the body and provides a natural boost of power.
• Our bodies are more likely to get sick without plenty of water. There are lots of symptoms associated with lack of hydration, and they can be prevented by simply drinking plenty of water every day. Just a few of those health problems are: weight gain, constipation, eczema, and urinary infections.
• There are tubes in your heart called arteries, and plenty of drinking water is required to keep those arteries from getting all clogged up. A clogged artery in the heart is like a clogged drain. It’s difficult for blood to circulate through the heart and body if the artery is closed up like that. (This explanation seems like it could be kind of scary to a 7-year-old and may not be a good way to explain to a young person the importance of drinking water. I have to think on this one.)
While preparing my argument for my son, I learned even more about the importance of drinking water than I knew before. If none of the above facts convince him to drink up, there are plenty more I can educate him with. Water is truly amazing, for all it does to contribute to health and well-being.
Stephanie is a runner, blogger, and proud mother of the two greatest kids ever. When she’s not watching Gray’s Anatomy, she reads up on Velashape Cellulite Treatment and follows Sono Bello on Twitter and Sono Bello on Facebook.
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