Happy New Year... three days late.... :)

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope 2009 was great and that 2010 will be amazing! Some major events I am looking forward to this year are:

1. Watching my lil baby brother turn 2!


2. Watching my other not so little brother grow taller than me (I am 5' 7 1/2" and he is now 5' 7 3/4")!


3. Seeing my sis turn into a tween (she is still shorter than me! haha! Well, she may get taller but it will be about another 2-3 years before she could ever be taller than me! hahaha!)


4. I am going to be 18!


5. I plan on getting a real summer job to save for college and car insurance


6. I plan on getting my license to drive a car


7. I plan on buying a car :)


8. I will study for CLEP tests


9. I will grow closer to my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!


10. I will learn to always use my speech to uplift and bring joy and encouragement to those around me.


11. I will try my very best to shine my light as bright as ever!

I guess you could say this list is like my New Years resolution but it will be different because I will actually do it all! lol

Oh today I wrote a research paper on the benefits and reasons to drink filtered water! I will post it so you all can read it and tell me what you think!

The Many Benefits and Reasons to Drink Filtered Water

I know and understand most people today are so busy, they don’t have time to cook up healthy foods and exercise as often as they should but, they should have a few minutes spread throughout the day to drink an 8 ounce glass of water at least 3-4 times a day and receive the many health benefits of pure H2O.

Now you may be wondering, why just water. Can’t you get water from foods and other drinks? Well, although you can get water from other drinks like pop and juices, they don’t come close to the same benefits of clear pure water.
One important factor to pure water is a filter system. A friend once told me that she believed all water is good for you to drink but I beg to differ.

Below is a picture comparing sink water (on the left) that is unfiltered to kitchen fridge water (on the right) that is filtered:

Anyone can see that the unfiltered water is definitely not clear and full of things that are most certainly not pure.
There are many benefits to having purified water throughout the household.

Pure drinking water has multiple health benefits (which will be listed later)
Pure water for cooking is very important for people of all ages but more so for babies/young children and the elderly
Pure water in your shower is extremely important too. There are many reasons to have a filter on your shower head that I will also list later.

Let’s begin with reasons why you should have filters on your drinking water:
For starters, I am sure you have heard all the commercials and talk of how pure water is important but you may not know all the reasons why. Here are just a few of many huge reasons why unfiltered water can be harmful and very dangerous to the health of your body:

1. Drinking impure, contaminated water is the leading cause of epidemic disease in developing countries.
There are more than 2100 known drinking water contaminants that may be present in your tap water.
3. Many water treatment facilities cannot always control outbreaks of dangers in your tap water.
Several types of cancer can be caused from unclean tap water.
Pure water is a strong essential for physical and mental growth and development in children of all ages.
According to the EPA, lead in drinking water contributes to 480,000 cases of learning disorders in children each year in the United States alone.
It is especially important for pregnant women to drink pure water as lead in drinking water can cause severe birth defects.
The only way to ensure pure water is through a filtration system (even bottled water can be a danger to your health, but that is another story in itself).

These eight reasons alone should be a huge decision factor when considering a household filtration system.

Some people may say, “Well I don’t think I have the money or time to keep up with a filter in my house.” Well I have wonderful news for you! You only have to change your filter system once or twice a year! And they are not as expensive or difficult as some people may think. My family has had a water filter for years and we can always tell tap water from filtered water just by the taste and we all have noticed the difference in our health physical and internal.

Physical Benefits from filtered water:
I have noticed that my skin is very rarely dry (even in winter) when drinking and showering in filtered water. My skin has an even healthy glow and my face is never oily or clammy. I have clear skin (no dry patches) and I very rarely breakout with any blemishes at all. The pure water I am drinking cleanses my body inside and moisturizes my body outside.
In a normal day, I drink usually 4-6 tall glasses of water (approx. 32-48 ounces of water) a day! At first, you may think there is now way you can drink that much water and not have to urinate every 5 minutes. I will admit that for the first couple weeks, I urinated every 2-3 hours so it was a slight inconvenience but after those 2-3 weeks, my body was totally used to it and started to show drastic changes and reveal benefits I didn’t even think of.

When I started:
I began drinking more water when I was 13 years old because I had heard from health scientists and health magazines that drinking eight glasses of water a day helps prevent facial blemishes. I was all for it knowing that during puberty you tend to see teens with severe acne problems and I did not want that to happen to me so, I immediately began drinking more water.

Now I didn’t start drinking 32 ounces a day from the start. It was probably more like 24 oz. and I gradually began to drink more every week until I reached my regular 32-48 oz. a day. You don’t want to shock your body with a ton of water so slowly get yourself into a habit of drinking filtered water more consistently and remember, water at restaurants can’t count half as much because it is only tap water.

After about 2 weeks, you will notice your skin is more healthy and moisturized without having to use lotion every single day.
Your hair will start to regain its natural shine and most will notice clearer and softer skin from showering with filtered water after just a few weeks.

More water options:
If you get tired of drinking water by itself, try mixing it with lemons or limes for a fruity flavor. There are also many benefits of drinking lemon water!

Drinking lemon water has health benefits of its own that most people don’t even know about! I will list several of the more important benefits but you can read all about other benefits by searching lemon water benefits online (some of the facts below are taken from http://www.quantumbalancing.com/news/lemon%20water.htm):

Drinking an 8 oz glass of water with 1 oz of lemon in the morning before breakfast and before you go to bed will help cleanse your colon and help improve your digestive system and while purifying your inner its helps clear up your skin as well from its extremely beneficial alkaline properties.

Lemons are known for being one of few foods that are known to help your body with digestive enzymes to digest foods like dairy, carb, and high fatty foods.
Drinking lemon juice isn’t the only way to receive some of its benefits. Applying a small amount of lemon juice to your whole face lets the lemon act as an organic facial cleanser for your pores and it helps restore your natural Ph and alkaline balance to your skin adding a refreshing glow.
Its magnesium, in conjunction with calcium, has an important part to play in the formation of albumen in the blood. The lemon contains potassium 48.3, calcium 29.9, phosphorus 11.1, and magnesium 4.4. Lemons are useful in treating asthma, biliousness, colds, coughs, sore throat, diphtheria, la grippe [flu or influenza], heartburn, liver complaint[s], scurvy, fevers and rheumatism.

Lemon provides a natural strengthening agent to the liver enzymes when they are too dilute.
The liver can make more enzymes out of fresh lemon juice than any other food element!
The lemon juice helps fix oxygen and calciums in the liver because it regulates blood carbohydrate levels which affect the blood oxygen levels.

10 reasons to drink filtered water (taken from http://www.allaboutwater.org/water-filters.html):
1. Water filters provide better tasting and better smelling drinking water by removing chlorine and bacterial contaminants.
2. Point-of-use water filters remove lead from drinking water immediately prior to consumption, thus preventing this harmful substance from entering the body.
3. The purchase of a counter top filter results in a source of clean, healthy water that costs much less than bottled water.
4. Water filters greatly reduce the risk of rectal cancer, colon cancer, and bladder cancer by removing chlorine and chlorine byproducts from drinking water.
5. A solid block carbon water filter can selectively remove dangerous contaminants from drinking water while retaining healthy mineral deposits that balance the pH of drinking water.
6. Drinking clean, filtered water protects the body from disease and leads to overall greater health.
7. A water filter provides clean, healthy water for cooking, as well as drinking, at the convenience of tap water.
8. Water filters reduce the risk of gastrointestinal disease by more than 33 percent by removing cryptosporidium and giardia from drinking water.
9. Drinking pure water is especially important for children. Water filters provide the healthiest water for children’s developing immune systems. 10. Water filters offer the last line of defense between the body and the over 2100 known toxins that may be present in drinking water

10 reasons to shower in filtered water (also taken from www.allaboutwater.com):
Using a shower filter is one of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce harmful exposure to chlorine and other chemicals.
Showering in filtered water results in greater respiratory health by reducing the risk of asthma and bronchitis from chlorine inhalation.
Showering in chlorine-free, filtered water decreases the risks of bladder and breast cancer.
Children, who are particularly at risk of the harmful effects of chlorine inhalation, benefit especially from the removal of chlorine from showering water.
As chlorine is a leading cause of fatigue, showering in filtered, chlorine-free water results in higher energy levels and overall greater health.
Removing chlorine from showering water results in better air quality throughout the house.
Without the drying effects of chlorine, skin becomes softer, healthier, and younger looking.
Removing chlorine from showering water reduces the presence of skin rashes and the appearance of wrinkles.
Because the hair is able to preserve its natural moisturizing oils, it becomes softer and healthier when chlorine is removed from showering water.
When the body is able to retain its natural moisturizers, the need for costly lotions and moisturizers is greatly reduced.

Enjoy, Butterfly