Experts tell us that it’s important to stay hydrated. But how good are you at remembering to do this?
It should be a simple thing, but busy lives get in the way, and it can feel like another job to fit in. Rather than thinking of it as fulfilling your water quota, here are ten ways to do it and have fun. Or, at least, make it practical. (Yes, these tips work, even if you hate water!)
Because you should nurture your body
But first, here’s why it’s important to stay hydrated. If we’re talking about nurturing our health and wellbeing, drinking enough water is probably number one on the list. It’s essential for survival, of course, but it’s also the key to our wellbeing in so many ways.
Staying hydrated helps us achieve peak performance and boosts energy levels and brain function. The long list of benefits of staying hydrated goes on though, from reducing and preventing headaches, to aiding weight loss or even treating kidney stones.
So let’s stay hydrated and love your body! Because self-love and health do go hand in hand. Here’s how to do it.
drenched Reusable Smart Infuser Bottle
- Keep a bottle handy
Forever putting that glass down half-drunk and forgetting about it? Or nipping out and realising you’re thirsty as soon as you’re on your way? Us too! Which is why we’ve started keeping a bottle with us at all times.
Clever reusable drinking bottles these days can keep cold drinks cold, and hot drinks hot for hours at a time, and they’re easy to carry with you wherever you go. Problem solved!
- Make it interesting
If water isn’t your thing, the idea of constantly carrying a bottle filled with it around with you might not float your boat. Yet there are workarounds here too. We love bottles like the drenched range because you can also infuse flavours, like lemon or cucumber.
Or, you can add a herbal tincture like those from Blooming Blends and target your wellness needs on multiple levels with one drink.
- Tea and coffee is ok, in moderation
Have you heard that drinks like tea and coffee can lead to dehydration? Well, think again, because experts tell us that although they have a mild diuretic effect, your body absorbs most of it. That said, you want to avoid too much caffeine (not to mention potential coffee breath!) So, limiting your teas and coffees for those reasons is no bad thing.
- Think about your diet
Of course, food can help us with our water intake too. Good examples include strawberries, watermelon, oranges, skimmed milk, soup and coconut water. The double-whammy here is that improving your diet with fruit and vegetables with high water content gives you lots of great nutrients too.
- Skincare matters too
What are the benefits of staying hydrated for the skin? We’re all about staying healthy inside and out, and this approach goes double for hydration. Drinking plenty of water and committing to a good skincare routine, including moisturising well will help you lock in moisture to look and feel hydrated and healthy.
Kadalys Hydramuse Gel
- Keep a tally
Back to those glasses of water, how easy is it to lose count? And there’s nothing more tiresome than trying to tot up numbers of glasses to see if you’ve drunk enough. Here’s where the old bottle idea comes in again. Because they tend to hold more than your average glass, you can fill it up a couple of times to stay hydrated across the day and know that you’re drinking enough.
- Know the signs of dehydration
Did you know that you may feel hungry when you’re dehydrated? Your body can signal to eat when you need to drink. Other signs of dehydration include thirst, tiredness, dizziness, yellow wee, and a dry mouth, eyes and lips. But if you know this, you can work with your body to give it what it needs. Which is, you guessed it, a nice drink of water!
- Know what dehydrates you
We’ve debunked the myth that coffee and tea are the biggest culprits in dehydration, but what about other foods and drinks? Alcohol is a big one if we’re talking about drinks that dehydrate, as well as high-protein drinks. Fizzy, caffeine packed drinks are also a mild diuretic, so like tea and coffee, you don’t want to rely on them alone, but they are not the worst offenders.
- Be smart about weather conditions
We know that we need to drink more in hot weather. But this can work in cold weather conditions too. Both extremes can lead to dehydration, as well as other stressors such as physical work or even mental stress. So, be aware of what kind of pressure you’re putting your body under. It may mean you need to replenish and drink more to combat environmental stressors and other triggers like this.
- Schedule water breaks
If the idea of a water bottle doesn’t sit right with you, you can still set out a structure to avoid skipping your glass of water and forgetting to hydrate. For any mums out there, you may remember being told to get a glass of water every time you breastfeed your baby.
This kind of simple routine can work anytime, for anyone. Take your mealtimes for instance. If you’re struggling to remember otherwise, set out a big glass of water with each meal and snack. This can also help with your digestion. And if you do any form of exercise, make a trip to the kitchen and make filling up a glass the first thing you do when you finish.
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