Lack of hydration can have many consequences: headache, kidney problems, sore muscles, cramps, reduced brain performance, dry skin, just to name a few. However, we are not drinking enough. Three quarters of the population do not meet the recommended daily water intake. That’s why it’s important to create your own hydration habits.
Hydration is essential to stay in shape and to preserve the radiance of your skin. It is recommended to drink between 1.5 litres and 3 litres of water per day to meet the needs of our body, knowing that the body contains about 60% water.
Here’s how to improve your hydration habits and increase your water intake in a smart and healthy way. Note: Water is the only drink essential for the body.
Discover our 12 hydration habits to increase your water intake
- Create a schedule for drinking water, start with a glass or two when you wake up, have a glass before meals and at bedtime, and after every toilet break or at the start of each hour. It’s easy to reach 3 litre per day, when you start your day by drinking a lot.
- Invest in a nice and refillable water bottle that you will actually use. Using a bottle that you will enjoy using will motivate you to carry it with you throughout the day, refilling as needed. Keeping a bottle to hand will help you to stay hydrated.
- Use a reusable water bottle with straw. Sip water throughout the day, instead of chugging full glasses. If you use a water bottle with straw, you will drink faster, and you will drink more. Besides, who doesn’t want a nifty accessory to make their task a little more fun?
Shop our Reusable water bottles with straw
- Add Flavour to your drink. You can add a little bit of excitement and flavour by steeping fresh fruit (grapefruit, strawberries, lemon), veggie slices (cucumber, ginger, celery), and herbs (basil, mint, lavender) in your water bottle. Freeze little bits of lemon and lime or your favourite fruit and use these as ice cubes in your water for a refreshing summer-time-treat.
- Sip after every toilet break. Getting up from your desk for a break? It’s a perfect time to stop by the water cooler or the faucet to fill up your bottle. And it will set up a great cycle: The more water you drink, the more you’ll have to go to the toilet, which means the more water you will drink, and so on.
- Track your cups with a marked water bottle. In fact, having a fun, visual way to see that my effort is adding up is just about the best way to get me to stick with something. Keeping up with how many glasses you’ve finished can be easy (and fun) with the help of motivational drinking marks on your reusable water bottle or using an app like Daily Water Free or Daily Water. Using a marked water bottle with deadlines on, will also help you to know when and how to reach your targets during the day.
- Have more than one reusable water bottle. Leaving the house without your reusable water bottle? This means many valuable hours of potential water-drinking time go down the drain. Keep full or empty water bottles in your most trafficked places as well as in bags, your car, on your office desk. There’s no bad place to keep a full water bottle! Having more than one reusable water bottle will contribute on how you can improve your hydration habits
- Level Up your drinking habits. Build up your water levels slowly. Increasing your water intake drastically might come as a shock to you and your body. Build up the amount you can drink slowly and increase it until you hit your target. If you do not drink any water, start by drinking 1 glass a day, then increase your consumption gradually, and go to another tip slowly with a full bottle a day and so on.
- Challenge yourself or Play Games. Make a water wager with your friends and colleagues. Set goals and challenges on who can drink the most water (within reason and for health benefit). Making water drinking fun will encourage you to re-hydrate. Play water-drinking games with your friends. We’ve all heard of beer pong, why not substitute this for water pong.
- Drink a cup of water before your evening meal. In many cases we are often just thirsty rather than hungry. This tip will help you stay hydrated as well as help you eat less and lose weight if this was part of your annual goal.
- Have a full water bottle ready at your bedside table. You might wake up for the bathroom and be thirsty in the middle of the night, and it’s nice to have something to drink within arm’s reach. Every night before sleeping, put the water bottle by your bedside to be sure you’ll drink water first thing in the morning. But always clean and replace it after that water has been out for 2 days.
- Introduce spicy food to your diet. By eating more spicy and hot foods you will naturally want to drink more water. TIP: Only eat spicy foods if you can and it’s part of your diet. Also if you’re not used to it do not eat very spicy food as can cause stomach upsets.
GENERAL GUIDES TO HYDRATION HABITS
Make sure your water is clean and pure. Water is a natural gift for your indoor and outdoor health. Staying hydrated with pure, clean water not only quenches our thirst, but promotes vitality from the inside.
Drink 1Litre for every 50 lbs (approx 23KG) you weigh. A person who weighs 150 lbs (68 KG) should try for 3L a day. For some people, fewer than eight glasses a day might be enough.
Keep in mind however, that the foods we eat, weather, exercise, sweating, altitude, and a slew of other factors can affect how much water we need.
Pay attention to the signals your body gives you. If you are thirsty, drink. It sounds obvious, but many of us are guilty of ignoring the body’s regular demands for water.
If you’re wondering how much water you should drink, speak with your doctor, or a general practitioner
Prepare yourself to go often to the bathroom. The bladder is able to store urine until it is convenient to go to the toilet, typically four to eight times a day. Drinking lots of water has only one side effect, that of having to go to the bathroom regularly at least once per hour. You’ll Need to go more than eight times a day or even wake up in the night to go to the bathroom.
Urine colour is a good indicator of how hydrated you are. It should be fairly clear. If it is dark yellow, improve your hydrations habits with our 12 tips above.
When using a reusable water bottle, consider having a cleaning brush to clean it regularly. Our Water bottles come with a cleaning brush and a straw brush. Try it out
