Im realizing that I’ve actually been chronically dehydrated for a good portion of my adult life and I’m looking to change that. I just don’t enjoy drinking water (as silly as that may sound).
Any advice is appreciated.
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Do you play games? Consider it fuel/health, daily requirements. Just chug two tall glasses first thing when you get up.
Herbal tea, hot or cold. Add flavour to your water - crush a couple frozen berries in the glass, add mint, add citrus slices. Try different temperatures: iced, room temp, just boiled. Drinking from a glass or cup instead of a bottle can help.
If you have a stationary job, then just plop a big ass water bottle with a straw on the desk between you and the keyboard for easy access. Water is the only thing I drink after only drinking iced tea every day until I was 18. Remove everything that isn’t water from your home. Turn your bottle into your fidget toy if you have to, having a straw helps even if you use it to open and close it. Hopefully before you know it you won’t even realize you’re drinking water. You don’t need to enjoy it. Same way people don’t enjoy medicine, you put up with because you’re an adult. If that seems too daunting, then you have some other demons you may need to tackle first before being able to get onto water.
Put water in a cup, put your lips up to the opening of the cup, slowly tilt the cup toward your mouth and swallow the water that goes inside.
I keep a water bottle nearby at all times and sip a bit as I remember. Honestly how often you take a sip probably matters more than how much anyway.
Water enhancers. Mio, Gatorade tabs, etc.
For me, it was having a water filter and drinking out of glasses, not cups. I don’t like the way water tastes coming out of plastic or steel as much.
I keep a jar with 64oz in it near me every day and pour that into a glass. It helps.
Try getting a soda stream to add a bit of fizz to your water. That might make it more enjoyable to drink.
Step one, fill cup with water.
Step two, drink cup.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you’ve drank enough water.
Step two, drink cup.
I think you’re supposed to drink the water, not the cup itself
Can i get an IKEA instructional leaflet of this?
100% get a water bottle and carry it with you. Reduces the effort needed to take a sip. Additionally, try to drink less sweet drinks too. I never liked fizzy drinks anyways.
Try high pH water, normal water is painful to drink, but high pH water is much smoother.
Eat more fruit. The water in it will help you hydrate
A different approach to the not liking water, get a good filter. I used breta filters for years but a few years back installed an under sink reverse osmosis filter because the water here is so hard that it just tastes bad whether left hard or softened. I knew water could be better because I grew up with decent water and liked it even back when I preferred pop or juice.
I wonder if anyone who claims to dislike water has only ever had subpar water. Note that I include a bunch of bottled waters in that, as I vastly prefer my RO tap water to any store bought bottled water, though some were on par with breta filtered water, though I’ve always hated the waste involved in buying bottled water (other than those big ones you can refill and stick in a water cooler, which can also be RO water if you have a good water place to get it from).
If you do go for RO, make sure the system you get has an extra stage that adds some minerals back into the water. The RO on its own actually leaves the water too pure to be safe to drink regularly, as it causes osmosis to pull nutrients out of your cells (or something like that). I’d also only suggest it in an area where water is plentiful, as it does use more water than what you get from the filter, though adding a passive pump can improve efficiency.
While the mineral issues are a concern, for most people it’s overcome with a decent diet. I’m not sure that those remineralizers do an awful lot. But I don’t leave my RO water standing eg in kettle!
Don’t. Drinking water with meals dilutes your stomach acid. Just eat less processed food and less salt and you’ll barely need to drink any water. Cooked vegetables and fruit are both mostly water.
Only time you need to drink water is when exercising outdoors for extended periods, and even then it’s about 3-4 liters per day (including food).
Also despite a lot of bogus advice out there, coffee is water, beer is 94% water. I have gone months with only coffee and beer and it’s not a problem.
Finally that brings us to kidney stones. Avoid high oxalate foods, and if you are worried about stones drink lemon water or other acidic beverages, as it dissolves stones better than plain water.
Chronic mild dehydration is not a disease and it does not need treatment. I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice.
Drink when you’re thirsty. Water or any other liquid other than soda pop. You’ll probably be fine.
OP, please don’t listen to this person. Most of this is terrible advice.
To start, it’s still advisable to drink water through the day even if you’re getting some from your food intake. A typical diet will provide around 20% of the recommended daily amount - the rest needs to come from actual fluid intake. Even with a diet with a high proportion of fruits and vegetables, it doesn’t come close to meeting the ideal amount.
Coffee and beer are not the same as the equivalent amount of pure water. Caffeine and ethanol both function as diuretics - that is, they promote urine production which in turn reduces your overall hydration. Ethanol is worse in this category to the extent that alcoholic drinks can actually dehydrate you. Caffeine has a more mild effect and is overall hydrating, but a cup of coffee still isn’t equivalent to a cup of water.
Citrus fruits do help prevent kidney stone formation, but it’s primarily via a different mechanism involving the citrate found in those fruits/juices rather than the acidity itself. Not that this matters too much in practice, but I point this out due to the inclusion of “other acidic beverages” as an alternative.
Chronic mild dehydration (generally) won’t kill you, but it will prevent your body from functioning at its best and can potentially cause issues with electrolyte imbalances, blood pH, and plenty else. You should aim to stay optimally hydrated as much as possible for the benefit of your overall health.
“Drink when you’re thirsty” is the one solid piece of advice here. Your body has evolved cues like this over hundreds of millions in order to get you to take good care of it, and its best to listen to them as much as possible. That said: these cues only works when you’re cognizant of them, and it’s still important to be actively mindful and intermittently remind yourself to follow them, especially when you’re involved in tasks that would otherwise distract you from them.
My water intake is pretty high, but it does vary seasonally - in summer, I’ll go through 5L easily. I think that most people could stand to increase their water intake, and reports of hyperhydration are overstated - it’s mostly a paediatric problem.
- Learn to just drink a whole cup at once. Then do that on a schedule. Every hour through the working day gets you to the 2L per day generic recommendation. Then add a couple glasses at and after dinner.
- I don’t want to recommend bottled water because it’s environmentally reprehensible, but find a way to make water taste neutral. Part of that, though, is just getting used to it.
- building on that taste thing - it’s probably better for the long term to get used to it than to always add flavor.
- Find out if you like it better warm or cold. A lot of people insist on cold water, but I don’t like cold water. It takes too long to drink without a brain freeze effect, unless I want something specifically to cool me down, which is infrequent.
