…Squeeze them into warm water and drink every morning.

There are 2 things I do every morning, (pretty much) without fail:  drink 8-16 oz of cold water and drink a glass of warm water with 1/2-1 lemon juice squeezed into it.

One of the best things you can do after you wake up: drink at least 16oz (500mL) of water. Water fires up your metabolism, hydrates you, helps your body flush out toxins, gives your brain fuel, and may even make you eat less.  I drink water (usually I make my “special water” more on that later) all throughout out the day- 30 minutes before and after meals especially,  but lets focus on the benefits of it first thing in the morning.

My top reasons I start my day with water:

• You’re dehydrated when you wake up so putting water into your body is instant hydration.  Drink it even if you don’t feel thirsty because your body hasn’t had anything for 8 hours, so chances are it needs it.
• It fires up your metabolism and helps you burn more calories.  I’ve read that it can fire it up 24% for 90 minutes when you drink it first thing in the morning!  I’ll take that!
• It promotes glowing skin!  It’s a great detox for the body by helping it flush out toxins that can fuel breakouts and dull skin. Yuck, no thank you.
• It makes you smarter.  Well not exactly.  But the brain is made up of 75% water so when you’re properly hydrated it will be fueled and you’re less likely to feel drained or fatigued.

This picture from Underground Health Reporter has a great list of 5 important reasons (even though there are many more) to drink water first thing in the morning:

My top reasons to drink warm water with lemon every morning:

• Vitamin C.  Lemons are an excellent source of vitamin c and who doesn’t want an extra boost for your immune system.  Especially in cold and flu season.
• It makes you young.  Well kind of.  It greatly benefits the skin by preventing the formulation of wrinkles and acne.
• It has an alkalizing effect on the body (more on that below).
• It helps flush out toxins in the body, more than just water alone.
• It helps to maintain a ph balance in the body (read more about the body’s ph and foods that are alkaline and acidic here).

A lot of people drink coffee on an empty stomach first thing in the morning.  The bad thing about this is that if  it’s low quality coffee, that can create an acidic effect within the body, which is exactly what we don’t want.  Ingesting too many acidic foods or liquids creates an overall acidic environment within your body which diseases such as Cancer is known to thrive in.  Yuck.

Drinking warm distilled water with lemon first thing in the morning instead sets your body up for a killer day, because it creates an alkaline environment in the body.  Even though lemons are naturally an acidic fruit, they actually have an alkalizing effect on the body once metabolized.  You can read more about how lemons have an alkalizing effect in the body and why it’s important to want an alkaline enviornment in our bodies here.

Start your day with water and warm lemon water then have your good quality coffee.  I mean, lets get serious- I’m not saying to get rid of coffee all together.  I’ve become a coffee snob in recent months, so I totally get the love of a great tasting cup.

I like using my Cuisinart electric cordless tea kettle to heat my water in the morning just because its easy.  I’m obsessed with this thing- almost as much as I am with my Vitamix (more on that later).  I love drinking tea and if you’re as obsessed, urr lets say passionate as I am about the taste then you’ve got to get yourself one of these things.  Without going into too much detail (that’s a whole other blog post) different types of tea require  different temperatures of water and steeping times.  Not following this can drastically change the taste, quality and health benefits of each type of tea leaf.

I told you, I’m psssionate.

Water (with lemon or not) is one of the best free things for your mind, body, and skin so start drinking!!

Happy hydration!

X,