Fitness By Alicia: What I Drink

In the post – What Do I Eat?, I mentioned that I drink about 32 ounces of water daily. I thought it would go into detail to my habits and why drinking water is so important.

I have always been a soda drinker. I would go through multiple cans of soda a day which is definitely not good for me. When I started my weight loss journey last year, I decided to switch to coke zero or cherry coke zero. I tried to cut back and drink water as well but I wasn’t drinking enough water.

In April 2012, I hit a wall with my weight loss. I just couldn’t get any more off and I knew I needed to lose more weight. I examined what I was eating and drinking. My food choices were healthy but I knew I could be better when it came to what I drank. I decided in the end of April to cut out sodas entirely.

I started drinking water daily and filling up on water which definitely helped with the weight loss. I think the first week I gave up sodas I dropped five pounds! I couldn’t believe it. But I started getting tired of drinking plain water. Plus the water in the area I live is pretty gross. When I would go out to restaurants my water options were really limited.

To make up for getting tired of drinking plain or gross water, I started using Crystal Light to add flavor to my water. I personally loved the fruit punch, raspberry lemonade, and lemonade. The packets helped me drink plenty of water and helped with the gross water when dining out.

I thought I was doing great with drinking water and there was no problem with the Crystal Light since it only has 5 calories a packet. However, I started reading Jillian Michaels’ book, Slim For Life (add link), and I realized that the Crystal Light really wasn’t that good for me.

In Jillian’s book (I plan on reviewing it once I am finished), she talks about cutting bad foods from your life including any product with artificial sweeteners. I decided to check out the ingredients in Crystal Light. Unfortunately, Crystal Light contains Aspartame an artificial sweetener that has had controversy with causing health problems. Great. I’ve been adding something to healthy water that could cause health problems definitely not something I need. Jillian also talks about artificial sugars causing belly fat. Since this is one of my major problem areas I knew I needed to cut out Crystal Light. I wasn’t sure if I could handle plain water so I started doing some research.

I discovered a fruit infusion picture. These are pretty awesome. You can cut up any type of fruit and it will help flavor you water.

I have tried lemon water and also lemon lime water but I plan on being more adventurous and trying more soon. Although I can’t bring my infused water from home when I go out to dinner I have decided to drink lemonade to stay way from the gross water and Crystal Light. So far I have noticed that I am drinking more water and avoiding the artificial sweeteners.

So how much water are you supposed to drink in a day? Every report says something different. It is pretty ridiculous. So I wasn’t sure how much I should drink. Jillian Michaels says that each person stays hydrated differently thus we all need different amounts of water. So what does that mean? Well she suggests that you drink enough water that your pee looks like lemonade. Kind of gross but pretty accurate. If you urine is darker you aren’t drinking enough water.

So what are the benefits of drinking water? Water gives us a whole host of benefits including losing weight!