You should know why drinking enough water is necessary and the significance of maintaining proper hydration throughout the day. Drinking more water is an essential practice for our health and wellbeing, but many of us do not drink enough each day. We all know that water is important for our bodies and minds to perform optimally. In this post, I am diving into why it is so important to drink enough water and how we benefit from it.
Why You Need to Drink More Water
Your Body Needs It: Water is a prerequisite for just about every chemical process in our bodies. It promotes digestion, nutrient absorption, and circulation. Our bodies simply cannot complete those tasks without the necessary water.
Improves Physical Performance: If you work out or do any physical activity, get a glass of water and keep hydrated. Dehydration can cause sluggishness, decrease endurance, and increase the sensation of effort during exercise.
Brain Function: Your brain needs water to function. Dehydration, even mild dehydration, can change your mood and make it more difficult to focus and remember things. Staying hydrated is key to remaining sharp and focused.
Helps You Lose Weight: Water makes your body feel full, so you are less likely to overeat. Often our bodies confuse thirst with hunger, so drinking a glass of water can help satisfy you in between meals to avoid snacking when all your body wants is some hydration.
Skin Health: Remaining hydrated will help keep up the versatility of your skin in addition to relieving dryness and wrinkles. Simply by consuming an adequate amount of water, you can achieve healthier and sunnier-looking skin.
Aids Digestion: Water helps break down food so that your body can absorb nutrients. It can also prevent you from getting constipation since it keeps all things going well.
Flushes Out Toxins: Drinking water helps your kidneys filter waste so it can excrete through urine! Being well-hydrated also helps to eliminate the toxins in your body correctly.
Body Temperature: Your body uses water to maintain your temperature, sometimes through sweating during intense summer heat or in a hot room while exercising. You need to replace that volume of water you lose when you sweat because your body requires it for its regulation on temperature.
Clear Thinking and Focus: To have a clear mind at work, one needs to stay hydrated. Keeping you mentally sharp by ensuring that you consume enough water supports digestion and metabolism, making food easier for the body to process and assimilate.
How to Stay Hydrated
Take a Water Bottle: When you have a water bottle with yourself, it gives you the best way to intake water throughout your day. No matter where you are, in the office, driving, or in the gym, it always reminds you to remain hydrated.
Time Drink Reminders: An obvious trick to improve your water intake is to set reminders on your phone or in a hydration app. This helps to make it a habit of being properly hydrated.
Infuse Your Water: Plain water can be quite tasteless; infuse it with fruits, veggies, or herbs. You can always spice up your water with some slices of lemon, cucumber, mint, or berries to make it more enjoyable.
Drink a Glass Before Meals: One good practice is to drink water before meals and make it part of your daily routine. Unlike iced coffee, this not only helps in being hydrated but can also help with digestion and appetite control.
Keep an Intake Log: Track your daily water consumption. This could also serve as your accountability to make sure you are hitting those hydration goals!
Consume Foods High in Water: To get some additional liquid into your diet, make a habit of adding water-based foods (apple, pear) and veggies (broccoli, cucumbers). These count towards your fluid intake in general.
How much water should you drink ?
So how much fluid does the average, healthy adult living in a temperate climate need? The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined that an adequate daily fluid intake is:
- About 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day for men
- About 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluids a day for women
These recommendations cover fluids from water, other beverages and food. About 20% of daily fluid intake usually comes from food and the rest from drinks.
Remember the Rewards: Think about all of the good things that come along with staying hydrated — more energy, better concentration, nourished skin, and healthiness in general. That makes it a sound reason to place water near the top of your agenda.
Establish Goals: Establish daily fluid intake at all costs, establishing a guidepost for completing it. This can be really motivational and help you form good habits!
Imagine Success: Envision your body alive, awake, and vibrant. The thought of these good things can keep you drinking water.
One Hydration Challenge: Get involved in a hydration challenge with co-workers or friends. Support one another, report back on how you are doing and this will hopefully make the process more enjoyable.
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