Water vs Tea vs Soda

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Liquids are something I have the biggest issue with. I drink a lot and if it's not the right thing then I am annihilating my calorie count for the day. I have drank sweet tea since I was a child and as I grew up and moved out I started making it sweeter and sweeter. I wound up getting to almost 3 cups of sugar in a single gallon and would easily drink 2 gallons a day. I have tried numerous times to leave the tea behind but it is the only thing I have found that will quench my thirst for a little while. For a while I was drinking a 24 pack of Coca Cola per day but that wasn't cutting it either so I went back to the tea. I simply can't drink straight water. Yes, if it's extremely hot and I've been sweating I'll drink a big glass of water and that will be all I want but once I drink that to replinish, I don't want any more water at all. It makes me feel like I'm going to vomit if I drink water when I'm thirsty most of the time. Water is the least satisfying liquid I try to drink. Yes, I've tried all sorts. Regular bottle, tap, fountain, flavored, carbonated, and even the flavor pouches to add to the bottles of water, all of it. I have been drinking the Grape Propel water while at work because it's better than the rest of the water choices and it's lower calorie than my tea, but still seems to make me feel more thirsty and dehydrated than anything. It's also pretty expensive for how much I drink. Due to this I still drink the sweet tea but have managed to go down to a single cup of sugar in a gallon. I have tried all the different sweetners as well but to no true avail. Equal was the best tasting to me, but it isn't available in big quantities like I need it for the amount that has to be added to a gallon of tea to make it drinkable to me. Splenda is straight up disgusting right along with Sweet N Low and that new natural crap. I forget it's name. I drink a Coke Zero with my supper but tea the rest of the time. I don't even know how to count it into my counter since my intake is typically just get a drink from a glass that I keep full in the fridge ever so often. Anywho, with all that said, I'm looking to see if anyone can give me any pointers on something that I could potentially like as much as sweet tea that won't be as bad for me. Oh yes, I also can not stand additional flavors in my tea. I will not touch it if someone ruins it with Lemon or Peach or anything else. That's just nasty. LOL.

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  • Ryhenblue
    Ryhenblue Posts: 390 Member
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    Have you tried Arizona Diet Green Tea. It's a sweet tea and it tastes great. It comes in gallon jugs too. It uses Splenda along with other sweeteners but it's still tasty.

    http://www.fatmanunleashed.com/arizona-diet-green-tea-with-ginseng-review/
  • maepis
    maepis Posts: 51
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    Have you tried Arizona Diet Green Tea. It's a sweet tea and it tastes great. It comes in gallon jugs too. It uses Splenda along with other sweeteners but it's still tasty.

    http://www.fatmanunleashed.com/arizona-diet-green-tea-with-ginseng-review/




    I haven't tried the Arizona brand, but I tried a single sip of someone elses green tea and didn't like it. I don't know what brand it was for sure but I want to say it was Lipton. I'll get some of the Arizona, it's worth a shot. Thanks
  • eekface
    eekface Posts: 44 Member
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    GL

    Another thought is you could make your sweet tea, and do 3 parts your tea, 1 part the arizona so that you barely taste the arizona. Slowly move to more arizona and less your tea until your switched over. Might trick your taste buds :)
  • Briannah
    Briannah Posts: 50
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    The only thing I can suggest (considering you have tried everything already) is to get the water out of your food e.g lettuce is like 96% water - maybe you could do some research on food with high water count (veggies and fruit) and see if that helps...
    I am not a big fan of water either - the only time i drink it happily is after a workout were I am really thirsty, but I find the more i drink the more i get better at it. Sugar removes zinc from the system which in turn is what neccessary to make your taste buds work better. I.e. when you eat sugar you remove zinc which then makes non sugary food and drink tastes crap. You need to cut out the sugar and eventually your body will stop craving and return to normal.

    Something that may motivate you is the studies that show 2 glasses of water about 2 hours before meal time will increase your metabolism by 30% for your next meal..

    Thats a motivation if there ever was one
  • ToughMudderAddict
    ToughMudderAddict Posts: 290 Member
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    Something that may motivate you is the studies that show 2 glasses of water about 2 hours before meal time will increase your metabolism by 30% for your next meal..

    Thats a motivation if there ever was one


    Sweeeet! Motivation for me, thanks for the information!

    I really like the Arizona tea as well, only problem I have with it is that when I buy it I drink the whole damn thing in a day and then I have none left haha. You said you have cut down the sugar to one cup which is great so maybe you can keep slowly cutting it back or what about making the tea without the sugar and then adding the Equal to the individual servings you're taking? That way you're not opening a billion Equal packets at once.. Good luck!
  • maepis
    maepis Posts: 51
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    Something that may motivate you is the studies that show 2 glasses of water about 2 hours before meal time will increase your metabolism by 30% for your next meal..

    Thats a motivation if there ever was one


    Sweeeet! Motivation for me, thanks for the information!

    I really like the Arizona tea as well, only problem I have with it is that when I buy it I drink the whole damn thing in a day and then I have none left haha. You said you have cut down the sugar to one cup which is great so maybe you can keep slowly cutting it back or what about making the tea without the sugar and then adding the Equal to the individual servings you're taking? That way you're not opening a billion Equal packets at once.. Good luck!


    That is great motivation to start forcing myself to drink it.

    I have tried doing the individual servings before but I drink so much so fast that it becomes a nightmare. I have a really large plastic cup that I keep in the fridge (of course I rotate them out so they don't get gross) that I just go and take a drink out of. I try not to ever take that cup with me because if it's in arms reach I know I'll drink it even faster. At least this way I have to make the effort to get up and walk to the kitchen. Even with it being in there and having to walk to it, I empty it out so frequently that I still have to open tons of packets. I hope I'm not coming across as whiney, I'm just trying to find a better solution. LOL. For a little while Wal-Mart was carrying Equal in a cylinder container which had a spoon scoop opening on it but then those disappeared. If Equal would just come out with a bag like Splenda I'd totally use it even though it would be expensive. I'd rather pay more money than gain more weight.
  • dumb_blondes_rock
    dumb_blondes_rock Posts: 1,568 Member
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    Not to be a debbie downer, but have you been to the doctor lately? a super excess of thirst can mean diabeties or other medical conditions. Scary thought, and you most likely are just a thirsty person, but if you hadn't had it checked, i'd look into it if i was you.
  • maepis
    maepis Posts: 51
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    Not to be a debbie downer, but have you been to the doctor lately? a super excess of thirst can mean diabeties or other medical conditions. Scary thought, and you most likely are just a thirsty person, but if you hadn't had it checked, i'd look into it if i was you.

    My wife has suspected that I may be at least border line diabetic but no, I've never had a test done. I have "attacks" every great once in a while to where I get really weak and start shaking. The only way to stop it is to eat something like a twinkie. Happens a lot if I haven't eaten in a really long period of time and I get the same symptoms with the addition of getting sick at my stomach until I eat something. I always just chalk it up to not having taken in enough regular sugar.