There's no doubt about it: water is key in keeping our bodies strong, healthy, and beautiful. From helping our organs and cells function properly, to keeping our hair and skin smooth and flexible, water has many super-powered health-benefits!
But, there’s a difference between understanding how important daily hydration is, and purposely making room for it in your everyday routine. Just like eating healthy, and staying fit, the first step to drinking more water every day, is to turn it into a habit.
Here are 5 tips to help you turn daily water-consumption into a habit:
Tip #1 Carry water with you everywhere
From a quick trip to the grocery store to an all-day adventure, you should be sipping at a water bottle all day long. Try carrying a hydro flask with you to keep it nice and cool, and if you’re a bit of the forgetful type (guilty), place a few water jugs strategically throughout your daily routine, such as at work, in different rooms in your home, in the car and in your gym bag!
Tip #2 Add some natural flavoring
Sometimes plain water can be a bit boring… especially when you’re trying to hit your goal of 8, 8 oz glasses each day. To zest up your H20, add some fresh, natural ingredients to your water like lime, lemon, raspberries, cucumber, mint or basil! Experiment to see what ingredient combinations you like the best and enjoy each glass to its fullest (or is that its ‘empti-est’?).
Tip #3 Eat more water-rich foods
Instead of drinking your water, why not eat it? There are tons of water-packed food options to choose from, like healthy greens (cucumber, zucchini, spinach) and healthy fruits (grapes, grapefruit, watermelon). Not only will you get more water into your diet, but you’ll also reap the benefits from all the vitamins and minerals inside those healthy fruits and veggies too!
Tip #4 Drink other (healthy) fluids
Water doesn’t only count toward your daily water-consumption – coffee and tea do too! Other healthy liquids like orange juice, grapefruit juice, and even milk all contain plenty of water and so, they all help you stay properly hydrated. Just be mindful of how much caffeine or other added sugars (natural and artificial) you’re ingesting from those other fluids.
Tip #5 Track your progress with an app
A little reminder now and again never hurt no-body! Smarten up your water intake by tracking your daily progress, and get reminders sent to your phone or smartwatch to gamify your water-drinking experience! You could even try out a glowing water bottle that lights up when it's time for you to drink. Now that just sounds fun!
Some highly-recommended water tracking apps are:
Water, water everywhere
Whether you prefer your water the old-fashioned way, i.e., a fresh, cold glass from the kitchen faucet or you're drawn to the latest high-tech water-tracking solutions, creating a water-drinking habit is completely attainable – and we know you can do it, beauty!
Come to think of it, we could use a tall, cold glass of water right now!
Feature photo by ShengGeng Lin on Unsplash
