Want an easy way to look and feel better? Try drinking more water. I’m not going to make any unrealistic promises here: drinking a few extra glasses of water probably isn’t going to erase your wrinkles or cause you to drop ten pounds. But it can help keep your appetite in check, plump your skin, and prevent constipation. It can even add a little extra fitness to your day in the form of a few extra bathroom breaks. (Bonus points for choosing the bathroom furthest from your desk!)
Here are five easy ways to drink more water without even noticing.
Always drink a full glass of water with your vitamins. When taking vitamins or other medications, don’t just wash them down with a swallow or two. Get in the habit of chasing pills with a full-sized glass of water. (It’ll also help your body absorb the active ingredients.)
At restaurants, order water first. Many restaurants now bring water only on request. Never fail to request it. Then, delay ordering a drink until your first glass of water is empty.
Make sure your water tastes great. Nothing squelches hydration efforts like yucky-tasting water. Even when the water is perfectly safe to drink, naturally occurring minerals in the local water or chlorine added to municipal water sources can make water unappetizing. Invest in a good-quality water filter – both faucet mounts and pitchers are convenient and offer easy access to freshly filtered water. And for the best tasting water, change your filters and clean those pitchers regularly.
Have a cup of coffee or tea. Contrary to conventional wisdom, coffee and tea are not dehydrating. Although caffeine itself can have a diuretic effect, coffee and tea provide much more water than they cause you to lose. Plus, if you drink caffeinated beverages regularly, caffeine has virtually no diuretic effect, meaning that coffee and tea hydrate virtually as well as plain water. As a bonus, caffeine has a number of health benefits!
Be (selectively) mindless. Munching on snacks while surfing the internet or watching TV is usually a bad idea because mindless or distracted eating usually leads to overconsumption. For that reason, I usually advise making the TV room a snack-free zone. But you can also turn this phenomenon to your advantage. Always sit down at the computer or TV with a full glass of water, and it’ll disappear without you even noticing!