7 hacks for making sure you’re drinking enough water
Almost everywhere you turn, there’s someone talking about the benefits of drinking water. It makes your skin better, it cleans your system out — water is life. But it’s not always easy to remember to hydrate, which is why having some simple hacks to make sure you’re drinking enough water can help. Whether you turn it into a game or just carry around a jug of water all day, you have to get that H2O in somehow.
Because the benefits of drinking enough water are way too good to pass up.
For starters, drinking water eases migraines and cramps, increases your energy levels, and of course, makes your complexion glow. So how much water do you have to drink anyway? The old adage is that you need to drink eight cups a day, which comes out to about 1.9 liters. However, according to the Mayo Clinic, the actual ideal amount totally depends on the person. For one, you can get a lot of water through certain foods. The Institute of Medicine recommends that men should drink about 13 cups a day, and women nine cups. The eight cups a day thing isn’t actually backed by any science — it’s just really easy to remember.
Either way, just set a water intake goal and go for it.
1Use an app.
There are tons of apps out there that will help you track your water intake. Waterlogged and Daily Water are two good ones to try out. if you don’t feel like entering in data and all of that stuff, just set an alarm at different intervals for you to take a break and chug a glass of water.
2Have a glass of water every time you take a break.
A bathroom break, that is. If you have a glass of water every time you go to the bathroom, you’ll definitely be sure to get your daily eight (or nine, or 12) cups in. Yes, you might have to pee more, but then you’ll just be getting extra water.
3Make it taste better.
Water should taste delicious anyway, but if you want to make it more interesting, you can add lemon or cucumber or any number of all natural flavors to your water to make it taste better and less boring.
4Have a gallon jug around.
Turning it into a game is a good way to go for some people. Every morning, you can start with a whole gallon jug or huge 2-liter bottle of water. Then, try to get through all of it within the day. If you find drinking out of a huge container a little unseemly, you can always just keep it close by and fill up a cup. Having the container sitting in front of you all day will help you want to tackle it.
5Buy a fancy water bottle.
There are water bottles you can but that will track all of this for you, like this one that syncs to your phone and tells you how much you’re slugging and then will light up and remind you to take a drink. (Side note: We sort of want one for wine too.)
6Treat yourself.
The benefits of drinking water should be reward enough, but sometimes more incentive can be a good thing. If you reach your water intake goals, you should treat yourself to something, like an extra snack or even a fancy moisturizer you’ve had your eye on for a while now. Since you’re taking such good care of your body by drinking all of this water, upping your products is totally worth it.
7Use rubber bands.
You can also put a bunch of rubber bands on your water bottle. Every time you finish one and go to refill it, you can take off one of the bands and put it on your wrist. It will weirdly make you feel like you’ve accomplished something when you see all those bands on your wrist at the end of each day!