Heavy drinker

[eggwards]

Happy Birthday to Travis (verucacub) and Vance (drood). Hopefully all of their Amazon.com wishes will come true.
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A couple of days ago when I was talking about Topamax, I didn't get a chance to respond to a lot of the comments made to me, but one of the prevailing comments about losing weight was to drink more water. In fact Paul, (bigredpaul), even had a formula for how much water to drink, which probably means I should drink a small child's swimming pool each day.

The factor is, I really don't like drinking water. I have to be really parched to drink water plain. I think my favorite water drinking experience was when I was in St. Louis in 1999 during one of the hottest days in their history trying to cross some great park in their town trying to get to the zoo, finally making it to the zoo before I passed out of dehydration. ACL fest last year might come in as a close second, but I was sitting for some of that.

Personally, if you are going to give me something to drink, I prefer it to have some flavor in it. At home I drink milk, Kool-aid, iced tea, and Diet Dr Pepper. The diet in front of Dr Pepper is actually a recent development as I only took up drinking diet drinks in the last couple of years. Unfortunately, most restaurants don't carry Diet Dr Pepper, so I usually end up getting the regular version. I'm starting to get better about drinking Diet Coke, but I don't find it as good.

You may have noticed that one of the side effects of Topamax is that it makes colas taste funny. I've noticed that. It's weird.

Still, I guess it's just another one of my oddities. I don't know how you convince yourself that water is good. I guess you don't. I still take a large mug of iced tea in with me to work (it's sweetened with Sweet & Low), rather than drink more sodas, but I can't seem to just drink water all day. I also don't want to be going to the bathroom all day, either.

All these other drinks have water in them. Why don't they count? *sigh*

Well, could be worse, I guess I could be drinking beer all the time.

Comments

[kjvbear.livejournal.com]

"I don't know how you convince yourself that water is good."

try having a kidney stone some time, you will find out how much you like water. I had 7 before I finally started drinking more water, and now have not had one in 15 years.

there are other reasons to drink water too.

1) Your body requires it to function normally.

2) It is the way your body flushes out toxins that don't belong. Thats one of the reasons my kidney stones formed.

3) When you lose weight, the fat breaks down and comes out in your urine, not drinking water can slow down that process.

4) Dehydration can cause headaches, muscle pain, weakness, blurred vision constipation, among other things. A hangover is mostly caused by the fact that alcohol dehydrates you faster than most other liquids the symtoms are the same.

5) When you don't drink enough water, the body will hold fluid to compensate. This can adversly effect normal kidney function.

I now drink about 100 ounces of water a day.....

[igokachi.livejournal.com]

I agree. Water=happiness.

[drood.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the birthday wishes. (And do you know, I haven't gotten a single present?)

I also became a water convert after my kidney stone, a year ago. I drink little else but, now.

[bigredpaul.livejournal.com]

The way to convince yourself that water is good is to, as they say in 12-step speak, "fake it 'til you make it."

It's really the same as learning any new taste - you have to do lots of it until you get it.

Of course, the fact that San Francisco tap water is exceptionally good helps, too.

Good luck.

But all those other drinks don't count because they either have caffeine (a dehydrating agent) or sugar, which just screws with your body's chemistry in lots of ways.

As far as having to go to the bathroom all day, one's bladder will stretch and eventually accomodate more water eventually.

Nice clear urine is what you are striving for. Urine with just a hint of yellow. It should be darkest in the mornings, because you haven't been empyting your bladder.

[cubziz.livejournal.com]

St. Louis in summer is practically a desert.

And crossing a Park? Probably Forest Park. Yeah. That'll do it. ;)

There's a reason why the air conditioner at my house turns on in... March. And runs until, November.

Also consider...

[jdvsqz.livejournal.com]

The thirst mechanism is sometimes mistaken for hunger

Usually one glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs

Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue

Drinking 8 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer, breast cancer, and bladder cancer. It also keeps skin healthy and glowing.

Like eating our fruits & vegetables, drinking plenty of water is something we need to daily

[t8r.livejournal.com]

Try drinking filtered or bottled water. You might like the taste better. Some tap water can really taste awful.

[polomex.livejournal.com]

Don't rely too much on iced tea. Nick wasn't always the biggest fan of water either, so when told to drink more, he just drank a lot of tea. Too much tea ended up affecting his liver.

[robearal.livejournal.com]

Try adding a splash of ReaLemon or ReaLime to your water.

Flavored waters

[bendawg.livejournal.com]

Well, there's ones out there with sugar in them (EVIL EVIL!) but there's other choices too. Propel (made by Gatorade) has awesome bottles and is flavored and sweetened by Splenda... My personal favorite is...

the flavored waters made by that company usually in health departments or stores - it has no calories, just natural added flavors - like watermelon or other pleasant things. The best part is, the flavor lingers in the bottle and will flavor 1 to 2 fillings after. It's from the same company that makes "Smart Water"

[bendawg.livejournal.com]

The company? Glaceau.
http://www.glaceau.com/ They rock.

[verucabear.livejournal.com]

Thanks buddy!