Did you know that our bodies are made up of about 60% water? No joke. Even the parts of our body that we wouldn’t necessarily think. For example, our bones, muscle, and teeth have a fairly moderate percentage of water composition.
So why then, if we have so much water already in our bodies, is it so important to keep drinking more?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; our bodies are these really incredible, beautiful machines that are automatically wired to just perform the craziest of tasks. Balancing fluids is one of them. The water in our bodies is designed to help aide the process of digestion, absorption, circulation, transportation of nutrients, regulation of body temp, and more.
All sounding a little too text book? Fair enough. Just know that drinking water is one of the most important things you can do for optimal health, and if that’s not enough, here are 5 more reasons why you should be making an effort to drink more water every day!
5 Reasons Why You Should Drink More Water
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Health Benefits When You Drink More Water
Drinking Water Can Help You Lose Weight
Yep, you read that correctly. Drinking plenty of water will actually help speed up the process of losing weight. I know what you’re probably thinking.. but what about water retention? Isn’t that the opposite of losing weight?
Water retention actually occurs when you are taking in too much salt, or when you’re dehydrated (they both go hand in hand). I mean, think about it. If you’re not giving your body enough water to maintain it’s normal function, it’s going to start to internally panic and hang on to every literal ounce it can. You need to be taking in the recommended daily totals for your body weight to keep flushing out the toxins from your body and ultimately creating an ideal balance.
The typical rule of thumb is to drink half your body weight in ounces of water each day (adding another 8 ounces for every 30 minutes of exercise). So if you weigh 150 pounds, you should be drinking at least 75 ounces of water daily if you’re not engaging in any physical exercise.
Drinking Water Clears Your Skin & Makes it Look Youthful
All my ladies let me hear you say yeahhhh. If you’ve been searching for the Fountain of Youth, you shouldn’t need to look much further than your kitchen sink (as well as finding a good facial cleansing system and skin care routine).
Drinking enough water helps keep your skin feeling and looking young, radiant, and fresh, which now that I’ve officially crossed the threshold of my thirties, you better believe I care about that. When you’re not getting adequate amounts of water, your skin starts to get dry, tight, and flaky, which makes it less resilient and more prone to developing wrinkles.
Drinking Water Increases Brain Power & Energy
As a #momboss, this is huge for me right here. Baby Brain is a thing. It’s so much of a thing, in fact, that I’ve sat here for five minutes wondering if that’s really what it’s called. You know.. when you’re pregnant (or when you’re a new mama with a crying baby or active toddler) and the brain that used to once belong to you now has been taken hostage by a tiny little human? And you find yourself forgetting even the simplest of tasks.. like where you put your cell phone that you’re currently using, or what something is called?
NO I’m not pregnant! Geez. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m just saying that once you’ve battled through the early stages of Baby Brain (or whatever it’s called); you never fully recover. I’m almost 10 years post-baby-brain-still-working-on-it-every-day.
Being a parent, especially one that works and carpools kids to and from everywhere in your town, and cooks, and does laundry, and cleans, and still finds time to workout and date their spouse – is hard work. And it causes your brain to enter a permanent state of fogginess.
I’m sure there are scientific studies on this, guys. But for now, just take my word for it. It’s a thing.
SO. Drinking water can actually help combat this. How? Well, it’s pretty detailed but the basics are this: your brain is made up of mostly water. So, in what we’ve learned with maintaining that desired fluid balance in our bodies, we want to make sure that our brain is still receiving adequate supplies of water and not having our body suffer from dehydration. (Do me a favor, from here on out, associate dehydration with wrinkles. I feel like that will help).
Drinking enough water will actually help improve your concentration, balance your mood and emotions, increase blood flow and oxygen to your brain, and help reduce stress. And, one of the benefits of drinking water in the morning is that it’s going to start this process earlier in your day, leaving you feeling energized throughout the rest of your day.
Your Immune System Gets a Boost When You Drink More Water
Think of the water in our bodies like a river flowing in your town (just maybe not the Mississippi. Who knows what all is floating in that river). Water helps carry oxygen to all of your body’s cells, and also removes those toxins we were talking about earlier. It’s basically the oil that keeps the engine running. Or some technical analogy. Keeping your system running as it’s supposed to means that your body is going to continue to work efficiently and properly. This helps keep toxins from building up which could adversely affect your immune system, causing you to be more likely to catch viruses, colds, bugs, fungus, bad attitudes, you name it. (I might have threw a few extra in there but you get the idea).
Drinking Water Improves Your Mood
So you’re drinking more water, and you’re looking younger and your skin is radiating this newfound youth, and you’re feeling better and you’re not dehydrated and you’re remembering where you put your keys this morning.. so life is pretty good. Of course your mood is going to improve. Scientifically, researchers have found a correlation between drinking more water and experiencing improved/happier moods. This again has to do with dehydration (wrinkles AND bad mood).
How to Drink More Water Daily
- Set alarms on your phone Set an alarm on your phone for every hour and once it goes off, create an opportunity to take ten gulps of your water.
- Add tracking to your calendar/planner Add a section to your day planner where you track every 8 ounces of water you drink. I love these Erin Condren customizable habit stickers. You can buy the pre-designed ones or customize for whatever habit you’re wanting to keep track of (track your daily habits in this wellness planner!)
- Buy Tracking Water Bottles I love a good motivational water bottle, and what’s better is when you find one that helps measure and keep track of your water intake during the day. Some will even have times of day on the bottle that show how much you should drink by a certain hour.
- Drink Water with Meals Have a full glass of cold water with you every time you eat, and make sure you’re taking drinks between bites. This will not only help slow down your eating (if you’re like me, I tend to be like a teenage boy when it comes to shoveling food in my mouth), but will help you feel fuller faster, AND keep you hydrated and getting that water in.
- Drink Through a Straw I sometimes struggle to get my daily ounces in, but I have found that if I’m drinking through a straw, I’m more likely to keep my water bottle next to me and keep taking periodic sips. I don’t know what it is about the science of the straw, but I’ve also seen this listed as a tip on some top health and wellness sites. So we must be on to something.
Or you could try something like this:
- Add flavor! I love adding BCCAs to my water; both after a workout, and then sometimes I’ll have a second scoop when those afternoon cravings hit me.
Or you could try something like this:
cute water bottles
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What are some ways that you stay hydrated throughout the day? Do you follow any of the tips listed above? Do you add any extra flavors or fruits to your water? Share your tips with me below!
Diet Mt. Dew…. who would drink hat?
I hear it’s a favorite among marathon runners?