She has also had 16 wellness books published by major publishers including the bestselling Easy GI Diet, The Macro Method, Quit Alcohol (For a Month) and Eat 5. Her books have sold over one million copies.
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How much better would you feel if you drank the recommended amount of fluid for 30 days straight? Try our hydration challenge and find out.
The Benefits of Good Hydration
Staying well-hydrated is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to support your overall health. Proper hydration aids digestion, keeps your skin glowing and helps your body function at its best. It’s crucial for maintaining energy levels, supporting brain function, and even helping with weight management. Drinking enough water can improve mood, boost cognitive function, and prevent headaches. Plus, it’s essential for flushing out toxins and keeping your organs in good shape.
So, if you want to feel more vibrant and energized, hydration is key!
The Challenge: Drink 8 Glasses a Day
Are you ready to improve your hydration? This month, we’re challenging you to drink at least eight glasses of fluid a day, every day. That’s roughly two litres or half a gallon.
While water is the best option, other fluids like herbal teas and fresh juices count, too. And here’s a shocker—even coffee and tea count. It’s a myth that coffee dehydrates you. If you’re used to it, the caffeine has a negligible effect on your body, so the amount of fluid in the coffee far outweighs the amount you lose.
In fact, when a team of UK experts looked at how well different drinks hydrated, they found tea, coffee, cola, and many other drinks did not differ from plain water in how much fluid stayed in the system after two hours. And if you want a power drink, the team suggests reaching for skimmed milk. The study found this was even more hydrating than plain water, as the fat, sugars, and salt within it help it stay in the stomach longer, so more fluid is absorbed!
Just watch calories and sugar when reaching for drinks other than water—keep most of your intake from no-calorie drinks like water, herbal teas, black tea, or black coffee.
And don’t worry—there’s no need to chug it all at once! Spread your intake throughout the day for optimal benefits. If you need a little help making that happen and getting into the habit, try these tips.
10 Tips to Boost Your Hydration Game
1. Start Your Day With a Glass of Water
As soon as you stumble bleary-eyed into the bathroom in the AM, grab a glass of water from the tap. The average person loses between 500ml and a litre of fluid overnight via sweat and breathing. You’ll want to replenish that ASAP for good hydration.
2. Set a Reminder
Use your phone or a hydration app to set regular reminders to drink water. It’s easy to forget, especially when you’re busy! If you’re trying to drink eight glasses a day, then you’ll need to have something roughly every 90 minutes to get this done through a 12-hour waking day. So, use that as your guide.
3. Put The Drink on Your Desk
Having liquid in clear view will increase the amount of times you reach for it.
And, if you serve yourself from a glass instead of swigging from a water bottle, choosing a short, wide glass makes it even easier to boost your intake. Because they look less full, we pour 30% more into a stumpy glass than a tall, thin one – and while that was bad news for the alcohol in the study that found the link, it’s a good tip for effortlessly drinking more water.
4. Flavor Your Water
As we said, you don’t HAVE to drink water, but it’s a good no-calorie choice. If plain water isn’t your thing, add some natural flavors. Fresh fruits like lemon, lime, or berries, or herbs like mint can make your water more enjoyable.
You can even get very creative adding herbs like rosemary – and garlic water is even a thing. See more about it our guide to infused waters.
5. Eat Water Rich Foods
Okay, it’s time to be honest. While we said that the challenge was trying to drink eight glasses of fluid a day, that’s a bit of a myth – you don’t need to drink all of the 2 litres of fluid the average body needs in a day; you can also take in via the foods you eat. There’s even some evidence that the liquid in plant foods hydrates us better than water does.
So, add plenty of juicy fruits and refreshing vegetables to your diet and your body won’t complain if you only manage five or six glasses a day!
If you’re not normally a fan of vegetables, you might want to read our tips for learning to love vegetables next – or, as salad vegetables can be some of the most hydrating out there, you could also check out our guide to making salads more interesting.
6. Sip Don’t Guzzle
Drinking a huge glass of water in three or four gulps causes a sudden increase in blood volume, which the body then tries to balance by suppressing the hormone that helps you retain fluid – and switching on your systems to excrete it. You’ll then spend the next hour back and forth to the bathroom until your system is balanced again!
7. Drink Before and After The Gym
Depending on how hard you work or how humid the room is, you can lose 1-2 litres of fluid while you exercise, which could cancel out your day’s efforts if you don’t replace that liquid.
Have a glass of something an hour before your workout, another 10 minutes beforehand, and another glass afterwards. After intense workouts or on particularly hot days, consider sports drinks that replenish electrolytes to help maintain your body’s hydration balance.
8. Anchor Your Habit
This is one of the best ways to create a healthy new habit (find some others here). You attach the new habit you’re trying to make to something you already do.
So find something you do regularly throughout your day and anchor the habit of grabbing a drink to it. It might be visiting the bathroom, walking to see a particular co-worker or every time the phone rings, and walk to the tap while you talk.
9. Add Ice
Not only can it make a drink more palatable, but as the ice melts, it will increase the volume of liquid in the glass without you even noticing.
10. Track Your Intake
It’s the best way to know you’re getting enough – you could try a water tracking app, drink from a bottle that shows how much liquid you’re getting through, or, far less high-tech – have two pots on your desk, one empty, one with eight paperclips in. Every time you have a drink, move a paperclip from one pot to the next! By the end of the day, they should all swap sides!
Embracing these tips can help you build a healthy hydration habit that sticks. Remember, hydration isn’t just about quenching your thirst but also supporting your overall well-being. So, raise a glass (even beer hydrates if it’s under 4 per cent alcohol) to a more hydrated you!
