Drinking water........Not easy for me

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  • amellison
    amellison Posts: 2
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    Water - Yes so important!

    I have that problem as well (mostly because I am addicted to coffee!!)

    Thirst is not a reliable indicator of how much water you need!

    According to Thomson, Monroe and Sheeshka (2007)

    "Although our thirst mechanism can trigger up to drink more water, this mechanism alone is not always sufficient: we tend to drink until we are no longer thirsty, but the amount of fluid we consume may not be enough to achieve fluid balance. This is particularily true when we lose body water rapidly, such as during intense exercise in the heat. Because our thirst mechanism has some limitations, it is important that you drink regularly throughout the day and not wait until you become thirsty, especially if you are active (p.243)"

    Thomson et al., also note that as we age our thirst mechanism becomes less and less sensitive, and our bodies often rquire much more than they tell us.

    Water is also important for making the most out of the fiber in your body (increasing the feeling of fullness). Also, it doesn't matter how many prunes you eat or how much fiber you eat! Without water, all you will have in your colon is cement!! Also prevention of dehydration and avoiding nsaid medications will prevent kidney disease!

    So since water is so important: My suggestion is that you drink water deliberately.

    I have got to get up first thing and try to chug a big glass of water in the morning before I have coffee (or else I am totally screwed up). Most days I try to have three big glasses by noon, and if that's all I get, well its enough to keep me out of renal failure.

    Things to add to your water bottle to make it more interesting:
    -heat or cool it
    -add lemon or lime
    -add mint leaves
    -try cucumber (better then you might think)
    -melon
    -try specialty tea stores (david's tea or silk road)

    Best of luck fellow drinking hater!
  • marycmeadows
    marycmeadows Posts: 1,691 Member
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    not to be mean but I hate posts like this. If you're really committed you'll just do it. Just make yourself drink water. Just like you get up every morning and shower, eat breakfast, get your kids up and ready, go to work, whatever. Just do it.
  • Leimaro
    Leimaro Posts: 148 Member
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    I agree that 64 oz/day for all is a myth. Listen to your thirst levels. Tea counts. Obviously, if you're trying to lose weight, caloric sweeteners aren't a good idea. You don't have to be one of those all-day-sippers. Chug a small glass at mealtime, or stick to teas.

    I read an intuitive eating book that actually advised AGAINST carrying around a water bottle and sipping all day. She likened Americans to babies with their constant sipping and snacking. When you think about it, we didn't do this 40 years ago. Cars didn't have cupholders. Coffee came from a pot at home. Soda came in 8 oz. cups. A business meeting wasn't an occasion for bagels or sandwiches. Her point was if you learn that you don't need mouth stimulation/activity all day, it can be easier to focus on our body's true signals for food and water.

    Lol! Babies with their sippie cups! You own tips made sense to me and are reasonable, but, you lost me with the "intuitive eating" book. The only thing you said she described that makes sense to me is to focus on our body's true signals for food and water. If you did that her cart (mouth stimulation) would go behind her horse (body's true signals).

    Of course, I disagree with the author's comment.
    I carry a nalgene bottle of water so that I have water close by for when I need it:
    1) to keep me from going after juices and sodas,
    2) from paying for overpriced waters in a bottle when away from home,
    3) because I think water (or liquids) in plastic bottles are excessively consumed- I like to contribute to clean environments although I'm not a diehard.
    4) no need to be lazy to get up and pour a glass of water when my bottle is right there.
    5) My body's "true signal" for water is thirst. When I'm thirsty, I drink my water

    So, if anything I have better control over what I drink and the choices I have to drink - all day. It is not a habit for everyone for everyone should do what works best for them.

    Also, 40 years ago, our American society was not bombarded with advertisements for sodas, juices, and energy drinks; which are cleverly and effectively designed to get us to buy, buy, buy. And, these same manufactures saw a gold mind in bottle water and did the same. Also, fast food restaurants and drive thru windows were not on almost every main city block for easy access to those that wanted to take their food and sodas with them, hence the bright idea for cup holders. Coffee shops did exist, in fact people called them "coffee shops". You could get coffee in just about any restaurant so far back the cost was a nickle. Doughnuts shops existed (coffee and doughnuts) then, too.
  • Mamafred
    Mamafred Posts: 196 Member
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    I filter my water with a Brita pitcher because tap water has a nasty chlorine taste and drink it thru a straw, except for my gym water bottle. I feel so much better when I'm hydrated that 64 oz really isn't a problem.
  • Kebby83
    Kebby83 Posts: 232 Member
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    Another thing that helped me - I quit all other drinks for a while and only gave myself water as an option. Now I mainly drink water but have coffee in the morning and tea at night. If there is nothing else then you learn to like water. It's how I get my 5 year old to drink water too when she needs to.
  • jbobb15
    jbobb15 Posts: 29 Member
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    Jeesh, meanie mary up there. If you hate a post choose not to comment, or at least leave out the part about hating it. Anywho, thought of something else, they make infusers for your water. I think there are individual bottle ones and ones for big pitchers that you can put fruit, cucumber, mint, whatever in. That way if your worried about artificial stuff but just have to have some more flavor, voila!
  • hungergames324
    hungergames324 Posts: 240 Member
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    Drinking water with a straw makes it easier to drink for me.
  • kbobb7
    kbobb7 Posts: 6
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    HAHA...........love ya nell! My thoughts exactly!
    I recently saw a recipe for cucumber water.......sounded weird, but who knows maybe it's really good!
  • moniluv23
    moniluv23 Posts: 5
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    I can relate because drinking water was NOT easy for me either!!! I was a coffee and soda drinker, but once I realized how many calories I was drinking it made it easier to drink water instead. I drink one bottle in the morning when I wake up, and I try to drink before each meal and snack. It is now much easier for me to drink water! You can do it!
  • dianniejt
    dianniejt Posts: 175 Member
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    One thing that works reallyw ell for me is take a lot of water with me when I work out. If I take a 16 oz bottle I drink it all. If I take a 24 oz bottle I drink it all. If I take a 32 oz bottle I drink it all. So now I refill my 32 oz bottles and stick em in the fridge and grab oone when I head to the gym or out to walk my dogs. I drink it all and I am half way done for the day. I usually get in atleast 11 cups a day. As long as I am sweating I don't have to pee.
  • Li_Willi
    Li_Willi Posts: 96 Member
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    This.
  • forsettii
    forsettii Posts: 29
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    In the beginning what I did was drink my one soda (Mountain Dew) 20 oz. Then I would fill that up several times and keep drinking it. Same size and a little bit of the taste the rest of the day.
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
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    I find that if I like the container I am drinking it from, I drink more. Last year it was one of those big plastic insulated cups with a straw. This year I got one of the glass water bottles from Starbucks. I loooooove it because there is no plastic or metal taste. Glass! Yay! You can also add any kind of fresh fruit to water to flavor it a little, I like lemons with strawberries!
  • Doreen0211
    Doreen0211 Posts: 15
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    I'm not a fan of water, either. I quit a habit of drinking Diet Pepsi (usually around 4 liters per day) and now I drink seltzer and find that it's quite refreshing. I make sure it's only water, and bubbles and there is no sugar, sugar substitute, or salt added.
  • emnk5308
    emnk5308 Posts: 736
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    Eating veggies can help.. Celery and cucumbers are good. They help hydrate you without you actually having to drink any water. =)
  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
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    I agree that 64 oz/day for all is a myth. Listen to your thirst levels. Tea counts. Obviously, if you're trying to lose weight, caloric sweeteners aren't a good idea. You don't have to be one of those all-day-sippers. Chug a small glass at mealtime, or stick to teas.

    I read an intuitive eating book that actually advised AGAINST carrying around a water bottle and sipping all day. She likened Americans to babies with their constant sipping and snacking. When you think about it, we didn't do this 40 years ago. Cars didn't have cupholders. Coffee came from a pot at home. Soda came in 8 oz. cups. A business meeting wasn't an occasion for bagels or sandwiches. Her point was if you learn that you don't need mouth stimulation/activity all day, it can be easier to focus on our body's true signals for food and water.

    Lol! Babies with their sippie cups! You own tips made sense to me and are reasonable, but, you lost me with the "intuitive eating" book. The only thing you said she described that makes sense to me is to focus on our body's true signals for food and water. If you did that her cart (mouth stimulation) would go behind her horse (body's true signals).

    Of course, I disagree with the author's comment.
    I carry a nalgene bottle of water so that I have water close by for when I need it:
    1) to keep me from going after juices and sodas,
    2) from paying for overpriced waters in a bottle when away from home,
    3) because I think water (or liquids) in plastic bottles are excessively consumed- I like to contribute to clean environments although I'm not a diehard.
    4) no need to be lazy to get up and pour a glass of water when my bottle is right there.
    5) My body's "true signal" for water is thirst. When I'm thirsty, I drink my water

    So, if anything I have better control over what I drink and the choices I have to drink - all day. It is not a habit for everyone for everyone should do what works best for them.

    Also, 40 years ago, our American society was not bombarded with advertisements for sodas, juices, and energy drinks; which are cleverly and effectively designed to get us to buy, buy, buy. And, these same manufactures saw a gold mind in bottle water and did the same. Also, fast food restaurants and drive thru windows were not on almost every main city block for easy access to those that wanted to take their food and sodas with them, hence the bright idea for cup holders. Coffee shops did exist, in fact people called them "coffee shops". You could get coffee in just about any restaurant so far back the cost was a nickle. Doughnuts shops existed (coffee and doughnuts) then, too.

    Yeah, coffee shops existed. I don't think they did the $12 billion in business that Starbucks did last year.

    Speaking of energy drinks- There was a new addition to the S&P 500 this week (biggest companies on the US exchanges): Monster Beverages! Guess what it replaced? Sara Lee! I guess we'd rather drink our calories now.
  • arw4
    arw4 Posts: 51 Member
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    Another thing that helped me - I quit all other drinks for a while and only gave myself water as an option. Now I mainly drink water but have coffee in the morning and tea at night. If there is nothing else then you learn to like water. It's how I get my 5 year old to drink water too when she needs to.

    This is what I did for a while too. Even now I rarely drink anything but water. Also, I find that drinking more water controls my appitite, especially if I drink water before and with my meals. I carry around a 64 oz bottle (from walmart) and drink it all day long. Now if I don't have my 8 glasses a day I feel extremely dehydrated.
  • eternityshard
    eternityshard Posts: 1
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    For me, I also found that I wouldn't drink water without anything in it to add flavor. However, I also have tried to cut everything artificial out of my diet, so that eliminated pretty much any crystal light / mio/ etc.

    Fortunately, I stumbled upon flavored liquid stevia: http://www.sweetleaf.com/products/sweet-drops-products

    This stuff is absolutely amazing. It isn't the hint of maybe some flavor waved near your water, either. It is full strong flavors (and sweet, too). My friends were skeptical, so I dropped 16 drops in their water (they were enormous cups of water at a restaurant) and they were amazed that they suddenly tasted like they were drinking root beer (abeit flat).

    Now, I have to be careful that I'm not drinking too much water, because it tastes so great, I tend to down it like crazy if I've added this to it.

    I generally use Root Beer, Cinnamon, Lemon Drop, or Orange in my water, and use the "heavier" flavors like chocolate and vanilla creme in plain greek yogurt (which suddenly tastes way better than any horribly sugared flavored yogurt.
  • jg627
    jg627 Posts: 1,221 Member
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    Mary Robbins can help you with that.

    All day I've faced a barren waste
    Without the taste of water, cool water
    Old Dan and I with throats burned dry
    And souls that cry for water
    Cool, clear, water

    Makes me thirsty every time.

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