Here Are Our Best Tips To Drink More Water!
If you’re wondering how to drink more water when you don’t like it – you are not alone! Don’t think you are unable to drink water – because our bodies are mostly water. There aren’t exact methods on how to drink water correctly – you need to do what is right for you and your body!
We have even come a long way on our “drinking more water” journey with a little bit of time and some helpful tips. We’ve gone from sometimes drinking NO water during the day to drinking basically only water!
So, whether you’re at school, at the office, in the car, or elsewhere – there are many ways to drink more water regularly and actually enjoy it. There are lots of great apps to help you drink more water – which we will cover below. If you’re ready, here are 5 tips that have helped us drink more water!
1. Buy a Water Bottle
This one seems like an obvious one – but that’s because it is. If you don’t even have water available, how are you ever going to drink it? Buying a water bottle (and taking it with you) is a sure-fire way to increase your water intake daily.
If you have water with you, you are more likely to make it part of your routine. Riding on the bus? Sip that water. Walking down the street? Sip that water. Sitting at the office? Water. Riding a horse? Water. Okay, maybe not the last one – but you get the point.
Bruce has always been active and so he has always carried a water bottle around – in his work bag, backpack, or sports bag. Lisa also got into carrying a water bottle around early on in her school days and now it’s just habit. If you are thirsty, you drink water. And when it’s empty- you fill it up again!
Popular Water Bottle Types
Now, there are lots of different types of water bottles out there and they all serve different purposes. If you need one that is smaller to fit into a sleek backpack, buy one. If you want a larger one that is good for working out or biking, buy one. If you want a good-looking water bottle that is very stylish but also very functional, seek out that kind of bottle. Our point is – don’t let style and/or function stop you from owning a water bottle!
For examples, here is a glass water bottle with measuring lines, the super popular stainless steel MIRA bottle, or the larger best-selling BPA-free Nalgene. Any of these will likely fit your lifestyle!
Popular Materials for Water Bottles
As mentioned above, there are also different materials for water bottles now. These material choices can also fit your lifestyle choices. Plastic was very popular but plastics with BPA became a bit of a scare about a decade ago. Now, you can find plastic water bottles (like Nalgene) that are certified BPA-free, so you don’t have to worry about those chemicals anymore.
If plastic isn’t your style, there are lots of great glass water bottles and metal water bottles on the market that look great and keep water cool (or hot). Also, having your own water bottle saves LOTS of money from buying bottled water – and saves plastic. Win-win!
2. Set a Timer
Sometimes, you might like water and be fine drinking it – but thinking about it throughout the day is tricky. Between work and school, there are lots of things that keep us from grabbing the water bottle or walking to the sink. We get busy! So, a timer is a great way to remind yourself to drink water.
The nice thing about setting a timer is that we (almost) all have smartphones now – so there is literally no excuse to say “I don’t have a timer”. Now, how much water you should drink will vary between people and their levels of activity on a given day. So, set a time that works for you.
Rule of thumb: Make sure you are drinking frequently to where you are not getting very thirsty BUT not too frequently that you are peeing ALL the time. Peeing frequently is normal – always peeing is not.
If you spend more time at home, then you can always invest in a handy kitchen timer with a magnet that – when programmed correctly – will go off loudly and remind you to drink that water!
Back to the smartphones, there are also lots of great apps out there like Daily Water. The best part is that many of these apps are free. If an app isn’t made for your phone, then you can always check out other great apps for tracking water drinking during the day.
3. Get Used to Tap Water
Sometimes, we don’t realize that we have water close by. Tap water, in many cases, is very drinkable. If you are unsure if yours is, check with the local municipality or water board. We always drink tap water – and when we travel, we make sure to ask if the water is drinkable. Most water in most major cities is treated and drinkable but better safe than sorry.
Drinking tap water can help you drink more water because you won’t always associate “drinking water” with grabbing a plastic water bottle from the cupboard or garage. If you know it’s always there – ready to drink – you can grow more used to drinking it by simply turning on the tap and filling a glass!
If you absolutely hate the taste of your tap water, then you can always buy a colorful Brita with changeable filter. This can sit in the fridge and is easily accessible. Speaking of taste, that’s another way that you can increase your water intake throughout the day…
4. Add Flavor
Making water taste better is a very popular way to help you drink more water. If you like the taste, you’ll enjoy drinking it more. Right? Not always, we think. While we think that adding flavors is a good way to start – eventually you should cut the flavor over time.
Eventually, you’ll absolutely get to a point where you actually enjoy drinking plain water. Humans are supposed to drink water. We are made of water and biologically programmed to seek it.
Do you know why you probably don’t like the taste of water? It’s because you are too used to drinking things that aren’t water – and usually full of sugar. Your taste buds have been trained to crave a certain thing – and that can be hard to break! Adding flavor is a great way to start enjoying the taste of water slowly over time.
Here are a few ideas for making flavored water:
- Tea Bags – you can boil tea and then add it to water. Let it cool overnight in the fridge and you’ll have tea-infused water for the next day. Put that in your water bottle and off you go!
- Fresh Fruit – Bruce liked to add raspberries to his water but they broke apart too often. The water was very tasty, though! He then realized that there are water bottles with infuser cores on the market. Problem solved! You can even buy a pitcher with an infuser so that you can flavor your water in the fridge and make a lot of it. Simple cut up your favorite fruit and add it to the infusing core. There, done. You now have flavored water for super cheap and it’s healthy. Ginger, strawberries, lemon slices, cucumber, you name it!
- Flavor Syrups (in moderation!) – You can always buy those squeezable flavor packets but often times they are loaded with sugar. Adding sugar to your water isn’t an absolute no-go – but over time, it’s beneficial to reduce your sugar intake since people usually get too much already from food! These sweeteners can often be full of artificial sweeteners – known to be harmful to our health so consume them in moderation!
5. Don’t Have Other Drinks At Home
Another way to drink more water is to make sure that you basically only have water around! This means that, even when you are thirsty, you have to grab water.
Now, you don’t have to go full “cold turkey” but by limiting the number of choices you have at home, you are more likely to drink water when you are thirsty. You can do this by reducing the soda or juice that you buy and keep around.
If you don’t want to cut juice altogether, then there is another way you can add water to your daily intake. Simply add more water into your already existing habit of drinking juice.
Juice (even the healthy, natural kind) has lots of sugar in it. Adding water to mix it in the glass half and half means that you drink less sugar and more water per glass. This also makes the juice last longer which can save you money.
Over time, you’ll get used to the taste of watered down juice. You can even reduce the juice amount more and more over time until you are just drinking water! This is something Bruce’s parents have begun doing in their family home and they only drink water with a little bit of juice now.
And there you have it – 5 of our best tips to drink more water! In the end, these won’t all work for everyone but some of them might just work for you. Drinking more water is about more than just “drinking more water”.
It’s about learning about and listening to your body and its needs. We hope you are inspired to try drinking more water and look forward to hearing about what worked for you on your journey!
As always, Stay Curious,
-B&L
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