Drink Up Love Bug! How to keep your skin hydrated this Summer
Water is something our body desperately needs, all day, every day, in large volumes.
The benefits of drinking lots of water are endless—clearer skin, more energy, headaches are relieved, better digestion, on and on.
But if you’re like me, we might put drinking water in the same category as eating five servings of vegetables a day and sleeping for eight hours a night—these are habits I agree would be part of my ideal, healthy lifestyle, but are things that I still struggle to practically implement and accomplish day-to-day.
I figured there has to be a better way to drink the water I know my body needs and with summer around the corner, I know that it will become even more imperative.
Here are 8 ways you and I can drink more water this summer:
1. DRINK A BOTTLE IN THE MORNING AND AT NIGHT Morning and evening rituals are two of the biggest things that can help us achieve greater daily balance because they’re predictable: morning will always rise and night will always bring your day to a close. So the moment you hit your alarm and sit up in bed, have a water bottle at your bedside and drink it up.This will not only help in avoiding slipping back to sleep, but will assist in charging up your body for the day. Same with bedtime. Help communicate to your body that it’s time to settle down and go to sleep with this ritualistic choice.
2. MAKE A CERTAIN TIME OF DAY A BENCHMARK By the end of a busy day, it’s difficult to remember what I did all day, let alone how many bottles of water I drank. Creating small benchmarks in the day to check in with this count is incredibly helpful, i.e. by lunch, I want to have drank two bottles of water and by dinner, four.
Setting small goals will help us stay the course.
3. PURCHASE A WATER BOTTLE YOU LIKE I doubt you have much emotional attachment to the Dasani water bottle you got from the vending machine at work. Invest in this mission to drink more water and get a bottle that’s not only functional in a way you like (i.e. straw, no straw, twist off cap, pop off cap, etc.), but also that is a design that brings you joy.
Associating water with an item you really like is a fun way to trick your brain into having positive thoughts about it.
4. MAKE A ONE-FOR-ONE ARRANGEMENT WITH OTHER DRINKS YOU ENJOY I would drink ten cups of coffee a day if I could. Knowing this about myself, I decided I needed a tool to counteract that dehydration of caffeine while also helping me reach my water goals.
For every cup of coffee I have, I have to have two bottles of water. Pairing this trick with other drinks you enjoy (tea, juice, soda, etc.) can definitely help.
5. USE A WATER TRACKING APP There’s an app for everything and if you’re one who benefits from tracking your habits with your phone, by all means, go for it.
Download your favorite water or health-related app to keep score on how many bottles you’ve chugged that day.
6. INFUSE IT
Many people find that adding strawberries, mint, or cucumber to their water helps them with the taste and the number of cups they reach for. Experiment and find what you like best!
7. MARK YOUR BOTTLE WITH YOUR DAILY GOAL Make benchmarks on your water bottle for goals you want to reach by a certain time in the day. Again, setting small benchmarks within the overarching goal is highly effective and a huge help!
8. ALWAYS ORDER WATER
Instead of a soda, milkshake, iced tea or coffee at a restaurant, always request a round of water. It’ll help you reach your goal and it’s free. Make this a game with yourself too, i.e. before we get the check, I want to ask for two refills.
