Small Changes For Health Improvements

I've been buying a lot of Mountain Spring Valley Water on repeat recently. I've already gone through 8 packs of 12 1-Liter bottles, and plan on buying my 9th pack soon. While they aren't necessarily cheap at $34.99 for 12 bottles, they're solving a problem I've had my entire life: being chronically dehydrated without being fully aware of it.

According to Harvard Medical School, adult males are supposed to drink 3.7 liters of water per day. Two months ago, I would've been lucky if I drank more than one liter a day. The problem with drinking water is that unless you have a very convenient source and actively make an effort to drink it often, it's very easy to forget unless you become physically thirsty. Even the smallest things can add friction to one's water drinking process — having a water source that's far away from where you work, or having to boil water and wait for it to cool down. The difference between having a source of water readily available at all times and not is night and day. With a bottle of Mountain Spring Valley Water next to me at all times, I find myself passively drinking water throughout the day, which helps me stay hydrated and hit my water intake targets effortlessly.

There are tons of invisible problems that build up over time from not drinking enough water (kidney stones, skin problems, etc.), but the short-term noticeable problem that forced me to make this change was getting inexplicable nosebleeds during winter. Growing up, I was one of the kids who always witnessed other kids getting nosebleeds in class and never got them myself, but starting from last winter, I began getting random nosebleeds in the morning. At first, I didn't think much of it, but after consistent daily nosebleeds over the course of a few weeks, I decided to do some troubleshooting. I found that they were a product of Boston's particularly dry winter seasons combined with me not drinking enough water. I tried buying humidifiers to improve the water content in the air in my room, but found that they exhausted their water supplies too quickly. If I went a day without filling them up, I would wake up with nosebleeds the next day. Finally, I decided to start drinking more water on top of using humidifiers, and the nosebleeds stopped.