How to Drink Water for Health
There are a variety of reasons to drink plenty of water each day. For example, pure water prevents dehydration, cleans out the body, promotes healing processes, and serves as a substitute for less healthy drinks. Here are some ways to increase your water intake.
Steps
- Make a conscious decision to drink more water.
- Begin measuring your water intake, with the goal of drinking half your weight in ounces. For example, if you weight 150 lbs., strive to drink 75 ounces of water per day.
- Make it a habit to take a long sip of water after every bite while you're eating.
- Carry water with you everywhere you go in a bottle or some other container. Before long, you'll find yourself reaching for it without a second thought.
- Keep a glass or cup of water next to you whenever you'll be sitting down for a long time, like at your desk. Drink from it regularly as you're working.
Tips
- In most cases, it is not necessary to buy expensive bottled water. Companies that sell water have a financial interest in convincing you that tap water is undesirable, but most of the time, tap water is fine. If your water is a health hazard, you will be notified of this fact by your local media or municipal government. Non-fluoridated or filtered tap water is healthier than unfiltered.
- Instead of that Coke, try a glass of water. It may not be as exciting, but it is better than drinking almost ten teaspoons of white sugar (which is one of the very worst health offenders). It's also considerably cheaper (especially from the tap).
- Try wearing a digital watch that beeps at the beginning of each hour. Use that as a reminder to pour yourself a glass of water. Vow to drink that water before the next beep.
- If you really can't stand the taste of your water, try adding a tiny bit of fruit juice - just enough to slightly change the taste. Or, try adding lemon or lime to your water. It will make it easier to drink.
- For a feeling of accomplishment, buy 2 brightly colored 32 oz. water bottles. At the beginning of the day, fill them up, then make sure you have consumed the contents of both by the end of the day.
- The body needs to burn calories to maintain itself at its critical operating temperature of 98.5 degrees. If you drink eight to ten glasses of ice-cold water everyday, the body will burn excess calories in order to raise the temperature to 98.5! If you drink eight glasses - 64 oz. - of ice-cold water every day, your body will have to burn about 70 calories per day to warm that water to body temperature. To lose 1 pound, you need to burn around 3,500 calories.
- Drinking a full glass of water first thing in the morning helps wake the body up and gives it energy. So kick-start your day with water!
- Water makes you look good! By flushing out toxins and impurities, your skin becomes clearer, smoother and younger looking.
- By drinking lots of water, you are helping your system to flush out impurities.
- Drinking water helps to keep hunger away. Drink a large glass of ice water just before meals. The cold causes your stomach to shrink somewhat, which will make you feel full more rapidly.
Warnings
- Increasing your water intake may cause you to have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. To avoid this, you may want to stop drinking water a few hours before bedtime.
- While 8 glasses (64oz) of water per day is the general rule, there IS such a thing as drinking too much water or any other beverage, and there's been considerable scientific debate surrounding how much water or any liquid a person really needs per day.
# posted by JimmyO @ 12:54 AM
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