But It Is Only Water

This is the Momentum podcast. If you're an entrepreneur and you've been following Alex for any length of time, then you know that people with our personality type become obsessed with optimization. The concept of biohacking has become incredibly popular in entrepreneurial circles, especially for entrepreneurs who are looking for that little edge to get them even further ahead. As a company, we have obsessed over this concept for the last several months. Years ago, Alex developed a hydration challenge called the Natural Thirst Challenge. It was released in 2017, and thousands of entrepreneurs have participated and seen incredible results from just drinking enough water. We've gone back and forth on whether or not we should update the experience of the natural thirst challenge. And we finally committed to making this the number one productivity and bio hack for entrepreneurs in order to fully immerse ourselves in the natural thirst challenge. Our entire team took ten days. Drink nothing but water, hyper hydrated each morning, kept water within arm's reach. And any time we had a thought about being thirsty, we drank. The results are pretty incredible, and we took time during one of our daily huddles to share the insights of what we have all experienced by participating in the Natural Thirst Challenge. So in this special episode of the Momentum podcast, you'll get to hear our biggest takeaways, the results that we saw, the clarity we gained, and how simply drinking enough water created momentum for our team. I really hope you enjoy our biggest takeaways from participating in the Natural Thirst Challenge. I'm Alex Charfen and this is the Momentum podcast made for Empire Builders Game Changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers and creators of all kinds. Those among us who can't turn it off. And don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy. And we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution. Should we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will? We don't accept our destiny. We define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop and we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority. The few who are willing to hallucinate there could be a better future. And instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world, because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution. And we always will be. But there's no other call outs. Let's let's discuss natural thirst two as take away is revelations like oh goodness that was ready to go go. I'll read. I'll start, start off. Thanks for breaking the ice screen. Awesome. I think it's rather worth sharing my experience when I did the Natural Thirst Challenge back in 2018. Before that, I was a big fan of Coca-Cola and flavored water. I would drink water, but not nearly as much water as I drink now. Then I started working here, and a few months into my role I did the natural thirst challenge and I've never looked back ever since. I remember my skin feeling so soft and fresh, just stunning skin feeling things in general would taste too intense. So I gave up on fizzy drinks. Completely amazing. I would I wouldn't be able to drink an entire can of coke now. I just can't. It's way too sweet and sticky for me. I also remember learning sorry, leaning into drinking water a lot when I stopped smoking because it did help a lot with a few of the food cravings I developed during the first few months without smokes. I also would drink water all day long. This time there was no chance other than not drinking coffee for ten days, which, to be honest, didn't make me feel anything different. But thanks to it, I know now that I didn't need energy drinks either. After boxing, water with a touch of salt plus two slices of watermelon did the trick well enough. So my two gatorade's of the week have been completely eliminated from. A habit so nice. Huge. That's a big one. Green. There's the preservatives and colors and all the other stuff. I'm glad they're losing that. Manning Do you want to share with you button home team? Yeah. Yesterday I experienced this feeling of relief when I was drinking water because I usually feel this tension or pressure in this part of my head. It's like I've had it for a long time now. It's like normal to me already. But yesterday when I was drinking water, something like loosen in there and feel the pressure disappear. And I feel relieved that it's no longer there. It's always like a thorn must take it out of my heart or something like that. So, Manny, that what it sounds like? This is just what it sounds like to me. Is it? It's probably inflammation. And inflammation in the body is caused a lot of the time by dehydration. You know, I don't I don't want to say that all doctors are wrong, but a lot of doctors will tell you inflammation is caused by like injuries or processing problems or like other stuff. But really a lot of the time it's dehydration. And then a lot of times it's food sensitivities or sensitivities to light colors and sugars and preservatives. That's why I'm excited that Cronin is giving up the Gatorade because you don't need it. Like if you eat natural fruit, your body actually absorbs it better and you feel better. And so for you, if you had pressure in a train, really, that's like these are very small, very thin muscles. But when they get inflamed, it hurts. It's like a constant, dull pain. And so have that released for you and you stopped dealing it. I would suggest you keep drinking water for a while, like at least another week or two, and give yourself some time to really make sure that that goes away. But that's awesome. That happens to a lot of people on the natural diet because when you're dehydrated, your body holds on to water and it inflames the muscles. And that's what that's where the and the joints, that's where inflammation comes from. When your body has enough water, it lets go of all of that. Yeah. Congrats, man. Is it? Who else wants to share? I was just waiting to see if anyone else wanted to jump in before I took over. Okay, so I'll just kind of share some progressive notices throughout the process. First of all, you guys know me very well. I love my coffee. Like, it's like a routine for me. It's part of just like my like I think, like I wake up in the morning to your coffee because it just like it feels like the right way to start my day. It's more like the smell and, like, the aroma and, like, I don't know, it has just, like, this comforting feeling about, like, I don't know, making your day start off the right way. Anyways, I'm a creature of habit, and that has been one of my habits for a very long time. So giving it up initially was really challenging. I did have some withdrawal. I had headaches. I had a really hard time. I feel like getting the energy level that I normally do just at the very front end. But after a little bit I didn't. Even really think about it. It didn't really affect me. I didn't feel like it was contributing in a positive way because I felt the same with my energy and I wasn't thinking about it throughout the day. A lot of times by midday I'd be like, Oh man, I need a second cup of coffee to get me through the rest of the afternoon. And I did find myself feeling that after about 3 to 4 days in and so that was really cool. I think the other thing is, is that by drinking a lot more water, I crave more water. I think a lot of times I used to like forget to drink water because it wasn't something that crossed my mind as easily. But after you started drinking it more, you actually start craving it more and like, you're like, Oh, man, I need more water. I need more water. Like the more you drink, the more you want. And so I found myself being like, Oh, no, I need to go for more water. I need to fill more water. So that was really new for me, too. Skin wise, I have, like, really dark circles all the time, like under my skin, under my eyes. And I had, like, a lot of that as just that. I also have a little bit of like vitamin issues, but I think a big thing is dehydration for me. And I've seen a big change in that since doing more water, which has been really fun to see, just skin in general. I had very dry skin and I also see that helping with with that as well. So that's fun to notice. And then one of the big things is I think when this is going to be kind of weird to explain, I think Alex, you'll be able to understand it when they say it, but like the body holds a lot of tension and holds a lot of emotion. And for me, I'm really good at compartmentalizing emotions and they don't really affect me a lot of the time until I like, allow them to or I push them away long enough until they kind of just erupt and force me to experience whatever emotions I need to experience. That's been like a habit of mine for a long time that I had been working through and I have been overcoming all of that well since drinking water. I actually had like multiple. I think like the best point is like emotional revelations because there's not really any way to explain it. For me, it's like my body has calmed down because of the water that I'm drinking that like it can actually focus its mind around certain things and the feelings if that even makes any sense. So I felt like more awareness to different emotions that I'm going through and being more observant of them. And also my body has actually like allowed me to process emotions a little bit easier and I've noticed that specifically in the last ten days. So it's kind of hard to explain that. But like, I think like because my, maybe my body's relaxed because it's not dehydrated and it's getting more water and all of the things that it's actually like allowed myself to feel other things that it needs to heal and process other things. So. That was so good, Haley. I know you know my head. No. I'm the same way. No, it was. I mean, I think you were a lot more clear than you think you were. Right. And just for everybody's understanding, if you look, there is a huge body of both historical and even a little bit more recent research around hydration and emotions and water is like a direct, correct connection to emotions, just to confirm what you're saying. There is so much research and so many belief systems that go back like sometimes hundreds and thousands of years that say that if you're drinking water, you connect to yourself better. And so what you're saying, what I'm hearing you say is, you know, you were able to process feelings better, like feel what was really going on for you better. Yeah. And that is that that absolutely makes sense that when you're hydrated, you're able to do that. And I think what was was best for me hearing is that I think sometimes we think we need caffeine as a placebo effect. It's like, oh, we got to have caffeine because it's noon and we and caffeine kind of tricks us into these habits. Whereas like that time is, you know, that time I need to go do this thing. And caffeine's not terrible for you in massive moderation, like 30 to 40 milligrams a day. You're okay. When you start getting over that, you start getting into places where it affects the nervous system. And so it's exciting that you didn't feel like you needed that second cup of water all. I think what you said made total sense. That was awesome. Cool. I agree. Who else has insights from the challenge? I can go ahead. Good. Yeah. Sorry for me. When I meet Alex, I'm asking Wigan. Who wants to join the National Affairs Challenge? I thought of it as a challenge for myself. So. And on that specific day after my shift, I actually asked my husband to let me buy something like this. The water bottle that's two is two liters of water, and it looks so cute. And aside from it, it has the answers of how much I would like to drink. I thought I would be able to track it, but I wasn't. But what I'm doing is I'm just filling it up and then I'm just consuming everything. And then through the day, whenever I look at this, I always, always remind myself to drink water. And also what it did to my to my whole being is that I have a high uric acid, I have a urinary tract infection, and then I'm gaining too much weight because I don't exercise. I don't look at often because I'm aftershave. I do the household chores and then I sleep through the day. So it really helped me a lot because I'm having inflammation in my feet because of my uric acid. And in that ten days I really felt so much lighter. I felt that every everything flushes out, all of the toxins in my body flushes out, and I feel lighter because every day I sleep through the day and then I work through the night and it's I feel heavy in the morning. My head feels heavy as well. And while working, I feel so dizzy. And sometimes I'm always I feel like always I felt like I need to sleep all the time. But when I had the natural thirst challenge, it changes everything so that ten days is extremely life changing for me. So I would like to think out for initiating this challenge for all of us. Michel That's huge. And just so you know, I don't know if your doctors have told you this, but high uric acid is typically caused by the kidneys not functioning properly. And the kidneys need water more than just about any organ that we have, because that's that's where water is purified. And here's what happens to our systems. This is my theory. I'm not a medical doctor. It's just theory. But I've done enough reading to hypothesize that when we're drinking coffee and sodas and sugar drinks, the kidney is where where that gets purified. So it gets trans transitioned into water like Coca-Cola, it doesn't go straight into your bloodstream. Right. So when we took our blood, there'd be people that it would be black because they drink so much. Coca-Cola, the body actually purifies it into just water and then it can use it. So if you think about it, if you if you just have water, the kidneys don't have a lot of work. If you're drinking coffee, coke, juice, milk, anything like that, the kidneys have a tremendous amount of work to be able to use that water in your body. And so for you, with a higher gas account, if you're already feeling this swelling in the feet and those types of symptoms, I would also recommend you continue maybe trying to drink 90% or 95% water that like when what Korina says, you know, like she started the natural thirst challenge and never stopped. And I'm the same way. Like every once in a while I'll have coffee or mar. I got into the habit of having it every day. I'm not going to do that anymore, but for me, I have a lot of those same symptoms. I have a very sensitive system. And so if I drink something that has artificial color or too much sweetener or even like stevia and some of the natural sweeteners, oftentimes it'll affect me. So congratulations, Michelle. That's that's really, really a big deal that you're not only not only that you stuck with it for ten days, but that you're feeling those things. I hope it gives you the motivation to keep going because man higher a gas, that's a cascade of symptoms that, you know, turn into things that you really don't want to have happening to your body. That's awesome. Thanks for sharing. Anybody else? Sure. Greg, you don't want to tell everybody how you were mad at me because you were moving during the natural death challenge. That was that wasn't really a result of anything and anything positive there. It's just I love my coffee. And it was very hard to be moving right in the middle of the challenge. Just because I wanted my coffee, because I had rough days during my move. And I just wanted to sit back, relax and go into my normal routine because I was beating myself up physically. But all in all, I'm certain that it probably was an improvement by not drinking coffee during that time, so my body was actually able to function better. One thing I did notice is that because I'm drinking so much water, I'm I think I am depleting some of my minerals. I work out four days a week. And then I was moving like crazy. And so I was getting leg cramps at night, you know, mainly because I think I was just flushing way too many of my minerals out and I wasn't taking in enough minerals to replace it naturally. But I mean, that to me isn't a bad thing. That to me is just this adding some more natural minerals into your to your meals, some your water. Yeah. And a good magnesium supplement might be good, too. GREG That's something, Alex, that I've had a hard time finding is a good magnesium supplement. There are so many magnesium supplements out there that are that are actually not good for you. They're actually probably more harmful than good. So here's the one that I take, and it's really a good product. I actually met the people who make it. It's called natural calm. And it's just a. It's a product that you can just add to water. So this is what Katie and I take every night. Our dry building. Great. Okay, that's. That's great, because I'm hyper, hyper hypersensitive, so I know something's working or not. I also know if it's throwing me off or not. And this one's really good. Okay, sweet. Thanks. Yeah, my pleasure. Awesome. Anybody else wishing? Hello. So you already know I'm a fitness junkie, so water was already a big part of my life. If I don't drink yet, our health in and often. But I didn't I didn't think that I really like relied on caffeine because I only do one cup of coffee and I really don't drink anything other than coffee or water every day and typically don't even finish a whole cup of coffee. But the first couple of days I was like headache and super tired all day and I was really surprised by how much I did kind of rely on that one cup of morning coffee, cause I was like, Carina. I just kind of like like Hayley, like a habitual. I just I just do it in the morning, gives me the warm fuzzies kind of thing. And then I woke up this morning and I was like, just drinking more water than me. And I was like, okay, I can have coffee today. Like, I didn't even really want it. And I felt I think the beginning of this week was when I noticed, like, I actually felt more clear throughout the day, felt more energy without needing coffee. And even I feel like I was a little more energetic, got my workouts. And so I think I'm probably not going to go back to daily coffee. I just kind of have it here and there and I don't think it's going to bother me. So it's pretty awesome. I mean, especially for somebody who works out like you do because so many power lifters and bodybuilders and CrossFit ers and, you know, people who do a lot of a lot of anaerobic exercise depend on pre-workout and caffeine. And like some of those pre workouts have like 200 milligrams of caffeine. And so it is so off the charts to what your body is used to getting. And a lot of times it's refined caffeine. So it's all at once and they think that it gives them a better workout. I've worked with a ton of people who are bodybuilders and even competitive power lifters. When I say a ton, I mean there's been dozens who've taken the natural challenge. I've gotten feedback from a lot of them, and they're all shocked that when they get off of caffeine, they're they're all their numbers go up. And it's because when you're on that caffeine, your nervous system is is stimulated to the point where, yes, it's going to give you like better connect. This is my theory again. Yes, it's going to give you a better connection to the muscle tissue in the short term because you've got a hyper stimulated nervous system. But the way I look at is as a powerlifter bodybuilder, what you're doing reps, what you're doing it over and over again, you're going for personal records. You want your nervous system to be as even keeled as possible, and then you bring it up and take it down. You don't want it artificially out the whole time or working out. Thanks for sharing, Abby. That was awesome. Arnold, it's me. Yeah, I'm going to share, too. So for me, I've always been a fan of water. Like, I don't drink coffee, I rarely drink soda. I don't take energy drinks. Not. Not anything, but just pure water. I just don't think that I'm taking enough for my body. So what I've noticed is that, like, usually when I don't get enough sleep, like in the morning, I'll. I'll for sure have a headache. So, like, minor headache that's going to go through all the day. But then I've noticed that after taking like at least 20 ounces or 500 plus ML of water in the morning, that helped me tremendously with the headache. Like, I don't feel that at all anymore. Like for the past few days that I've been taking the natural thirst challenge, it was just a bit difficult for me to, you know, take that whole 20 ounces in the morning, one shot. But then, like on the second day of the third day, it became like a bit easier for me. And now, like, I can take that whole 20 ounces very easily. And so, yeah, no more headaches. For the past few weeks, I've noticed that even my friends have noticed that my I've written this on my weekly report last week. I've noticed that my eyeballs have lessen. I don't know if it's the water or what, but yeah, they've noticed that I have less eyeballs now. And then one thing that is also significant for me is that, you know, every day I'm taking I'm monitoring my waist. You know, throughout my whole adult life, I'm always under 59 or 60 kilograms. And then yesterday I got like I was surprised because I got like 58.90 kilograms. I don't know if that's associated with the water as well, but well, sadly, like this morning, it went back to 59 something. But I'm really glad that I was able to see that 58 range something. So I just think that I'm just going to continue drinking more water, especially in the morning when I wake up. Yeah, that's awesome. ARNOLD So I've had people lose up to £12 during the Natural Thirst Challenge. That's the highest I've ever heard is £12. But that person was somebody who was heavier, like had some excess body weight but didn't drink any water prior to the natural birth challenge and existed off of like Diet Cokes and coffee and like sodas. I can't remember. They drink something else to that. I was like, holy crap. I didn't really think real people drank that stuff, but like they didn't get coffees. They got like the coffees they have, like caramel and chocolate and all the other stuff. And so it's basically a shake with caffeine and I'm on my day. So she was suffering days. One, two, three. I was getting messages from her all the time about how terrible it was and how much she hated me and how angry she was with me. And she was like, I'm joking, of course, but I just wanted to kill you today. And I think it was like day nine or ten. She got on the scale and had lost £12. So that's like. Five kilos and it was all at once overnight. And she was like, How can this be? Like, There's no this has never happened before in my life. And I told her, like, if you're not drinking enough water, your body will hold on inflammation. So for you, you lost two kilo. That's a double bound. That makes sense. But for her, when she started drinking water, there was so much toxicity in her body that it like when the body finally had enough water after ten whole days, it just purged all of it. She continued to drink water and she ended up losing, I think, £90 and then like an eight and a half month period. And she kept telling I mean, she changed so much about her life, but she kept telling everybody, all I do is focus on the water. I just focus on the water. But what happens is water connects you to emotions. Water connects you to feelings, water connects you to how your body feels. And so if you're drinking a whole bunch of water and you drink up sugar or you eat sugar or you eat something that's not healthy, you're going to feel it more than you normally would. And so just the habit of drinking water can correct just all kinds of stuff. So thanks for sharing, Arnold. I didn't understand what you meant. What do you mean by earbuds like this stuff? I used to have this, like saying this sagging below the eye bags. Bags. Okay, got it. That makes sense. So right here is what you're talking about, all right? Yes. Bag's going to say it with the Minnesota. In Minnesota, I made my. Bangs or I bags. Made my bags like my. Crockpot. That's another thing, Alex. I did. I did actually lose, like, a couple of pounds. Nice. You know, a couple of pounds to me, you know? I mean, Arnold says he's around 59 kilograms. I think I was 59 kilograms in like sixth grade. And so, Greg, you know, it's funny, there's so this other woman that I worked with, Sharma Cullum, was morbidly obese. She was about 30. She was about £440. And, you know, when you have £440, the chances of you reversing that without surgery or something else like medical science. I'll tell you, you've got like a one in 100 chance. And I worked with Shar and we focused on two things water and movement. This was back when I was doing a lot of physiology coaching. There was a time where we actually had a physiology class in physiology coaching and we had this low risk, high reward diet. And she was I don't even think she was a member. I think she was just she was a friend of mine when we were in real estate. So I was helping her and talking to her about once a week. And she focused on two things water and walking. And the first time she went out walking, she she had like done so little exercise for so long that we had two counter steps. And I think she did like 190 steps the first time. That was it. Like that was all she could do and but she focused like crazy on the water. And then that's where she started seeing just like not just weight loss, but revelations like, oh my God, when I eat eggs, my stomach really hurts. I had no idea that that, you know, my stomach hurts after eggs. And then I get another message, remember? And she said, you know what? I just had, like a huge slice of bread. Am I? I've got heartburn. I've never felt the heartburn before. And so she started not just discovering more about how she feels and being able to move further. Within a few weeks she was walking a quarter mile and she ended up losing £220. And if you talk to her, she would say that like the daily water, I think she went back to having one cup of coffee a day or a cup of coffee every once in a while. But she focused on water. It was awesome because I'd see her at events and from far away she'd be like like pointing at her water to let me know she's still there. And so that one that one actually really got to me because she had gotten a warning from her doctor that like she was she was she was in a terminal condition if she didn't hurry up and change things. And the doctors were pushing her to do the stomach surgery. And my mom had that and she almost died on the operating table and she had to have the spleen removed and it affected for the rest of her life. Like every time my mom died, even a slight Jaber, she was rushed to the hospital. It was horrible and so I. I didn't convince Shah not to do it, but I shared that story with her. And then I told her like, Hey, I'll help you. And the doctors couldn't believe that she lost £220 because like I said at that point, like, you just don't lose weight. It doesn't it doesn't crack for most people. And for her, it crushed. Yeah. I'm the last one, so I'll share. I'll be really quick. So I've always been the person who always drink water. It's like when I was a kid and we'd go to, like, the water fountains and, like, in between classes or whatever. Like, kids will get mad at me because I'd sit there and drink for so long. I had a friend whenever I just got out of high school who carried around like a gallon of water with him. And he was like super fit, really awesome guy. And I wanted to be just like him. And so I started carrying around like a gallon of water with me and just to be like him. And then I met Alex, and I realized that a gallon of water is really not that much. And so that used to be like my standard. And I was like, Oh, I drink a gallon of water every day, and I brag about it. And then Alex is like, Well, I drink like 300 ounces of water and I would shrink down. And so so the big movement for me is I'd gotten back into that habit of I know if I drink two of my water bottles, that's a gallon. And so that would be kind of my goal throughout the day, which is not a bad goal. But I realized in the ten days, the biggest the biggest shift was I stopped thinking about that, like I stopped putting a number behind the goal and just wanted to be hydrated. And so I ended up drinking way more and I would actually like getting out of myself for the first couple of days for losing track and like how many times I thought my water bottle and I would like get this like feeling of frustration because I was so used to monitoring it by like quantity of water. And I've realized that I think it was Saturday or Sunday of this past week. I did not keep track of water at all. And I didn't realize it until like the next day. And so I kind of released that attachment to the number, like the quantity of water and started just focusing on like being hydrated, being present. And the biggest shift I think it has been mental for me is like I feel more creative. I feel like I remember things better. I like my this is a weird thing, but like my notes in my momentum planner are like straighter lines. They're not like all over the place with like lines and like disorganization. I feel more organized mentally. And then the other big thing is I had kind of plateaued in my weight loss. I share with you all that I had lost like £20 since Christmas and I had plateaued like right at 205, as has been like the plateau for me. And I haven't changed anything. I don't really want to because it was kind of a natural thing of losing weight. It was kind of a natural byproduct. And this has shifted me away from that plateau, like I've lost and lost £4 on there. And so I'm about to be under £200 for the first time in a decade. I Oh, yeah, yeah. And so. Many. Thanks. It feels really good and it's not. But again, it's not that attachment to the quantity or the numbers anymore. It's like just I want to feel good, you know, I want to live long time for my kids, that kind of thing. And so those have been the biggest shifts for me. That is so awesome. Thank you for listening to this special episode of the Momentum podcast. If you're ready to learn about hydration and how simply drinking enough water can give you clarity, presence, reduce pressure and noise, and create momentum in your life and in your business. Go to get thirsty. Now icon, we've completely revamped the experience of the natural thirst challenge. Let us guide you through this ten day challenge to get the most out of hydration and to optimize in a way that awakens your natural thirst instinct so that you can effortlessly create momentum on a daily basis. Go to get thirsty now. Icon to get started. Let's getthirstynow.com.