alternative to water....

I  really wish there were more option to calorie free drinks without aspartame that taste good

sometimes i'm thirsty but just do not want water

for a while i was addicted to diet coke and would have 2 or 3 cans a day at least... but all of a sudden out of nowhere i can not handle any aspartame, in anything, soda, yogurt, coffee... i just can't stomach it

which is actually a good thing and i'm happy about it.

I guess tea is a good one, but it's  a hot drink which isn't something i can chug when i'm thirsty

also, iced tea is good but unsweetened does not taste good to me, maybe if i started drinking it more i could get used to it

i always crave either fruit juice of ice cold soda

I've started making a ginger citrus infusion which is quite good.  Take a glass tea pot, slice ginger root into it, slice an orange or lemon or lime, set it on to boil.  You can drink it hot or refrigerate or even freeze it for a later time.  Just pour out the water and then add more plain water to make a new batch.

actually i've tried that before

it has the same affect as water for me

it's good, but it wouldn't cut it as an alternative

What about something like Propel, SoBe Life Water, Aquafina FlavorSplash or other flavored waters? They aren't quite as boring and they don't have too many added calories.

You could try sparkling water?

I only really like water and wine (like jesus! haha), and I drink a lot of coffee and tea and green tea (but I like it without milk or sugar, so that's essentially calorie-free too) but sometimes when my caffeine intake seems to be getting a bit high I drink hot water with a slice of lemon in.

Also I like to have smoothies and fruit juices occasionally as they are nice and healthy - I tend to drink water before having them though, so I can enjoy them for their taste rather than use them just becuase I'm thirsty.

i decided sometime ago that if i was thirstly and did not want water then I was not realy thirsty but fancied some oral gratification. And it worked. I know that when i fancy a cup of tea coffee wine or beer it has nothing to do with thirst-- just the desire for a treat.

so giving up diet coke, flavour drinks etc became like giving up smoking.

now sometimes when i recognise genuine thirst a cup of plain tap water tastes realy good.

it is a myth that we need to drink so much water--one that the bottled water companies love to promote. The original goverment sponsered report that said how much water we need each day carried on to say that the normal person eating a balanced diet including fruit and vegetables got all the water they needed from their food.

Original Post by grannydrums:

i decided sometime ago that if i was thirstly and did not want water then I was not realy thirsty but fancied some oral gratification. And it worked. I know that when i fancy a cup of tea coffee wine or beer it has nothing to do with thirst-- just the desire for a treat.

so giving up diet coke, flavour drinks etc became like giving up smoking.

now sometimes when i recognise genuine thirst a cup of plain tap water tastes realy good.

it is a myth that we need to drink so much water--one that the bottled water companies love to promote. The original goverment sponsered report that said how much water we need each day carried on to say that the normal person eating a balanced diet including fruit and vegetables got all the water they needed from their food.

That is so true.  harder to quit than smoking imo!

check out http://www.zevia.com./

it obviously isn't found at a tremendous amount of places but you can purchase online too... tons of flavors (cola, orange, root beer, ginger ale etc) and no aspartame!

Original Post by atlantic77:

check out http://www.zevia.com./

it obviously isn't found at a tremendous amount of places but you can purchase online too... tons of flavors (cola, orange, root beer, ginger ale etc) and no aspartame!

 Also....  4C makes new powdered drink mixes called Totally Light 2 Go that are sweetened with Splenda not aspartame. And some of the newer prepared Crystal Light are sweetened with Splenda and not aspartame as well.

I've never been a water drinker.  Since I gave up Cola back in May, I drink Crystal Light exclusively.  Occasionally, in the morning I'll have a cup of hot tea, sweetened with Splenda.

I keep a mint plant in my kitchen.  A few leaves of fresh mint, a slice of lime and a slice of lemon in my water bottle every morning.  I just keep refilling it as the day goes on.  It's sweet and fruity without anything weird like splenda or aspartame.

If you like tea, but don't like unsweetened iced tea, try making some but adding a bit of honey!  Yes, this does up the calories a tad, but you can keep it low, and it's not artificial!

You could add a splash of real fruit juice to a bottle of water to give it some flavor yet reduce the amount of calories as compared to drinking just straight juice.

Other than that or the above suggestions, it's just mind over matter.  Why is it that you dislike water so much?  It doesn't taste bad.  It doesn't have a taste. 

Original Post by jenningermany:

 It doesn't taste bad.  It doesn't have a taste. 

 Actually, this has me thinking... thin_girl, where do you live?  It could be the local water, if it is a taste thing.  I hated drinking water in Wisconsin, as well as Nevada (which was the WORST for me).  Though I don't mind Nebraska or Illinois water in the least.  I lived in a small town for awhile that had well water and it was disgusting.  I would rarely drink water for the 5 months I lived there.

I agree with suki.  I could *not* drink plain tap water when I lived in Calgary; it tasted like bleach for most of the year.  Since I was a poor student and bottled water was not in the budget, I added flavour to the water to mask that.  (Using a filter helped but did not totally take away the bleach flavour.)

Now that I've moved to another city and have tap water I can drink, I enjoy water again.

Original Post by susiecue:

I agree with suki.  I could *not* drink plain tap water when I lived in Calgary; it tasted like bleach for most of the year.  Since I was a poor student and bottled water was not in the budget, I added flavour to the water to mask that.  (Using a filter helped but did not totally take away the bleach flavour.)

Now that I've moved to another city and have tap water I can drink, I enjoy water again.

 

I've recently moved from Victoria, BC to a smaller town and I've noticed here has the same problem.  When I first bathed my daughter at my MIL's house, I asked her "did you just clean your bathtub?"... the water here is HEAVILY chlorinated... for whatever reason.  That being said, not all filters remove chlorine.  I can only handle the tap water when I'm really really thirsty.

An expensive undersink filter was our solution.  It was rough paying upfront, but in the end, it's a LOT cheaper than bottled water and tasted a heck of a lot better than straight from the tap.

If I'm not too lazy, I like water with a few slices of cucumber - keep it in the fridge.  It has a nice, light & refreshing taste. You can add some orange and/or lemon slices and/or mint leaves if you want. My mom likes it with all of those, but I think I prefer just the cucumber.

I also like sparkling water mixed with a tiny bit of fruit juice - you can go with unsweetened cranberry juice for very low calories. Trader Joe's brand has some for 60 calories/cup, and it's very strong & tart, so 2oz juice + 8oz sparkling water works for me - that's a 10oz beverage for 15 calories, which is basically the same as crystal light. It's pretty tart though. Of course, you can sweeten w/ splenda or stevia if you tolerate/like those sweeteners.  The sparkling water & juice works with other juices as well, but I find that I need more juice, and the juices are higher calorie - still, even at a half/half ratio, it has less calories than straight-up juice, and I like it better - way more of a treat :)