Living the Good Life: A Manifesto, Part 1

[mme_furiosa]

A while back, I insinuated to elva_undine  that I would try to motivate her to get healthier. And so, I present you with my simple rules for living the good life...

The Food Issue: You are what you eat (or for the systems folks: GIGO= Garbage in, garbage out)

Comments

[mme_furiosa]

Of course I agree with you about the water thing. Sadly, a disturbing number of people I have known claim to dislike water. I don't know how this is possible, of course, but for those people juice or tea is a reasonable alternative. I, myself, hate bottled juice. It's too sweet. If I drink it, I dilute the hell out of it first. Wine is packed with antioxidants and that exciting new compound- resveritrol, that is said to be good for something or other important. Oh, right, anti-aging. That said, I simply LOVE red wine. It's my vice. As Thomas Jefferson said, "Wine is proof that God loves us." I'm paraphrasing.

And water? I'm sort of with you on this one, too. I grew up drinking RO water, which we always kept in a jug in the kitchen. It was referred to as "good water." My elementary school friends probably thought I was such a snob when I asked them where they kept their "good water," not realizing that most folks just drank from the tap. I hate tap water, and the water in Indiana is as bad as it gets. It usually smells like a swimming pool.

The Brita filter makes it palatable, and for me, that is what matters. But single serving drinking water in bottles? What a horrific waste!

[purdypiedad]

Diluted juice is a good alternative, and most people can adjust to it very easily if they just add a little more water with each glass. I'm with you. I think juice is gross. We use it as a sweetener for recipes. I use 1:1 white grape juice and water when I make oatmeal. The fructose gives it a wonderful flavor and then I don't have to add any processed sugar. Herbal and green teas are a great alternative. A favorite summer drink of mine is peppermint or spearmint iced tea. They both grow like weeds, so it's a great addition to the lazy man's garden. Lemon balm or lemon verbena also make great summer teas.

I do like the occasional glass of wine, but I'm afraid the only wine that I really loved was a freaking $60-a-bottle variety. Someone else bought it. It was amazing. I'll probably never have wine like that again as I could NEVER justify that kind of expenditure on a drink. *g*

We are currently on well water, but it made my daughter just as sick as tap water, so I'm assuming that pesticides from the surrounding orchards have leached into the ground water. Again, we tried the Brita thing, but it wasn't sufficient. We can't even cook with our water without my daughter getting sick, so RO water is really our only option. Our municipal water at our old house was... well, we felt fortunate if it smelled like a swimming pool. Half the time it smelled like a toilet. Yum.

[belenen]

When you're addicted to sugar as most of Americans are, the lack of it in a drink is startling and therefore 'gross.' I used to only be able to drink it if I mixed it about half-n-half with my parents' daily gallon of sweet tea -- when I started living on my own I drank water because it was the easiest and cheapest solution, and once I got used to it, soda and heavily-sweetened fruit/tea drinks became gross to me. It's all what you're accustomed to, I guess!