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Like many people, I found myself in a bit of a dark place during the winter of 2020-21. The lockdown obliterated my former routine and left me in a rut, without easy access to friends or family. But after wallowing in my own self-pity long enough, I finally resolved to take back control of my life, beginning with the establishment of new, healthy habits.

I didn’t do anything radical, unconventional or expensive. In fact, I deliberately set out to do the boring, tried-and-true stuff: I started going to bed earlier, eating healthier, and spending a bit more time outside each day, soaking up what little sun was on offer in my corner of North America. I deleted my food delivery apps and made a point of cooking each night. But by far the best results came from the most mundane of changes: I made a point of drinking more water.

My girlfriend is a bit of an environmentalist, by which I mean that though she was thrilled by my positive changes and happy to see me exchange my daily soda habit for plain old H2O, she frowned upon the growing number of disposable plastic bottles making their way into our recycling each week. We tried to exchange the bottled water for tap water in a reusable bottle, but my building’s pipes are a relic of the last century, and you can just taste the rust. That led to a bit of a Googling frenzy, and after some exhaustive research on the “best water pitcher” out there, we settled on a sleek-looking newcomer: the LARQ Pitcher.

I might be slow to commit to something, but once I’m in, I’m 100% invested, and LARQ’s Pitcher was with me every step of the way. My distinctly rust-flavored tap water was transformed by its powerful filter into crisp, clean, refreshing aqua, there for me whenever I needed it. I began and ended each day with a glass of water, and took regular visits to my fridge to top myself up before meals. What started as a small change quickly snowballed into something bigger: I went from having one or two sodas a day to none at all, cutting out all those unnecessary liquid calories in the process, and while I didn’t intend to lose weight, that’s exactly what happened. Even more unexpected was the change to my complexion: my skin was never bad, but now my skin tone evened out and I haven't had a breakout since I started consciously drinking more water.

At the risk of sounding like a terrible water snob, I’m just going to say it: you can taste the difference between tap water and filtered water. Heck, you can taste the difference between regular filtered water and water emerging from LARQ’s ultra-refined, two-step filter. Don’t get me wrong, I was never against water, but I was never particularly enthusiastic about drinking it, either. It turns out that, once you remove all of the contaminants, what you’re left with is a delicious, refreshing super drink that will help energize you, suppress food cravings, clear up your skin, and detoxify your body.

Just consider the long list of impurities the LARQ filter helps keep out of your drinking water:

But the really impressive thing is that it never stops working. I’m not totally new to the filtered water pitcher world, but the LARQ sets itself apart with a two-step filtration process. The first step involves a classic water filter: as you pour water into the upper tank, LARQ's plant-based filter begins its job of decontaminating your unfiltered tap water, collecting your newly-filtered water in the lower basin.

With traditional filter pitchers, that’s where everything stops: pollutants are caught in the filter and the filter itself can become a source of contamination, especially if you don't swap it out regularly. But the LARQ Pitcher has a second trick up its sleeve: every six hours, it uses a UV-C LED light to destroy bio-contaminants at the molecular level, preventing bacterial growth.

You know how they say “sunlight is the best disinfectant”? Well, it turns out that’s literally true: 280 nanometer UV light is used in hospitals to sterilize surfaces for immunocompromised patients, and thanks to LARQ, that same technology is now working in the background to keep your water pure. That will matter the most when you've left a full pitcher in your fridge for a day or two. In the past, with old water filters, I'd return to water that tasted stale; but with the LARQ's six-hour cleaning routine, even after returning from a weekend trip to visit friends, my water tasted as fresh as if it'd just sourced it from a mountain spring.

I'm going to confess to something else, and I hope it doesn't make me sound vain: I love the way the LARQ pitcher looks, whether in my fridge or on my counter. Every guest to my home has asked about it, which gives me the perfect opportunity to start talking about water contamination, UV-C light, and the importance of a great filtration system. Sometimes, when I'm pouring a friend a cold glass, I'll deliberately hit the UV-C purification button, just to spark a conversation.

To return to my story, we're now about a year out from my decision to take back control of my health, and winter is once more rearing its ugly head. Shorter, colder days are enough to put anyone off a bad routine. And unlike in the summer, when soaring temps force us to confront our dehydration in the form of sweat, it can often be difficult to know when we're consuming too little water in the winter months. Thankfully, I now have a handle on my hydration routine, and I'm not ready to let go of the benefits. Having quality, delicious filtered water at my fingertips whenever I needed it helped me turn my life around; in fact, it was one of the greatest gifts I've ever given myself.

The LARQ Pitcher is now also at the very top of my gift list, perfect for all my friends who could use a healthy boost to their routines or who would appreciate its environmentally-friendly design.

Find Out More at LiveLARQ.com

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