In this second episode of the 30‑day Healthy Habits Challenge, Cheryl McColgan introduces a simple morning routine: drinking a large glass of water (about 16–20 oz) immediately after waking, before coffee or any other activity. She explains that even mild dehydration can negatively affect mood, attention, energy, digestion, and overall cellular function, making early‑day hydration beneficial for performance throughout the day. Cheryl offers practical tips such as keeping a glass by the bedside, sipping the water periodically, and using a larger cup for ongoing hydration. She also demonstrates habit stacking by pairing the water habit with her existing morning thyroid medication routine, placing the glass next to her pills to streamline the process. The episode emphasizes flexibility—if the habit is missed or a smaller glass is used, it’s still valuable, and there’s no need for perfection. Listeners are encouraged to try the habit the next day and continue building on it as part of the broader challenge.
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Hey everyone. I'm Cheryl McColgan and welcome to day 2 of the 30-day Healthy Habits Challenge. This one I'm really excited to share with you. It is something that I have been meaning to do for a long time. So I will be doing this throughout the challenge with you. And that is to drink a glass of water after waking. That is so simple. And yet, I don't know. I never do it. Do you? So ideally you want to do this before you have your coffee, before you have anything else. I'm not telling you a very specific amount, but to make it a large glass of water. So In my world, I have this, actually I have it right here on my desk. It is empty. So this proof positive that I need to be drinking more water, but this is about 16 to 20 ounces in this glass. And that is what I like you to do before you do anything else. Now, if you happen to get this on the, you know, you get it this in the morning, but more than likely you might have already had your coffee or you're listening to this while you're drinking your coffee. If that's the case, And like I said, this is easy peasy challenge, right? No big deal. Just try it tomorrow instead, along with your habit that's gonna come tomorrow. But if you're hearing this in time, drink that glass of water before anything else, and then you can move on. So why this is important, even mild dehydration can affect your mood and attention and hydrating early in the day, it supports everything, energy, digestion, performance. You're hydrating your cells. And one of the people that I interviewed before on the podcast, they were saying, ideally, you know, we're, For the challenge, we're drinking this kind of large glass right at the beginning of the day, but ideally you wanna be hydrating throughout your day because you need that extra hydration for your cells on an ongoing basis, not just all at once. So as much as we hate those little Stanley cups and everything that people carry around, if you can have one of those or have this glass of water on your desk and take a few sips like every few minutes, that's really the ideal way to hydrate. Um, and this is again, starting the day with a simple success. It just, gives you a good mindset for the entire day, knowing that you already had one small win. And it's just a great habit to start. So another thing you can do is you can set this habit up at night. So maybe you actually put a glass of water by your bed before you go to sleep, and that way when you wake up, you immediately drink that glass of water. This can also help if you're like me. I take thyroid medication first thing in the morning, and I have to wait 30 minutes before I can eat or do anything else anyway. So how I'm going to approach this challenge is I was just— my thyroid pills are very, very small, so I always swallow them dry while I'm still in bed in the morning. But I'm gonna make it a point for this challenge to bring up a glass of water with me in the evening, put it next to my bed, put it right next to my thyroid pills, and I'll just do that all at once. So that's also a little intro into what we call habit stacking, which we'll be talking about throughout this challenge, but more specifically on one of the days. But basically all habit stacking is, is just take one thing that you already do consistently and then put another habit right with it. So for me, I am very good about always I'm taking my thyroid medication in the morning, but I don't have a glass of water next to it and I generally don't get outta bed to do it. So the way that I'm gonna make it easy on myself is to just put a glass of water next to the bed. So anyway, it's like I said, if you missed it this morning, try it tomorrow and then try it with the habit. That's how kind of all these are. If it's for some reason you don't get the email until later in the day and you miss it, just do it the next day. They're, they're two simple habits. They don't take any time at all. And so waiting till the next day is Completely fine. So again, no need to be perfect. Just one glass. If you do a smaller glass than me, no judgment there. You can do whatever size works for you, but drink a glass of water. Okay, I will see you tomorrow.
