How To Drink More Water

We’ve all heard how important it is to drink water. The amount that is most often recommended is eight 8-ounce glasses, for a total of 64 ounces each day. Staring at 8 glasses of water each day tends to be intimidating and causes most people difficulty in reaching their daily goal. Try a few of the tricks below and you will be gulping down your daily goal with no problem.

Materials:
32-ounce water bottle
Lemon or lime juice
Water

1. Start with a bigger bottle. Just thinking about 8 glasses of water every day is overwhelming, so make the task a little smaller. Instead of 8 containers, make it two. Have a little fun and head to the store to pick out a 32-ounce water bottle. Make sure it fits into your car’s cup holders and is easy for you to carry on a walk. Knowing you only have to finish two of them each day is a lot less daunting.
2. Add flavor. If the taste of water is what causes you problems, change it. Squeeze a slice of lemon or lime into your water bottle. Experiment with flavors if you like. Just use a piece of fruit and squeeze a little juice into the bottle. Try watermelon, kiwi or tangerine to lighten up your summer water. Remember you are just squeezing a little flavor into the water, not drinking juice or lemonade.
3. Challenge yourself to a game. When getting back into the water drinking habit, sometimes you have to trick yourself into having some fun with it. Challenge yourself once a day to guzzle as much water as you can. This works great after a workout when you are hot and sweaty. Fill the water bottle and guzzle it down. Before you know it, you will get 16 or 20 ounces of your daily goal out of the way in just a few seconds.
4. Make water your appetizer. Set a glass of water out with each meal. Before you start eating, drink the glass down. This serves several purposes. It helps you stop long enough for your brain to shift into mealtime. It also slows down the eating process and fills you up so you won’t overeat. Plus you’ll be steps closer to your daily goal.
5. Reward yourself. This may sound a bit odd, but setting a goal to drink water is just like any other goal; it deserves a reward. When first getting into the habit, try setting a goal of 8 or 16 ounces of water before your morning coffee or between dinner and dessert. That way, the coffee or dessert you were going to have anyway becomes a reward for you sticking to your goal.

With a little planning, it can be easy (and fun) to add water to your daily routine. Don’t get down if it takes a while to get to the goal every day. Once you get into the habit, you will love the results and drinking water will get easier.