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| I have a really bad habit of not drinking enough water. I will be really good about it for a few weeks and then drop off to the point where I don't actually drink just plain water for days.
Does anyone have any advice on how I can keep myself in the habit of drinking water?
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| I have a glass right next to me while I'm working at my desk. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
 
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Rachel,
There is such a thing as getting too much water. Having that said, I used to think I had to do the 10 glasses a day deal...for me that was wrong thinking. Now days, I just drink when I'm thirsty. Being able to recognize that is very important and there is some training involved...it too is a practice in itself. I'm good if I drink 3 glasses a day and 4 cups of tea. To me that is alot. When I'm working out in the garden, sweating in a Hot Yoga class, I drink lots more - lots, but still, I drink when I need it. I don't go out of my way to drink water anymore. I think its unhealthy to be toting around a water jug all the time and sipping on it. It's also not good for your kidneys and bladder either, it overworks those organs.
The most important thing you can do is eat and drink (whatever it may be - water, alcoholic drinks, juice, chai, tea) in moderation. If you are eating properly, your body doesn't get out of whack and feel like it needs to purge, therefore sending that message, drink water, flush it out the impurities. Balance is the key to everything, including the "art of drinking water",  |
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| I don't have a problem just drinking. I can dring 4-5 cups of tea a day. It still seems like I'm dehydrated though. I need to figure out a way to make myself just drink some plain water at least once a day, I think.
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Rachel,
I forgot to mention this. One of the problems about drinking water today is that water doesn't taste good anymore. It is over processed and there are lack of minerals in it. I am very fortunate that I live in the mountains and have an artesian well. It is the most wonderful tasting water in the world. There is only one company that sells water that I think taste very similar to my water, Voss Artesian Water, from Norway. I love their bottles. I reuse their bottles cause they are glass and easy to clean.
Sooo, find a water that taste good and there you go, you may want to drink more of it. Voss water is sweet like the water from my well. You can feel the minerals nourishing your body as you drink it. I'm serious. Whenever I've been on a long trip and come back home, I feel like I've died and went to heaven when the water touches my lips and enters my body. I try to carry it with me, but sometimes I run out..like I have several 5 gallon containers and you can only carry so many,
Edited by Cyndi 2006-03-08 3:24 PM
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| i totally agree about the taste thing. I switched to bottled water because the tap here tastes both dirty and chlorinated (and you know it's florinated). So we switched to artesian water too. it's much, much, much more expensive, but it tastes great. We do also buy spring water (which we know isn't municipal water bottled), which helps save some cash.
when i'm forced to drink tap (nasty), it's filtered, and i always mix it with a bit of fruit juice--white grape, lime, pear--something like this. it's usually 1/5 juice to 4/5 water. this helps 'cover' the flavor. the filter is good, but not great. Oh, and there's a mineral supplement you can buy to replenish your water. And after the thing is filtered, we but it under a full-spectrum bulb to kill off whatever else might be in there. then add the minerals. and then drink it with the fruit juice added. This is also the water that we use for making teas. |
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| I'll try the Voss water. I like their bottles too. I'm am a sucker for good packaging.
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| Never had too much problem with the taste of water. When I was growing up it was pretty nasty, so I had to re-learn the habit of drinking it.
As far as the drinking too much goes, there's some truth to that, but my understanding is that most people get too little water, and need to work on drinking more. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Come to think of it, I used to have a zillion of those bottles around the house. I can't find a single one right now that I've mentioned this online to everybody...like, what happened to all my COOL bottles???? I think Ms. Kris at the Disco was using them for target practice with her BB gun, |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | GreenJello - 2006-03-08 3:47 PM
As far as the drinking too much goes, there's some truth to that, but my understanding is that most people get too little water, and need to work on drinking more.
Those are the people that are into the habit - notice I said "habit" of drinking cokes, beer, more cokes, more beer, coffee lattes, more cokes, more and more beer, more cafe lattes, I'll have another coke and I think I'll switch to Diet Mountain Dew, let's see if I can drink a six-pack while watching t.v. this evening...and it's good for me, it's diet since we are dieting let's have a few slices of Papa John's, I'll take it All the way...I think I need another six-pack of beer to wash it down with....like where is there room for water in this scenerio??
Edited by Cyndi 2006-03-08 3:57 PM
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| It took me some time to change from drinking diet cokes all the time to drinking only water. But now that I drink water all the time, there's nothing to it and I actually prefer water over a carbonated diet drink.
Some tricks that worked for me is to keep bottled water icy cold in the fridge - water always tastes great icy cold, especially after working up a sweat.
I also like having lemon slices in the water just for a little taste. I know they have "fitness water" like Propel that add a little light taste to their water, like lemon or rasperry or whatnot. You might try those.
Another thing if you buy bottled water. Especially if you buy the store brand bottled water, make sure AND READ THE LABEL. Some bottled water will state "minerals added for taste", but those are the ones that usually don't taste good or refreshing to me. Not to say I don't like mineral water because I do, but when I want water that doesn't taste like anything, that's what I want and the ones that add minerals "for taste" I'm not that crazy for.
As far as bottled water preference, I really like Volvic. But for ones you can find pretty much anywhere, I think Dasani's not that bad.
Hope some of those tips help.
Edited by yogacat 2006-03-08 6:46 PM
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| yogacat - 2006-03-08 6:43 PM
It took me some time to change from drinking diet cokes all the time to drinking only water. But now that I drink water all the time, there's nothing to it and I actually prefer water over a carbonated diet drink.
Still drinking a lot of diet soda. Maybe I should give it up for lent? BTW Dasani is tap water, pure and simple. I like it, but only buy it when I can't get tap water. |
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| I forgot another thing. I recently got one of those Brita water filter pitchers and I'm actually quite impressed by the taste after the tap water's been filtered through. It's actually not bad at all. |
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| I have same problem.
I went to the local supermarket and was shopping one day for lots of fruit (because I had to force myself to get water somehow)... and I came across a very simple $2 jug with a big screw on cap that holds 64 oz of water (8 glasses). I fill it up with water when I go to work (I sit at a desk for an 8 hour graveyard shift) and have a simple fake-class plastic dixie cup thing that I pour it into. I make a game to see if I can drink it all in eight hours. It's probably not the most beneficial thing I could be doing - so during the day I also try to drink a big glass of water and some juice also. Whenever I eat on that night shift - I try to drink 1 glass before I eat, 1 glass during, and another after. I have also started arranging my meals so I always bring something sort of dry like peanut butter or toast with me on that shift - to make me more thirsty. On days that I don't work, I fill the jug up with water still and then just leave the jug and clear glass on top of the bookshelf right next to the kitchen, and have a glass whenever I walk by.
This has worked an average 65% of the time for the last eight weeks. I used to drink like.. a coke every two days - and that was it. I never noticed that I was thirsty, or was apathetic to it. Now I'm starting to notice changes from feeling healthy and hydrated to not - and I drink water to subdue those changes. Someday I hope this will just all come naturally haha. |
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| I've got a brita pitcher at home, and another at work. Very cool.  A friend of mine also has a water distiller which seems to produce good water as well.
BTW, the 8 glasses of water a day isn't necessarily water water, it also means all the water that comes in your food as well. |
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| when i'm at home, i don't drink plain water. i mainly drink tea, about 8 cups per day. i don't feel something wrong. if u still feel dry, u can cook some congee for dinner or drink some fruit juice. Everyday i try diffrent kinds of tea. i never feel boring.  |
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| water is very important for cleansing. since it doesn't contain any additives or unnatural substance. helps make a healthy glowing skin. keeps you away from urinary infections as well. |
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| Ni Hao, Susanchain,
Chinese philosophy of health care is superior to anything else, in my opinion. Drinking water doesn't necessarily Nourish Yin and Moisten Dryness. Congees are good medicine for that.
ZaiJian,
fifi |
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| Rachel:I have a really bad habit of not drinking enough water. I will be really good about it for a few weeks and then drop off to the point where I don't actually drink just plain water for days.
Does anyone have any advice on how I can keep myself in the habit of drinking water?
===> I read this posting too late. I am amazed at reading the question and responses. Dear Rachel: Drinking water is NOT a habit. It is the second MOST important need for survival, next to breathing air. What do you mean by advice to keep the habit. Anyway, this is the advice:
a) Do not eat any food for a sufficiently long time and this includes not drinking anything, until you feel thirsty. You will. Then drink only a plain water, preferably bottled. Do this for at least one day.
b) After this discard all other drinks including teas, coffees, milks, soymilks, juices, etc etc. that is EXCEPT Plain Water. When you feel thirst, drink plain water only.
c) Do b) above for at least 1 month. And, you shall know all you want to know about water.
Best Summer to you. |
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| I don't know about the rest of you but
I filter my drinking water
when the water doesn't have any 'off' flavors it's very good and satisfying, like the life giving water that it is supposed to be
Britta filters will improve taste, but without a polishing sub-micron membrane in the filter as well as charcoal---certain bodies will pass through the filter and into you.
crytosporidium is one that can just bloom if a water supply is not properly maintained.
Even if your water supply is chlorinated, you can't really trust that it is clean, and you'll certainly want to filter out the chlorine.
Chlorine will just kill whatever was floating around in the water, but the particulates are still floating dead in the water, that's why I'd recommend filtering the water with a top of the line filter.
Artesian wells and groundwater may be cleaner in some locations, but considering all the environmental samples that I've run over the years as a Chemist, I wouldn't drink it unless it's been filtered, but that's just me .
filtering at the point of use is the best, in my opinion. Bottled water tastes like plastic to me.
Edited by SCThornley 2006-05-02 12:16 PM
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | SCT,
Come to the mountains where I live and you won't filter your water....you will drink it and feel like your're in heaven. There's nothing like a good artesian well. I am so fortunate and blessed with water.
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| Cyndi - 2006-05-02 12:46 PM
SCT,
Come to the mountains where I live and you won't filter your water....you will drink it and feel like your're in heaven. There's nothing like a good artesian well. I am so fortunate and blessed with water.
AHHH..........
the mountains
I feel the inviting pull of their allure
which mountains are you near, Cyndi?
Edited by SCThornley 2006-05-02 1:32 PM
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | I'm surrounded by a bunch of them...mostly in the Cherokee National Forest, but Nantahala is on one side, and then there is Joyce Kilmer...and then over is the Blue Ridge Parkway. |
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| that just sounds delightful |
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| While on the subject of water consumption, please see below:
www.iisc.ernet.in/currsci/dec252005/2209.pdf
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Water consumption
