You must drink water, you must stay hydrated; you need to drink 8 glasses of water per day; you must not drink coffee, you can drink coffee; bottled water is bad for you, bottled water is healthy, and so on and so forth.
The rules and regulations surrounding drinking water are confusing at the best of times, and then they seem to change regularly too, so it is no wonder people do not know what to do.
If you are as confused as I am about how much water one needs to drink in order to stay hydrated, then you are in good company. Apart from the fact that I am not sure what the real deal is half of the time, I generally forget to drink water anyway; it is not high on my priority list because I do not like the taste of water.
The fact is that drinking water regularly is probably the most important thing that you can do for you body every day; it cannot function without it and functions badly when it gets too little. Most people only drink something when they feel thirsty, which is actually about 2% into the dehydration cycle so actually a bit late, but then again better late than never.
There are two problems with only drinking when you are thirsty:
1. you generally drink what you enjoy, which is not necessarily water and may well be wine, beer, coffee, tea, a soda, or anything else;
2. the older we get the less we actually realise how thirsty we are and often think we are hungry when in actual fact the body is craving water
How to Ensure that You Stay Hydrated
In order to ensure that you remain fully hydrated at all times, there are a few tips I can give you:
- Start the day off with a nice big glass of water to kick-start your day; lemon water is even better
- Place a glass pitcher of water that can hold about 10 glasses of water on your desk and take a drink every time it catches your eye;
- Rather than trying to drink 2 litres of water all at once, sip on the water throughout the day in between your other drinks and meals;
- Drink a sports drink filled with electrolytes if you are doing sports or working out
- Add some flavour to your drinking water by dropping some sliced lemon, orange or a few berries into your jug of water
If you do not drink water because you do not like the taste of water and also can only drink chilled water, get yourself a home water cooler or an office water cooler; they dispense the best-tasting and best-smelling, toxin free, pure, chilled water you could wish to drink, virtually 24/7.
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