The Art of Drinking Water: 7 Tips to Stay Hydrated

Water is so vital to our flexibility, mobility, and to our overall health.. And yet many times we just don’t get enough of this important ingredient.

Some of us simply are unaware of how important it is to drink water to maintain our mobility and how much we should be drinking daily. Others of us may be in the know, but we just simply forget to drink enough water during the course of a busy day.

This post gives some tips and tricks you can use to get yourself drinking more water. First let’s start with the basics, how much water should you be drinking?

Some rules of thumb:

Drink roughly ½ your body weight

A 128-lb woman should target for at least 64 oz of water per day or 8 glasses of water. Of course, there are several other factors to keep in mind, including your environment, the level of your daily activity, age, gender, and the climate. (1, 2) However, if you keep to ½ your body weight as the baseline number, you’re off to a good start.

Drink to thirst

Drink when you are thirsty. This may seem obvious but sometimes with the busyness of life, we may ignore this very key signaling mechanism. It’s important when you are thirsty to stop and to quench your thirst. There are some experts that say it is too late when you are actually thirsty; in fact, at that point we are very dehydrated. (3)

Others debate that in healthy individuals the thirst mechanism should be working just fine. The exceptions are for high-performance athletes, who tend to sweat a lot during intense workouts, and the elderly where their thirst mechanism may decline with age. (4-7)

Keep track of the color of your urine (8,9)

Monitoring your urine is also essential and is, probably the quickest and most reliable measurement you can take regularly. Pale, light colored urine indicates that you are on the right track in keeping hydrated; dark, amber-colored urine indicates you need to drink more!

OK, so with that…. let’s look at some strategies to drink more water.

Tip #1 – Your water matters

Be picky about the water you drink. Not all waters are equal.

It may seem obvious but make sure you are drinking the cleanest water you can find and afford comfortably. Purified, filtered water is the best choice. If you can opt for your own purifying and filtering system, whether it is installed in your home or countertop filtering pitcher, it is worth the expense, time, and effort.

Also opt for drinking out of water glasses or jars vs. plastic bottles (even if they claim to be BPA-free).

Put the best into your body to get the best results. You are worth the investment.

Tip #2 – Start your day with a glass of water (2,8)

After a night of sleeping, what better way to break your fast than with water? Your body is craving water. It has been busy at work restoring you, cleansing you, and getting you ready for the day. Give your body some help by drinking at least 1 glass of water in the morning to start your day.

It’s a great way to get your body moving. It will help to flush toxins out of your body, and it will get the juices flowing to excrete urine and feces. You will also be hydrating your body, by getting those joints, muscles, cells nicely watered and juicy for your day.

To increase the benefits, try warm water with with a twist of lemon/lime and/or apple cider vinegar to really get things moving for you.

Tip #3 – Have a good drinking plan (8,9)

This is so key. Section off your days into thirds or fourths for your water drinking goals. Have clear milestones during the day where you check in with yourself.

Plan 3X a Day: 1/3 early morning as your rise; 1/3 late morning before lunch; 1/3 afternoon before dinner

Checkpoints: Before starting your day, Lunchtime, Dinnertime

Plan 4X a Day: ¼ early morning as your rise; ¼ late morning before lunch; ¼ afternoon before dinner; ¼ evening before you retire for bed

Checkpoints: Before starting your day, Lunchtime, Dinnertime, Bedtime

And don’t forget to budget for those blackout periods. These are the times when you should avoid drinking. During meals, ½ hour before meals, and 1 hour after meals, you should avoid drinking any fluids to enable your digestion to function optimally.

Tip #4 – Sip… Sip … Sip … your water

This is another big one. Sip your water a little bit at a time (~2 oz to 3 oz). And be present, mindful, with every sip. Even if you find yourself behind schedule, don’t gulp down your water by the glassful to catchup. It’s better not to meet your goal for the day than to cram your water drinking down when you remember or in the last stretch of the day.

When you drink your water so quickly, especially if you are just ramping up the amount you drink per day, it overwhelms your system. The water will not be well absorbed. You will find yourself making countless trips to the bathroom to urinate. And sometimes in the process you end up flushing out essential minerals from your body.

The worst part is it triggers this vicious cycle of not wanting to drink more water. To avoid the many trips to the bathroom, you end up curtailing the amount of water you drink. Before you know it, you are back where you started.

So have your glass of water nearby and sip…sip… mindfully sip.

Tip 5—Drink absorbable water (1,2,8)

Increase the absorbability of your water by adding a pinch of mineral or sea salt (up to but not exceeding ¼ teaspoon) per quart of water consumed.

Salt is a critical component of the extracellular fluid that surrounds your cells. It is needed to produce osmotic pressure that will move nutrients and waste back and forth through the cells. Salt in your water will help to balance out your system and will slow down the tendency for you to urinate.

Salt also helps in the production of ATP which creates energy and supplies it to our muscles and other cells throughout the body.

So, you need salt when drinking fluids, and yes, the type of salt matters. Avoid using refined table salt that tends to be overprocessed; instead reach for either mineral or sea salt which are full of macro- and micronutrients.

Tip #6 -- Eat Your Water: Bite into Mouth-Watering Foods (7-12)

Yes, you can eat your water, and it won’t require you chewing on ice. Eating foods with high-water content, like fruits and veggies, can play a key role in keeping you hydrated. In fact, your food should contribute 20% to 30% of your daily water content. (7-12)

Some popular water-rich foods to munch on include:

• Berries (eg, strawberries)

• Melons (eg, water, honey, dew, cantaloupe)

• More fruits (eg, peaches, oranges, pineapples, apples)

• Squash (eg, zucchini)

• Salad favorites (eg, cucumbers, lettuces, watercress, celery, tomatoes)

• Veggies (eg, kale, broccoli, bok choy)

• Broths

Tip #7-- Change it up! Infuse Your Water

Face it, for most of us, water just is BOR-ing.

But WAIT … before popping over to more “exciting” drinking options, consider sprucing up your water with fruits (eg, berries, citruses), veggies (eg, cucumbers) and spices (eg, rosemary, sage).

To make delicious water, try gently crushing (“muddling”) veggies, fruits, herbs, and/or spices in a pitcher of water to bring out their natural juices and flavors. Let them soak from 1 to 12 hours in a pitcher of water in the refrigerator and voila delicious water.

Also consider brewing noncaffeinated hot or cold herbal teas. They are good alternatives to dressing up your water. Look for varieties without added sugar or sweeteners.

Conclusion

So get creative and don’t be shy!

Following these hydration tips can be excellent steps to take in keeping your body well hydrated.

Whether you choose to eat or drink your water, keep trying creative ways to increase your water intake.

Personal Corner - My Current Routine

First thing in the morning, I drink water (after washing out my mouth, of course). One glass of water at room temperature followed by another warm glass of water sometimes plain, other times with lemon or apple cider vinegar (or sometimes both).

I sip my water throughout the day, trying to remember to drink every 30 minutes. I follow 4X a day drinking plan and try to finish drinking at least 1 hour before bed time to avoid having to wake up to go to bathroom during the night.

I stay away from plastic bottled water, except when I have to like airplane traveling, and drink out of glasses or bottles (eg, Mason jars).

We use filtered water in our house. My recommended water service company for the Tri-State area is Long Island Clean Water Service, Inc. Other options that have worked really well when I lived in apartments in New York City include Berkey Gravity Filter System and Brita Water Filter System.

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