Do you worry about whether you're getting enough water? It seems every fitness aficionado, beauty expert, and self-care guru can't emphasize enough the importance of staying hydrated. But because of how busy our lives are, it's easy to lose track of how much water you're (not) drinking.
You probably want to know the best tips for how to stay hydrated. You’ll discover how having a good amount of fluids helps your body, and your immune system, and why it is important to stay hydrated.
10 Tips to Stay Hydrated
Follow these 10 recommended tips:
- Kickstart your day by drinking a glass of water in the morning to boost your metabolism and energy levels. However, avoid drinking water right before bedtime if you experience nocturnal urination or heartburn.
- Drinking a glass of water before each meal can aid in hydration, improve digestion, and help you feel full faster.
- Consider investing in a fun or stylish water bottle, which can act as a visual reminder to drink more water throughout the day. Some bottles even have marked measurements to track your intake or words of encouragement as you drink.
- Utilize alarms or notifications on your smart devices as reminders to drink water at regular intervals during the day. You can also set up your virtual assistants like Alexa or Google to provide positive reminders.
- Set a daily water intake goal to stay motivated and committed to maintaining a healthy hydration habit.
- Pay attention to your body's signals and differentiate between thirst and hunger to avoid overeating when you're actually thirsty.
- Enhance the flavor of your water with calorie-free options like fruit or vegetable infusions. Prepare a jug of infused water in the refrigerator overnight for an easy, flavorful refill in the morning. Alternatively, use a water bottle with a built-in infusion basket for on-the-go flavor.
- Keep an eye on the color of your urine throughout the day, aiming for a clear or light color, as dark yellow urine may indicate dehydration for some individuals.
- Swap high-sugar drinks for sparkling water or seltzer to reduce unnecessary sugar intake while still increasing your water consumption.
- Turn hydration into a friendly challenge by inviting your friends to join you in a competition to see who can consistently meet their daily water intake goals. This fun approach can keep everyone accountable and motivated.
4 Benefits of Staying Hydrated
Before diving into the benefits of filling your body with clean, pure water, let's go over the general positive effect on your well-being that comes from being properly hydrated.
1. Regulates Body Temperature
When you're dehydrated, it's more difficult for you to sweat. And although sweating is uncomfortable, it is an essential part of maintaining your health.
When you sweat, more blood flows through your body, and more heat dissipates into the air. Through the process, your body can stay refreshed and regulated for much longer.
2. Keeps Skin Healthy
Having dry skin can be the result of dehydration. Once you learn how to stay hydrated, it may vanish. Other reasons include using the wrong soap or showering with water that’s too hot.
Dry skin could even be a sign of hard water effects from your shower. It could also result from genetics that predisposes your skin to dryness. Being adequately hydrated can counteract these problems too.
Without enough water, your skin will lose its suppleness and elasticity. Without this, the skin will show wrinkles and signs of aging more rapidly.
While drinking water doesn't prevent wrinkles, staying hydrated helps your skin maintain its plumpness and a youthful glow for far longer.
3. Helps Prevent Dry Mouth
You may never have a dry mouth if you learn how to stay hydrated. Sometimes, however, you'll suffer from dry mouth as a side effect of smoking or getting dental work done. Other times, it's merely due to a lack of water intake.
Water helps keep your throat, lips, and tongue moist. Other benefits of staying hydrated include better breath, fewer cavities, and fewer unpleasant tastes lingering in your mouth.
4. Promotes Cardiovascular Health
Learn how to stay hydrated to protect your heart.
Did you know that when you're dehydrated, you lose blood volume? Because of the lost volume, your heart has to work harder to pump less blood. That exertion means that less oxygen is getting to your cells, making everyday tasks more difficult.
Without proper hydration, you can experience a lack of energy and difficulty performing daily movements, such as:
- Walking up the stairs
- Running or jogging
- Keeping up with the kids
Staying hydrated ensures your blood volume maintains its optimal levels, so your body can create energy and keep you active.
4 Ways Hydration Helps Your Immune System
One of the reasons why you want to learn how to stay hydrated is to protect your immune system.
With the basic benefits of staying hydrated covered, let's dive into how drinking enough water helps the immune system specifically.
If you ask “Why is it important to stay hydrated?” then you may not fully understand how important water is to your immune system.
Without the proper functionality of your immune system, you're more susceptible to catching viruses, flues, and other diseases.
1. Keeps Organs Functioning Properly
As we mentioned before, proper hydration helps your body maintain an ideal level of blood. Because of this, your kidneys, lungs, and intestines can continue to function correctly and prevent any difficulties.
Learn how to stay hydrated and your immune system doesn't have to worry about carrying extra responsibilities that should go to your organs.
With healthy and well-functioning organs, your immune cells can focus on fighting diseases and keeping you healthy.
2. Keeps Joints Lubricated
Besides maintaining the proper functionality of your organs and muscles, staying hydrated also helps your joints. The water brings oxygen to the cells in your joints, allowing them to open up and have more dexterity into old age.
The added freedom of movement also helps keep your immune system on track to fight disease and infections in your body. When your joints are healthy, your whole body benefits.
3. Prevents Infections
Drinking water helps build up your immunity to infections, diseases, and other viruses. Water carries oxygen throughout your body, which is good for your white blood cells.
To put it simply, learning how to stay hydrated can help prevent you from getting sick. Without enough water, your immune cells cannot fight infections as effectively, leading you to be more susceptible to falling ill.
This is a primary benefit of staying hydrated.
4. Eliminates Toxins Naturally
Your kidneys and immune system are essential to keeping toxic material out of your body. They never ask “Why is it important to stay hydrated.” Without enough water, they begin to break down.
When either of these systems malfunctions, you'll fall ill more easily and not recover quickly.
Knowing how to stay hydrated benefits your kidneys. Specifically, your kidneys need appropriate water levels to filter toxins out of your body.
By staying hydrated, you help your body carry oxygen to your essential organs, allowing them to work at a higher capacity and handle more disease.
4 Negative Effects of Being Over Hydrated
Unfortunately, there is such a thing as drinking too much water. While difficult to put too much water into your system, the possibility is still present, especially if you're training for a marathon, or another sport, or have heart or kidney problems.
Part of understanding how to stay hydrated is understanding the danger of overhydration. If you think that you're suffering from overhydration, be sure to talk to a professional and do not diagnose yourself.
Among other things, you could experience these symptoms if your fluid intake is too high.
1. Nausea and Vomiting
If you're feeling nauseated without having eaten anything, you might be drinking too much water, or you may have eaten something bad or been exposed to contaminated water in a pool or shower.
Nausea is a common symptom of many conditions, so you'll need to have additional symptoms for a diagnosis of overhydration to occur.
If you are vomiting or dry heaving, make sure that you check the contents of your throw-up. You should see watery spittle rather than food contents. Of course, sometimes having too much water will cause you to throw up the food that you're attempting to eat.
2. Headaches
Learn how to stay hydrated at the right level and you may have fewer headaches. Too much water, however, may cause headaches.
While headaches may be caused by a variety of diseases and conditions, overhydration can cause headaches due to a lack of sodium in your system.
Without enough sodium in your blood, your body cannot function properly, leading to overexertion of energy. Because of this, you could develop headaches from drinking too much water.
3. Muscle Weakness
Being able to grow strong muscles is one of the benefits of staying hydrated. But drinking too much water can lead to feelings of weakness or spasms. If you drink too much water, you flush the essential sodium out of your system.
Without sodium, your muscles fatigue and tire quicker than usual.
If you are an athlete, it's essential to keep your muscles working at peak performance condition. Because of this need, make sure to monitor your water content. Learning how to stay hydrated at the right level may take practice.
You don't want to drink too much and be unable to perform at your best.
4. Unconsciousness
If your over-hydration is too severe, you risk passing out from overexertion. Without enough sodium in your system, your body cannot function properly. Not only do your muscles weaken, but you also lose brain capacity.
When your blood flow slows down, tasks get more strenuous.
Without proper monitoring, you could drink too much and faint. Athletes and active people need to watch their water intake. If they drink too much, they could fall unconscious in the middle of their sport or fitness routine.
Make Staying Hydrated Your Game Plan
Learning how to hydrate and stay hydrated is essential to keeping your immune system healthy and happy all year round. If plain water doesn't sound appealing to you, try drinking fluids with lemon or other fruits to flavor them.
Otherwise, you can drink tea, which helps boost the immune system, builds muscle endurance, and provides antioxidants to your body.
Take advantage of the benefits of staying hydrated. Always keep a pitcher of cold, filtered water at the ready. Keep a bottle or cup on your desk or work area. Do whatever is easiest for you.
By learning how to stay hydrated you can boost the health of your skin, hair, cardiovascular system, and more.
The Best Filtered Water
For dependable benefits, make sure your water has a good balance of vitamins and minerals. AquaBliss makes quality water shower filters that combat the negative effects of hard water on your skin, hair, and body.
These filters are easy to install and they are a game changer for anyone with hard water in their home. Contact an AquaBliss representative now, and start feeling the difference filtered water makes!
