What’s Holding Up Your Table?

A king wrapped in ermine slams his jewel covered hand down hard on the round table, sending ominous title waves of pulsating anger up like a serpent to slither through the rafters and around the heads and necks of all the warriors assembled in the great hall. “We will conquer all!” he bellows while bringing his other hand down flat on the majestic surface….and then it crashes to the ground crushing his royal left foot, much to the shock and consternation of all present.

Let me give you a moment to get over your disappointment at what a lame ending this story has.  The moral it teaches us is that what holds up the table on which you lay your battle plans is of utmost importance, and especially if you are at war.

You are at war against the ever present enemies oxidation, mutation, inflammation and degeneration which have united together and want to make you weak so they can conquer your territory, your body. You are the one endowed with the authority to declare war, and your kitchen table is where you gather your forces and plan your strategy to annihilate the enemy.  So what’s holding up your table?  Don’t go looking under there now silly, because symbolically I mean what is the backbone of your plan?  Where will you strike the hardest and most relentlessly?  Can I make a few suggestions?

VITAL WATER
In the interest of keeping things simple and doable, let’s spread this discussion out over a few weeks so that we can discuss the four different table legs of Orange Tree Lane one at a time.  “Water” is the first because water is so absolutely foundational to who we are in the physical sense. Next to air, we need water more than anything else for survival and more than half our bodies are literally composed of it. Water fills our cells and cushions them all around on the outside. It delivers all of the elements needed to sustain the life to the cell and then removes toxic waste products for elimination from the body. I think it’s safe to say that not much happens of any consequence in your flesh without the presence of H2O in some way or another. (1)

HYDRATION MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD
Let’s start with the constant need to eliminate waste.  A body without enough water is like a construction site without trucks to bring the correct building supplies and take away the debris that accumulates. Your skin may be the first indication that all is not well, but other undesirable effects of dehydration that make you feel and look worn out are headache, tiredness, inability to think, indigestion and heart burn, and even depression. (2)  We should probably try drinking more water on a regular basis first before reaching for other things to help !

IMPORTANT TO HEALING JOINTS
The cartilage that cushions your joints is made up mostly of water.  Some of that joint pain could be the construction site continuing on with faulty machinery while waiting for the supply trucks to come, or in other words, damaged cartilage being used without being repaired properly. (3)  We wouldn’t want the house we live in built under those circumstances because we want it be solid and strong!  Water brings nourishment to repair joints which have taken a beating.

DIGESTION
You may have heard it said that your health is only as good as your digestion because that is how what we eat is taken apart to be used to create and sustain more life.  Poor digestion caused by lack of water will cause nutrients to pass through the body without being used.  Also, without a sufficient amount of water toxic waste collected by the kidneys and liver cannot be eliminated and will have to be recirculated and re-filtered, which causes stress to those two vital organs.

HOW MUCH?
So how can we make sure we are drinking enough water?  We’ve all heard the advice to drink about 1/2 gallon, 64 oz., or 8 cups of water a day.  Or some say take your body weight, divide in half, and drink that many ounces of water a day. (140 lbs.=70 oz. of water needed daily.)  Try drinking a full glass of water when waking up, bringing water to sip on wherever you go during the day, drinkng a cup whenever you get the urge to snack on something (and snack on fruit instead of other things), and making water your drink of choice most of the time.  I like to float a tea bag in my water.  After about 3 minutes it has a very subtle and delicious flavor of the tea I have chosen, and it makes drinking more water much more interesting!

Lots of small changes throughout the day can easily add up to a fully hydrated, efficient and active cell repair system in our bodies. By drinking enough water you are using a solid table leg which will protect your toes at a most opportune moment.

We will conquer our enemies if we fight like we mean it!... but never without water.
For me personally, I’ve just accepted the fact that water is what I drink, just as I have accepted that I eat whole grains rather than refined.  More on that coming next week by the way.  Stay tuned for Table Leg #2 of Orange Tree Lane: wonderful Fiber. 

May the water be with you,

Molly

(1)  http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=148
(2) http://studenthealth.oregonstate.edu/answerspot/message.php?message=2038 
(3) http://nutritioninfo.tripod.com/id19.html

   
  http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/water/NU00283/NSECTIONGROUP=2