My last post went so well that I figured maybe I can find some help with this issue of mine.

All my life I've had a serious issue with not consuming enough water. It was never anything I worried about until my late teens when I realized how serious it is. To this day(i'm 22 turning 23 next month) I find it extremely difficult to drink plain water. Especially when it's cold. I do better with room temp. However, when it comes to smoothies and juices, I can drink them all day. I'm sure it has to do with the flavors...no?
I rarely drink juices and dont make smoothies all day every day so in the end I KNOW i'm not getting enough fluids.

Any ideas or tips as to how I can better my intake? Perhaps some easy recipes?

Also, if it helps to know, I work Monday-Friday 7-3 as a personal assistant. Mostly at a desk but every so often I'm on the road with my boss.

Thank you!!

Hey,I wouldn't worry about it. Your body knows best, and obviously whatever your getting is all that you need. So tell me, what really bad illness are you suffering due to your lack of moister? Cause if you don't have any, then for you, your getting enough....

if you really have a tough time with just strait water you can always cut your smoothies/juice with some water .. that way you are still getting the water with the smoothie/juice taste

two issues that come to mind from chronic dehyradtion are headaches and backaches

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

I sometimes am very thirsty, but don't feel like just water. I found a few things helpful to make things interesting. Carbonated mineral water, soups, I think there are some raw vegan soups that can be made. Tea and herbals. Even just heating up water can be surprisingly more interesting than cold water. I also enjoy filtered water over tap water.

If you like juices, there are always fresh juices of all types, fruit, greens, sprouted grasses etc...

geo - i have really painful stomach aches when i need to make a bowel movement but i've always associated that with my irritable bowel syndrome. for a while now i have had a lot more mucus in my nose and throat that i'm curious about.


jgunn - i'm definitely going to make smoothies a daily thing and add water. thanks!

Hey, with me, I associate mucus with detox, cleansin or excess amounts of acid-froming foods, and stomach aches with adominal wind. But from what you're describing, it is perhaps something that your Doctor should know about. I don't want to frighten you, and I'm sure it's nothing serious, but these symptoms plus your difficulty with drinking plain water should be something that your Doctor should know about.

I know that the general medical community doesn't believe much of what we do, in regards to alternative living, but they do know alot. So, it won't hurt to run it by them, yes?

Take care,
geo

Hi There...

A couple of things come to mind-

If you are urinating every 3 or 4 hours, then you are probably getting enough fluid. If not, it's possible that you're experiencing some dehydration, a very common thing with many people. You can also tell if you're dehydrated by the quality of your urine. It should be pretty clear/colorless. This is telling you that your kidneys are filtering your blood effectively. Dark urine means you need to run more water through your system.

If plain water isn't appealing, try some teas, or watered down smoothies like Jodi suggested. Keeping hydrated is important. And that brings me to the other thing... a saying that I heard once: "Nature's solution to pollution is dilution." In this toxic world, keeping ourselves flushed out can be a good thing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2011 06:10AM by marsh.

I had trouble drinking and liking water when I was drinking filtered tap water or distilled tap water. When I started drinking spring water, I noticed that my body really liked that water and that it had a nice energy to it. When you buy bottled spring water, you have to make sure the water is truly spring water that hasn't been overly filtered, say like by reverse osmosis. I get my spring water from a friend's spring, so i am very sure it's the real thing. Also you want to make sure the spring water hasn't been treated with chemicals.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2011 08:38AM by Prana.

Or you could just eat high-water-content fruit by itself. That's my preferred method of hydration. Like melons, papayas, persimmons, etc. Doesn't that sound good? IMO that's nature's best source of water, anyway.

I agree with Prana. There is nothing that compares to beautiful, clear, living spring water. I forage from a local spring that I found here: www.FindaSpring.com. There's a thread here somewhere about this topic that was recently discussed.

I had the same problem but then discovered for me that it is that I can only drink alkaline water easily.
There are several brands out there like Iceland, Essentia, New Zealand, Fiji.
I don't like to support buying so many bottles in plastic but find that this is best for me to stay hydrated now.
I drink about 2 L per day.

I like tea and soup. I guess anything that adds a flavor or health benefits may help. I also like to make acai green tea. It stretches the acai flavor nicely. Maybe a quarter acai. I've been having the same problem. Watermelon/cantaloupe smoothies in the summer. Did you see the cardamom post in the recipe section? That little concoction turned out great. (At least the tea itself is raw.)

I occasionally keep a food diary, and started tracking my water intake as well. that really opened my eyes as to how insufficient my water intake was/ can be.

Agree with everyone that says to eat more hydrating fruits and other liquidy foods and to drink as clean a source of water as possible--for me, if it's a choice of tap water and going thirsty for a few hours, I would rather go thirsty. Good luck!

Just a note re 'spring water'. Not all spring water is good for you. Of course it has to be authentic, as here in Oz some companies have been prosecuted for filtering plain town water and selling it as spring water. Also, I have noticed that some companies add 'sodium flouride' to their spring water. That is a big nono, as the natural form of flouride is calcium flouride, whereas sodium flouride is man-made and should not be used at all IMO. If calcium flouride is naturally part of the spring water, then unless it is in very small quantities, less than 1ppm (one part of flouride per one million parts of water) then it should not be taken. Flouride is a 'halogen' and is accumulative within the body.

I also had issues with drinking plain water. I then devised a routine where i would drink a small glass of water every hour. I wouldn't think of its taste, I would just drink it - fill the glass and bottoms up! You can try drinking a cup of spring water every hour or so. Another way to help stay hydrated is to consume lots of fruits and vegetables that are rich in water. Also note that your water requirements depend on a lot of things like the climate you live in, your body weight, the amount of physical exercise you do each day, etc. It is also best to not go thirsty for long. If you've been thirsty for hours, then you are likely experiencing dehydration.

Keeping it raw at [rawfoodhealthwatch.com]

Hello friend,
I had issues with drinking plain water and I used to take plenty of juices. Its my dietitian who suggested me the water ionizers and told me drink the tasty Alkaline Water. I'll also suggest you drink the Ionized Alkaline Water. Its good in taste and also helps in flushing out the impurities from our body. Tyent USA is having various Water Purification Products including Portable Water Ionizers, Goodlife Bottles etc which will help you carry while you travel. Drink Alkaline Water and stay healthy and fit, friend.

For more details visit :

[www.alkalinewater.com]
[www.tyentusa.com]

The latest research debunks that whole "8 glasses of water daily" business. I judge hydration by urination, if you're doing that enough surely you're drinking enough. Consuming too much water dilutes/flushes nutrients out of the body via osmosis, it's actually NOT healthy to drink too much of the stuff. I have to say, I hardly ever experience thirst and I really don't drink a lot of anything. Juicy foods do it, it's enough and the water in fruits and veggies has been filtered naturally.

Eat fruit

I do eat a lot of fruit. And I only want more and more