For my second round of “I’m trying to live a cheaper and healthier life” I present the age old question, what the hell do you drink? I’m serious. I’m terrible at keeping myself hydrated. You would think that’s a basic skill for survival. You don’t hear people complaining that they just don’t get enough air during the day. But I have chapped lips and dry skin on a regular basis because it will take me hours to figure out that I haven’t had anything to drink in awhile.
So I’ve been working more and more at drinking regularly throughout the day. Once I realized that downing an entire six-pack of Amstel Light at work would be frowned upon (“Hey, it’s light beer!”), I decided to move towards something less… alcoholic. But this made me realize that options for liquid refreshment can be very limited.
You’ve always got the ol’ standby of water. Sure, it quenches your thirst and by definition it has to have some hydrating effects, right? But it can just get so boring. The things got what, 3 atoms per molecule? What’s up with that? You’d think after all these millennia they might have improved it with a little more than your typical fluoride injections and lead deposits. But no, I’m still paying a premium for the classic H-2-the-O…
There’s iced tea – but something tells me trying to sun brew in my server room will cause at least a minor disaster. The vending machine is filled with soda – but Lisa Simpson ruined that for us… Seriously, what is there to drink anymore?
At home I got on this mega cranberry juice. Fortunately you can buy that in just about any flavor but… well… cranberry juice. I think they do make it like that now, but in order to drink it I cut it with some seltzer water. Yup, just fill a glass to the brim with seltzer, and a few drops of cranberry will do it for you. But all that mixing of drinks is bound to make a mess of my desk. So now I find myself splitting time between aspartame water from Target and Vitamin Water – which sounds much healthier but costs a lot more. What’s a semi-adult to do?
I miss my youth of drinking a gallon of whole milk a day and maybe some purple stuff late in the afternoon. I blame Sunny D for all of my woes…