Water.

Elemental. We need to drink water every day. It keeps us healthy and keeps our bodies functioning properly. There are lots of great reasons to drink it.

I never used to have issues with water, however, lately it seems I do. (I'm just FULL of issues these days). We live in an area with hard water and though we have a water softener, the water from the tap still tastes bad. I used to use a Brita filter with great success. However, I recently replaced my Brita jug, and since then, the water just hasn’t been the same. The tap water used to be just fine after it was filtered, and though I’ve been through several new filters, the water STILL tastes bad. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say it tastes WORSE after it’s been filtered. It tastes like plasticy-over-mineralized water. How that is possible, I have no idea, but it does. Nasty.

I refuse to buy bottled water for daily consumption because in this country, I don’t think we should have to PAY for drinkable water. And environmentally with all the waste the bottles/jugs can generate, recyclable or not, it’s not responsible. And no, I don’t have any room (nor do I want to make room) for one of those big refillable water jug dispenser things. (I can picture the mess my kids would make with that. Oy).

I’m also CHEAP and so I don’t want to pay for water, but do believe in the benefits of filtered water. I think that the filters are a good, generally cost-effective and an environmentally friendly option. However, it’s hard to take that to heart when the filtered water tastes like old plastic and I’ve just thrown $20+filter costs down the tubes. And while it’s not a huge amount of money, it still sticks in my cheap, little craw.

And since I’m already somewhat dehydrated, apparently, it’s staying there a long time.

So, I’ve been trying to play around with our tap water, to see if I can make it palatable. Strangely, enough, though it doesn’t usually bother me, having the tap water very cold makes a difference. Most of the time, I’m fine to drink water at room temperature. I recently made some ice for a meeting and on a particularly hot day this week, threw a few cubes into my glass. I was pleasantly surprised at how much better it tasted. So, the cold water/ice thing is working and I find I’m not trying to convince myself to drink more water, while trying to hold my nose and choke it down.

Also, though I’m not in danger of over-hydrating right now, I’ve been curious to see just how much water we really need. It’s WATER, it should be simple, but apparently, it’s not. It’s complicated and convoluted. There is a lot of advice out there about drinking 8 glasses of water a day. But what is the definition of a “glass”? Is there a number of ounces? Apparently most people don’t agree. There’s the whole 8 LARGE glasses, which could be between 12-20 ounces. Not overly helpful. Most single-serve bottled water is in 20 ounce bottles. Other recommendations say 8 ounces (1 cup).

Others say to rely on thirst, but I think so few of us are actually in tune with our “thirst”, and often mistake thirst for hunger or use caffeinated or sugar-laden beverages to “quench” our thirst. Both of these do the opposite for our bodies and make us thirstier and more dehydrated. So do we really know what “thirsty” means? No, I don’t think most of us do.

And again, I go back to “what’s best for ME”? How much water should I drink? What is a reasonable average to aim for most days, with the assumption that when weather is hot/dry, I’ve exercised heavily or I’m sick, I should drink more?

I’ve come across this little information tid-bit and it seems just about right to me. Drink half your weight in ounces. What the heck does that mean? Well, I weigh 140 lbs, so I should drink about 70 ounces of water a day. My household drinking glasses hold about 12 ounces, so I need about 6 of those glasses in a day.

I like this formula because it customizes water consumption recommendation based on weight/size. Though there are days when I may need to drink more than a 6’2 man, I would think that generally speaking, my needs are quite a bit less.

And mostly, it’s do-able. I like do-able.