Life Change #2: I Don’t Drink Enough Water

I realized immediately after exercising--I was thirsty. If I am going to do one life change (exercise), I really ought to do the obvious other life change (drink more water). This seems to be an easy enough habit to avoid. I basically don’t drink enough water for one simple reason: I forget, at least when I am not exercising!

Water is the most perplexing of drinks…it has no real flavor, but good cold water really tastes good….and when you drink water that does not taste good, well, you know it, don’t you? Some water has a sort of thickness to it which is really not thirst quenching and I suspect it is not that good for you either. Some water veers toward saltiness, some water leaves a sourness on the tongue. Most of us have water delivered through the tap in our home, but as a nation we still spend a tremendous amount of money on bottled water, some of it sparkling, some of it imported from distant lands, some purports to have health benefits, and all seem to claim that theirs tastes better than everyone else’s. And yet, with all this water available in stores, restaurants, kitchens, bathrooms,…even gardens (though I suppose you are not actually supposed to drink out of the hose), it is said, by whoever says these things, that we do not drink enough water.

We are supposed drink 8 (eight!) 16 ounce glasses of water everyday…and though I cannot say for sure that I will hit that objective everyday, I have decided to add several glasses of water to my daily beverage list, and perhaps thereby eliminate some, if not all of the juice, soda, beer, wine, cocktails and coffee that I drink. Except, I will not eliminate the coffee. (I will still drink my two tall cups of coffee each morning). I expect, as a result of this additional water intake, I will need to make another related change in my life (Life Change 2A: Pee A Lot More).
For me, water has to be COLD. Not tap water cool, but at least refrigerator cold, but I am most fond of water with ice. The stuff you buy in the stores starts out nice and cold, but on those hot days when you really want it cold…it warms up too fast unless you guzzle it down right away…I guess that is why they make such small bottles…so you can drink one and leave the others on ice, but for me, I like a big bottle, or a big glass of water, with condensation forming liberally on the outside of the vessel. I also like a wide mouth. The little bottles with standard necks require you to sip…water is meant to be drunk…not sipped. Aquafina makes a bottle with a wide mouth…they get almost all of my bottled water business. Of course, the standard Nalgene bottle, popularized by backpackers, sets the bar…a large enough mouth so that it allows, if you wish, for a trickle to stream down on either cheek--if you really want to get into drinking water demonstratively…or not.

We are confounded with so many options other than water…ironically, most of them are simply water liberally polluted with sugar, and juice or infused with tea, vitamins or carbonated and mixed with a healthy does of artificial this and that to create a drink that could never be found in nature (what is cola, really?). To say nothing of the sports drink concept….the beverage which is “better than water”. How did we mange to break any kind of sweat without replacing those valuable electrolytes. Pass the salt shaker, please.

These selections don’t count as water, or so they say (at some point, we will have to look into who “they” are, but for now, let us assume they are learned and have our best interests at heart). These alternatives to water are like the junk food of the beverage world…lots of calories, not so much benefit. Despite my enjoyment of water, I find that sometimes, against all better sense and even contrary to my own taste bud’s desires, I will select a soda over water even though I am quite thirsty and water would be a much better choice…something about “it’s just water, and I want something a bit less watery when trying to quench my thirst”. Must be the mind control substances in the sodas that cause us to select them…no way they do their job as well as water.

Think about a hot dusty day…out in the sun, working hard…the back of your throat is dry; your tongue feels swollen and shriveled all at once. YOU are thirsty….what is it gonna be?…A Coke? Pepsi? or…WATER?. Of course it is water! (with deepest apologies to beer…though to be fair, no one has suggested that we, as a nation, do not drink enough beer!)…And though, a vigorous argument could be made for lemonade, perhaps with a sprig of mint leaves along for the ride, surely, it will be water that does a better job of slaking that thirst. I have heard it said that sugary drinks actually increase your thirst…not sure how that gets measured, but in terms of actually making me feel like my thirst has lessened, water is top dog!

Even if water is what we should be drinking in lieu of Snapple and 7up, there is still peril, or so it seems. Is our drinking water safe as delivered through our kitchen faucet? Some seem to question that….perhaps I should buy a filter!…replacement cartridges are only about $30…and when the filters are disposed of, it says you are supposed to treat them as a BIOHAZARD. Yikes!…so, one day, we are drinking the water that flows through this contraption, the next day, we are disposing of it at the bottom of some 2000 foot deep salt mine in the Nevada dessert for fear of what may be growing in it…what exactly is it taking out of our water? Should that stuff be in there to begin with?

And what about those bottles of water that are so convenient and stocked in plentiful supply at every convenience store in the land. I wonder if the bottled water boom isn’t a sort of plot by a coalition of petrochemical manufacturers….there is a lot of plastic surrounding all that water. Most of it is labeled “Pure Spring Water” or “Bottled at the Source” wherever that might be. If, as we assume but don’t readily acknowledge, those bottles are simply filled at some tap in a bottling facility in Pennsylvania, or Virginia or Arizona, who is to say that those taps are any safer than the one in my kitchen…assuming of course that it is safe! Do they have a filter?…(how do they get rid of theirs?). Troubling stuff indeed…what happens if my eight glasses a day kills me...won’t be very good for any future bad habit remediation…though I will admit it is a pretty powerful life change (Life Change #2347: I Don’t Breathe Enough Air).

I wonder sometimes about these “sources”. When I was a kid, I used to spend a great deal of time in the Rockies, near the head waters of the Colorado River. We would hike and fish and spend all day in or around water, and when we got thirsty, we’d simply cup our hands and dip them into the freezing stream and lift as much water as we could hold to our mouths and drink the freshest coldest water you could imagine; likely it was snow earlier that day, and it quenched the thirst, it tasted so good, almost sweet, but with a clean finish that suggested pine and it slipped down your throat like a shoe on a mossy rock….and we never got sick…we drank all we wanted, left plenty for the fish, and never thought about anything in the water that might hurt us….
Those same streams now are replete with the Giardia bacteria, (so called Beaver Fever) and no one drinks from the streams without elaborate treatment devices and tablets….water that used to flow into the town’s water supply now needs filtration, ozonation, chlorination, and all sorts of other “nations” in order for it to be deemed safe. SO…what is that “source” that is advertised on some bottles, and how is their source more protected than other sources? Sort of makes me wonder if I should make this change at all.

The one “nation” liberally added to water is “carbonation”. I have wondered if water ever really occurs naturally carbonated. I guess in fact I have not wondered very much, since I could probably “Google” it and find out, but in any event, I have noted that despite the fact that, though bottled water already costs more than gasoline, to really maximize profits, a water producer can simply carbonate the water and then really bump up the price. Is it expensive to add carbonation? Perhaps so, or not, but either way, this gives water a snobby cousin…SPARKLING WATER….and they bring it to us from super cool places like Italy, France and Northern California. Folks add a lemon or a lime and pour it over ice, and I am left to wonder….do they make carbonated ice?

I also think it funny that some folks scoff that “water costs more than gasoline” at least in terms of the price in bottles….it seems pretty clear to me…shouldn’t it be? Isn’t it far more important to have water than gasoline? If we took all the gasoline away, we would be able to use our cars for planters or storage or really big paper weights, but without water, we’d use up all the gasoline driving around looking for water.

Since I LIKE water and water seems available without much effort, I will happily add this to my list of Life Changes, commencing today, and see if the results are worthwhile. I can see already one other change headed my way: Life Change #9: Put the Toilet Seat Down!
So I filled and froze a Nalgene bottle (warning: if you try this at home, only fill the bottle about 2/3 full to allow that pesky ice to expand, otherwise, you will need a generous supply of Nalgene bottles). I slurp down about 3 full bottles over the day (the equivalent of 6-7 glasses of water). Some of it streams down my cheek and misses my mouth, thereby giving the back of my hand the chance to purposefully wipe the liquid from my lips and face. I supplement this with a glass of water before bed, and I will be darn close to the target. Just like I didn’t run a marathon the 1st day of exercise, there seems to be no strong reason to drain the swimming pool the first day of expanded water intake. However, instead of lemonade, or Orange Juice at lunch, I stuck with water…that felt pretty good, except now I gotta go pee….

Update on Previous Life Changes (Day Two):
Well I made it…but it is after all only day two (Life Change #1: Start exercising). I weathered the worst of all possible stumbling blocks as in fact I had failed to plug in my I Pod overnight…YEP…dead. Oh well…I turned up the radio loud and worked through it…it was hot as well, but since I am drinking all this ice cold water…