"A question of water" Topic

What's everyone's opinion about drinking water? Like it? Hate it? Do you "trick it up" with something (for example, make "Jell-O water") to tolerate the taste?

Me? I like it, preferably chilled or iced. I usually like to drink some after a meal, to wash everything down, and between meals, to keep me full, not to mention hydrated.

So, what's your water intake like?

After my third kidney stone I started drinking at least a gallon of water a day. No matter what it tastes like, it beats a stone any day of the week…..

Yep, I'm up to over a gallon a day now, after pasisng another couple of kidney stones (very easily this time) last month. Just tap water, working in ten 16 oz. glasses throughout the day, from rising to turning in.

Allen

In this heat I drink a lot of water just to get through the day.

I also like cold, fizzy drinks so stock up on a couple of dozen bottles of sparkling water (plain water, no sugar or flavouring) each week.

It may seem a bit extravagant, but reaching for a bottle of very cold, carbonated water as my cold fizzy drink stops me reaching for a beer or a soda pop which are both mpre expensive and less healthy – in volume anyway.

And on a hot day (every day here), after a bit of exertion, chilled water tastes wonderful. It is not a chore.

When I'm in training, I drink water religiously. I've "bonked" on long rides. It can be excruciating.

In any other part of my life, I live on coffee and diet soda w/ caffeine. It's my last regularly abused vice and I'm not giving it up.

My usual intake is 3-4 qts a day, just plain room temp tap water. At home I filter it to remove the chlorine taste, but that's it. I really don't like it too cold. The only time I adulterate it is by making iced tea in Summer, and not that god forsaken sickly-sweet "southron" abomination. Iced tea, as the Good Lord intended, should (like coffee) be so dark as to prevent light shining through the glass and must be as bitter as a blind old maid.

Aerated and cold from the faucet.
Iced.
Iced tea.
Beer.

I hate drinking water unless I'm workign out. I much prefer juice or tea.

I drink several glasses of water per day, usually with a few drops of lemon juice in it.

I do about a gallon a day too. I love the stuff. Then again I think we have some of the best tasting municipal water on the planet.

You should be drinking between 1 1/2 and 2 pints of water a day. The body needs a lot of water.

"I've "bonked" on long rides. It can be excruciating"

Er "bonked" has different conotations in the UK, it's not supposed to be painful. :-)

Er "bonked" has different conotations in the UK, it's not supposed to be painful. :-)

There are many responses I could add to this…All will get be booted..SIGH!

As for the water, I drink loads! Unfortunately it tends to be in the form of coffee, so health wise I'm probably screwed. :-(

Generally like water cold or on ice.

If working outside in the hot Texas summer, then it's "as long as it's wet".

If I'm working hard, water is great.

Otherwise, I prefer to get my water from processed beverages (mostly milk and soda, with fruit juice running a distant third).

When I drink water, it's municipal or well water. That bottled stuff is just a silly, pointless extravagance.
-Kle.

Depends. Inside activities, usually about 32 oz./day.

Outside, especially in warm weather (such as now),
5 or 6 12 oz. containers/day (from the refrigerator's
tap).

Doesn't count the coffee, tea, or infrequent juice.

I drink 2 pints a day plus a pint for every hour of riding so I don't bonk. If I'm bonking for more than an hour I drink more. Did I understand that use of the term correctly?:-)

diet soda w/ caffeine. It's my last regularly abused vice and I'm not giving it up.

Say IT Brother, Say IT!
I hear ya!

Cold, several big glasses a day, so probably nearly a gallon. Our water is from our well, filtered once (my wife's idea – I *like* the granite taste our water has naturally). High in calcium for strong bones, and high in iron for, umm, strong bones.

and high in iron for, umm, strong bones.

High in iron for strong blood.
-Kle.

I like both sparkling and non sparkling water. Actually I mostly drink water.

I was surprised that sparkling water is really uncommon in the states. (And amused when I found out that my US neighbors thought I was a heavy (alcohol) drinker because of all the seltzer bottles in my trash can, esp. since I drink no alcohol at all.)

"When I drink water, it's municipal or well water. That bottled stuff is just a silly, pointless extravagance."

With still water I agree, and the water chiller in the office gives a very nice glass of water which I drink a lot of. You can't tell at all it contains at least 20% recycled human sewerage – which it does. In a brilliant piece of marketing, the authorities call it 'New Water', which sounds a lot more appealing than 'Recycled Excrement Water.'

But I don't see sparkling water as any more extravagant than a soda. I get the cold, fizzy hit I am after without sugar or the weird-tasting, (allegedly) brain-cancer causing artificial alternatives. And without the carbs and alcohol of a beer. I know some folk may not see the latter point as a plus!

I use fizzy water instead of a beer or soda so see it as cost neutral. I get through at least a couple of dozen bottles a week and it is one of the larger items on my grocery bill.

I do try to buy locally bottled fizzy water, but unfortunately I have not found one from this part of the world yet and end up buying French or Italian fizzy water.

Back in NZ there were some very good local sparklings which were cheaper and didn't involve the absurd waste of resources in transporting water 12,000 miles in bottles to a country that already has plenty of water.

["I've "bonked" on long rides. It can be excruciating"

Er "bonked" has different conotations in the UK, it's not supposed to be painful. :-)]

It would be if you did it on a bicycle. Those seats are bad enough as is.

But I don't see sparkling water as any more extravagant than a soda.

Generally speaking, that is a processed beverage, and therefore meets my approval.
-Kle.

In my classroom, the rule is very simple. You may have water, and water only. But you may have that in class. Since I made that rule for the kids, it is only fair that I follow it as well.

I probably go through 2.5-3 bottles of water a day in the classroom, then whatever I drink at home. For me it usually is water, although I do sometimes binge on diet flavored teas. Out at restaurants I'll do unsweetened iced tea.

I prefer room temperature water. The water from the tap here in Chicago is excellent. I don't drink enough water, which leaves me a bit dehydrated more than I would like. I should try to pick up the habit of drinking more.

That bottled stuff is just a silly, pointless extravagance.

It may be extravagance, but it's not pointless. I don't have time to run out of the building to the next hall to get a drink when I'm thirsty; I'm supposed to be riding herd on a bunch of randy teenagers. I keep bottles in the fridge under my desk, so I don't have to leave my students unattended.

Besides, the water from the bubbler is warm from being outside in 90 degree heat. The water in my fridge is lovely and icy cold. Sometimes literally, if I forget to move fresh bottles out from under the freezer unit.

It may be extravagance, but it's not pointless. I don't have time to run out of the building to the next hall to get a drink when I'm thirsty; I'm supposed to be riding herd on a bunch of randy teenagers. I keep bottles in the fridge under my desk, so I don't have to leave my students unattended.

Couldn't you just use one or more containers though, and fill them from the tap? Then you could keep them in the fridge, and they'd be cold. You wouldn't be paying a one million percent markup, and you could choose what you wanted your water to taste like, instead of having it taste like a plastic bottle by default.

BTW, are you originally from New England? I note that you used the proper "bubbler" instead of the inferior "drinking fountain" or the despised "water fountain".
-Kle.

Nope, native Minnesotan.

I could reuse the bottles but the Pharr water is foul. Cheapest bottled water in the store is better. Besides, if the seal is unbroken, I know my delightful gangsters haven't gotten to it.

If one is not paranoid about teenagers when one starts to teach, one very quickly learns to be.

Nope, native Minnesotan.

That's right, there is a center of correct usage there, too. I'd forgotten.

Besides, if the seal is unbroken, I know my delightful gangsters haven't gotten to it.

They haven't learned about hypodermic needles yet, then?

I know you aren't allowed to beat them anymore, but couldn't you have them arrested for trying to poison you?
-Kle.

A gallon a day? Wow!

I drink half a dozen tumblers of water a day, typically; sometimes I might miss one, but that would mean I was inside and didn't move much. I prefer cool to room temperature, so I can guzzle it down without freezing my gullet. I start the day with my first tumbler (I think it's a 16 oz, anyway its one of those old Tupperware blue tumblers, the tall ones), then I will add on the others periodically; usually one before going on a walk for an hour, and another when I get back, and one after each meal.

When I was working on my wife's water feature two summers ago, for two weeks I was consuming well over a gallon of water per day; so physical activity makes a ton of difference (that's a pun: I moved literally tons and tons of earth and rocks)….