Excess and moderation: Renewing the Water Challenge

I've decided to continue The Water Challenge. But I've also re-assessed the restrictions of the Challenge.

For want of a better name, I'll call it the Sustainable Drinking Challenge.

With The Water Challenge, I think I tried to do something that I wasn't tough enough to do. I thought I could do it, and in my failure I made myself miserable and guilty.

What's more, I let others down when I had a drink before choir. Because I'd become an alcohol lightweight, even one glass affected me a whole lot more than I expected it would. So my performance was substandard, and I was ashamed and disappointed in myself.

Decision reached

I've decided that I will continue The Water Challenge, but in a revised, easier form. Maybe this is failure, or perhaps it is simply me learning about moderation.

Here goes:

The basic rule of the Challenge is to drink Tap Water as a default. However, if I (and anyone else doing the Challenge) feel the need, the following drinks are okay:

OK to drink when I need to (although water is still the default):

• Home-squeezed juice from in-season, home grown and/or local fruit
  
• Herbal teas, including green tea
  
• Organic, Fair Trade tea, coffee and hot chocolate
  
• Home brews of any description
  
• Non plastic-wrapped or packaged drinks
  
• Locally produced wines, beers and spirits in moderation (wines from your own region or local area)
  
• Home made soft drinks
  
• Tap water (d'oh!)
  
• All drinks served on planes, or where there are absolutely no other options (like, REALLY no other options!)
  
• All drinks served at friends' places, when you are invited
  

Finally, there's the Sanity Clause, which says, if there's a choice between feeling guilty and having something you feel you need (Nevyn, you can call this the "Pepsi Max" clause!), you have it. In moderation.

The Sanity Clause is because I'm starting to realise that there's something in life called The Middle Way. Buddhists talk about it a lot.

Finding moderation, finding balance

Although I'm not Buddhist, I think other religions can learn from Buddhist wisdom.

Being on such a restrictive Challenge made me realise that restricting ourselves to excess isn't a good thing, although restricting ourselves a little sure is.

Everywhere you look in our society, you see examples of excess. People so overweight they can hardly walk. People so rich they don't even know how much money they have.

People so greedy that they're planning their next holiday while they're still on their current one. People with so many consumer goods that they don't even know how many clothes they have in their wardrobe.

Over the past few years, I've learned to restrict what I own, what I buy, what I use, what I eat, and what I need.

In general, this has made me happier, much happier than I was before. I moved from being one of those excessive people, to one who, I thought, had found balance.

However, The Water Challenge taught me that sometimes we can swing too much the other way, when we're searching for balance.

My life goal is to not only be happy, but to live a sustainably happy life, and hopefully share my joys and learning and experiences with others who are also on the path to sustainability.

Our Dean at the Cathedral calls what I am trying to do the attempt to live deliberately. He's a pretty smart man. And I think, no matter what your religious path - or if you have no religious path at all - that this is a great way to think of it.

So is The Water Challenge still a Challenge?

I'd say YES. Here is a list of the drinks I will be avoiding over the rest of the year:

Off-limits:

• All multinational-produced non-Fair Trade hot drinks e.g. supermarket brand tea, coffee and hot chocolate (such as Moccona, Nestle, Maxwell House, Starbucks, Gloria Jean etc.)
  
• All colas and other packaged soft drinks (e.g. Coke, Pepsi, 7-Up, Sprite, Fanta, home brand fizzy drinks, Tang, cordial etc.)
  
• All "diet" drinks
  
• All packaged juices of any description, including organic in-glass juices and colas (e.g. Phoenix)
  
• Water from a plug-in water coolers (why? Because I've never met a water cooler yet that wasn't close to a tap!)
  
• Anything with single-use, single-serve or throw-away packaging.
  

So yes, I'm making a lot of concessions. You could call it a Reality Check. Reality is full of them. But I'd rather be real, and adapt the Challenge, succeeding where I can, that keep at something I know I'll only fail.

Thanks to everyone who supported me through this, and who emailed me and wrote such supportive blog posts - Nevyn and Chile in particular. You're awesome.
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