Day 89 Water, Water Everywhere

Before I decided to lose weight (over a year ago), or should I say when I first started thinking about it, I came to the realization that I was going to have to eliminate all the sweetened iced tea, pop, juice, etc, that I consumed on such a regular basis. Quite honestly, I'm amazed that I hadn't become pre-diabetic for all the sugar I was drinking.

It was pretty common (OK, daily) for me to get those giant size cups of "Sweet Tea" from McDonald's (No ice please, cuz you can get more in the cup that way). I called it my "bucket o' tea".  And I'd drink that at work. All day. After work, I'd drink more sweet tea (at home, I'd make a gallon at a time, with a cup of sugar added), and drink that all afternoon and evening. And I absolutely love fruit juice. Pretty much any kind, especially if its got cranberry in it. Which means it must have lots of high-fructose corn syrup. Its nothing for me to pour myself a 16 ounce glass of juice and drink it in 2 or 3 long gulps. No one in my house will share a drink with me, cuz I'll half empty the glass!

So the thought of letting go of all that sweet, tasty, thirst-quenching heaven really filled me with anxiety. After all, we MUST drink a lot of fluids every day, its healthy, right? I got the part about changing foods and eating less fat/sugar/carbs etc. For the most part, I was prepared for that. It was the loss of the sweet drinks that really worried me. I've never been a water drinker, except in those odd moments of great thirst when the only relief is a drinking fountain with metalic tasting tepid water, and your mouth feels like the Sahara. Bleck!! But necessary.

Who wants to drink water like that? Or the chlorine filled stuff out of my kitchen tap?

And I didn't relish the idea of spending a ton of money on bottled water, either. It seems so ridiculous. Water. More expensive that the gas in my car. How insane is that?!?

But I relented. It hasn't been easy. But it has been surprising. At first, I started drinking a bottle here, and a bottle there. I was not impressed. None of them tasted very good, and some of them tasted rather lousy. So I kept trying different brands. Absopure, Mountain Springs, Poland Springs, Dasani, Ice Mountain. I can't even remember all the brands we've been through. None of them appealed to me. At least not at first.

My husband kept buying cases of water. After all, the kids were drinking it, he was drinking it, occasionally I would drink it. And then one day I realized that I'd become acclimated to drinking water. It wasn't so bad anymore. It happened very gradually. In the beginning, I just forced myself to sip away. More often than not, the water would long since have warmed up, making it even more unappealing, and I'd dump the rest on the plants or in the dogs dish. Hubby was getting pretty worked up about all the "wasted" water that we're paying good money for.

But one day I found myself craving a nice cold bottle of water. Like I used to crave juice or tea.I wasn't forcing myself.  Wow! This feels pretty good! I used to dread the idea of having to choke down 32 or 48 or 64 ounces of water in a day. Now I don't even bat an eye. I haven't given up the sweetened morning coffee.  But I've pretty much eliminated all the other stuff. And I don't worry anymore about the occassional glass of juice, because I know that the vast majority of the fluids I drink are calorie free. (And not artifically sweetened!).

So that's a hurdle I've passed. I think it was as much a mental hurdle, as it was physical. And besides the benefit of helping with weight loss and keeping me hydrated in a good way, water doesn't give me the headrushes and bloated feeling I used to get from drinking all that sweet tea. And that feels GREAT! My tastebuds have adjusted in ways I never expected! Surprise!