the Anywhere Clinic

I have been starting my day with a large goblet of hot water with lemon. According to my meditation teacher, drinking extra water helps us digest our feelings. Tea is fine, but coffee doesn't do it. (According to my friend who is studying to be a chiropractor, the ideal amount of coffee to consume is 0-1 cups per day. I'm talking about American mugs here, no more than 12 oz. But coffee really ought to have its own post. Back to hot water and lemon.)

The lemon was not suggested by my teacher. I add lemon because I have trouble drinking just plain water, and he wanted me to do 16 oz. I add lemon because sour softens and ...astringes? is that the English word for 收... according to Chinese medicine. I feel like my emotions need that right now. Also because, according to one of my doctoral clinic supervisors, people with Type O or B have more stomach acid, so it's good to alkalize the water they drink with lemon. (Types A and AB have less stomach acid so this doesn't apply as much; they should eat fish and fowl only, while O and B can digest red meat no problem.) I'm O+. Lemon and lime alkalize inside our bodies, but other citrus like oranges and grapefruit do not. I wonder what pomelo does.

I drink hot water with lemon the rest of the day too, aiming for 16 oz. every 2-3 hours. I've really developed a taste for it. Even in California where the drought is terrible (all the dead almond trees along Highway 5...entire orchards), I have found it surprisingly easy to charm hot water for free from most establishments that serve coffee or tea: cafes, gas stations, restaurants, 7-11, the pretzel stand at Oakland airport...there's usually a spigot coming out of the machines, with an orange tab. I bring my own little water bottle, also 16 oz, with its neoprene sleeve, and smile, "Do you have hot water? May I fill my water bottle, please?" If the coffee machine is behind the counter, they will usually fill the bottle for you, and sometimes dump out your lemon wedge, unfortunately. At restaurants, you have to catch the attention of the waitress as she takes your order or sets down the standard glass of ice water. Some of the stupider waiters will need you to explain that they should take the ice water away and replace it with hot water. "You can take that back. Really, I'm not gonna drink it. Thanks!"

I feel so grateful for living in a country where fresh drinking water is always available. I don't know how I feel about living in this country where fresh potable water is used to flush toilets. Anyway.

I have only been doing this morning ritual for about 20 days, but I like it. My body enjoys it, I mean. I've never been a fan of chugging water, even at core body temp which is the easiest for our bodies to assimilate... I feel like too often it flushes the kidneys and stresses the bladder (especially if you're chugging water colder than core body temp...this includes room temp water. Room temperature is ~25 degrees Celsius. Core body temperature is on average 37 degrees Celsius, or 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. It feels warm on the tongue.) I always found it better to sip water whenever one feels thirsty. (Thirst and hydration deserves its own post too, come to think of it.) The analogy I give folks is, would you pour an entire week's worth of water on your potted plant if you forgot to water it for a week? Does that make up for the days you didn't hydrate it? Why would your body be okay with you chugging 8 cups of water at the end of a workday when you were sucked in by your computer as soon as you arrived and didn't get up to go to the water cooler at all?

However, given the feelings I've been breathing through, I have found this practice of starting the day with hot water and lemon helpful. I am not a person who wakes up in the middle of the night to drink water, so if I went to bed at ten o'clock and stayed in bed until six in the morning, my body has been functioning without any fluid intake for 8 hours. It seems to appreciate my taking the time to water it, like I used to water my backyard garden first thing in the morning, when I still had a backyard.

Considering what all my body does for me, I am happy to do this for her.