Water. It’s an incredibly beautiful and important resource. It covers 70% of the planet we all call home and makes up 55-60% of our bodies (depending on your gender). Water is serious stuff when it comes to your health. Ensuring that you get enough of this oh-so important fluid into that beautiful body of yours on a daily basis is one of the simplest and, in my opinion, most important steps you can take in improving your health and beauty.  It helps flush out toxins, energize muscles, replenishes the fluids your body loses during the day, and um, helps make sure your “pipes” are flowing smoothly in the bathroom.  People who drink oodles of water also benefit from it in the beauty department, as hydrated skin glows, is less likely to have acne, and heals faster. Also, water helps reduce bloating after you’ve indulged a bit too much during a girls’ night out. Water is awesome and your body needs it….lots of it….. every single day!

So why is it so hard to actually drink the amount of water your body needs to stay healthy, glowing, and lovely every day? Because it is just one of those things that is easy to stick on the back burner in our hectic daily lives. However, just like you plan what foods you are going to fuel your body with for the week or how you chisel out time in your day to hit the gym, you need to have a plan of attack for getting your daily water quota into your body so that it can keep working its magic on your health.

Not sure where to start? Need some inspiration? Here are my 4 favorite tips and tricks for staying hydrated each and every day.

1. Get creative and infuse! Plain, old water, the way Mother Nature makes it, is a beautiful thing, but sometimes you need to jazz it up to make it seem a bit more like the treat your body sees it as. I will throw herbs, sliced fruit, and berries into my water and let them hang out in the water for a few hours before I drink to help infuse the water with great flavor, without adding chemicals or sugar. Infused water isn’t just tasty and hydrating, but it’s also beautiful to look at. Food for the eyes too! My personal favorite infused water combo is mint leaves and strawberries….but I encourage you to get creative.

2. Carry a reusable water bottle with a straw. Okay, you probably get why I’m encouraging a reusable bottle (I’m not a lady who likes a lot of waste, plus plastic bottles of water add up in cost, fast!), but why the straw kind? I’ve owned many water bottles in my whole food eating life, and the ones that I always seem to get the most use out of are the ones with the straws. If you’re at the gym, on the run, or just generally busy, when the urge to take a sip hits you, all you have to do is flip and sip. The ones I had to stop, unscrew, sip, then screw back on got less use and so I just made the full switch to stainless steel straw bottles. This is the one I use.  But, you know, a mason jar works just as well for your drinking needs. No fancy equipment is required to drink water folks! 

3. Invest in a water filtration system. Either of the pitcher kind like Brita, a service that delivers multiple gallon jugs, or one that is installed right into your house water supply (my husband and I have a reverse osmosis system), just find a way to filter out the yucky chemicals and flavor from your water so that it tastes better and is better for you. Once you do, it’s amazing how tasty water is, and thus you naturally want to drink more of it.

4. Find a hydration buddy. Okay, this one might sound a bit silly, but it’s something I find really helpful for when I need to reset my “hydration mindset”. If you aren’t holding yourself accountable to achieving your health goals, get someone on board with you who will encourage you. For me, it’s my husband and my best friend, Cheryl. Since I text back and forth with them on a daily basis anyway, we just throw into our ridiculous conversations how many ounces of water we have had so far. Just that simple reminder to think about how many ounces of water I’ve given my body thus far is enough motivation to go fill up my water bottle and keep sipping. Before you know it, drinking your needed ounces during the course of the day will become second nature and your hydration buddy will just go back to being your buddy….or your next health goal buddy. 

So, my dears, I challenge you to a week….just a week….of drinking the water your body is longing for.  For 7 days, drink that water and notice how you feel. Notice how you look. Notice how freakishly simple it is to give your body something it so desperately needs to function the way it’s supposed to. Then, after that week, carry on as you wish. I have a feeling you’ll have decided to keep that reusable water bottle full and constantly by your side like me. Welcome to the healthy dark side, loves.

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