One of the first, and simplest, habits to practice to improve your health is to make sure you’re drinking enough water. In this article, I’m going to share 15 tips for drinking more water that will help you easily check this task off the list.
Before we jump into how to drink more water, let’s talk about why drinking more water is worth your time and effort.
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Benefits of Drinking More Water
There are many benefits of drinking more water. It helps with everything from the way your skin looks to how your body functions.
It’s even on my shortlist for healthy habits that help with weight loss and on my list of the 8 secrets to a successful diet. Drinking water is an often overlooked, but easy way to improve your overall health and fitness.
Here is what happens to your body when you start drinking more water:
- Fewer unexplained hunger cravings.
- Improved exercise performance.
- Faster weight loss.
- Higher energy levels.
- Flushes waste and toxins from the body.
Making sure you get enough water each day helps you feel and look better.
15 Quick and Easy Tips for Drinking More Water
1. Drink a cup of water first thing in the morning.
One of the best ways to start drinking more water is to get it over and done with first thing in the morning. When you wake up, make sure you drink down a quick cup before you start your day.
It will help rehydrate you from the night before, plus you still have plenty of time to hit the bathroom before you head out the door.
2. Drink a cup of water before each meal.
Before you start eating, drink a cup of water. If you do this three times a day, you will be almost halfway to your water goal without even trying.
This is also a great tip for drinking more water if weight loss is your goal. The extra water will cut down on false hunger signals and help you feel satisfied with less food at each meal.
3. Drink a cup of water after each workout.
This is a prime time to get some extra water in because you are already thirsty from your workout. Plus, with all the sweating you were doing, your body needs the extra water to help replace what you were sweating out.
Depending on how hard you exercise, you might even want to drink more than just one cup of water to help keep you hydrated.
4. Drink a cup of water before drinking sugary drinks (soda, juice, etc.)
Next on the list of tips for drinking more water is to drink one before you drink anything else. Sugary drinks like soda and juice can make it harder to make sure you’re getting enough water to keep you hydrated.
Many juices and sodas actually dehydrate your body more and have very little, if any, nutritional value.
If you drink a cup of water before your other beverages, you will cut down on your other drinks and make sure your body is getting the hydration it really needs.
5. Track your water intake with an app.
Another great way to increase your water consumption is to track it with an app. Healthline.com has a great list of the Best Hydration Apps of 2020.
Tracking each cup of water will help you see your progress so you can feel more motivated to keep up the good work.
6. Use a straw.
Using a straw is one of the easiest tips for drinking more water. Have you ever noticed that any time your drink has a straw you’re more likely to mindlessly suck it down?
Water is no different. I make sure that every water bottle I buy has a straw in it because it helps me to drink twice as much water in a day.
7. Use a motivational water bottle.
I bought one of these motivation water bottles a few months back and it made a huge difference in how much water I drink each day. On the side of the bottle, it has encouraging words and a quota for how much water to drink every hour.
Seeing the bottle on my desk with its encouraging phrases has been a great reminder to keep sipping away throughout my day. Plus, the pretty colors catch my eye. 🙂
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8. Set a water goal for each hour.
Even if you don’t have a motivational water bottle, you can still set a water goal for each hour. If your goal is to drink 64 oz of water a day, you can set a goal of 4-5 oz an hour. (That’s about half a cup.)
Setting a goal for each hour will help keep you on track and not feeling like you have to chug a ton of water at the end of the day.
9. Do a water drinking challenge.
If a challenge or a little competition helps motivate you, a great way to drink more water is to join a water drinking challenge. Invite a friend to do it with you and see who can stick with it the longest.
The YMCA has a 30 Day Water Challenge you can do for free. You can also head to Pinterest and find lots of templates and ideas if you search for “water drinking challenge.”
10. Try sparkling water.
A lot of times when people are switching from sodas to regular water, they miss the carbonation. If that’s the case for you, you can try drinking sparkling water.
You’ll still get a lot of the benefits of drinking water while also getting the refreshing bubbles.
11. Try flavor add-ins.
Another great tip for drinking more water is to try flavor add-ins. You start with a normal cup of water and then add some drops of flavor enhancer.
This can help a lot if you don’t like the taste of water or feel like it’s too plain. There are healthier natural flavor enhancers or some that taste similar to more sugary drinks.
This makes it a really good way to transition to drinking water from things like juice or soda. You can start with a higher number of drops to your water and as you get used to it, you can cut back on how much flavor enhancer you use.
12. Try fruit-infusers.
Another way to increase how much water you drink is to use a fruit-infuser. Fruit-infusers are like normal water bottles except they have a little basket where you can place fresh fruit, vegetables, or herbs.
The basket sits inside the water so the water can absorb lots of vitamins, minerals, and taste from whatever you put inside it. It’s a great way to enhance your water naturally while also improving the taste.
13. Use a water filter.
Having a water filter at home makes it a lot easier to drink more water. It allows you to easily fill up your water bottle throughout the day as much as you need without having to keep up with plastic bottles of water.
I have tried using bottled water and it honestly becomes more of a hassle than it’s worth. When you’re drinking 5-6 bottles of water a day it really starts to add up.
It can become expensive and you have to deal with empty water bottles all over the place. Having delicious water that you can get right from your tap is a lot easier and more convenient.
14. Pre-fill your water bottles.
If you want to make drinking water easier, a good tip to try is to pre-fill your water bottles. As silly as it sounds, there are plenty of times when I don’t drink more water simply because my water bottle is empty and I’m too busy (or lazy 🤷) to get up and go refill it.
When you pre-fill your water bottles for the day this doesn’t become a problem. This was a huge help for me when I first tried to increase how much water I was drinking.
I would take 3 water bottles and fill them up with water. Then I would set them all at my desk at the beginning of the day so they were ready and waiting when I needed them.
15. Set reminders.
Last on the list of tips for drinking more water is to set reminders. Take your phone and set a reminder for every hour or so.
When the alarm goes off, drink a cup of water. It’s as simple as that. Sometimes we have too much going on to remember to stop and drink water during our busy day.
An alarm takes the thinking out of it and you can spend more time focusing on other healthy habits while still hitting your hydration goals.
Conclusion to 15 Quick and Easy Tips for Drinking More Water
So there you have 15 quick and easy tips for drinking more water. The tips on this list can help make it easier to reach your water goals.
You can pick and choose a few tips to try for starters or work your way down the list and see which ones work best for you.
Do you have any tried and true tips for drinking more water? If so, comment below or email me at Candice@littlestepsbighappy.com. Follow me on Pinterest for more health and fitness tips for moms.
Looking for more healthy eating tips?
Healthy Eating Habits:
- Emotional Overeating: how to recognize it and how to stop it
- How to Eat Healthy When Your Family Doesn’t: 8 Practical Tips
- How to Break Unhealthy Eating Habits in 6 Steps
- How to Stop Mindless Snacking
- Tips on How to Stop Late Night Eating
- Overeating vs. Satisfied: How to Tell if You’re Eating Too Much
Dieting:
- 8 Secrets to a Successful Diet
- How to Stick to Your Diet on Vacation
- Does Counting Calories Work? – The Surprising Truth!
- 3 Ways You Practice Diet Sabotage & How to Stop!
- 21 Small Diet Changes to Lose Weight for Good
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I’m a busy mom of 3 turned Health and Fitness Coach and Self Defense Instructor. I help inspire other moms to reach their health, fitness, and weight loss goals. You can usually find me chasing my kiddos around, training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, or sneaking away to read romance novels. About Me