Make your own vitamin water
Water is so important! You need to replace the water your body uses for things like digesting food, carrying nutrients and waste, and lubricating your joints. I aim to have at least 8-9 cups of “water” – including my morning juice or smoothie, which is full of the water found naturally in fruits and veggies.
Oh, and no - sports drinks and chock-full o’chemical waters should not be included in your daily water tally. Most of them (including the “natural” ones) contain a variety of artificial sweeteners, preservatives, artificial colors, high fructose corn syrup, refined sugar, dextrose, sucrose, sucralose, and sodium – yuck! Throw them away and make your own!
To help make plain water a bit more interesting throughout the day - I’ve been experimenting a lot lately with different combinations of fruit, veggie and herb infusions. Plus, this means I’m also getting bonus natural antioxidants, minerals and vitamins. You can use the list below to put together tons of different flavor combinations – just be sure to wash everything well, especially if you are using non-organic ingredients.
• herbs & spices •
sweet: mint, cinnamon stick, vanilla, stevia, lavender
savory: basil, thyme, rosemary, ginger, cilantro
• fruits & veggies •
sweet
& melon – watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew
& berry – strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries, raspberries
& citrus – lemon, lime, orange, tangerine, grapefruit (remove bitter skin)
& tropical – peaches, nectarines, apples, grapes, pears, mango, pineapple, banana, kiwi
savory – celery, carrot, cucumber, jalapeño pepper, sweet pepper
Add desired ingredients to the glass and lightly mash them a bit with a muddler or wooden spoon to release some of the flavors/oils. Add your water and voila! You can continue to add more water to your muddled mix throughout the day. You can also make a bigger batch of this in an airtight pitcher and keep for a few days in the refrigerator.
