Day 1

Day 1 of the 7 day hot water challenge and so far I'm... Dehydrated!

Having always been one for sport, I usually drink at least 2 litres of cold water a day. However, I'm finding it difficult to get the hot water to go down as easily and I have been avoiding water as a result. In fact, the hot water is making me feel slightly sick and, although this could be my imagination, I'm sure that hot water smells...

My day today was an easy one, half day at school and a trip to my company office to pick up my passport and visa. My morning at school was fairly relaxed with only a few children left before the Chinese New eve next week. It's quite exciting being in China for the New Year although I'm still not sure what to expect in terms of celebrations. The tradition 'Red envelope' is well known and in fact I have received my very own at a work dinner last week. The red envelope is a traditional gift given to family members and contains generous amounts of money. New clothes is another tradition and I have seen an increase of numbers out shopping this past week (the usual crazy busyness has been worse than usual).

I explained my challenge to my Chinese colleagues and they were pleased to hear I had switched to hot water but warned that I may not feel the benefits after only 7 days. Drinking hot water is a life long medicine. I'm also realising it's not only cold water they avoid. All cold foods are avoided and thought of to be bad for you, especially if on your 'special 7 days'. It's so easy to dismiss as another crazy Chinese believe, but then once upon a time so was acupuncture.

So tonight I'm sat here, desperately wanting to down a giant bottle of cold water but am instead, slowly sipping on hot water with a cringe.

It may be a long week...