In other news, it's July in South Carolina. A friend is working a contract in Baghdad, and he says it's well over 100 there by 8am. It's not that bad here, but wow...
So yesterday, as I was trying to at least get *some* sleep between bouts of self-motivational speaking, it was pretty hot. I haven't been drinking much water, or even soda, so I was a bit dehydrated, always fun... I picked then, for some strange reason, to finish off the last little bit of bread and (by then) stone cold soup. Well, not the last last of the soup, but the last I'd ladled out yesterday. I'm glad I don't really like lentils, 'cause if I did it'd rather suck when I give them up. But wow, I really don't want to eat them any more right now.
So when it started to cool off again, and I woke up from my "nap" I wasn't feeling really good. Not so much sick (though I'm still coughing and snotty, and all that fun stuff), as just dizzy- I really need to drink more water...
I don't get motion sick, so that wasn't the problem, but have you ever tried focusing on a computer screen when it's kinda swimming in front of you? No fun.
I wasn't interested in heating the house up more at that point, so I didn't get up to cook again until about 2am (I'm noticing a bit of a pattern here), and by then I wasn't interested in anything fancy. So I made the rather odd wheat nuggets again, though they were just spicy this time, with no real attempt to make them taste like anything in particular.
Not a very healthy day. The heat kills my appetite, and I *hate* the taste of water- even running it through the britta pitcher doesn't help. I don't want to make it all into tea- that much sugar would kill me. And the only way I've ever been able to really choke it down regularly, ice-cold with lemon, is more work and expense than I'm really interested in or able to sustain.
Anyone manage the drinking more water thing? I know I should just do it, but... guh, it tastes bad.
Big blocks of text are intimidating? Doesn't bode well for the future of books.
ReplyDeleteAs for water, I love water. And I don't put sugar in my tea, or coffee. Guess I'm no help there.
What Kim said. I don't think big blocks of text are intimidating... that's what I stare at most of the day at work and otherwise. But photos would definitely be an added bonus.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the water issue, water isn’t supposed to taste like anything, so I would definitely check that Brita filter. Have you tried making VERY strong/sweet tea and pouring it into ice cube trays? Then you can just get a very tall glass of plain water and drop a few of those ice cubes in. That might take the edge off the ‘water flavor’ without a whole lot of sugar/tea; just flavored water. You could also try that with juices.
I went from drinking (literally) 0.1 glasses of water every other day to about 12-14/day now. Crystal Light packets make about 4 of those servings, but if those are not in your budget, I'd try lemon/orange wheels (those went very poorly with me) or flavored ice cubes. Don’t try to double/triple your water intake, though. That also went very poorly with me. I started with about 2 glasses first, then 3 and so on. If you are getting thirsty, that means you are already starting to get dehydrated, so instead of chugging the water down, you could always carry a bottle with you and just sip on it. I hate to say it, but in this day and age, water is a bit of an acquired taste instead of a natural go-to drink…
Well, it *is* a food blog (kinda...) so photos are good, but yeah, some big "rule" says that a wall of text scares off readers.... People are strange sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI don't think my filter's gone bad, I think it's more that the water coming out of the tap is just *that bad* tasting. About 10 years ago (wow, that's a scary thing to say....) I was going really good with the water drinking thing, but I was also drinking some of the better tap water in the country. The stuff here is pretty mineral-y.
Crystal Light and lemon wheels are probably about the same cost. What I really need is a huge insulated cup. Part of what i know's holding me back is the back and forth to the kitchen for refills- it breaks up my day. When I finally get in a mood to work, just about any distraction is guaranteed to derail me.
I hadn't thought of making frozen tea concentrate... that could work. Or, yeah, something like lemon juice squeezed into a bottle... just enough for flavor... hmmmmm
ooo - I feel so incredibly intimidated by this huge wall of text... what to do... oh gawd, oh me, I couldn't possible read this much. Ack!
ReplyDelete(this is sarcasm)
Water is all I drink all year round. With the exception of tea and coffee during the winter, but only one cup a day of each, but mostly water. I adore water. It makes me verrry happy.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say the text is intimidating but I do like seeing photos of things.
I have a nalgene that is about half my body weight and I drink about 3-4 of those a day, so 130oz? Don't know if that's good or not.
ReplyDeleteI like TJ's comment though, you can freeze tea-cubes and then use them in water or just let them thaw... I've read somewhere about how to make concentrated tea but I don't remember where...
If I could figure out how, I'd send you some of the 2 zillion lemons from our ridiculously overproducing bush. May you come across a windfall of lemons in the future!
I had no idea blocks of texts in food blogs are intimidating. I am so screwed. :)
ReplyDeleteUhm... I have a couple ideas regarding the water situation:
- you could do Crystal Light (making 2 quarts at a time; I believe the Wal-Mart version is 2 dollars for 10-12 quarts worth of mix).
- you could mix a half teaspoon of sugar into a pint of water. I've found that about half a teaspoon is enough to get rid of the weird water taste w/o making it taste like you're drinking rock candy.
- Next time you budget it in a lemon or a lime, cut it into thin slices and then cut each of those slices into eighths. Put one little slice in each portion of an ice cube tray, fill with water and then you have little lemon and/or lime ice cubes. I've managed to get as many as 78 cubes from a single lemon, and you only need 1-3 to flavour the glass. So even if a lemon costs $0.50, or whatever, it can be stretched out pretty far.
- You could clip some mint that I'm quite sure if in someone's yard near you, and put it in a big pitcher of water. That'd give your water some flavour w/o too much work.
- If you have non-poisonous sumac growing near you, you can pick the berries and make sumacade.
- The least appealing option, of course, just being to suck it up until you get used to the taste. (this is the one I mostly use, but I still think this methodology sucks ass).
- Oh yeah. You could also make large vats of unsweetened ice tea.
I make sun tea and either add some crushed mint or lemon slices and add 3 or 4 individual packs of stevia. I store this in a pitcher in the coldest part of the fridge. In order to make sure I drik enough, I do have a stainless steel water bottle to carry with me. I fill the bottle once in the morning and again at lunchtime. I make sure to have a large glass of water or tea with each meal. I find that I drink more when I have the water bottle with me and also when it is very very cold.
ReplyDeleteLime or cucumber are great in water. When I was in Africa, we were drinking filtered river water, which tastes like it sounds, and all of us practically survived off lime wedges in our nalgenes.
ReplyDeleteNalgene- why didn't I think of that... I used to carry one, back in the dark ages of high school. The big open mouth is perfect for adding other stuff, too. I'm a little too far north for free citrus. It makes me cry.
ReplyDeleteAllie- I've actually been looking out for eatable sumac, since I have a recipe (or 12) that uses is, and don't want to buy it dried from penzey's. I have more important stuff to get from them. I haven't seen any yet, but my looking hasn't been very active, and most places it would grow around here also grow venomous snakes, so... Those other ideas sound good- not the just drink it, one, but yeah... I didn't think about super thin slicing and freezing in ice- I bet that brings out extra citrus flavor, too, and being in ice means the water gets even colder... that's full of win.
sarynp- Yeah, I drink more water when there's nothing else around, or when it's easy to do- like the bottle. I've been using an empty 20oz soda bottle (cheap, lazy, light weight hiking trick), but it empties fast.
Kim- I see your African river water, and raise you an iodine tablet. After the first day trying to choke that stuff down I decided that possible nasties from water were a maybe, but dehydration was looking like a definite, and dropped the iodine. Lime (or even Gatorade powder (which I ran out of pretty fast)) would have been a great addition. Hadn't thought about cucumber, though...
It really does bring out the citrus flavour, AND keeps it cold. It's my favourite way, since you can make a single lemon or lime travel really, really far.
ReplyDeleteThis place is a lot cheaper for sumac than Penzey's (though oh how I love them): http://www.nutsonline.com/cookingbaking/herbsspices/sumac.html?utm_source=googlebase; you can get a pound for less than they charge for a quarter pound.
ooh, that link is WIN. I've bookmarked it for when I can afford to go on yum ordering spree. might have to get the sumac sooner than that, though... magic tasty goodness is good stuff.
ReplyDeleteLol. I figured you might want a cheap source for bulk things, such as sumac. Especially if you'll be making sumacade, you'll want more than a little bit of it.
ReplyDelete