(when you don’t like water)
and why you should!

If you’re here then maybe you just don’t like water. I hear you. To be honest, I’m really not a big fan of water either. So how did I go from drinking maybe 1 bottle of water a day to drinking 5+ bottles of water a day? (85 oz)

First off, let me tell you my story. I used to consume a shocking amount of calories from just my beverages. Maybe you are familiar with those 1 L Brisks that you can buy at gas stations? That used to be my go-to drink that I would consume almost daily. Sometimes two. Now I still do love a good Brisk tea, but once I started experimenting with tracking my calories – I was truly shocked at how many practically empty calories I was drinking! I truly love so many beverages.. coffee, tea, lemonade, smoothies, slushies, soda… all so delicious!

 

 

BUT! As much as I enjoy all of those.. Well, I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather eat my calories and for them to have some sort of nutritional value for my body than to sip them away mindlessly.

While I do still enjoy drinking coffee, smoothies and all of the above on occasion, I try to make sure that I am fully hydrated first and foremost. I’ve heard a lot of different takes on just how much water we should drink, but personally I aim to drink approximately half of my body weight in ounces a day.

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Why

So why do we need to drink water? Aren’t we already made up of like 70% of that stuff?

Well, first of all, water is essential for your digestion. It helps flush out toxins from your body – especially your kidneys. Drinking more water can help promote weight loss by making you feel more full and keeping you regular. Extra bonus help if you’re swapping out one of those 200 calorie sodas for a 0 calorie water!

Some people say that drinking more water helps with their headaches, but there isn’t really any scientific data backing that up. However, dehydration can cause headaches.

But, probably my favorite benefit of drinking water is that it can help promote a clear complexion! Increasing the amount of water you drink can also help with your energy levels and focus, since your body is made up of a lot of that stuff after all.

Ok so now you know why you should drink water, but what you’re looking for is HOW. I’ll tell you my 4 best tips for how to drink water when you don’t like it. My first tip is..

Routine stacking

I added drinking water BEFORE something that I do every morning – drink coffee. It’s a lot easier to swallow down a full bottle of water if I know that I have to finish it before I can have my much needed cup of that magical elixir.

or tea if that’s your preference

There’s also a lot of benefits to drinking water first thing in the morning. Your body hasn’t had anything all night while you were sleeping. You may also want to squeeze a little lemon juice into your morning water as well. The lemon juice will help even more with detoxifying your body.

 

Flavoring your water

If you’re like me, the worst thing about water is that is has no real taste. But instead of going for a calorie heavy bottled drink,you can infuse your water with a variety of fruits to make it very tasty.

Alternatively there are actually individual drink mixes you can buy in the store to make your water tastier. Some of them come in small packets with powder, others are little squirt bottles that you use to squirt a bit of the liquid into your water. There is actually a surprising amount of variety available if you look on the grocery store aisles with the water.

Some water enhancers also include vitamins, electrolytes and even caffeine! Though they do add a small amount of calories or sugar to water, the amount is nowhere near the same as drinking a soda or lemonade.

I can’t lie. Making water not taste like water is probably my favorite “hack” to drinking more water. I do think that it is still important to drink plain water sometimes. I always try to start and end the day with plain water (maybe some lemon) and not with any artificial flavoring.

 
 

Get a water bottle that works for you

While this is definitely not something that you need to drink more water, it can help! While I put emphasis on cute (I do love cute stuff) it’s also important for it to be functional for you.

What kind of bottle do you most like to drink from? A lid you screw off? A top you pop open? One with a straw? Maybe you prefer to have cold water – get an insulated bottle.

They even make special water bottles to help you track your drinking now!
Like I said in my post about Making Your Desk Dynamic, if a tracking bottle is something that is going to inspire you to drink more water, I think that you should make the investment.

Personally, I don’t mind having to unscrew the top. I enjoy having the screw on top because that way I can be sure that it won’t spill if I toss it into a bag with my things. Not leaking is the #1 thing I’m concerned about. Then cuteness.

or you could always go the route of leaving half full cups everywhere

My point is to just keep water handy and make it easier for yourself to drink more of it. We as human beings tend to be a little lazy, so use that to your advantage. Make the other beverages more difficult to get to and keep the water right on hand as much as you can.
 
 

Download an app

If you have never looked for a water drinking or tracking app, then prepare to be surprised. There are a ton of different apps you can get just for this purpose. Some of them even calculate how much water they think you need to drink based on your weight, height and activity level. Others you can enter how much water you want to drink. While it’s often recommended to drink about half of your body weight in ounces of water every day, everyone has to start somewhere!

There are plenty of different apps out there if you just search “water tracker” but I’m going to touch on two different ones today.

Water Drink Reminder – A simple tracker, only available on Android. This is the one that I use, but I’ve seen similar looking ones in the Apple store. It’s easy to use and allows me to edit the times that I drank water if I forget to track it. There is also a feature that alerts me every 3 hours that pass where I haven’t tracked drinking more water. I have to warn you though – it does have some ads. If you have a problem with that, you may want to try a different one, or pay to remove them. Paying also adds other special features and widgets. I don’t have the paid version, so I can’t truly speak for the benefits.

 
 

Plant Nanny – In this adorable app the water you drink goes towards growing a cute little plant. It’s available for both Android and Apple which is awesome. There’s lots of different fun plants and pots for you to unlock. It’s good for if you want to make drinking your water more of a game. I’ve used it before, but I never can stick with it. I prefer to just have the one-click add of my water with no bells and whistles, but I have to admit the app is precious.

 
Also, just in case this doesn’t go without saying: neither of these apps are sponsors, they are apps I found own my own and am in no way profiting from telling you about them!
  


 

That concludes my 4 best tips for drinking more water. Attach drinking water to another habit, infuse your water with flavors, get a water bottle that works for you or find another way to keep water handy and try a tracking app! Remember to make it easy for yourself to drink more water. I hope at least one of these tips helped you out! Please leave a comment below if it did!

 

 

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