5 WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR WATER INTAKE

Water. What’s your relationship with water? Do you love it and drink it all day? Or do you hate it and struggle to get down even a sip.

If you’re the latter, it’s time to reevaluate and figure out how to drink more water.

But why is this clear liquid so important?! Why is it recommended that we drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water daily?

If I’m being honest, I didn’t care too much for water as a kid. It didn’t taste like anything, and I didn’t want to drink it.

Now that I’m older, I enjoy drinking water for several reasons. It makes me feel good and energized!

You get so many benefits from drinking enough water daily, but I’ll cover those benefits later.

But for now, I want to dive in and talk about 5 ways to increase your water intake.

1. ADD LEMON OR LIME

In my experience, most of the time I avoided water because of the taste. Who likes sippin’ on something with no taste?

A good way to combat this would be to add lemon or lime to your water. What I do is cut up a lemon into about 8 slices.

I will add 1 slice to a 16 oz bottle of water and shake it up.

Go into your kitchen right now and try it. Refreshing isn’t it? Make this a habit and you’ll be drinking more water in no time.

Tip: If you plan on doing this often, I would suggest drinking out of a straw to protect your teeth.

2. DRINK WATER AT INTERVALS

Another good way to increase your water intake would be to drink at intervals. For example, I will have a 16oz bottle of water before breakfast, a bottle with lunch, a bottle around 2pm and another bottle with dinner.

And just like that, I’ve hit my water goal for the day! This really works for me.

You could also drink water on a time-based schedule by drinking 8 oz of water every two hours. If you start at 6 am, you would have drunken 64oz of water by 8 pm.

3. THE INSPIRATIONAL JUG

I don’t recall how or where this originated, but I’m pretty sure you have seen the gallon jugs of water with different celebrity names written on it.

The celebrity names are used as motivation to drink to a certain level of water in hopes of attaining similar body goals. Let me be clear, this is used for motivational purposes only.

Genetics does play a role in how your body will look.

DISCLAIMER: I’m not saying you should aspire to look like a celebrity. Look how you want to look. But Rihanna, Beyonce, and Teyana Taylor all have amazing bods (in my opinion) and they motivate me to get fit.

4. HYDRATING FOODS

Do you like watermelon? What about strawberries or cantaloupe? All of these fruits have a very high water-content. Try eating some of these fruits as a snack between meals or as a dessert after dinner.

If you’re low carb and have to stay away from watermelon and cantaloupe, you could increase the amount of zucchini, lettuce, or cucumbers in your diet.

5. FLAVORED WATER

Is the taste of water keeping you from getting in your daily water intake? Try flavored water. I love flavored water – particularly strawberry.

The good thing about flavored water is that you can make it your own. Slice up your favorite fruit and throw it in a water bottle. You’re all set!

If you don’t want to go the DIY route, you also have the option to just purchase it from the store.

THE BENEFITS OF DRINKING WATER

Now that you know how to increase your water intake, let’s talk about some major benefits of drinking water.

• Drinking water cleans the impurities from your skin while hydrating the skin to make it more supple.
  
• Water also moisturizes you from the inside out. Suffering from dry hair and nails? Check your water intake and make sure you’re getting enough daily.
  
• Are you going to the bathroom regularly? Suffering from bloating? Drinking water will help to alleviate some of these problems.
  
• Water is also a great way to detoxify your organs.

DRINK UP!

And now that you know how important drinking water is, check out this post on How to Start A Healthy Lifestyle for extra tips on keeping yourself healthy.