Okay - this is about water consumption. I thought I drank a lot of water but at both my pre and post evaluation at boot camp, it said I was dehydrated. Shoot, I drink about 96 oz of water a day. Our instructor said I should drink:
half my body weight in ounces of water 155/2 = 77.5 oz
If I drink coffee (or any caffeine drink), I have to drink the same amount of water as I take in of the caffeine product.
I have two lg cups of coffee in the morning = 24 oz.
I have two 12 oz diet cokes a day = 24 oz.

So, I really need to drink abou 125 oz of water each day, which equals 15.6 cups a day, almost TWICE what is recommended on our plan. Normally I would have thought this was a bunch of hooey, but I am always thirsty, skin is dry and some machine said I was dehydrated......so, next week my goal will be to drink a gallon of water a day and see how I feel. If nothing else, it should make me feel so full, maybe I can control my eating a little bit better!

Aack, please be careful...I don't want you to die from it!!

Joni - I hope you have a laptop, otherwise we will not hear from you at all next week .... you'll be in the b-room!

When I was in WW we were told that you should drink 1/2 your weight in oz of water (just like you were told) and if we had coffee, like 2 cups you should have that much more water.

very interesting........so if i have my 96 oz (half my weight), plus the two pots of coffee a day that I drink.......um....that's another 96 oz, plus sometimes I'll have a diet cherry pepsi.......so add another 12 oz......so that's 108.........yeah, about a gallon..........HOLY S***. Wouldn't that throw your electolyte balance off? I would think you would have to up your sodium and postassium intake if you were going to do all that. Well, heck, now I am going to have to check into this. Way to make me have to think, Joni.

Joni,

I easily put back down a gallon of water a day. I am also not perpetually peeing. A gallon a day will not cause harm as long as you're still getting in the balance of electrolytes with other things. When I used to play camp supervisor, I put back a gallon and half while being outside over the 8 hours, I balanced it out by munching on saltines and pretzles not to lead to sodium deprivation.

I went to college with Jim McBride who was the DC police officer who died of water intoxication, he was drinking 6 (yes SIX) gallons of water a day when he collapsed. It was a case of extremes, a normal person does not even come to drinking that much water daily!

I drink a gallon of water everyday. I've done it since I started the plan, and yep, I spend more time with my pants down than I do with them up LOL It definitely keeps me feeling full and only time it makes me feel bad is if I drink it too fast, makes my stomach feel upset.

Joni- Thanks for posting this. I have been getting all of my water in, yet I am always feeling dry mouthed, dry eyed, and dry skinned. I am going to up the water too, and see what happens.

Nicole - hey, don't shoot the messenger!! LOL. Serious note, though.....TWO pots of coffee!! And something tells me this is the real stuff (full leaded/caffeine). I think you need to cut back a tad. And if my math is right, you need to drink 204 oz of water or a MERE 25 cups of water a day. Now that sounds like a lot!

Megan (Marzbe)....I'll definitely make a point of getting my morton salt in. The thing with me is the water does run through me.....I'm always going. I don't think I'll ever drown myself.

Katie - I figure I can't hurt myself too badly with water, so I'm going to try and put a gallon jug on my desk this coming week and put down one a day. I'm really not doing this because I think it will help the weight loss; I want to do this so my body works right. If a plant doesn't get the right amount of water, it withers up and may eventually die. I want my cells and inerds (all the body parts, organs, etc.inside my body) to get what they need so they continue to work right for a long, long time.

I know.......I am a coffee slut. It is leaded......and I LOVE IT!!! I do not put cream and sugar in it.....and it is one more habit I get to break soon. It's not always two pots a day.......but it is close, and it is WAY too much. I have not yet done any homework on the water thing, but I fullly plan to. I really do think our bodies are smart though....and if you are feeling thirsty......drink up. If it starts to make you uncomfortable, well, then, chills. I also recall what my Nutrition professor lived by........"everything in moderation." I think it is a good rule. It is also important to consider the water content in the foods you eat. Ok, enough until I do some reading.....but yeah, you busted me on the coffee. I am such an addict.......former smoker, food, coffee, sex (well, sometimes now LOL), etc. One thing at a time, right?
XOXO

You drink you coffee black? I love my coffee, but no way could I stand it black.

I actually successfully quit my morning stop at 7-11 followed by the Starbucks Venti (plus an extra shot or two of espresso habit ), then the severl cans of Diet Mountain Dew in the afternoon, in the first few weeks of being on program. Needless to say, my co-worker that started in the first week of my detox really believed I was a cranky, conceited, moody ***** for the first month he knew me. Now he knows I'm just crazy !

What I found was if I substituted by starting the day with a glass of water infused with an Emergen-C packet I actually have more energy. It's amazing what tricks you learn in the beauty magazines. Maybe that's why I'm still downing massive amounts of water, my body misses all that caffinated fluid!

talk about a coffee addict...i work at starbucks. that's about as bad as you can get!

Ooooh, that is tough. I have found some good ways to have coffee. I love mine with sugar free Kaluah syrup and fat free half and half.

lucky for me i love my coffee black. as for my espresso, i love it with only one pump of sugar free vanilla syrup and a splash of nonfat milk...the bitter the better for me!
i'm such an addict i bought an espresso machine that was as much as a small house payment. yeah. i'm an addict. hardcore.