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Here are a few of my tricks (then I want to hear yours!)…
- Always have a bottle of water on my bedside table. I’m lazy, so instead of getting out of bed to get a glass of juice or a Coke, I know I’ll choose the bottle of water within arms reach every time. This trick also works in my living room. I keep a bottle of water next to me on the couch. I’m seriously so lazy, it’s just more convenient to drink water than go into the kitchen and get something else.
- Bring water to the movies. There’s nothing like a big ‘ol movie-theatre-sized Coke with salty movie popcorn. But if I remove the Coke and bring a bottle of water, I can’t help but drink lots of water while I munch on popcorn and candy.
- Take water on hikes. I live in LA, so I go hiking in our awesome hills all the time. I used to not bring water because I don’t like carrying things while I walk, but I realized that bringing water not only refreshes me while I hike, but it helps me consume more of it and faster.
- Keep a bottle of water in my car. Sometimes I’m just bored in my car and drinking water at red lights just gives me something to do.
Okay, Homies, help me out here. What other genius life hacks for drinking more water am I missing out on?
I work at a movie theater, some of the other theaters are kinda nit-picky and might not let you bring in a full water bottle. I’ve never had a problem, I just bring in an empty bottle and fill it at the drinking fountain or ask the Concessionist to fill it.
Plus you’ll save money by not spending the $5.25 (at my location) by not buying that liter of H2O
I’m with you Megan! Water is soooo boring. I have a bottle with water by my desk, and I make myself get through one bottle in the morning and one in the afternoon. Having the bottle there in front of me helps as a reminder.
At home I just make myself drink a whole glass of water at certain times, I usually link it with the daily routine in order to remember – when I get home from work, when the news starts on telly, when I start preparing dinner, before doing dishes etc. It has never been a pleasure, just more of a necessary chore.
I have tried jazzing it up by making iced tea, but that requires forethought and planning to make it in advance, and hasn’t always been that successful. I also forget to buy new teabags so am always running out. So chugging a glass of boring water to get it over and done with seems to be the way.
When I’m work, I always make myself have 2 small glasses of water before I’m allowed another hot drink (or any other kind of drink). I love my hot tea and coffee so it’s a good way to get up my water intake and decrease my caffiene intake!
I had this problem back in high school. I filled up a pitcher and forced my self to drink it all day (not all at one time, just I made sure I had a glass in my hand and set deadlines for how much I needed to drink) and I finally got used to that taste and it didn’t bother me anymore. Then I got in the habit of ordering water at restaurants. It’s a second nature to automatically say water when the waitress asks, I don’t even notice it now. thirdly I don’t buy pop for my house. Only my teas, water, milk and juice.
If I’m in need of some energy I get caffeinated water. Idk if that’s just as bad or not, but i prefer it to super sugary energy drinks and it tastes like regular water. However my friends like to put flavor packets in it (mio or crystal lite) and I’m sure that drinking flavored water is one step closer to drinking plain water too.
Now I don’t always succeed in this (and I’m much better at work than at home), but I set some goals for myself. I’m rather obsessed with to-do lists, so if I put water goals on there then I’m MUCH more likely to do it just so that I can have the satisfaction of crossing it off. Typically my goals are:
1) I’m allowed a morning cup of coffee, but after that I have to drink at least 4 glasses of water before I can drink any other beverage (and yes I’ve totally chugged a glass of water so that I can have my sprite w/ lunch before!). After I’ve had that one (usually around lunch time), I start over and have to have another 4 glasses before I can drink anything else.
2) Either on my cup somewhere (if I’m using a disposable one) or on a piece of paper I keep tally marks of how many times I’ve refilled the cup. Again I’m very short-term goal oriented so I can’t stand to have uneven tally marks (I’ll drink the extra glass so that I can make the 4 slashes into the completed set of 5).
Sometimes you can make your neurotic tendencies work for you instead of against you!
We had to do the water marks for a middle school health project. We were given tape to put around our bottle, and we had to date/tally how many bottles we had to drink that way. It does help because it gives you a visual of how many you’ve had and how much is left to go.
I try to drink from a one litre bottle throughout the day – I have an old glass sparkling mineral water bottle on my desk at work that I drink from (either straight from the bottle or pouring into a glass), and a water jug at home.
It makes it easy to keep track of how much I’m drinking, I found my intake increased significantly doing things that way.
I also vastly prefer cold water over room temperature, especially in summer, so I try to keep some water in the fridge all the time.
My water-drinking hack was to pretend to be a mermaid, and if I didn’t drink my water, it meant I was drying up and would turn into seafoam. SO THERE YOU HAVE IT. It worked pretty well, actually …
I don’t follow the advice that we need to constantly be drinking water, but water is my beverage of choice when I’m thirsty. I used to use a Platypus collapsible water bottle, but it got gross after not washing it enough (it was damn difficult to wash). However, I like to keep a bottle of water (that I refill from the tap) with me because thirst can strike at random times. I’m wary of keeping a bottle of water in the car (not that I own a car anymore) because of problems with heating plastic or the metallic taste an aluminum bottle gives water after it’s been stored too long.
I use a trick much like the thin rubber bands some people suggest… I wear a pandora bracelet with 8 threaded charms on it. When I finish a glass, I twist one of the threaded charms to the other end of the bracelet…. so when all the charms are on the other side then I’ve finished my goal for the day.
I keep only 3 gallons of water and 1 gallon of milk in the fridge to drink to limit my cold drink choices. Plus I started using 0 calorie Mio to add flavor as needed. I also keep a water bottle by the bed, because I get severe leg cramps at night when I haven’t had enough water during the day.
I fill a litre bottle with water for every meal. And drink it between every two-three bites. (The goal is to finish it with the meal) At the end of the day, I’m fuller, eating less calories, and getting 3 litres of water a day.
(The litre bottle just adds to the accomplished feel- 600mls just doesn’t do the same thing)