Hi Emmey - am just catching up with my stalking after my hols - you sound like you are very much in the 'zone' at the mo - good on you!!
With drinking water - how I understand it anyway (mainly from watching the lifestyle channel and other crappy tv), when you are not a big drinker, your body holds on to as much as it can, cos it thinks you are in a drought situation, a bit like it holds onto food when you dont eat enough. If you are drinking normally your body uses the liquids to flush your body through so you do not hold onto the fluid weight for very long, hence not drinking is counter-productive. Water is the best thing to drink with NAS squash a close second, but all fluids count including the water in soup. Obviously alcoholic drinks dont and I am still fighting my ongoing battle with the pepsi max demon, cos caffine and aspartamine are not such a good thing in the quantities I was having!!!
take care xxx