How to Drink a Crazy Amount of Water Every Day
Find tips inside for drinking more water and some benefits to drinking more water every day. Also! We use affiliate links to help support our family. It costs you nothing extra, but the links provided below might provide us with a small commission. Thank you for your support!
I never liked drinking water. I loathed it.
Similar to a toddler, I should only be offered the coldest of cold water, with a straw.
I could only drink ice cold water through a straw. Thinking about water touching my top lip made me cringe. Eek. I couldn't drink enough water EVER because I was so picky.
When I was pregnant my kidneys began failing because I wasn't drinking enough water.
Something had to change, so I tried everything.
Willpower didn't work.
Thinking about how much I needed to drink more water didn't work.
How do I drink more water?
Have you ever been so thirsty you thought you were going to die? Welcome to parenthood, right?
Once I had children, and I needed more water to support all my nutrients my body was creating for my babies.
Constantly I needed more water.
If you're not always thirsty, water is still awesome for you. It's such an important part of taking care of yourself.
There are obvious reasons like you don't want to die from dehydration, but you can also benefit in other ways. Imagine how good you'll feel when you're fully hydrated.
Most people don't drink enough water because as a culture we are always busy.
When is the last time you thought about drinking your eight cups of water?
Get your freebie water intake printable here!
What Are The Benefits of Drinking More Water?
Kiss that goodbye!
Water cured my chronically dry shoulders. They were always rough and I felt self-conscious about wearing short sleeves because of it.
Flushing out your body daily through water consumption is great for you. You'll get fewer headaches, muscle cramps, and even your teeth will benefit.
The most common benefit of drinking more water is weight loss. When you jump start your metabolism with water every morning, you will see the weight start to come off faster, and you'll have more energy.
I know I should drink more water, so how do I increase my daily water intake?
1. Drink Water Before Every Meal
Have a full glass of water before each meal and snack you consume, including before your morning cup of coffee.
This is one of those simple reminders allowing you to drink more water without thinking too much about it.
It's called habit stacking, and it will change your life.
You train your mind to know water comes before everything else in your body. How does it work? Adding habits onto habits help them stick better. If you make coffee every day, it's already a habit. Stacking water drinking onto your coffee making process will be easier than trying to drink more water alone.
Think of it as a reminder on your phone. Except it's in your brain.
Drinking water before eating will prevent you from over-eating, because it will help you fill up a little before your meal.
You will also benefit from drinking water when you feel hungry. Why? Most people can't tell the difference between being hungry and being thirsty.
Your body tells your brain the same thing, so if you always assume it's water you need, you'll be better hydrated — even if you're actually hungry.
2. Make Your Own Infused or Flavored Water
Maybe you have no problem remembering to drink water.
You remember all day, but you can't stand drinking water.
A few years ago I began infusing my water with different flavors to encourage a little more drinking.
There are lots of ways to add flavor to your water to make it more interesting without piling on the sugar and calories.
The Simple Method
If you are short on time and want a quick way to add flavor to your water, go with the lemon water.
All you need to do is add a few lemon wedges into your water, squeezing in the juice first, then putting the wedges in it.
Lemons have a lot of tart juice so this will flavor your water quickly and easily.
You can also try a mixture of lemon and lime, or use other juicy fruits like grapefruit.
Fruit or Vegetable Infused Water
When you are willing to spend more time on your water, you can use other fruits, vegetables, and even herbs to flavor water.
This is called infused water since it is a longer infusing process.
You aren’t just flavoring your water with these ingredients, but adding more nutrients from the produce and herbs.
To make infused water, you should have a glass pitcher and access to filtered water.
Prepare your fruits, veggies, and herbs depending on what they are.
Berries should be sliced so you can access the juice inside, fruits with hard skin should be peeled first.
Veggies should also be peeled and chopped. Muddle your herbs to release the oils and flavors.
Add the ingredients to the bottom of the pitcher, cover with ice, then add your water.
Let it sit in the refrigerator for as long as you can before drinking it, which really allows those flavors and nutrients to come through, giving you a better drinking experience.
My mouth is watering thinking about a nice cucumber and cantaloupe infused water medley.
3. Choose a Cup You Love to Use
This is my best tip. Perhaps it because of aesthetics matter a lot to me, and I love things around me to be fun colored and bring joy to my life.
Go shopping, and find a cup or mug that brings you happiness, then fill that thing with water and drink up buttercup.
It can be a bottle if you're out a lot, but I prefer a cup. Here are a few fun ones I found on Amazon:
Picking the right vessel to drink your water is pretty important.
Do you want a certain color? Theme? Is it easy to hold while walking? There are a lot of small details that determine if it's a good fit.
If you drive a lot, will it fit in your cup holder?
Check out what I put up above, and see if they're what you need.
Maybe you'll be able to find something else instead.
Keep trying until you find that perfect cup.
Good luck. 🙂
4. Limit Other Drinks You Consume
Another little trick for drinking more water is to reduce all of the other drinks you consume.
This doesn't mean drinking water 100 percent of the time and never having a cup of juice or soda again.
It does help to reduce them so that when you are thirsty, go for water instead.
This eventually increases your water intake because you are going for water when you feel thirsty and not other beverages.
A simple trick. So easy to implement.
Next time you go to the store, don't buy any juice.
Without it in your house, you'll be less likely to drink it.
5. Track Your Water Intake
This isn’t something you need to do every day for the rest of your life, but for now, it might be hard for you to determine how much water to drink and if you have reached your goal for the day.
Start by figuring out a good way to track your water. This can be an app on your phone, a notepad, a planner you keep in your purse, or a program on your computer.
Start by tracking your water for a few days before trying to increase how much you drink. This lets you know how much you are currently drinking on an average day.
If it's less than 8-10 glasses of water (8 ounces each) a day, you need to start increasing it to see the benefits.
Once you are tracking daily, it helps you know how and when to drink more throughout the day.
Use some of the tips here to help you increase that water intake.
6. Try Some Delicious and Water Heavy Fruits and Veggies.
Some days you can't get all those cups of water in. You're human.
If you find that you can’t drink enough water, then eat your water instead.
You should still try to drink as much as you can, but this is good for the days when you’re a little below your water intake goal.
There are fruits and veggies that have a high water content, therefore helping to hydrate you. These include:
Cucumbers
Grapefruit
Apples
Pineapple
Lettuce
Celery
Radishes
Watermelon
7. Dilute That Juice!
There's going to be a day when you really want juice. You're going to wake up in a cold sweat, thinking about apple juice.
It happens to the best of us.
Dilute your juice so you can still get the flavor you want, but you are still getting water.
If you do, you'll be reducing calories, carbs, and sugars, and you'll make the juice last longer.
This is great if you don't buy it next week, but you still want some in the house.
8. Add Water to Other Habits You Already Have
If you enjoy drinking water, but you often forget to drink more of it, these little reminders can be helpful for you.
1.Drink water before every meal, snack, and other beverage
2.Drink a glass of water when you wake up / before you brush your teeth
3.Drink water before or after your workouts
4.Drink a glass of water after every trip to the bathroom
5.Drink a glass of water every time you enter your office or your home
As long as you keep these reminders in the back of your mind, and follow the other tips mentioned, you should be on your way to increasing your water intake and benefiting from it.
You're going to feel amazing!
Have you added more water to your life? How did you feel?
What other ways can you add more water to your life?
Download a freebie water tracker you can print and add to your planner, by adding your information below.
I really enjoy fruit infused water! I also love sparkling water with lemon or lime. 🙂
Great advice! I've been working on the same thing and adding apple cider vinegar in a glass of water to my morning routine helped! Starting the day with 8oz of water helped a lot.
Yes to all of this! I have been on a big water kick. I've been adding some flavoring in and then rediluting it through out the day. It's been working like a charm. I don't weigh myself often but my clothes fit better. So yay!!
This is all great advice! I like to add lemons, limes or cucumbers and pretend I’m at the spa.
Yes! So tasty! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Fantastic! Has the apple cider helped? That's something I've considered adding to my morning as well! 🙂
What a win! Congratulations! 🙂 It sounds like you're doing a great job, I'm glad you're feeling great.
ooo! That sounds really fun. I love cucumber water. It always makes me feel so fancy. 🙂
yes to all of this my friend- def need to drink more water and infused water really helps me!
Yes! It's gotten to where I can tell when I haven't drank enough water and I feel sluggish!
Haha, I have to watch myself and not drink too much 😛
This is such an interesting thing! I’ve never had a problem drinking water but these tips would be pretty helpful to those who do. Thanks for sharing 🙂
I like the idea of drinking water before eating. I hadn't thought of that before!
Oh my word Beth! I didn't know our kidney can begin to fail because of not drinking enough water! Yikes. So happy you were able to turn that around. I love your tips and especially #6 with fruits an veggies. I have been doing lots of that this summer and it not only keeps me hydrated, but I'v shed some pounds too! Indeed water is not overrated. Our bodies are after all 70% water.Good read!
Wow what a crazy health scare! So glad you came out of it ok. I can relate because I used to hate the taste of water too. Flavoring waters with fruit or cool citrus is such a great idea!! I also find that water with a base pH tastes really good to me.
This has always been a struggle for me. I don't drink water that much but will definitely try my best.
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