All Workouts today and tomorrow have been cancelled. We appreciate your flexibility and apologize for any inconvenience. Please check back to see when workouts resume.

From my Operation Hydration post you know that you have to drink a minimum of half your bodyweight in ounces of water to stay hydrated.  Add workouts and warm weather and you should be drinking even more.  Easier said than done right?  Most Intrepids I talk to understand that water is important, heck most of you have gotten into the habit of toting around your own water bottle, but I bet just about all of us aren’t as diligent about our hydration as we are about making it in to workout, eating clean, or even stretching.  A common complaint is that plain ol’ water is boring, and since you’ve wisely cut out soda, fruit juices, and dairy (most of you anyways) your options may seem pretty limited.  Marcus posted on some popular water alternatives and why you shouldn’t believe the hype behind them, but I’d like to touch on another alternative:  carbonated water (aka sparkling water).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no stranger to carbonated water, but without without tequila and lime juice something was missing.  That something was flavor.  That’s why I was excited when Celina and Patrick introduced us to LaCroix Sparkling Water.  The beauty of LaCroix Sparkling Water is that the water has no added sodium or sweetners, and they offer a variety of flavors as you can see in the photo at the top of today’s post and learn more about on their site.  LaCroix water is filtered, exposed to ultraviolet light and ozonated before adding fruit essences and carbonation. Another plus is that the water comes In aluminum cans in most stores and I’ve also read glass bottles are provided in some locations.  I try and minimize my exposure to BPA and other chemicals from plastic that can leach into acidic liquids, therefore I appreciate LaCroix not using plastic bottling like most other drinking water companies.  Not to mention aluminum being much easier to recycle than plastic.

Once upon a time Whole Foods was the only market in the area where we could find all flavors of LaCroix, but CostCo now carries large packages that include the “Pure” or unflavored, Lemon, and Lime flavors.  Online forums have mentioned also finding LaCroix at Target and local supermarkets as well, but I have not been able to verify one way or the other so check for yourself next time your at the market.  Ruth and I really like the Grapefruit, Lemon, and Lime flavors oursevles, but see which you prefer.

Is your budget limited or would you rather experiment making your own carbonated water?  Gadgets to make your own carbonated water like the Soda Stream are becoming more popular and accessible and can be found in many household goods sections of stores. The beauty of the Soda Stream is that it’s very easy to set up and use, and you won’t be using the soda syrups so the only maintenance cost is refilling or replacing your CO2 canister which seems to last a rather long time.  Ruth and I have experimented making our own flavors like orange, lemon-lime, and grapefruit and they turn out really well.  Just a word of caution though to add the fruit juices after the carbonation process to avoid a mess.

According to eHow.com, the harmful effects of drinking carbonated water are minimal in my opinion.  Hiccups and aggravated Irritable Bowel Syndrome are the most likely, so nothing too serious.

WOD 07.23.12

GYM CLOSED