I have mentioned it before, and I will mention it again. Something I very much struggle with is being hydrated. I can blame it on being a semi-responsible young adult with the attention span of a fruit fly, living in a hot apartment in a dry windy city who only remembers to drink water when my life is on the line, but the truth of the matter is that I simply haven't established it as a habit. You'd think that establishing habits is something I would have figured out pretty good by this point, but alas, I struggle.
Although I have made an effort to make it into a habit, the problem I run into is that, at the end of the day, my not-quite-yet-fully-developed brain cannot seem to grasp that consuming water, even when I am not thirsty, is good for me. Because of this, unlike IHC numbers and forms, I have found I lack the motivation to keep the habit in practice. Something I have been putting thought into lately is how I can build this motivation. After all, water is a pretty basic component to all aspects of life, and even I realize how critical it is in completing day to day activities. And just last week, the motivation fell right into my lap.
Something I have been doing for several months now is donating plasma. I originally planned to keep donating full blood, however, the clinic in Lethbridge is set to only accept plasma donations for several reasons I won't get into detail about today. For those who are not familiar with the donation process or may only be familiar with donating full blood, here are the major differences. The first is volume. The average full blood donation is around 400ml, while plasma ranges from approximately 500-900ml depending on body types (I donate 896, which is the max). The second is occurrence. It takes about three months before you are allowed to donate full blood again, however, plasma can be donated every week. The final bit, and the most important in this case, is bleed time. My full blood donations averaged about 8ish minutes, while my plasma donations average around 70 minutes. This isn't the norm for everybody, however. The record bleed time last month for my donation quantity was just over 29 minutes.
Now, it's true that different bodies bleed at different rates, but one of the major influencing factors is hydration. To prepare for my donations, I would usually drink a little more water the day before and the day of. I had just accepted that I am not someone who will be able to be out of the building in under half an hour. And yet, during my donation on Thursday, one of the associates was telling a first time donor that drinking water the day of and the day before helps a little, but it really does not do a lot (why did no one tell me this??). He said that it can take several days of being PROPERLY hydrated before it can even start to affect your system.
Now I, an easily influenced young adult, overhearing that I do indeed have the ability to be the best of the best? That it is still within my power? That I can indeed hit that 30 minute mark? Who would have guessed that was all the motivation I needed? Since Thursday, I have found myself filling my water bottle more often throughout the day, and even though I recognize that I already feel substantially better, it has been easier to complete numbers, and overall I feel more healthy, that means very little to me at the moment. What I do care about? Beating the record. Even if it is just my personal record for the time being.
It may be possible that this motivation is exactly what I needed to create a regular habit. As it turns out, a little competition is all some people need to spark a fire.
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