Hi Everyone!
All this talk of water has gotten me drinking more water too (but still not near enough -- I'll have to keep working on that!
)
Sandy, you're quite welcome; I'm so glad to be of help! I think you're right -- coffee and regular teas are diuretics and dehydrate the system, so they can't really be counted as a water source (and I was also reading, regarding the calcium again, that coffee actually inhibits calcium absorbtion too
). And yes, I think you're right; herbal teas do count as water intake. In that case, now that I think about it, I'm doing better on the water-drinking than I thought -- About a month or so ago, I replaced all diet soda in my diet with cups of herbal tea, and I'm having a lot less headaches than I used to.
I've read that you have to do something 21 times to make it a habit, or three weeks (I guess that'd be 21 days, come to think of it!). I've read about studies on organizational change showing that anytime there's a reorganization, reassignment of duties, major procedural change, etc., in an organization, it takes people 3 weeks to make/adjust to the changes return back to their original productivity levels. So that's a good motivation to just keep on sticking with things, even if change isn't apparent at first.
Ron and I have slowly been improving our eating habits over time. We're not vegetarians, but we do eat a fair amount of vegetables, and fish probably 80% of the time now, chicken the other 20%. I'd like to steer it more and more in a vegetarian direction, though. I even started reading about raw-food diets lately, which sound immensely healthy, but they do require some advance planning and special equipment, like a food dehydrator, if one plans to take their diet far enough in that direction.
Gypsie, it's not really industriousness on my part, it's just the fact that I'm by nature almost unavoidably extremely detail-oriented. (I've got a lot of "mouse medicine," to quote the Jamie Sams "Medicine Cards" deck of Native American animal totems -- a tendency toward examining and gnawing away on every single little thing. It can sometimes be a really useful trait, but at other times I can drive myself crazy with it!
)
Yes, I agree, this thread does have a cyclic nature like the seasons, with bursts of great activity at times. I love that about it too!
Petra, Hmm, 8 stone, that's 112 pounds (my, you must be slender and petite!). So you'd need to drink 56 oz. of water, which works out, I think, to 3.5 pints, or 7 cups (if you use that measurement), of water per day.
Wow, it makes sense that it might be a bit of a shock to the system, and require a little adjustment phase, coming back from such a long trip in such a different climate -- that's great that Phil's reacclimating and you two are getting the time to reconnect and get synched back up together in the same environment.
Your dinner plans sound excellent! Mmm, I love pesto and pine nuts!
Hi
Mo! How to make water more enjoyable to drink, that's a great question -- and if we come up with enough interesting answers, it'll be a great help to us all! I've noticed I like water more when it's chilled and/or has ice cubes in it. Also, I've read about people squeezing a bit of lemon or other citrus juice into water, and/or floating a slice of lemon or lime on top, though I've never made the effort to do it myself. Perhaps I'll have to start, though! Or maybe adding a little rose water or something like that?
Also, I wouldn't try this without learning more about it first, but maybe one could flavor a large quantity of water with a drop of an essential oil? Some herbalists say never to ingest essential oils, while others include "cooking with essential oils" sections in their books or write whole essential-oil cookbooks (I'm interested in getting one one of these days!).
Hi
Sarah! Good to see you back on this thread! Yes, I love the taste of rosehip in tea too -- I just bought this new tea the other day called "Love Tea," with rose buds and a whole bunch of other pleasant herbs in it, and it really does taste lovely!
Well, it's getting late here, so I'd better go get some sleep!
Love, Blessings, and Goodnight to You All
,
Debbie
Petra, I'd be "living on the loo" too at first if I did! I used to have a friend who was a college basketball player, and she claimed that once your body gets used to drinking lots of water all the time, you no longer have that problem. But I've never been eager to go through that interim adjustment phase! 
-- I googled "stone" as a unit of measurement and found out it's a British term for the weight of people and animals. One stone is equal to 6.35029 kg or 14 pounds. So 9 stone is 126 pounds, which, it just so happens, is really close to my example of 130 pounds that I used earlier!
With the hot flushes and the heat I've been like a bear with a sore head..
) I think I need a personal trainer or a drill seargent or something!) I am "will powerless!"
Anyhoo.. what do you suggest... 2 drops per gallon or something like that?