Domestic Geek

In response to "Are you drinking enough water?", a lot of people say yes, I drink Gatorade (or SoBe or the like). The fact is, these types of drinks are being misused. Sports drinks like Gatorade are intended to replace nutrients lost during exercise (meaning you should exercise first). "Health" drinks like SoBe worry me. Quite frankly, the fact that most of them have some type of caffeine and/or manufactured sweeteners such as High Fructose Corn Syrup make them far from healthy. Energy drinks are just bad for you. I'm running across more and more people using them not as an occasional pick-me-up, but as a crutch to overcome lack of sleep and poor eating habits.

Let's start this off by talking about water. I know very few people who actually get enough liquids during the day and when they do, it's usually a sugar and/or caffeinated (and possibly artificial chemical) laden beverage.

The great debate raging now is whether you should be drinking tap or bottled. We use tap here at home that's been run through a Pur water filtration pitcher.

There are many important health benefits of drinking water. First, it aids in weight loss. The body that is not getting enough water will retain fluids. We need to flush fluids to get rid of excess stuff in our systems. The body also needs water or muscles to function correctly and to metabolize food.

Of course the experts all disagree as to how much you should be drinking a day. There's the standard 8 (8 oz.) glasses a day. This is probably meant to be a guide more than anything. Some people tell you to drink only when you're thirsty and then others telling you that if you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated. I'm no expert, so I don't know the answer, but you do need to get a good intake of water into your diet to live a healthier life.

Well, the pamphlet I was sent home with from the dentist said I might bruise and boy, did I ever! I woke up in horrible pain this morning, went and looked in the mirror and my jawline is all black and blue. Looks like somebody punched me good. I know this is part of the healing phase, but I looked like an abused woman. I hope nobody at work thinks Marcus hits me or anything.

I'm trying to be good and not mess with the wound with my tongue. I definitely did better with that today than I did yesterday. I'm getting impatient for it to heal, though, because I'm tired of soft foods already. I mean, I'm glad that I can eat, but I'm craving bread or something.

Laura had something posted on her blog today about how Chipotle is giving away free food if you donate food for the Food Bank of the Rockies. Wah, I can't chew a burrito right now!

Well, the surgery went really well. I think the dentist was surprised that they came out as easily as they did. It was only in the office a grand total of 30 minutes. I didn't even get woozy either mdash; just numb.

So, I've got generic Percocet and Vicodin and antibiotics and something for the swelling and my kitchen counter is looking like a pharmacy. I'm holding off on the pain meds to see if I really need them. I didn't the last time I had teeth out. I'm not sure about taking the antibiotics, though. I try not to take stuff I don't need and antibiotics always bring on a yeast infection. Plus, taking unneeded drugs causes resistance. I'll see how I feel tomorrow and make a decision then. I did have a wisdom tooth out once that infected and I felt like total crap and don't really want to go through that again. Danged choices.

On that note, I'm starting to ramble, so I think I'm going to go surf in bed until I drift off into (hopefully) the first pain-free sleep I've had in weeks.

Once I'm over my oral surgery, I am getting serious about getting fit. One major problem I have is that I've never been big into calorie counting, so I really have no idea how many calories I'm consuming when I eat. Today I joined a totally free site called MyFitnessPal.com that I am hoping will help educate me as to the caloric and nutritional content of the foods I'm eating and ultimately allow me to make better choices.

In addition to the free calorie counter, the site offers an online food journal, an exercise log, a way to monitor your progress and a forum. There is also a way to look up how many calories a particular activity burns. That was really cool.

Once I start using the calorie counter and all the other tools available through the site, I'll be one step closer to realizing my goal of a healthy, trim body.

This is a sponsored post.