Why do you need to drink more water and how to do it?

A couple of months ago, when I would get up each morning, I had a deep dull headache. It left me feeling lethargic and unsurprisingly a bit grumpy. After looking at many aspects of my diet, I realized that whilst I was drinking a lot of drinks, I was not necessarily drinking a lot of water. I was tending to drink more carbonated drinks throughout the day. Even though I had taken notice of how much and cut it down, I hadn’t then realized that I needed to drink more water.

The next few days after my realization I set about to drink more water, who knew that this wasn’t going to be as easy as I had first thought?

Here are my five ways that have really helped me and I hope they help you too:

1. Make it fun

Yes, really! Having a glass of water on your desk does not look very encouraging to drink. Get yourself a funky-colored flask or one of those cups with the lid and straw. You’ll be surprised by how eager you will be to use it and fill it up again in no time.

Other ways to make it fun are to add your own flavorings to the water. Some orange, lime or lemon slices and a newfound favorite of mine is to add cucumber slices to it. I’d recommend leaving the water with your new-found flavorings to chill in the fridge or add some ice.

2. Keep Count

Encouraging yourself can be the hardest part I have mentioned before. I used a variety of ways before settling on two ways to keep myself drinking. The first was to install an app on my phone which I could update, it would remind me to drink more often.

It also told me how I was doing day by day and analyze my week with graphs. There are loads of apps to choose from for both iOS and Android. So see which one works best for you. I downloaded the free app Water Lite.

Also, I incentivized my results as I was saving money by not buying carbonated drinks. So I could use the money instead on my favorite magazine or book. It really helped, everyone loves a treat!

Other ways I tried were:

  • Making an excel spreadsheet to fill in every time you drink.
  • Making sure you’ve drunk x amount by certain times of the day.
  • Setting reminders on my phone.

See what works best for you but you need to find a way to keep count.

3. Make it Routine

It’s pretty easy to get into a routine of doing something. Start each morning with a cup of water with a couple of slices of lemon to wake yourself up and feel refreshed. Maybe there’s an activity you do every day like reading a book or doing some internet surfing.

Just make sure during that time you drink some too. Soon when you do the same activity, you will naturally get a drink of water from then on.

4. Order water with your meal

Ordering water when you go out is a cheaper option and a way to keep your calorie count down too. Water can also help to fill you up so you won’t feel as hungry. Some people use water as their appetizer and it’s a good way to clean your palette too.



Doesn’t just have to be when you eat out at restaurants, you can also replace your usual meal drink at home with a glass of water.

5. Taking water with you

Water is mostly accessible all the time, but we have all probably been caught without a drink on a long journey or even a short journey. Taking your own bottle to work means that you are probably more likely to drink more water and more likely to go and fill it up when it’s empty.

I found that I could look at all the excuses for why I hadn’t drunk enough each day. This tip is really simple to do and means you have no excuses!

I hope you have found these tips helpful and please comment with any tips that you have to help me more and other readers too.

Now off you go and get drinking that water!

References:

  1. http://groundwater.ucdavis.edu/
  2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
  3. https://www.cdc.gov/

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