Dehydration in Winter

Just because it’s no longer scorching hot outside and you’re not sweating like a parent during schoolies, doesn’t mean you can’t experience dehydration. Even the initial stages of dehydration can bring headaches, make you lethargic, give you dry skin, chapped lips and even constipation. It’s not good news no, so it’s important you drink enough fluids (and let’s be honest, we really just mean water) to try and prevent this occurring. In this article we share our 5 tips on how to drink more water.

The Human Body and Water

Our bodies are made up of 60% water, so it’s no surprise that water plays a vital role in so many bodily functions: in our metabolism, regulating our body temperature, delivering oxygen throughout our body, producing saliva to aid digestion, lubricating our joints…the list could go on. You get it, water’s important. But admittedly it’s not the most exciting drink, so unless we’re in the habit we can quite easily go throughout the day without giving a single thought to poor, beloved H2O.

How Much Water Should I Drink Daily?

So how much water should you drink each day? Well, unsurprisingly it’s very dependent on your health, age, size and weight, the type of job you do and your activity levels. But for average Joe, 6-8 glasses of water (around 1.2-1.5 litres) is about right to replace normal water loss.

If you have a very active job or if you exercise regularly, then of course this will be more. If you’re a serious athlete and exercise intensely or for long periods, a good way to ensure you stay hydrated is to do a sweat test, which essentially involves you weighing yourself before and after exercise to work out how much fluid you have lost and inevitably need to replace. Again, this all depends on your size and weight etc., but sweat rates commonly range between half a kg to two kg per hour, depending on the sport and environmental conditions.

5 Tips on How to Drink More Water

By now you know how important this whole water-intake deal is, so here are a few top tips on how to ensure you take in enough each day…

1. Bottle It Up

If you don’t already own a water bottle, then this is your first port of call. If you’re worried it’ll significantly un-cool your look, have no fear, there are plenty of fancy branded bottles out there. Get yourself a water bottle and you’ll never look back; it’ll become your trusty friend that you take with you everywhere, and you’ll feel lost without it.

2. Mark It Up

If you’ve just followed tip number one and got yourself a fancy, expensive water bottle then you may not want to do this (and it most likely requires a clear water bottle as well)… but by making timing markings on your water bottle, you can easily and measurably stay on the hydration track each day. You can set yourself goals, so that by X time of day you’ve drunk two bottles already for instance, and by X time you’ve drunk 4.

3. Spruce It Up

“Water’s just so boring to drink”. Yep, we’ve heard that one before. For those of you that can’t get enough water down you because it’s too mind-bogglingly bland to handle, then spruce up your life and your water with some infusions. Lemon, lime, mint, cucumber, melon, strawberry. You name it, you can probably make water taste better with it. If it’s going to help you drink more water, then infuse away!

4. Tea It Up

Nope, this isn’t some golf pun, we mean tea – like tea bags, the type you put in (surprise, surprise) a cup of water. More infusions…but there are so many different flavours of tea around these days there’s bound to be one or two that tickle your fancy. Now we’re not recommending getting all of your daily water intake from different types of tea, but a cup or two throughout the day can help break up the monotony of plain water.

5. Tech It Up

The phrase ‘there’s an app for everything these days…’ couldn’t be more apt at this stage.

People have indeed created apps to help you drink more water! So, if all else fails, or if you just love an app or two, then maybe this is the way forward for you. These apps can help you to track your water intake and achieve your water intake dreams. And let’s face it, most of us are on our phones daily anyway, so why not add one more push notification to the sea of others to help you stay hydrated?

If you’re thirsty, then drink up because experiencing thirst signals the initial stages of dehydration. And by drink up, we don’t mean polish of that last drink at happy hour, we mean get yourself on the good stuff: H2O. No one likes to be thirsty, but even more so no one likes to be constipated.

So, there you have it. Our 5 tips on how to drink more water. Of course, there’s always Staminade you can add to the water, particularly if you are active, in heat or need to replace electrolytes along with water hydration.

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

You might also be interested…