Did you know that 70% of our bodies are made up of water?
Water allows the body to fulfill many of its vital functions and achieve its maximum performance. During summertime, when temperatures rise, there is greater evaporation of this element, which increases the need to consume liquids and maintain proper hydration.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that staying hydrated is crucial for your overall health. Water is the most effective way to stay hydrated, whether you are drinking it or consuming fruits and vegetables that contain a high percentage of water.
To make sure you are regularly hydrated and healthy, here are 5 ways to ensure you have achieved your hydration goals.
1. Drink Flavored & Infused Water
Infused water is also called detox water, flavored fruit water, or fruit-infused water.
It is often a combination of fruits, vegetables, and herbs immersed in cold water. Fruit-infused water is excellent to bring along anywhere you go and sip all day from the delicious hydrating treat. Additionally, it can increase your regular water consumption. Infused water helps speed up your body metabolism, boost energy levels, prevent cramping, and many other essential benefits for your overall health.
Flavored drinks are a refined alternative to standard water and indicate the highest effect when combined with food. For more guidance on how to combine flavored water and foods, consult a nutritionist.
Don’t forget – regular and optimal hydration is critical to your health and overall physical and mental performance and can help improve your sleep quality, cognition, your mood, and your overall well-being.
2. Drink as Much as Your Body Needs
Each person is different and has different hydration needs. For instance, athletes will need to stay more hydrated than people who do minimal physical activity. An easy way to find out how much your water intake should be is to divide your body weight in half and aim to drink that many ounces of water each day.
However, If you have heart failure, consult with your doctor about how much water you should drink. Many doctors recommend that people with heart failure should limit their intake to 8 cups a day.
3. Always Have a Bottle of Water With You
As obvious as it sounds, many times, we don’t drink water because we simply forget. If you always have a bottle of water with you, simply looking at it will remind you that you must finish it. In addition, it is an easy way to stay hydrated anywhere. Having water with you will keep you hydrated all the time!
4. Limit Diuretic and Dehydrating Drinks
Limit the intake of alcoholic drinks because alcohol has a dehydrating effect. You can drink a beer without alcohol and lower the alcoholic beverages by adding plenty of ice. In any case, do not substitute water, juices, and soft drinks for this type of drink, even if it’s hard to resist. On the other hand, coffee is also a diuretic by nature. Therefore, if you drink coffee all day and do not drink water, it could contribute to dehydration.
It’s recommended to have a glass of water followed by a cup of coffee.
5. Avoid Sugary and Carbonated Beverages
These beverages usually don’t have any nutritional value and don’t properly hydrate your body. Additionally, sugary sodas can do you more damage than good. Side effects like insulin resistance or risk of dementia are to name a few. Carbonated water can be just as hydrating as a regular one, as long as it doesn’t contain added sugars, flavoring, and citric acid.
Make sure you know what you are putting in your body before deciding to hydrate properly.
A Smarter Way to Stay Hydrated
If you’re lacking options on how to hydrate properly and ongoingly, consider using smart water bottles. Smart water bottles are among the biggest breakthroughs on the market of health and wellbeing. Unlike managing your water intake by remembrance, smart water bottles automatically track your daily water intake. To do that, smart water bottles use a synced app that keeps you updated on your hydration levels and allows you to follow your progress more efficiently.
Using smart notifications, reminders, push alerts, and relevant indicators, smart water bottles are the ultimate tech-friendly solution that ensures all consumers – athletes or otherwise – are conscious of their hydrating habits and are drinking up, both sufficiently and as recommended.
