This is a paid partnership with BodyScience.Hydration is so important for general health, in more ways than you’d realise! Not only does staying hydrated support cognitive function and clarity, immune system health, metabolism, stable blood glucose and satiety, it also allows your body to perform at its best, and even improves your performance during your workouts and day-to-day activities. When you’re dehydrated, you’re compromising crucial bodily functions, and you’ll likely experience fatigue, brain fog and headaches as a consequence. However, you may not always be aware when your body is dehydrated, so it’s important to stay on top of your hydration and ensure you’re drinking consistently throughout the day. For example, often we interpret feelings of thirst or dehydration for hunger, and turn to food to fill the void when it’s actually water we’re in need of. To help, we’re sharing our top tips for how to stay hydrated.
Ideally, you need to be consuming at least 2 L of water (roughly eight large glasses) each and every day, adding more on top of that if you’re regularly working out or have an active job where you tend to sweat a fair bit. Remember, when you sweat your body is losing water, meaning you need to replenish these fluids on top of your baseline water requirements. So here are our top tips for how to stay hydrated to help you feel your best and support optimal health.
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1. Carry around a large water bottle.
Having a visual representation right in front of you throughout the day is a great way to remind yourself to stay hydrated. If you carry around a huge 2 L water bottle, you can visualise exactly how much you have left to drink to reach your daily 2 L target – and bonus points if you exceed this!
So get yourself a cute bottle which you actually enjoy looking at, and bring it with you to work, to catch ups with friends, to the gym, wherever you go, as a great reminder to get those 2 L in every day without fail. The feeling of accomplishment you’ll get each time you reach your goal will be rewarding enough, but your body will thank you for it too!
2. Opt for water over sodas and alcoholic drinks.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but many sugary sodas, energy drinks and even excessive coffee consumption can be dehydrating thanks to their caffeine content, especially if you’re consuming them in large quantities. Caffeine is a mild diuretic, meaning it often increases how much you’re urinating.
Similarly, some alcoholic drinks like beer, wine and spirits can reduce your production of urine-regulating hormone vasopressin, again increasing your urine production and leaving your body dehydrated. Have you ever experienced “breaking the seal” on a night out? Not a fun time, is it?
While you may think these beverages are contributing to your 2 L daily fluid requirements, they’re actually stripping water from your body in many instances. Particularly if you’re already dehydrated to begin with, these non-water beverages are likely to worsen your dehydrated state, and increase your risk of kidney damage too.
Water, on the other hand, is the single best way to improve your hydration status – and it’s one of the few calorie-friendly beverages to support your health goals too. Whether you prefer sparkling or still, aiming for 2 L of water consumption each day without fail will help you avoid dehydration, and support your body’s optimal health and function.
3. Make water taste delicious!
We’ve covered how important it is to drink water over any other beverage, but that’s not to say water has to be bland or boring! Spice up your water and include some valuable nutrients at the same time by adding in a scoop of Body Science’s Clean Greens superfood powder. It’s tropical flavoured, and is formulated with 78 superfoods including health-promoting fruits and vegetables, herbs, vitamins, minerals, functional mushrooms, prebiotics and probiotics, to give your body and your gut some extra love, while making your water all the more appetising too. It’s also free from gluten, dairy and GMOs and is vegan-friendly, making it the perfect addition to every diet.
Simply add a scoop into your water, give it a stir, and you’ve got yourself a refreshing, tropical drink to enjoy while hydrating your body and providing its daily dose of key nutrients at once. What a win!
4. Make sure you’re drinking throughout the day.
If you tend to forget to drink your fluids throughout the day, and end up chugging glass after glass of water each evening in an attempt to rehydrate your poor body, it’s time to change your habits. Not only does this mean your body is running on empty all day long, leaving your body and mind compromised, it also means you’re likely to have a disjointed and poor-quality sleep thanks to all the bathroom breaks you’ll inevitably be making throughout the night!
Instead of backending your water consumption, make sure you’re drinking consistently throughout the day. Try finding a water bottle with increments broken up into hours of the day or mL targets, so you know how much you should aim to drink each hour throughout your entire day. For example, if there’s a line for 10am and you haven’t yet had any water, it’s easy to see you’re behind on your targets so you can adjust your intake accordingly.
First things first, start your morning by drinking a big glass of water before you do anything else – yes, that means before you drink your coffee too! This is a great way to kick off your morning by hydrating your body, and means you’ve already completed one of the approximately eight glasses of water you should be aiming for each day.
Then, ideally you want to finish drinking any fluids around an hour before bed, assuming you’ve reached your 2 L target, so you won’t be dashing to the bathroom throughout the night!
5. Schedule alarms.
If the water bottle with hourly increments isn’t cutting it, try using your alarms on your phone to remind yourself to hydrate! Set a reminder at the beginning of each hour throughout your work day to notify you that it’s time to drink a big glass of water. And don’t hit snooze when these notifications pop up – use them as a chance to take a breath and a moment away from whatever task you’re in the middle of, reset and rehydrate, and then reapply yourself to your work or task with renewed focus and clarity.
Mealtimes can also act as a good reminder throughout the day to have a glass of water. Make sure to take a big drink before each main meal, to help you reach your daily fluid requirements.
Hydration is so crucial to good health and wellbeing in many ways. Make sure to prioritise drinking plenty of water throughout each day, aiming for at least 2 L daily. Add extra goodness in the form of Body Science’s Clean Greens superfood powder or even a slice of lemon or lime to your water to make it more appealing, and implement each of the above tips so your body is never without the hydration it requires!