What to drink?

elysianashes

My hubby is looking for things to drink besides water and coffee, because that admittedly gets a bit boring. He's trying to cut out soda and has already cut back quite a lot. But juice gets expensive, tea makes his legs cramp, and he has a horrible stomach sensitivity to all artificial sweeteners - which means stuff like Crystal Light and MIO are out of the question.

Any ideas?

cyclerjenn

I drink fruit juice with club soda. I only use about 2 OZ of the juice so It will last quit a while and the club soda has 0 calories. Much cheaper then regular soda and a lot less calories. You can change up the flavor by just changing the juice.

aspire2bfit

If you want something fizzy, try seltzer with fresh lemon or lime. Have you tried Chia Fresca? Fresh lemon in spring water, add a T or so of Chia seeds. Runners use this when training for long distances.

super_jade

I squeeze a little lemon into my water sometimes, just for a change. i really enjoy sour things.

idauria

flavored seltzer?

kissy28wv

Have you tried the drinks with stevia? Its natural. Maybe Life water by SoBe? You turned a light bulb on when you said tea makes his legs cramp...I had tea for the first time in a while yesterday and I had the worst leg cramp during my walk!

arshness

I'm curious what about tea makes legs cramp... interesting.

I'd like to offer smoothies for variety. Mix equal parts light milk or silk and oj, a handful of strawberries and a big handful or two of ice cubes and one banana. Blend. Tasty tasty!

You can make up all kinds of smoothies. You can use plain yogurt instead of milk or silk too if you prefer.
It's just something I love to drink some mornings. Low-cal and full of vitamins. Delish!

Polly758

There's what i call "fake coffee"-- it's chickory and some other stuff ground up and brewed. it doesn't taste like coffee but it is a similar idea. You can get Caffree (sp) to make it in a coffeemaker or Pero or other instant powder.

And what kind of tea makes his legs cramp? Are we talking tea made from tea leaves, or tea from a bottle? try leaves if you haven't tried that yet, there's a billion different kinds and I bet he'll like one at least.

elysianashes

Thanks everyone, very helpful! I'm trying to get him to join the site but in the meantime figured I'd ask this question for him He said these are really good ideas and he'll probably try the seltzer or seltzer/juice and the smoothies. He can have stevia but can't stand the taste lol.

He sticks to making his own sweet tea most of the time, or sometimes a cup of Earl Grey, but doesn't do the bottled teas much. He just mentioned to me, though, that it might be a quantity thing. For a long time he was drinking a good quart or two of sweet tea every day, and every night his legs would cramp in the middle of the night. When he drinks less, it doesn't seem to, and obviously that's a ridiculous amount of tea every day. Does anyone know what causes the cramps though? It's not the caffeine, because he's had days where he's had at least as much caffeine intake with just coffee or soda, but no cramps.

Polly758

It may be tannins in tea causing the problem, especially if he's drinking that much. I guess some people are sensitive to tannins, wikipedia says it so it must be true Pu-erh tea is fermented so it doesn't really have any, maybe try that variety? I've tried it and its a bit odd but nice after you get used to it.

lschuttem

if tea is making you cramp my guess is ur dehydrated. i like to add a tea bag to my water bottle. you may have to experiment bc i found some flavours just dont taste good with cold water, but a green tean bag in water is really good!

robot_potato

I do smoothies. Whatever fruit & berries i feel like plus some greek yogurt, or regular yogurt if i'm out of greek.

I also put a squeeze of lemon, lime or grapefruit in my water. Keeps it interesting.