For someone that gets most of his fluid content from coffee and Diet Coke, drinking more water has become a priority. Finding ways to consume more water is a lot more challenging than I had initially thought. Even when I’ve had spring water provided for free at the workplace, I still would opt for the coffee pot. And workplace coffee is truly only for the desperate.

I’ve been known to reheat hours old coffee in the microwave that had the consistency of 10-40W.

So what is it about water that makes it so difficult for me and probably a lot of others to imbibe?

Maybe it’s the taste. It really doesn’t have any unless you live in Philadelphia like I did when growing up. The highlight of any grade school field trip into Center City was always who was going to be brave enough to drink the “Philly Water”.

All kidding aside though, we don’t really need to be reminded about just how important water (H2O) is to our bodies. It’s possible to be dehydrated long before we feel thirsty. In the mean time the cells in our body are not at all pleased. Staying properly hydrated is essential for our health as well as our outward appearance. Just look at what happens to plants when you forget to water them for a few days.

For now, I think I’ve come up with a very simple way to kick some flavor into my H2O:

Fresh lemon slices.

When I was a kid I always knew it was summer when my mother would make iced tea. She would make it with real tea bags, not the instant junk, and would put some sliced lemons into the pitcher to add that extra special flavor. Even though I’d add sugar, it was the lemon that really made her iced tea special.

So I’ve begun adding a lemon slice to a big beer mug of cold water. It’s like night and day now and brings back those memories of Mom’s iced tea from so long ago.