If you think you might not be drinking enough, read on to find your cure!
4 simple tips on when, what and how much you need to drink to stay hydrated.
Hydration is the basis of all health and wellness. Your body is 60% water, after all. Hydration is not as straightforward as most people think it is – especially if you’re someone who exercises regularly or lives in a country with a hot climate. Drinking water can prevent dehydration, a condition that can cause unclear thinking, result in mood change, cause your body to overheat, and lead to constipation and kidney stones. Water has no calories, so it can also help with managing body weight and reducing calorie intake when substituted for drinks with calories, such as juices or regular soda. So it’s crucial for everyone’s health to focus on their water intake. That is why we gathered 4 basic – yet crucial – tips to help you reach your hydration goals!
The importance of hydration
Before we head straight to the tips, you first need to understand the importance of hydration and why you should be equally as proactive when it comes to staying hydrated as you are with eating clean. Here we have listed a few important benefits of hydrating:
- Regulates your body temperature
- Keeps your joints lubricated
- Prevents overeating
- Removes waste through urination, perspiration, and bowel movements.
- Improves the quality of skin
A deficit of water can increase your stress levels, leaving you feeling moody and not on top of your game – whether it’s at work, on the training ground or at home. So, if you’re someone who always paid little attention to their hydration intake, then these tips are made for you!
Tip 1:
Men should consume 3.7 litres and women 2.7 litres of fluid per day – minimum, according to research institute Mayo Clinic. They say about 20% of that comes from our food. That means there are still about 2.1 liters of fluid left that you should get from water or other liquids.
How much water or fluid you need per day is not the same for everyone. The basic intake is calculated with a very simple formula: your body weight x 0.03.
The result is how many liters of water you should drink on a daily basis.
An easy tip to make sure you’re drinking enough water: invest in a BPA-free, refillable water bottle and carrying it with you wherever you go; always keeping a glass of water on your nightstand. Don’t like the plain water taste? You can either invest for example in an AirUp Bottle or choose for the low-cost version: add slices of ginger, cucumber, lemon or mint for a bit of a taste without adding calories.
Tip 2: Eat your water
Like mentioned earlier, 20% of our fluid intake should come from our foods. Here is where you can get very creative with ingredients and recipes. By eating your water in addition to drinking it you're organically hydrating your body AND effectively supplying your cells with the elements they need to retain elasticity and maintain growth. The body regenerates and creates new cells to replace old ones on a daily basis and the best way to make sure our bodies are operating at optimal 'youth + beauty capacity' is to keep them saturated with an abundance of high water content, nutrient-dense fruits and veggies, all day long. Think of cucumber, tomatoes, zucchini, spinach. And fruits like melons ( watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe ), pineapple, all kind of berries (blueberries, strawberries and blackberries ) and citrus fruits like grapefruit, orange & lemons.
Tip 3: Drink a large glass of water as soon as you wake up.
Hydrate before caffeinate. For many the first drink of the day is a cup of coffee. But it would become much better for the body if you could drink your large class of water while your coffee is getting ready. This is such an easy way to reach your water needs. Whether you feel thirsty or not, 6-8 hours of sleep is a long period to go without drinking anything and your body is going to be dehydrated.
Having a sufficient amount of water in your system also helps fire up the metabolism and supports in the transportation of essential nutrients in the body. As we already mentioned above: keep a bottle or glass of water on your nightstand just in case you wake up very thirsty.
Tip 4: Include hydration in your work-outs.
It’s very important to drink water before, during and after your work-out. And by during we don’t mean having a bottle of water next to your mat just in case you feel thirsty or just to take 2 sips during your whole work-out.
You should consciously drink enough fluids the day of a workout, immediately before a workout, during a workout and after a workout. It might sound a bit extreme but losing body weight due to fluid loss can decrease performance and put your health at risk.
If you don’t want to suffer from a headache or worse, set an alarm to remind you to drink 500 ml of water 1-2 hours before training, 200 ml immediately before training, 100-200 ml every 10-15 mins during your training and at least another 500 ml afterwards.
We hope these 4 tips will help you to stay hydrated!