What do you have to drink?

It never occured to me to mention the importance of water. I know that a lot of people when starting a new way of living make drinking more water a goal. Luckily, this is something that is already a habit of mine. As soon as I get to work I'm running to the water cooler while my co-workers are running to the coffee pot. When my mom comes to visit she asks me "what do you have to drink?" the answer is always water and milk. Sometimes juice. I can't say it's always been this way, but its a lot cheaper to order water in a restaurant and its not uncommon for me to grab water throughout the day. Thirst and overeating go hand in hand with me. I've never heard other people talk about this before, but I cannot go through a meal without a drink. Its very uncomfortable to me. I remeber times (several times...er, a lot of the time) when I would eat something only to be drinking something with it. For example, if I eat something sweet I have milk or something else and I will keep eating until the milk is gone. The same with chips or other snack foods. Eating and drinking has always been pleasurable for me. This probably sounds odd, and its hard for me to explain it. But, often times when I have an urge to eat its actually my body telling me it needs water.
When you go from soda to water it really is hard to go back. I drink soda very rarely, and sometimes I like it, but for the most part thinking about what it is grosses me out a bit. Knowing that I'm drinking sugar-water or a flavored syrup drink seems pretty gross. Diet cokes are not any better. The chemicals are toxic and studies have shown that the artificial sweetners can make you want to eat more. It's always ammusing to me to see people order a very unhealthy meal with a diet drink. Maybe some people like the taste, but I really think its a taste you have to get used to. I have done this many times, thinking that I was saving myself calories or doing something "healthy" by going diet. It's sad how advertising can condition us in misleading ways.