Lemon and Strawberry Detox Water

I’m just starting the second week of a 30-day Complete Transformation Challenge to get healthier and lose some weight. I’ve seen a lot of these challenges lately for a variety of products and different number of days (24-day challenge, 30-day challenge, 90-day challenge, etc.) so it seems to be a big thing going on right now. A big part is eating right and drinking lots of water, and also getting appropriate rest, reducing stress, exercising, etc.

To go along with the healthy living, I’m trying to find healthier pins to test. If you’re looking for the most amazing cake for your summer potluck, please visit my cake board – there are LOTS of amazing cakes to try. Eventually I’m going to make one to celebrate something or other, but not during this challenge.

So when I saw this pin for Lemon Strawberry Detox Water, I was super excited to try it! I’ve seen a lot of these waters that are infused with all kinds of fruits, veggies, and herbs. Many sources sing the praises of lemon water first thing in the morning. It sounded good until my mouth decided it didn’t like sour as the first thing I tasted. Lemon with strawberries, however, might be just naturally sweet enough to do the trick.

 The ingredients are simple and self explanatory. Lemon. Strawberry. Water. I bought two bottles of the Voss brand water because they have a wider mouth, making it easier to put in the fruit, and because that’s what they used in the picture. (The vague “they” is being used since the pin linked to the picture. I searched for an original source, but found none.)

I prepped the fruit by washing in a vinegar-water solution from this pin (yes, two for one!) by Jo-Anna from A Pretty Life. Rather than wash them in the sink, I halved the amount and used a very large bowl. I soaked the strawberries and the meyer lemon since the rind was going into the water.

After soaking for 7-10 minutes, and stirring occasionally, I rinsed. Wow, did they turn out pretty! The picture of the dirty water didn’t turn out, but the difference was incredible  – and the amount of “stuff” that came off was surprising.

Slice the fruit, put in the bottles, top with water, and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, the water looked like this – you can see the fruit leached some of their color.

I have to admit that the first sip was still tart for first thing in the morning. I’m usually a coffee person. However a few sips in, and the strawberry flavor really came out. It was a nice blend. I drank this while working out at the gym. It was tasty, and made me feel like I had upgraded my hydration thereby making me the coolest person at the gym.

Coolest person at the gym aside, here are the Pintesting results for both tests.

Lemon and Strawberry Detox Water Overall results: 4.55 Pins

Accuracy: The infused water was flavorful, and the strawberries helped balance the lemon. I cannot accurately verify the claims to be beneficial to digestion, and clear and healthy skin. I was hydrated afterwards, and my digestion worked just fine (enough said). 5 Pins

Difficulty: The process is super simple. Slice the fruit, put in the bottles, cover with water. Getting the fruit into the bottle was much easier than getting it out of the bottle. A wide-mouthed bottle is necessary to make this work; nothing smaller than the Voss if you’re using slices rather than wedges (think lime in a Corona bottle). 5 Pins

Time: If including the wash time, which we should, the prep work took about 15 minutes. Waiting overnight took all night long. 3 Pins

Cost: Because the fruit was going to be infusing the water with the skins on, I chose to go organic so as not to drink a bunch of pesticides. This is highly recommended and worth the added cost. Even so, the total cost of the bottled water and all fruit was $7.00. That’s $3.50 per bottle and the bottles are being re-used. Buying a brand name electrolyte beverage would be cheaper, but who knows what’s in those? For the value of knowing what’s in your water, I’m giving this 4 Pins.

Practicality: This took very little time to prep, was tasty and natural, made me look beyond cool at the gym, and when I dumped the fruit it made the garbage disposal smell great. 5 Pins

DIY Fruit & Veggie Wash Overall Results: 5.0 Pins

Accuracy: What a great way to get your fruits and veggies clean! This worked really well, and there was no vinegary smell – even before I rinsed them. 5 Pins

Difficulty: There was nothing to this. I preferred to use a large bowl rather than my sink, so I halved the vinegar. Still – float your fruits and veggies, stirring occasionally, for roughly 10 minutes. Done. Easy Peasy! 5 Pins

Time: 10 minutes… with very little work. 5 Pins

Cost: One-half (1/2) cup of white vinegar and tap water comes to roughly 25 cents. That’s WAY cheaper than the fancy washes that you can buy in the store. 5 Pins

Practicality: I’m going to use this when I get my grocery shopping done. Dump everything in and clean it at once. Not only will that get everything clean right off the bat, but it should give me more incentive to get a lot of prepping done ahead of time. (Should being the key word…) 5 Pins