Simpler Life Series 5: A Different Drink
Getting back to the basics in our lives holds a lot of rewards. Today’s tip for our Simpler Life Series came to me as I was trying my best to keep hydrated and fight a cold. I think you’ll like this one. It saves money, reduces your trash pile, and is better for your health. Ready?
Make water your go-to thirst quencher.
I don’t have to tell you that soda is bad for you or all those millions of other things we hear about alcohol, caffeine, and on and on. You already know that.
Yet have you ever looked at how many of the items in your grocery cart are beverages?
Martin and I quickly became big tap water drinkers when we moved to Germany. Every week, I walk to the grocery store and carry our groceries home. I get a lot pickier about the things I buy when I have to carry them. Bottled drinks? Those were the last thing I wanted to haul eight blocks. So we quit buying them. Our food expenses went down.
Think of all that packaging that heads to the garbage from our beverages. Even if it can be recycled, it’s still a lot of energy to transform the packaging.
If you did nothing but substitute water for everything else you drink, you could lose 10-15 pounds in one year according to some experts. All that – just for switching drinks.
Reaching for tap water all the time gets kind of old, though, if you ask me. We’ve been trying to mix it up with other low-calorie, low production drinks like lemon water and loose leaf tea.
Here’s what we’re doing to simplify our beverage consumption. Feel free to join us.
1. Watching how many drinks go into our shopping cart
2. Reading the labels on those drinks (especially with juices – most juices have added sugar. A lot of added sugar.)
3. Picking containers with the least amount of excess packaging (in Germany, we get glass bottles and put down a deposit so they can be washed and reused)
4. Drinking water with most meals
5. Sipping tea and water throughout the day
What’s your take on water versus other beverages? We’d love to have you on board with us if you’re up for the challenge. (And if you’re already a big water drinker, we’d love some pointers!)
March 17th, 2009 at 4:43 am
i became a big water drinker a few years ago after my dentist told me no more sugar drinks and my doctor told me i was lactose intolerant – haha! I keep a refillable jug of water in our fridge so we always have really cold tap water on hand.
March 17th, 2009 at 4:56 am
We rarely have any soft drinks or bottled water in our house. We do, however, have a Brita pitcher that filters our tap water – it just tastes better that way. I just found your blog and think that it’s great – so full of great advice!
March 17th, 2009 at 6:01 am
I am a big water drinker. Growing up we never had soda around the house, so it never became a habit. But also I hate spending the extra money on it, especially when going out to eat.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:23 am
This is something I struggle with. I hating buying the drinks and knowing it isn’t that great for me anyway, but I’m so addicted – especially to caffeine that it is REALLY hard for me to give it up. I try and go for a bit but then relapse. I need to ween myself off of it (rather than try cold turkey) and stay off of it.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:58 am
I start my day with a liter of water before I have my first of the 2 espressos I allow myself per day… then drink water all day long. I don’t like the taste of water in the morning (I don’t know why, it’s a weird hang over from my childhood juice days) so I start the morning with sparkling water and switch to tap by mid-morning. Grocery delivery stocks me up on shelf life milk, Apollinaris and San Pelligrino as I hate carrying groceries home! I don’t drink soda of any kind, and I think I could kick the
March 17th, 2009 at 6:59 am
(woops – clicked send before was finished writing the above…)
….caffeine habit if I had to – but wine is my weakness. Give me wine over water any day!
March 17th, 2009 at 8:44 am
I’ve always tried to drink more water during the day, but I get so preoccupied with what I’m doing that I forget to pick up the water bottle (I carry a 32-oz water bottle from home instead of buying bottled water – our tap water tastes great!).
I definitely order water with lemon when dining out to save $$ (drinks in the States are a big cost of any restaurant meal). Coffee in the morning, a cuppa hot tea in the evening. Milk somewhere in-between (I have osteoporosis). I seldom drink juices anymore due to the calorie content and gave up Coke and other sodas years ago.
March 17th, 2009 at 8:45 am
I’ve recently become a much bigger water drinker than I used to be! I usually have plain old water, but every now and then it’s nice to put a slice of lemon or lime in, for a bit of flavour.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:45 am
I drink a ton of water. I bring a full 1L Nalgene bottle to work every day and fill it up once. I also drink a ton of water in the AM and PM. I admit I love my Diet Coke with lime-I don’t think I could give it up, but I do recycle, at least. But seriously, do you not drink wine?!?! THAT is something I could not give up:)
March 17th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I also carry around a water bottle. In order to actually USE it, though, I leave it in conspicuous spots, like next to my computer monitor at work and near my car keys at home so I won’t forget it when running errands. For example, I hate going through the mall, getting thirsty, and having to buy a bottle of water. The mall’s not a usual trip for me, but I go enough where this has happened more than once.
March 17th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
We drink loads of water. I keep a re-useable bottle one per person in my house around us in the livingroom. The kids have a sticker chart and they have to drink 2 bottles in order to earn a different drink (although we do have milk with our dinner). I can get lazy while I’m working (graphic design) and if I don’t have to get up every 10 minutes for a drink I’m happy. So it sits next to me.
We don’t drink wine or alchol, and we have had to limit my husband to 1 carbonated drink a day (only after he has had his 4 bottles of water – he too works from home)…as he used to drink a 2 litre bottle of ‘coke’ in one day!
The kids growing up (okay I have four boys 7 and under lol) have always been taught if they fall down or are a bit ill, that water is magic and will help make you feel better. So they always say ‘I need some water’ and one of their siblings or a parent will quickly get their bottle). This has really helped as we don’t like to give ‘medicines’ if they can be avoided.
Great post.
March 17th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
We drink mostly tap water. And the kids drink milk, which I buy in glass bottles that are returned for re-use. (In fact, I’m working on a post for tomorrow on just that subject). We buy very few beverages, especially not bottled water. I got on board with this a while ago, and I found at this point I actually prefer the taste of tap water. There’s something sort of plastic-y about water from plastic bottles.
March 17th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Wow! You are all so inspiring. I love that Tiphphinne’s kids automatically say that they need water when they’re feeling ill. I’m amazed with all of you for making such an effort!
Katie
March 17th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
This is something I am working on. I recently gave up drinking pop and it has been so hard. I am hoping that as time goes on I can stop craving it so badly. I have noticed that our recycle box is not as full since there aren’t any pop tins in it. Now I drink mostly water and sometimes tea, milk or orange juice. We have a water cooler. Our tap water tastes terrible. We pay a deposit on the big bottles. We return empties to the water depot and trade them for full ones.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:29 am
Indy and I are wateraholics! We drink and drink and drink. I down about 3.5-4 liters of water a day. Indy drinks at least 1.5L a day. We have water with all our meals, except breakfast (I have hot tea, he has rice milk). Unfortunately the water in HD is sooooooo bad it really can’t even be drunk filtered. Seriously, it’s gross. Also, when all you drink it water, you notice the flavor. Different waters have different flavors. We have to buy water. A lot. San Benedetto water (my favorite-aside from Fiji) comes in plastic 1.5L bottles. It’s heavy (it comes in a 6 pack) and carrying it up to the 3rd floor stinks, but we have to. The bottles DO go in the yellow bag though! We were in downtown about 2 weeks ago and the bottle of water I had brought was empty. Indy was thirsty and asked for water. M bought him a Coke because the vendor only had sparkling water (which we do not like) and Indy complained because he NEEDED water. Even my 6 year old knows that sodas don’t quench your thirst.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Every morning I drink a HUGE glass of water. This makes me start off my day well hydrated!
March 19th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I’m a big water drinker. Have been ever since I got pregnant. But I must admit, I also LOVE diet pepsi and gatorade….but I’m trying to drink less of those and more water. Another awesome post Katie – I actually thought about this one today when I was at the grocery store!
March 20th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Milk, juice and water is about it for me- rarely do I have a soda- and I’m not a coffee drinker-
We filter our water from our own tap =}
Thanks for sharing your ideas.
March 28th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
We have not drank sodas for more than thirty years. We drink water, juices, coffee, or soy milk. When we drink juices, it’s either orange for vit C or v-8 as a vegie serving. We changed to soy milk a couple of years ago for health reasons. We seldom flavor our water…usually just the change up from room temp to iced makes the dif for us. We got into the habit of room temp water when we were doing disaster recovery work.