ALL of the Drinks

In case you haven't noticed I take my hydration very seriously. Like everyone is kind of creeped out by my massive yeti water bottle I carry around with me EVERYWHERE. I am obsessed with water and am especially thirsty out here in Colorado. It's so dry I legit feel like Spongebob visiting Sandy without his space helmet of water.

Everyone who moves from high humidity to Colorado=Spongebob here.

Not a great feeling or look as you can see. So I always wake up with hot water with lemon and bring about 3-5 different drinks with me to work. Always my ride or die massive yeti water bottle, a large thermos of tea, a green juice or smoothie and then whatever other concoction du jour I come up with sometimes it's a spicy cayenne/ACV drink, an extra hydrating drink infused with chia seeds or lately it's been one of the following: 

• Kombucha
• Drinking Vinegar
• Kvass 

Fermented drink fun. Drinking Vinegars, Kombucha and Kvass

Kombucha: The most widely known of these three different types of drinks. Kombucha has taken over grocery store shelves, even Costco. This drink is all the rage because of the healing probiotic strains found in it. Kombucha is a fermented tea, not to the point where you can get drunk off of it (it does contain <1%-2% alcohol max). Many people make their own kombucha including us when we lived in California. All you need is a good black or green tea, sugar to feed it and the SCOBY or "symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast" this is the "mother" that you see at the bottom of your apple cider vinegar or at the bottom of your kombucha drink. This is where all the good probiotic bacteria comes from. Kombucha is effervescent and can be uplifting. Benefits of drinking kombucha include: 

• improved digestion
• mental clarity 
• mood stability 
• improved healthy gut bacteria 
• increased energy 
• can reduce candida overgrowth (unhealthy yeast fed off of sugars) 

Support your local kombucha makers and find a kombucha tap room, local kombucha at a farmer's market near you or a friend (craigslist) with a SCOBY and make your own. 

Drinking Vinegars. Ever since apple cider vinegar became the new black health enthusiasts including myself have been chugging it like there's a limited supply. The truth is it's extremely harsh on the teeth, stomach, esophagus etc. not to mention when you first start taking shooters of this it tastes, smells, feels horrible going down. SO Bragg's apple cider vinegar and other companies came up with the brilliant idea to water the shots of vinegar down and make it actually taste good to sip on while reaping the benefits of the vinegars. Drinking vinegars include probiotics from the vinegar (again the "mother") which helps once again with gut health. 

• The acetic acid helps to improve nutrient absorption
• Improved gut health and digestion
• Balances blood sugar 
• Acetic acid suppresses appetite and increases metabolism 
• Balances your internal pH 

My favorite and the best brand in my opinion is Bragg's. Make sure it's unfiltered, raw and unpasteurized. 

KVASS: whaaaaaa??? This is more prevalent internationally I saw a lot of Kvass in Australia and Europe. It is a Slavic/Baltic drink that is traditionally made from rye bread and is a fermented drink that gets your gut bacteria happy and moving. I have only had beet kvass and it is delicious and very hydrating. Kvass restores the balance of electrolytes in the body naturally and without preservatives and the high sugar content of typical sports recovery drinks. Always use organic beets when eating/juicing/kvassing them. There are a ton of GMO beets on the marketplace and a large majority of processed sugar on shelves are made from GMO beets.

 With the beets added to the  kvass game you reap the ample benefits of the beets mixed with the lacto-fermentation of the traditional kvass drink leaving you with: 

• immune boosting from the hight amounts of vitamin C
• liver detoxification 
• improved gut health 
• increased energy 
• nitrates in beets convert to nitric oxide in the body improving heart health 
• inflammation fighting power 

Learn how to make your own beet kvass here and remember it's always beets! 

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw2WsXIgO6A&w=854&h=480]

Hydration=Healthy Happy :D