Water is so good for our health. I know that it’s not always the most appetizing or exciting thing to drink, but guys we really need it. Tons of it on a daily basis. This means a lot more than just one or two glasses for the whole day.
Why should be drinking tons of water on a daily basis? Here’s a few health benefits that you absolutely want in your life, that can easily be achieved by drinking more water.
Drinking plenty of water helps to maintain the balance of your bodily fluids such as the digestive system, absorption, creating saliva, circulating nutrients, and it even helps with regulating our body temperature.
Plus, did you know that 60% of our body is made up of water? In order to keep it thriving and jiving we’ve got to give it what it needs most, and that’s water!
Not to mention that every time we sweat, breathe, or digest something our body loses water. In order for us to avoid becoming dehydrated we have to constantly be hydrating our bodies with water so that it can function the way it needs to function in order for us to be able to perform at our best all the time.
In today’s post I’m going to share with you some of my favorite ways to drink water. These recipes have not only helped me increase my daily water intake, but they have also had an amazing impact on my health.
But first I’m going to admit something to you. If you’ve been following my blog for a while now then this may not come as a surprise to you, but if you’re new well I’m about to drop a major truth bomb on you.
I love water, I really do, but it wasn’t always this way.
For years my go-to beverage was either Kool-Aid, pop or soda, juice, even flavored water. Literally anything sugary and sweet that just wasn’t plain old water. Once I entered into adulthood my health was paying the consequences of these poor choices majorly.
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My journey with water
As a teenager acne wasn’t really something I ever had to worry about. Sure, I got the occasional pimple here and there, but I never really had to practice a skincare routine for clear skin. My weight was never a problem and I always had tons of energy. You would have never guessed that I wasn’t drinking plenty of water.
Fast forward to adulthood and man it’s all catching up to me now! I’ve needed a consistent skincare routine to keep my face clean of pimples because they just won’t go away! I’ve found that I have to be consistent with exercising because my weight no longer fluctuates like it use to, and honestly most days I’m extremely exhausted.
I’ve even come to discover that my energy, hair health, overall skin health, brain power, and so much more were negatively impacted by the lack of water that I was drinking before adulthood. And struggling with these issues for the first few years of my adulthood was a big wake-up call for me to leave the sugary drinks alone.
And that’s exactly what I did. The results? My overall health is literally the best that it’s ever been and it’s all because I’ve made drinking plenty of water such an important part of my daily diet.
If this is you, or has been you, or maybe you just want to commit to drinking more water, I’ve got you. Water doesn’t have to be boring and plain all the damn time. It’s ok to make it colorful every now and then if that’s what it takes to drink more water in a day.
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How to drink more water
Honestly the easiest way you can start drinking more water is to have access to it 24/7. I mean all the time. No matter if it’s during the day, in the morning, late at night, and even overnight. If you want to increase your daily water intake you need to have easy access to it.
What I have found to be the easiest and by far the most effective technique for me is to have a water bottle on me at all times. I actually have two.
I have one, one-gallon water bottle that I fill up everyday and keep by my bed. This is to make sure that I have water to drink whenever I am in my bedroom and may not have my other water bottle with me.
The other water bottle is just your standard water bottle. I carry this bad boy with me everywhere I go. It doesn’t matter if I’m going grocery shopping, I’m in the kitchen, going on walk, or just running errands, wherever I got so does my water bottle.
I have found that I am drinking so much water throughout the day because of this. Whenever I get thirsty, I look for the drink that I have the easiest access to, and since I always have a water bottle with me that drink of choice is water.
Another method you can try to help you drink more water is to put yourself on an hourly timer. This is something that I did in the beginning when I started carrying a water bottle with me everywhere. I would set a timer to go off every 20 minutes to remind myself to drink some water.
This may seem like a bit much, and honestly it might be, but it’s something that worked for me. Having a reminder to drink water every 20 minutes not only reminded to stay hydrated, but it also helped me get use to the taste of water. Just plain water.
This is something that can be implemented into your daily routine easily. The best part about these methods are that they help you resist unhealthy temptations, like soda or pop, and can assist in eliminating bad habits, like only drinking one glass of water for the day during dinnertime.
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Detox Water Recipes for Better Health
So, what are some other tips that can help you drink more water? A beginner’s tip would be giving your water a little bit of something magical.
Honestly in the beginning I wasn’t a big fan of this. I think it was because I was so committed to just drinking water that I thought adding other organic/natural ingredients into your water was cheating.
However, last year this all changed for me. I started to learn more about what different water recipes were out there and how they could benefit your health. As a result of it I decided to give a few of them a try.
A bonus to these water recipes is that they are great for specific health benefits. While I don’t necessarily have all of these in a rotation, I will make these recipes if I feel I may need it.
The bottom line is that not only do these water recipes taste great, and help me drink plenty of water throughout the day, but they have also helped me improve my health for the better.
Check them out below!
- Lemon water
This is perhaps my favorite water recipe. It’s so simple and quick to prepare, helps with digestion, flushes out toxins, cleanses the liver, and can even help you maintain a healthy weight. I try to drink one cup of lemon water once a day, or at the very least once a week.
Here’s how I make mine:
- 1 lemon
- 1 water bottle
- Step 1: cut the lemon into slices
- Step 2: add the lemon to your water bottle or cup
- Step 3: fill the bottle or cup with water
- Step 4: if drinking from a bottle shake a little, if drinking from a cup stir lightly
- Cucumber water
I don’t drink this one as much as I do lemon water. This water recipe is also easy to make and has tons of health benefits. Cucumber water is great for keeping you hydrated, can assist in weight loss, help lower your blood pressure, improve bone health, and give you healthier looking skin.
Here’s how I make mine:
- 1 cucumber
- 1 water bottle
- Step 1: cut up cucumber into slices
- Step 2: add the cucumber to your water bottle or cup
- Step 3: fill the bottle or cup with water
- Step 4: if drinking from a bottle shake a little, if drinking from a cup stir lightly
- Cucumber and Lemon water
The best of both worlds honestly. However, I don’t tend to drink this mixture as often simply because I really just prefer the taste of lemon over cucumber. However, the combination of both of these is great.
This water can help with ensuring that your body is functioning as it should by providing a ton of antioxidants. This recipe can also boost your digestion and has detoxifying properties.
Here’s how I make mine:
- 1 lemon
- 1 cucumber
- 1 water bottle
- Step 1: cut the lemon and cucumber into slices
- Step 2: add half of the lemons and half of the cucumbers to your water bottle or cup
- Step 3: fill the bottle or cup with water
- Step 4: if drinking from a bottle shake a little, if drinking from a cup stir lightly
- Cucumber + Lime + Mint water
Love this mixture even though cucumber is not necessarily my favorite. Lime helps your saliva break down food for better digestion and can help stimulate bowel movements. Mint is perfect for digestion and stomach pain. Plus, it adds such a refreshing taste to your drink.
The combination of this helps to disguise the taste of cucumber if you’re not a fan of the taste, while still promoting better health.
Here’s how I make mine:
- 1 cucumber
- 5 mint leaves
- 1 lime
- 1 water bottle
- Step 1: cut the lime and cucumber into slices
- Step 2: add 2 lime slices, half the cucumbers, and the mint leaves to your water bottle or cup
- Step 3: fill the bottle or cup with water
- Step 4: if drinking from a bottle shake a little, if drinking from a cup stir lightly
- Strawberry + Lemon water
This is probably my second favorite that I try to drink this at least once a month. Strawberries are great for weight loss, removing toxins from the body, boosting your immune system, improving your mood, increasing your energy levels, and improving your digestive health.
Plus, this recipe is so delicious!
Here’s how I make mine:
- 1 lemon
- 5 strawberries
- 1 water bottle
- Step 1: cut the lemon into slices, chop the strawberries
- Step 2: add half of the lemon slices and all the chopped berries to your water bottle or cup
- Step 3: fill the bottle or cup with water
- Step 4: if drinking from a bottle shake a little, if drinking from a cup stir lightly
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Why these recipes work
Lemon is great for our health. Lemons have a lot of vitamin C which is essential for a healthy immune system.
Mint is one of those things that people either love or dislike. I happen to love mint. Mint helps to relieve an upset stomach, and ladies it’s great for PMS.
Berries of all kind always taste great in water. They too are packed with tons of vitamins and are a great source of fiber. Plus, it’s the added bonus of having a tasty snack to enjoy once you’ve drunk all of your water!
This is the simple and easy way that I like to prepare my magical water recipes. If I want my water a little bit colder, I’ll add a couple of ice cubes, or if I’m preparing the drink for later in the day, I’ll store it in the fridge.
Sometimes I even like to prepare my drink the night before and stick it in the fridge so that it’s cold when I wake up in the morning.
Some last tips to help you drink more water daily are to drink a cup of water the minute you wake up. This will help in creating the habit of drinking water before you do anything else. Also drink one cup of water before you go to bed. This will also help you get a better sleep at night.
These are just a few water recipes that I happen to enjoy drinking. Do you have any? Share them with me, I’m always looking for something new to try!
-Xo
Kimora