23 Tips for Drinking More Water

Now that it's day 2 of the water challenge, I thought I better start looking for ways to encourage myself to drink more water and I came across this article that is full of great ideas.  Make sure you click the link to read the entire article.

• Don’t allow yourself a diet soda until you’ve had two to four glasses of water. Eventually you will find that you won’t crave the soda as much.
• Have a big glass of water at every transitional point of the day: when you first get up, just before leaving the house, when you sit down to work, etc.

• Make it convenient – keep a big, insulated water bottle full on your desk and reach for it all day.
• Down a full glass several times a day. Go over to your kitchen right now and fill up a glass. No sipping over time. Just drink it down right after you fill it up.

• Track it. Make a chart and tick it off each time you drink a glass. Do a chart for 30 days and you will have made drinking water a part of your routine.
• Have one glass every hour on the hour while at work or school. When the work/school day is done, your water quota is met.

• Freeze peeled pieces of lemons, limes, and oranges and use them instead of ice cubes – it’s refreshing and helps get in a serving or two of fruit.
• After each trip to the restroom, guzzle an eight-ounce glass to replenish your system.
• Set a goal to drink X amount of water a day, then write it down along with your reasons WHY! Remembering your motivation will help you keep going when enthusiasm fades.

• Every time you walk past a water fountain, take a sip or two. (This is actually advice my own doctor gave me recently after a nasty kidney stone incident!)
• Fizz it up!  Get a home seltzer maker like a Soda Stream and make your own fizzy H2O!  Add a dash of lemon or a splash of O.J. and you’ll have a super refreshing drink!
• Fill up a large cup with crushed ice or ice cubes and snack on them (like candy!) throughout the day.
• Make a bet with a co-worker to see who can drink more water in the course of a day.

• When drinking juice (apple, grape, or orange) fill half the glass with water or ice and make sure to consume all of it.
• Bring a two-liter bottle of water to work and try to drink it all before you leave work. If you don’t finish, drink it in traffic on the way home – it’s like a race.

• Keep a large cup full of ice at your desk and keep re-filling it with water. The key is drinking with a straw – you take bigger gulps and drink more at a time.
• Here’s a tip if you’re trying to shed some pounds: Let ounces of water double grams of fat: when eating something containing 10 grams of fat, drink 20 ounces of water.
• Drink two full glasses at each meal, one before and one after. Also, drink one glass before each snack so you don’t eat as much.

• Put reminders into your phone or calendar to drink at regular intervals. Surprisingly, this helps me a LOT!  I know it sounds lame, but I just plain FORGET to drink water!
• Carry a small refillable water bottle at all times and drink during downtime; while waiting in a bank line, sitting on the train, etc.

• Not ALL your water has to be COLD…drink some of it HOT. Have a nice warm cup of tea instead. But be sure it’s decaf since caffeine actually robs you of water (it’s a diuretic).
• Always keep a bottle of water handy while watching TV, doing laundry, making dinner, etc.
• Add drinking two glasses of water to your daily skincare regimen. Drink, cleanse, moisturize, then drink again.