Even if you’ve let your hydration habits slip (or you never glugged a ton of water in the first place), it’s never too late to get back on track and set yourself up to reap the health benefits of staying hydrated. It’s a worthwhile personal challenge. “Our bodies are roughly 60 percent water, so even the slightest bit of dehydration can negatively affect how we function, from energy levels to digestion and even immunity,” says Lisa Moskovitz, RDN, founder of the New York Nutrition Group in New York City.
Staying hydrated will also improve your body’s ability to absorb nutrients, as well as keep your digestive system regular, Moskovitz adds. Adequate water is important for healthy gastrointestinal functioning, as it helps you stay regular by breaking down food and keeping stool soft, notes Mayo Clinic.
If you’re not drinking enough, it pays to sip more. For instance, a review published in August 2018 in Skin Research and Technology suggests that increasing water intake has been shown to improve hydration of the stratum corneum, which is the outer layer of skin.
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Ready to up your beverage game? One word of advice before you start: Know your baseline hydration level before you adjust your water intake. Here are five smart ways to drink more water — and make it tasty, too:
Tip 1. Hydrate When You Wake Up and Before Meals
If you put a water bottle in front of you, it’s easy to get lost in the day’s tasks and forget to take sips, but prioritizing hydration morning, afternoon, and evening is important. “Try to have about two glasses of water first thing in the morning and then one glass of water before every meal and snack,” says Moskovitz. There’s a double benefit to pairing food and water: “Drinking H2O also helps you slow down during meal time. If you start a meal with a very empty tummy, it’s easy to eat much faster and forget to thoroughly chew, which impacts how well food is digested,” she says.
What’s more, it also may help you eat less. In a past systematic review, researchers found that increasing water intake helped dieters lose weight, but the habit did not help reduce weight in those who were not looking to shed pounds. Drinking more H2O may help dieters because it might suppress hunger, thus helping people eat less at that meal. Nonetheless, the researchers emphasize that the findings only suggest a link between hydration and weight loss. To prove that no other factors were responsible for the weight loss, more studies are needed. “The evidence for this association is still low, mostly because of the lack of good-quality studies,” they write.
Tip 2. Wrap Up Your Day With Another Bottle of Water
We just encouraged you to drink water once you wake up, but an additional strategy to consider is to bookend your day with another beverage. Meaning: Make sure to have a bottle of water within two hours of waking. Then, two hours before bed, finish another. People who did so (drinking 550 milliliters, or about 18 oz, each time) were able to increase their H20 intake from 44 to 68 oz per day, according to a small study on healthy adults published in Nutrients in April 2020. Participants also benefited from a decrease in blood pressure, as water supported kidney function, allowing the organ to better remove excess sodium from the body. The additional water also aided in proper body temperature regulation, likely due to a boost in circulation. Make sure to time your intake so that you finish drinking around two hours before bed, otherwise you may have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. This is one before-bed habit that will definitely boost your health (unlike scrolling through TikTok).
Tip 3. Eat Your Water by Following a Produce-Heavy Diet
Fruits and vegetables have a high water content that will help you meet your daily quota, says Libby Mills, RDN, a Philadelphia-based spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “Fruits like cantaloupe, strawberries, and watermelon, and vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage, celery, spinach, and cooked squash are about 90 percent water,” she says. Dairy products, including milk, yogurt, and cottage cheese, are also good sources of water.
Tip 4. Experiment With How You Drink Water to Maximize Enjoyment
For Ashton, she had to want to drink more. If you’re the type of person who thinks plain water is, well, too plain, experiment with different temperatures and tastes. “I knew that if I made hydration as palatable as possible, I’d be able to keep it up more easily,” she says. So she tried water with ice, without ice, at room temperature, and flavored with slices of fruit. Her preference ended up being plain cold water with no ice, but that doesn’t have to be yours. Try out different flavors by adding fresh fruit (like the discarded strawberry tops from breakfast), vegetables (cucumber slices), or herbs (fresh basil or ginger). Try this new unique refillable water bottle to spice up your daily water intake routine. This bottle infuses your daily water intake with energizing crystals in an effort to increase your productivity throughout the day and make drinking water just the slightest bit more fun.
Tip 5. Keep Track of Hydration With a Smartphone App
Our last tip to stay hydrated is to make your water bottle your smartphone’s new companion. “Just like you keep your phone right next to you at all times, you should keep a BPA-free water bottle [within reach],” says Moskovitz. Make your phone work for you by using a well-rated, popular hydration-tracking app, like Water Reminder (free on Google Play), Water Tracker Waterllama (free on the App Store), or Water Drink Reminder (free on Google Play), which allow you to keep track of what you’re consuming. They will also remind you during the day to start swigging. If you don’t want to download an app, set a timer on your phone to go off every hour to remind you to pause for a few sips.