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Why You Need To Drink More Water and How To Do It

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Susan here to remind and encourage you with some tips for drinking more water. I’m not a medical expert and this is not to be taken as medical advice.

Why You Need To Drink More Water and How

We’ve all heard how important drinking water is to our health. It’s clearly one of the easiest and most powerful ways to improve your health and maintain your weight, yet I often hear from friends that they struggle to drink enough water.

In fact, even my mother, who has taken vitamins her whole life and eats a strict paleo diet, continually goes without drinking enough water in the day.

Why Don’t People Drink Enough Water?

These are the reasons I hear from friends about why they don’t drink enough water…

  1. Life is busy and my day moves fast. I don’t have time.
     
  2. I don’t feel thirsty.
     
  3. It doesn’t taste like anything.
     
  4. I’d rather drink soda or coffee.

I think it’s hard for people to really believe how important water is to their health and weight. So I collected some information to help convince you…

Why You Need To Drink More Water

Here are some of the health and weight loss benefits of drinking water…

  1. Water revs up metabolism and helps you feel full. (WebMD)
     
  2. It improves the appearance of your skin. When your blood gets thick and water-deficient from organs pulling water from it, the blood in turn pulls water from skin cells. When your skin is dry, it’s less resilient and elastic, making it prone to wrinkling. (livestrong.com)
     
  3. It’s critical for your heart health. Keeping the body hydrated helps the heart more easily pump blood through the blood vessels to the muscles. “If you’re well hydrated, your heart doesn’t have to work as hard,” said John Batson, M.D. (heart.org)
     
  4. Water Helps Energize Muscles. Cells that don’t maintain their balance of fluids and electrolytes shrivel, which can result in muscle fatigue. (WebMD)
     
  5. It protects your spinal cord and other sensitive tissues, lubricates and cushions joints, and gets rid of toxins and wastes.(CDC)

Another important benefit for parents is that when your kids see you drinking water regularly, it helps teach them the importance of drinking water.

How To Do It

Here are some tips to help you drink more water…

  1. Take a bottle of water with you wherever you go.
     
  2. Keep a jug of cold, filtered water in your fridge at all times.
     
  3. Before your morning coffee, drink a full glass of water.
     
  4. Before a meal, drink a glass of water and it will help you not over-eat.
     
  5. Add lemon, lime or other fruit such as strawberries or oranges to your water.
     
  6. Drink herbal tea.
     
  7. Replace soda with sparkling water.

Now, I’m off to refill my water glass. Want me to get you one too?

Want More?

For more health and wellness tips, follow our Health Pinterest Board.



 

Written by Susan Carraretto, co-founder of 5 Minutes for Mom
Talk with me: @5minutesformom and Facebook.com/5minutesformom
Pin with me at http://pinterest.com/5minutesformom/

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14 Comments

  1. Thanks for writing about this important (and often-overlooked) topic. I’ve been a personal trainer for 15 years and this is still one of the items my clients find most challenging. Thanks for the good tips.

    One I would caution people about however is the idea of drinking a glass of water before each meal. I understand that the intent is to feel fuller but that water can have a major negative impact on your stomach’s ability to digest food. The acidity of your stomach will be diluted, which can leads to slower digestion, gas, bloating, etc. Just a thought to consider.

    I wrote an article all about drinking water for weight-loss. If you’re interested you can check it out here: http://makeyourbodywork.com/drink-water-to-lose-weight/

    Thanks again for addressing this issue!

    Reply

  2. A year ago I would be lucky if I’d drink a liter of water the whole day then one day I get diagnosed with prediabetes which scared the heck out of me so I started to increase my intake to up to 2 liters a day.

    The great news is that by increasing my intake the prediabetes subsided and my blood glucose levels went down plus my hunger pangs went away because I didn’t know I was craving for food because my body was dehydrated.

    So drinking lots of water is beneficial not only for flushing out excess toxins but also helping you eat less. Thank you for sharing this article.

    Reply

  9. great tips and awesome reasons to drink water. My grandparents started us out early drinking water as they would keep a jug of water in the fridge year round for all to drink good cool water

    Reply

  10. Great tips – I have saved these indeed. Kiddies are hooked on those fruit drinks, and now I have ideas on how to incorporate water to their daily drinks.

    Reply