Water is my friend. Water is my friend. Water is my friend. This is what I have to remind myself every time I go get some boring old water to drink. Which happens to be every day. (You know… because if you don’t drink water you’ll die n’ stuff..)

I’m not a big water drinker. I never have been. But when the big Diabetes Diagnosis came, I suddenly had very little choice in the matter.

For a while (over a year actually) I drank low-carb flavored bottled water. Unfortunately splenda does a number on my stomach. It took me a long time to realize all the stomach “issues” I was having was a result of my flavored bottled water addiction. (I would drink 4-5 a day and thought the issues I was having was a side effect of having my gall bladder removed). It wasn’t until this past year and I lost my job (and therefore stopped buying the flavored stuff) that these issue cleared up. Put two and two together.. you get the idea. I can drink it occasionally without too much of an issue. But lets just say I’m much happier not running to the bathroom an extra 4-5 times a day.

A year and a half ago we bought a new refrigerator that came with a filtered water dispenser. Because of this I’ve become a water snob. It’s bad enough that I don’t like water… Now I refuse to drink tap water. I about gag if it’s not filtered. Our kids have gotten used to it as well and they won’t drink tap water either. Unfortunately the reservoir on our fridge doesn’t hold enough cold water to supply a family of six — sometimes nine. (Which is fine if you don’t mind water that’s out-of-the-tap cold rather than refrigerated cold, which I do.) So I try to keep a bottle of water (filtered of course) in the fridge at all times. This is handy when we got out of the house because I can just grab the bottle and go. The downside is if we’re gone a long time I have to either bring multiple bottles of water, purchase more at the store (expensive), or… *gag* drink tap water. I’d rather go without if the latter is the case.

This week I was introduced to a new type of water bottle filter: A water bottle that filters itself. You fill it up with tap water then screw on the cap with the filter attached. As you drink the water is filtered.

I was skeptical as I tested it out. It was physically hard for me to fill up the bottle from the kitchen sink and purposely drink it. But I was shocked. This thing is pure genius. I did a taste test and filled a cup with the tap water and took a sip. Yuck. Then I drank from my new water bottle. It was perfect.

I can have filtered water wherever I go while the filter removes chlorine, the bad taste of tap water and significant proportions of heavy metals including lead, mercury, and copper. The filter is supposed to last 200 refills, or 60-90 days. The replacement filters are pretty inexpensive at $12.95 for two. This is far far cheaper than I was spending on the flavored and regular bottled water… I will let you know how I feel about it when it’s time to replace the filter, but so far I’m loving it!