Tips to help you Drink More Water!

Drinking enough water can sometimes feel like a daunting task day in and day out. Before I give you water drinking tips, I want to offer you a different way to look at water in the foods you eat. Let me illustrate this point with an example. When I asked a client of mine if she drank much water she said, “I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.” Although these foods do contain a good deal of water, it still takes water to digest them. Fruits and vegetables are high water-content foods and are fairly easy to digest but still don’t count toward your eight glasses a day.

Concentrates such as sugar, salt, pasta, bread, and even meats take a lot of water to digest. These foods are low in water-content, and your body requires a lot of water to assimilate and break them down. Everything except water requires water in order to be digested in the body. Coffee, tea, and even sodas don’t count as water intake. These, too, require water to be digested. In fact, caffeine and alcohol act as diuretics and actually leach water from your body. Sodas contain water but loads of chemicals as well, so it takes a lot of water to flush these toxins out of your system. Drinking clean, filtered water is the only water that counts toward your daily intake. Remember, the normal recommendation is to drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses per day. Most people don’t get enough water, so I’m including a few tips that may help to remind you to drink more water.

Visual stimulants or timing cues can be helpful reminders to consume water. Using drinking glasses you like will help to stimulate your reflex to drink water. Recently I purchased some great eight ounce drinking glasses. They are short, so it seems like I don’t have to drink a lot of water. It’s a visual thing. I love these glasses, and I actually like going into my kitchen and grabbing one, filling it with clean, filtered water, and drinking one or two glasses. (I’m not a sipper. I drink a whole glass at a time.) I always keep an empty glass on my kitchen counter to remind me to fill it up, then I down another eight ounces of the clear stuff.

There are countless ways to get yourself to drink more water:

• When you first get up in the morning, try drinking one or two glasses. It will put some water immediately into your system and hopefully get you started on a day filled with water consumption
• When you arrive at work, drink a glass
• Before you leave for the day drink another one
• Eleven a.m., 3 p.m.—one glass each. In just doing that, you’ve gotten several glasses in without much effort
• On the commute to and from work, drink bottled water you keep in the car (or your bag, briefcase, backpack, etc.)

Wherever and whatever works for you, find creative ways to get more water into your system. It’s a constant battle, but visual stimulants and timing cues can help ensure you drink enough water every day. It’s all for your long-term health, so it’s worth it!

For more information, see:

• Part I: The Importance of Drinking Water
• Quick Tip to have fresh lemon juice at the ready—always
• Why you don’t drink water—another Top 10 list