Catch-19

We bought a car recently. A new 2010 Toyota Venza. We really didn’t plan on doing that, but my venerable and ancient Ford Explorer finally gave up the ghost and we had to replace it with something and this is what we got. Great car, BTW.

But one of the results is that we have much less disposable income. This has actually tunred out to be a good thing. We’ve chopped out a lot of expenses that should have been canceled ages ago, we’ve stopped going out to eat except for twice a week, and because we’re cooking most days, out diet has improved dramatically.

But we are still looking for ways to cut costs. After a few weeks of keeping strict eye on what we spend, it became clear that we spent a lot on bottled sparkling water. Specifically Poland Springs Plain and Poland Springs Lime. Yum. But at $1.40 a liter, and me drinking more than 1.5 liters a day, it was getting to be too much. The solution was either drink plain filtered water (BOO!) or find something cheaper. So I found the Sodastream!

And so far so good! The unit is not high end, made of plastic mostly. But I got the cheapest one and expected as much. That said, it doesn’t feel cheap or flimsy. The bottles that come with the unit screw in securely and fairly easily. The design isn’t perfect and can be a bit difficult to screw in with one hand while holding the lever with the other, but you get the hang of it quickly.

The carbonation is perfect, you can make it as fizzy or flat as you want. The instruction say 3 pushes for a standard level of carbonation, but I’ve found I need 5. That means my cost per liter is a little higher, but still under 50 cents. And the fizz lasts. I drink what I make fairly fast, so I can’t say how long it holds it’s fizz, but certainly it has held for 24 hours with very little difference.

The flavor of the water is exactly what I was looking for, and Rowen says the lemon lime flavor was the equal of sprite or 7up. I felt the lemon lime wasn’t quite as good, but still quite delicious. But I don’t plan on drinking sodas from it anyway, just the very lightly flavored waters. And the water flavors are great so far. And I love that I can put as much as I want. I prefer a very lightly flavor, and so the flavors last longer. I haven’t tried any of the other soda flavors, but I’ll looking forward to it.

The biggest drawback was that I needed a few extra bottles. It comes with a pair of 1 liter bottles and I just ordered another pair.

It’s really a success for us. In just over a week it’s entered into heavy daily use.

The weight loss has slowed down a bit, but I expected that. It’s not possible to lose almost a pound a day and stay healthy. I’m currently at 260 and I suspect I wont break 255 for maybe 10 days. The new goal is 230 by my birthday, July 8.

But what’s been surprising is the things that have come with the weight loss. An obvious one but one I didn’t think of is no more pain in my ankles. I wasn’t exactly hobbling, but they were giving me some trouble. Now that’s gone. Next is my skin. I have always had bad skin, I still have bad skin, I will always have bad skin. But! not as bad. I attribute that more to my improved diet than the weight. Also, I think my brain is working better. I feel like my memory is sharper, and my thinking clearer. That might just be the result of having a better outlook in general, but my gut says that it’s in part due to better health. And the TMI portion of this post: my bowels are more regular, and I fart much less.

Glad you kept reading?