Remembering to stay hydrated throughout the day can be tricky, especially when you’re balancing work, family, extracurriculars, and more. But meeting your daily water quota can exponentially benefit your health, from improving your mood to clearing up your skin.
Looking for ways to improve your water consumption?
You’re in the right place. We’ve got seven pro tips for how to remember to drink water outlined below, plus all the key benefits you’ll discover when you start making staying hydrated a priority. Make sure your healthy habits are optimal with a water filtration system.
According to the Mayo Clinic, the “eight glasses of water a day” rule, well, holds water.1 It’s important to note, though, that depending on a variety of factors you may require a little bit more or a little bit less H20. These factors may include:
So if you’re training for a marathon under the summer sun, consider adding a few glasses towards your daily fluid intake.
However, if reaching the coveted eight glasses is already difficult enough, consider implementing the following seven practices into your daily water intake routine.
Just like how you create goals and to-do lists for work, you can set goals for water intake, too. Whether you use an old-fashioned notebook or an online planner, physically writing or typing “drink water now” next to a time slot should help your brain become accustomed to taking more frequent water sips.
PubMed breaks down the best way to set daily goals into the acronym SMART, meaning goals should be:2
And, believe it or not, the busier your day is, the better this SMART system works—when you’re constantly staring at your calendar, it will be hard to miss your water drinking reminders.
This may go without saying, but having the appropriate vessel from which to sip your daily water allotment is critical.
An insulated, reusable bottle that can hold at least 24 ounces of water is a great place to start. There are myriad, snazzy water bottle options available on the market, but you don’t need to spend a fortune to help meet your daily water intake goal.
Finding a bottle that makes you want to drink is key—some people prefer twist tops, some prefer straws.
Others may find that using a marked water bottle can help them measure how much they’re drinking. These bottles may feature lines indicating how many ounces you’ve consumed, or how many times you’ve refilled in a day (which helps you keep up your daily SMART goal).
Drinking enough water doesn’t have to be a chore—you can safely add flavor to the water in your bottle without compromising your hydration levels.
You may have noticed in upscale hotels or retailers that there is often a large, glistening water dispenser filled with slices of cucumber or a handful of blackberries. You can replicate this on a micro scale with your own water source, adding fresh veggies, citrus, or fruit to your bottle.
The longer you let these ingredients steep in your water, the more flavorful each sip will become. As an added bonus, this is a great way to sneak fruits and vegetables into your diet without having to whip up a full-fledged meal.
Flavored water can also effectively replace beverages that actively dehydrate you, like soda or sugary juices. Swapping a tasty flavored water for these drinks can curb the sugar cravings and keep you hydrated simultaneously.
As we’ve noted, setting reasonable goals for hydration and keeping a user-friendly water bottle on your person at all times will help you to remember to drink more water.
If you want to take your hydration up a notch, you can also invest in high-tech gadgets and apps.
“Smart” products like hydration reminders that blink when your cup is stagnant for a certain period of time and water bottles tied to apps that measure how much you’re drinking will certainly keep that “eight ounces eight times a day” rule front of mind.3
Feel like you’re drowning? You don’t have to limit your H2O intake to its standard liquid form.
According to the Mayo Clinic, many fruits are mostly water by weight.1 Some water-filled foods that can help you stay ultra hydrated include:4
You can add slices of any of these fruits to your water to double down on your daily hydration.
If you are someone who likes to indulge in a nice glass of Pinot or pint of beer every once in a while, you may notice that you get dehydrated more quickly when imbibing.
This is because alcohol is a diuretic and causes your body to remove fluids from your blood through your renal system at a faster rate than other liquids.5
To balance out the diuretic effect of booze, make an effort to drink at least one 16-ounce glass of water with every 12 ounces of beer or 3-4 ounces of liquor. The slower you sip your alcohol, the less likely you are to become dehydrated.
You may be hesitant to chug water all day if you don’t trust your closest water source.
Curious if it is better to drink soft or hard water? For the most part, it is a personal preference and investing in a water filter or water softener are great options to entice yourself to stay hydrated, and the best part is that there are a variety of filters for every budget, from pitchers to entire kitchen filtration systems.
In addition to being clean and safe to drink, filtered water can also taste better than tap or fountain water. If you find yourself working from home most days or exposed to harsh water such as Los Angeles water quality, you may want to invest in a water kitchen filtration system.
These under-the-sink or countertop systems protect your household against contaminants that build up in the water supply. The filtered water they produce makes better coffee, better ice, and better baked goods—contaminants in water can slow the fermentation process for leavened products like bread.
The more you invest in your filtration system, the more likely you’ll be to use this system, which means you’ll be sipping your clean and tasty water all day.
Once you’ve implemented the above steps and you’re drinking water like a pro, you may start to notice some benefits. According to the Mayo Clinic, water is your body’s principal chemical component, making up to 70% of your body weight.
Your body uses water to:6
However, that’s just the basics. The benefits of drinking enough water also include:7
Despite our best efforts, sometimes we still will not drink enough water throughout the day. You can tell if you aren’t drinking enough by looking out for signs of dehydration. These signs go beyond just feeling thirsty. You may be dehydrated if:
Luckily, when you experience these symptoms the solution is as simple as reaching for your nearest water bottle or grabbing a few mouthfuls of fresh fruit.
Getting enough water each day is not only critical for your health and well-being, it can even help you become more productive, clear up your skin, and lower your stress levels. By following a few helpful tips to remember to drink water—including purchasing a marked water bottle, setting realistic goals for yourself each day, and investing in a filtration system—you’ll be on track to 24-hour hydration in no time.
If you need further assistance on your hydration journey, reach out to Rayne Water today. We install residential and business water filtration systems and water softeners, so you can be excited about the water you drink. We are also here to answer any questions you may have, such as is chlorinated water safe to drink?
Holistic health starts with proper hydration. Proper hydration starts with Rayne Water.
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