Hi folks! I’m rather taken aback to see that it’s been over a month since I posted anything on this blog. Are you a subscriber? If not, sign up on the sidebar. How about to my other blog, Behind the Music? You can also sign up for that one on the same form, or you can follow the link and see what’s going on there first. That blog seems to be consuming a lot of my time and attention these days, but I’m still very interested in writing about food and health, so I want to make a stab at keeping both sites going.
I wrote some time ago about the importance of drinking plenty of water and want to emphasize that idea again here. How very, very boring, I know, but there it is. I said in that post that getting enough water helps fight insomnia and fatigue, and any day that I don’t make sure I’ve done that I pay the price in those two areas. But drinking water is also a way to stave off snacking. Our society is so attuned to having food around to be mindlessly eaten that sometimes it drives me crazy! My last year’s Bible study group had an awesome leader, and we all loved her, but she seemed to think that she had to have food on the table every week during our 45-minute discussion time. She’d bake items specifically for us, she’d have candy, she’d have little bags of chips or crackers. Why, why, why? This year my leader is much more restrained, but she still has a bowl of candy sitting there. I will say that in both groups hardly anyone ever ate/eats the stuff, but there’s still the acceptance of always-available-food as perfectly normal. In our homes we get into terrible habits with the bowl of popcorn in front of the TV at night and the bedtime bowl of ice cream, as well as those Costco-sized bags of chips in the pantry. Taking a drink of water accomplishes two things: you get more water (duh) and you’ve substituted a healthful substance for a bad one.
Let me put in a plug here for a certain type of water bottle that should encourage you to drink more. Look for the words “water bottle with straw” and/or “bite valve.” I use and love the Camelbak Eddy insulated water bottle with a straw and a bite valve.* I honestly don’t know why anyone makes any other type of water bottle, but this is by no means the most common one. With most of them you have to unscrew the cap and then tilt it up to drink from it. Then there’s a type for which you squeeze the bottle and drink from a spout that has to be pushed up, which seems very inefficient to me. You’ll never get out the last bit. With the straw/bite valve model you just flip up the valve and suck up the water, then flip the valve back down. You never have to unscrew anything or tilt the bottle. I kept mine in my small backpack in museums all over France last year and was able to get a drink inconspicuously whenever I wanted, since I didn’t have to take the bottle out—I’d just unzip the compartment partially and take a drink in situ, as it were. Technically there were no drinks allowed in most museums, but nobody noticed what I was doing and there was no way I could spill it, so I couldn’t see that it was a problem. It’s also insulated, making it possible most of the time for me to have ice in it without the condensation problem. I realize that I’m getting pretty granular here, but anything that helps people drink more water is good! The formation of a habit often hinges on convenience, so a water bottle that’s easy to use is going to encourage intake. Gretchen Rubin talks about chewing on a pen cap or a plastic coffee stirrer to keep herself from snacking, and she also debunks the whole “eight glasses of water a day” myth (and it is a myth), but chewing on a pen cap is a rather unsightly activity, and the water can’t help but do you good. (Yes, you can overdo the water, but that would be very difficult for a normal person. You’d have to force yourself to overdrink, causing a condition called “hyponatremia.” Here’s an article that outlines the symptoms.)
Here are two articles on how to get more water into yourself and the benefits of staying hydrated, from the same source as above:
“10 Ways Your Body Changes When You Start Drinking Enough Water”
and
“13 Genius Tricks to Guarantee You’ll Drink Enough Water”
I was very pleased to see that a benefit listed in the first article is that you’ll snack less, and that using a straw and drinking cold water is listed in the second. Honestly, I didn’t read them before I wrote this post!
Okay. Since I try to write about Big Events that I make food for and how things turn out, I’ll just say here that since my last update I’ve done a rehearsal dinner for about 50 people that involved fajitas with assorted toppings and choice of chicken or shredded beef, a big salad with two kinds of homemade salad dressing, little corn/chile/cheese muffins, and Mexican brownies or fruit for dessert. I really, really thought that I’d gotten ahead of the game with prepping items beforehand and still found myself slicing up chicken in a total frenzy as the deadline for leaving the house loomed. But all was well in the end. This past weekend we had our first concert of the season for the Cherry Creek Chorale and I made mini apple pies, mini pumpkin cheesecakes (goopy but good), the most adorable cookies in the world (using fall-themed cookie cutters) and some thrown-together-at-the-last-minute blue cheese dip. This coming weekend I’m providing the food for the women’s retreat at my church—hot drinks as people arrive, a mid-morning snack (not my idea!), and lunch. I’m doing another Mexican-themed meal, this time with enchiladas as the main dish. I’ll let you know how it all comes out!
And with that I’ll close. Go thou and drink thy water!
*Amazon Affiliate link