If you are sometimes confused about how to stay hydrated, you are not alone. It’s easy to forget to drink water, and I am one who does it all the time 🙂
The thing is that, there are several reasons that make us often fail to drink enough water:
- first, the older we get, the less clear is the sensation of thirst
- we often confuse thirst with hunger
- we may also confuse thirst with the urge for drinking other beverages (beer, alcohol, sodas, coffee, etc..)
Tips on how to stay hydrated at home
If you want to make sure you stay hydrated all the time, here are some tips that helped me. I hope they will be just as good for you too 🙂
Make your drinking water easy
Choose a glass (not plastic) pitcher easy to use and of the right size. A Water Pitcher is very convenient to use at home. I bought one with the capacity of about 10 cups, filled it and placed it in a handy location. Each time I see it I remember to take a sip or more… A pitcher is also good, because:
#1 – You can have your water at what temperature you want:
– if you like cold water, you can keep in the refrigerator,
– over night you can keep in out, so you can have your first 2 glasses in the morning at room temperature.
#2 – From a pitcher, you can drink small quantities of water throughout the day. This is better than swallowing too much water at once – it can shock your body, especially if you are very thirsty.
#3 – With a pitcher you can also keep track of the quantity you drink. My husband and I have each its own pitcher 🙂
More tips on drinking water:
- Fill your pitcher at night when you go to bed. This way you can take a sip of water in case you wake up, or cannot sleep. – A glass, or half glass of water at room temperature will make you sleep better.
- One or two glasses of water first thing in the morning will hydrate you and will also act as a laxative.
- If you like coffee or tea – you need to have some sips of water after, because they are diuretic beverages.
- In case you are trying to quit smoking, drink a glass of water when you have the urge – It will help, guaranteed – and it’s so easy… I did it many times 😉
Make your water tasty
Filter your water
Spring water is the best water to drink. I personally like the taste of pure water. Unfortunately, the chlorine added to our tap water is not only unhealthy, but it tastes bad too.
– My solution is using a very good carbon filter which gives a wonderful tasty water – it’s like drinking fresh from the source. You can find many good water filters, and I suggest you to buy shop online, because you can read the customers reviews.
Are you one of those who don’t like the taste of simple water? Well, the rejection is not an option. Here are some more ideas on how to stay hydrated:
Add some flavors
Sometimes you may just have the taste for something a little more exciting than plain water.
You can use the same water pitcher and add to it with some slices of lemons or limes with the skin – no need to squeeze them if you don’t want your water taste sour. The cut slices and the skin will release just enough flavor to make it tasty.
Make sure you don’t add artificial sweeteners and you make them from natural ingredients – freshly squeezed citrus fruits are best for this purpose.
* add a pinch of salt to them too – this will help you hydrate better.
Make your water appealing to the eye and taste – a little extravaganza:
Use a nice shaped glass and not a mug or a plastic cup- Add a colorful straw – you will feel like you are on the beach, and also you will not spill the drink 🙂
- A leaf of mint or some other decoration would be a nice addition, too.
- Sparkling water or mineral water with some slices of fresh seasonal fruit will also open up your appetite for drinking, and will satisfy your thirst
- If you add some ice cubes to your glass of water, this will make it more pleasant to drink.
Here is an easy recipe:
- Take a tall soda glass
- Fill it half way with filtered tap water
- Fill the other half with sparkling mineral water
- Add 1-2 ice cubes
- Add a slice of fresh-cut lime or lemon
Final tips:
… If you indulge in alcoholic beverages, make sure you drink more water – they are the worst diuretic drinks (even more than soda drinks).
Concerned about your weight?
Check my drinking water for weight loss page
I hope you found these tips on how to stay hydrated useful – Cheers!
I want to to thank you for this good read!! I definitely
enjoyed every little bit of it. I have you bookmarked to check out
new stuff you post…
The “Fluoride in Drinking Water” post is live! Check it out: http://healthbenefitsofwater.com/fluoride-in-drinking-water/
😺
Marleen, there there are several way past due articles on my site and one of them is about fluoride in drinking water. I’ll add this today. But you gave me great ideas for new pages to add. Please stay tuned 🙂
* In terms of salt and other important minerals we need, please read: http://healthbenefitsofwater.com/importance-of-drinking-water-you-are-not-sick-you-are-thirsty/
Thanks!
Hi Marleen, thank you!
You have several questions and I will start with the last one: No, there is no difference between naturally or artificially/manually carbonated water. The CO2 gas is the same, and it will have the same effect on the drinking water – it make it sparkling, more refreshing and in my opinion more exciting. I don’t mean that I drink carbonated water everyday, but occasionally, especially in the summer, I really prefer a bubbling drink.
I will answer the other questions later.
Great public service, Tatiana!! And I like that your recipe involves (in part) using half mineral water* and half filtered tap water. I have a Zero Water pitcher and use that (excellent) water for coffee and tea and soup and pasta and some other things. When I only used that water — for regular drinking of straight water too — I had a couple incidents of, for instance, a piece of a tooth shearing off the back (front bottom tooth). Now, I use water filtered through my GE refrigerator (cold, and less filtered than Zero Water) into a Soda Stream bottle (hmmm… I wonder if they make those in glass) that I carefully position under the fridge output line. I then carbonate [not the best for the body but better than not being hydrated] the water with a Soda Stream device [I’ve seen refrigerators with this built in{!}]. That is when I don’t drink plain old tap water (and when I’m not drinking coffee or something else). My dentist impressed upon me that the water in our area is very good [and includes fluoride]; not all places can say so, as there are varying levels of chlorine and other contaminants (some far worse than chlorine). I also have something called Lytebalance that I sometimes put into my water; some people make sure to get their calcium but forget about magnesium (especially important in conjunction with calcium) and potassium [and my children’s grandDad (on their father’s side) was told during a hospital visit recently that he was low on sodium{?!?} — I suppose he’s a little like me in that I don’t add salt to most of my foods].
I’ve heard some mineral spring waters are naturally carbonated.
I’ve never found out if that’s better than manually carbonated.