We’ve all heard the advice about staying hydrated – drink half your body weight in ounces of water. For example, if you weigh 160 pounds, half of that is 80. So you should aim for 80 ounces, or 10 cups, of water per day. For some people, that’s a breeze. They carry around their trusty water bottle and refill it several times a day. For others, they can barely choke down 2 or 3 cups, let alone 10! So, how can you increase your water intake if you fall into the latter category?
Here are my top 5 tips to drink more water
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#1 infuse your water with fruit and/or herbs
Sometimes, just giving water a bit of taste is enough to make it more palatable and make you more likely to drink up. I’m a fan of just plain ol’ lemon water, but if you want to get fancy here are a few ideas:
Pineapple – this is one of my favs. I’ll sometimes keep a bag of frozen pineapple in the freezer and put 3 or 4 chunks into my water to give it a sweet flavor!
Orange and cucumber – I got this idea from a spa I visited many years ago. Now every time I have it, I’m taken back to that lovely, relaxing day.
Lemon and mint – this is so refreshing, especially on a hot day.
#2 drink herbal teas
I’m a big fan of hot tea. I have nearly a entire shelf in my pantry dedicated to my various teas and had an instant hot water dispenser installed in my kitchen when we remodeled. I’m THAT crazy about my tea. To me, herbal teas are the same as infused water so they count towards your water intake.
Here are a few of my favorites:
#3 use a flavored water enhancer
There are a number of brands of water enhancers on the market. However many of them contain sucralose, and I try to steer clear of that sweetener. I have found some enhancers that are sweetened with Stevia that I like. These include Sweet Leaf Water Drops (the raspberry lemonade is my favorite) and Stur (strawberry watermelon is my favorite).
I put a couple of long squirts of these into my water bottle and it provides a sweet, fruity flavor that makes me want to drink more.
#4 drink flavored sparkling water
This category has really blown up over the last several years. It used to be just La Croix. Now there’s an entire aisle of my grocery store dedicated to the plethora of options.
Here are a few of my favorite:
Limoncello La Croix
Key Lime La Croix
Coconut La Croix
Cherry Bubly
If you prefer more flavor than these offer, try mixing in a little bit of juice. Cran-raspberry juice mixes well with the Key Lime La Croix and pineapple juice with Coconut La Croix (it’s like a pina colada!) I’ve also tried adding water enhancer drops mentioned above into sparkling waters, and that’s pretty yummy!
#5 bUY A CUTE WATER BOTTLE
Sometimes, just having a water bottle that you love to carry around will be all the motivation you need to keep it handy and full throughout the day. I often use the first water bottle shown below – I’m not a big fan of the motivational messages on it, but it’s an easy way for me to track the amount of water I’ve had.
Here are a couple other cute options:
summary
Staying hydrated is a key component of keeping our energy levels high, our appetite in check, and supporting our overall health. While some may find it easy to knock back their 8-12 cups a day, others may find it very difficult. Hopefully, one or two of these tips will help you increase your water intake and help you meet your daily goal. Do you have other tips to drink more water? Leave a comment below.
