Drinking Enough Water
 

I have heard that you are supposed to be drinking about 2-3 liters of water a day. I seem to be having a heck of a time getting to that much because I either get really bored with water or feel waterloggled halfway through the day. Any tricks to get to that 3 liter point?

Well, if it's the taste of water that's unappealing to you after a while, you could always try Crystal Light or some other low cal/sugar free drink mix. For me, with a meal or while I'm working out, plain water is fine, but in between when I'm just drinking it has to taste like something. I go through a lot of those Crystal Light To Go packets.

If it's just the actual consumption of liquid... are you trying to get in most of your liquids at a certain point in the day? Then it might help to space it out a lot more... say have a glass with breakfast, midmorning, lunch, afternoon, dinner, evening, etc. What seems to help me is always having water sitting next to me no matter what I'm doing, so that at any given point I can just take a couple of sips. It doesn't seem like a lot, but when I add it up, I usually consume between 80 and 108+ oz. a day, depending on if I worked out or not.

LindseyLouWho said exactly what I was going to say! I found a really big water bottle (80 oz or some such silliness) that I fill up at the beginning of the day and carry it around with me all day. I got the most obnoxious color I could find too (it's lime green) so I'm less likely to leave it behind on accident. My goal each day is to empty it before I go to bed. Some days I add one packet of a sugar free drink mix (I use walmart brand) other days I add a wedge or 2 of lemon. I've even added a tea bag from time to time. I guess it's about what works best for you. Good luck!

Not sure where you work, but I'm in an office and I have a 600mL bottle of water on my desk (any bigger and its just TOO much for me) I aim to drink 4 a day. I have no suggestion for the taste, as I truly hate water as well. I just keep thinking "the ends justify the means"

I have a glass that contains a half liter, so I just drink one with breakfast, lunch, and dinner and also have 1 after I work out. It's easier for me to just sit and chug with a meal than try to space it out all day, and that way it helps fill me up so I might not eat as much.

Btw, I drink a total of 2 liters of water every day. And yes, I have to pee a lot!

the correct amount of water is ounces equivalent to 1/2 your body weight- there's no magic number that is good for all of us, so shooting for 1/2 your body weight is best.

try to think of the things that water does for you- your digestive system works better, your brain works better, and your skin looks better, and you have more energy. those are all good things. they will help you think like Renny Sue about the ends justifying the means.

try crystal light like was suggested, try herbal teas, try sparkling flavored waters (you can pretend they are soda)- anything to get you drinking your water. Before you know it this will be a new habit!!

Like others I keep 2 32 oz nelgen bottles in my frige at tall times. When I'm at home I can keep a bottle and a glass next to me all night and just sip. I also take a same bottel with me when I'm at school and just sip though class.

If it is the taste of water that puts you off try putting melon cubs, lemons, orange, lime slices, cucumber slices or something like that in your water. That way you'll get a little bit of flavor.

I also have a general rule that I will not let myself have any diet pop until I have had 2 liters of water.

i agree with futurepixie..i've heard you should drink half your body weight. I keep a liter "miniature" water jug on my desk all day and work and try to drink 2 of those while at work. I also drink 4 cups of tea a day. i am not sure if you have a teavana in your area, but they have some really great flavored teas. i add a packet of splenda and i am good to go. they have a particular "diet" tea called strawberry slender pur-eh that is really good.

Ok. This sounds really weird, but maybe I'm not alone here... but I'm not much of a water drinker. I do, however, live in a dry climate and dehydrate like it's my job, so I really *need* water throughout the day, just straight-up plain ole' water. I have noticed that I can mindlessly drink water all day long if I'm drinking it through a straw. I got sick of plastic straws getting lost in my Nalgene, so I got one of these at REI last weekend...
http://www.bentgear.com/images/CAB0026.jpg

Jen you totally crack me up. Not weird at all. I bought the same camelbak bottle in blue about 3 months ago and I agree I can sip through the straw all day long and never miss getting my water on. When I revert back to my good old fashioned wide mouth nalgene drinking is a chore.

I must have been blessed with a taste for water. I've always drank it over anything else. Like I mentioned in a previous post - I didnt even know what Coke tasted like until I got to college! ;)

But what other people said is the key...just have it with you. I have a 1 liter bottle (not as obnoxiously sized as it sounds) that I fill up before during and after work. I can drink 3 of them very easily. Then of course, if you just plain dont like water...do the Crystal Light, lemon wedge deal.

As for the drawbacks to drinking so much water...do you all ever get used to the peeing??? I was told that your body will go through a moment of adjustment to all the water where youll pee all the time - but then youll get used to it and everything will return to normal. But its not happening for me!! I run to the bathroom with a bursting bladder every hour on the hour. Anyone know about this?

I can't drink a lot of straight water either. I do drink a lot of Crystal Light iced tea and recently, I found a place online that sells boxes of different zero-cal and lo-cal powder drink mixes, some with vitamins, to add to bottled water. So I bought 2 Glaceau flavored vitamin waters (20 oz) at the store, drank those and now I refill the bottles with tap water and add different packets to them. I've been having blue-raspberry, apple, orange & lime (these two not great, lol), raspberry lemonade with fiber, another mix with glucosamine for the joints. I can manage about 2-3 bottles a day now, plus a couple of glasses of Crystal Light.

Well, I have been following your sage advice and now carry a 20oz bottle of water EVERYWHERE. I also have at least 4 packets of Crystal Light packets in my purse at all times. I like the 20oz better because it gives me a sense of accomplishment every time I finish it off. Trekkiegirl, could you give me the name of that site where you found the flavor packets? I like the Crystal Light but am afraid of that becoming boring too soon. But the good news is that since I have been drinking 3 liters of water every day, I went down another 2.5 lbs! YAY WATER:carrot:

PS Junebug, I have found that I can drink a lot more with a straw. Maybe it has something to do with not taking in so much at one time?

Well, I'm glad I'm not alone. Seriously, everyone around here looks at me like I'm mad... So really, everyone else is weird, NOT US! ;)
Steph, I got the 24oz green one and water that gets stuck in the straw sometimes shoots out, but other than that I have been a water-drinking machine!

I love the water bottle aisle at REI... so many pretty colors and options... Ok, I know that IS weird!

I guess I was also born with the water gene, my hubby on the other hand was not a fan of water, every time he "had" to drink it he grimaced like he was going to gag. He started drinking the water flavors from walmart also, and now he drinks water all the times.... prefers it even!

I have a big 1 liter bottle, so I usually just try to drink through 2 or 3 of those. I used to use smaller bottles but I started to think "geez I still have 3 of these left to drink" and switched to a bigger bottle.

As far as how much water our bodies need a day, I found this article from the Mayo Clinic's website that sounded like it might help everyone.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/water/NU00283

Drinking 1/2 of your body weight in oz. sounds like it might be okay for someone who weighs 200 lbs or less, but for someone like me, it'd just be excessive. I don't think there's any way in heck I'd be able to drink 175 oz. of water a day. :)

I don't mind drinking water, but it has to be really cold so i stick with the .5L small bottles.

I love drinking water. I drink around 100-150 oz a day of it in 20 oz glasses. It really helps me stay on track and not spluge on every food I see.

i started a diet called lighterlife about 3 weeks ago now and go told that in order for the diet to work properly i have to drink 4ltrs a day, and wow thats alot of water, for me who was a fizzy drinks person, i never ever drank water, apart from in coffee but even that cant count to your 4 ltrs of water, today im on bottle number 2 ( idrink them in ltr bottles ) only 2 more to go.. i count down bcoz i think the fast i drink it then the faster i can forget about it for that day. The good thing is since this diet ive never craved fizzy drinks or coffee, at first i drank coffee but it had to be black which was no fun for me so its water all the way for me :) lol

Everyweek I buy a case of 1.5 liter bottles of water and I keep them in the car-- that way when I grab one in the morning, it's already cold. (except in winter, when they freeze !). That bottle is my bottle for the day and I fill it up maybe 3-4 times.. it stays with me until I go to bed when I toss it in the recycle bin.

I got them from discountcoffee.com. You have to spend $50 to get free shipping, though. But I don't see boxes like that at the stores around me so I just ordered a bunch of different ones to try. I wasn't too crazy about the True Lime & True Orange but that's just me.

Drinking enough water is always my biggest problem- I just don't like it without a little flavor. I try to add lemon and cucumber, or a splash of juice- I just started drinking Aquafina Alive which is good too- it's flavored water with vitamins, but it has only 10 calories- the peach mango is my favorite flavor at the moment. Anyone else tried these?

What would I do without this forum?! It's so funny, everybody thinks I'm crazy for not liking regular water! Nice to know I'm not the only crazy one :)

My dad and I tease people at fast-food places who (when they're eating in) still have a lid and straw on their drink. We call them "tube-fed". ;)

I didn't have a *problem* with water, really, although I never did drink enough of it...but then I went on a 10-day backpacking trip to Arizona a couple weeks ago, and EW I'd forgotten how utterly disgusting iodined water is. You pretty much *have* to choke down at least two full nalgenes a day if you're not going to get heat stroke when it's hot in the desert, so I kept up with it, but I swear it is just about as appealing as deliberately chugging pool water. Same chemical taste. Halfway through the trip, someone discovered that adding orange peels to the iodine-water nullified the taste of the iodine somehow, so we started doing that. Problem was, you then had this tepid mix of milky-opaque (from the iodine) water that tasted like it was trying to be orange juice but missed the mark, and had bits of pulp from the peel floating around.

So upon getting home I promptly stopped drinking water entirely for about a week. I'm getting back into the swing of things - bought myself a very pretty blue 20 oz. bottle as encouragement/bribe - but I'm still kind of behind. Although I have a new appreciation for PURE water now, which I suppose is an unintentional plus.

Does it matter if you drink (almost) only sparkling water in stead of plain water? I don't really like water and I can force myself to drink sparkling water but forcing myself to drink tapped or even bottled plain water is a lot harder.