Natural Living: 5 Tricks That Helped Me Increase My Water Intake

08:09

So about 2 weeks ago, my cousin/bestie Anita Nkatha started a 1 week water intake challenge dubbed #titasdetoxchallenge. The challenge had us drink at least 3 liters of water a day and a cup of green tea each evening. Now I definitely hadn’t been drinking 3 litres a day before this challenge and I found that drinking that much water was well……CHALLENGING. So I developed little tips and tricks to help me through the week and I am proud to say that not only did I succeed, but I am planning on making it a long term lifestyle change. Here they are:

1. Water Bottle

This was a big one for me. On the first day of the challenge I tried using glasses to get to my 3 litre goal but they just didn’t work for 2 main reasons. Firstly, the idea of drinking 8 GLASSES of water seemed soooo daunting that it made me not even want to try. Add to that, the inconvenience of having to stop what I was doing to make 8 trips to the kitchen throughout the day to refill my glass. Secondly, I couldn’t carry around glasses so this system pretty much made it impossible to keep up with my water intake when out of the house.

To solve all these problems, I employed my Bertha. Bertha is my trusty 1.5L water bottle and I love her. Now there are 3 awesome things about using a water bottle like Bertha. Firstly I found that I was unconsciously drinking so much more water because it was just right there to drink all day. Secondly, it was just so much easier to wrap my mind around the idea of finishing 2 bottles over 8 glasses (it just seems more manageable, right?). And lastly, Bertha can go anywhere. She’s my couch buddy when I’m watching TV, my co-driver when I’m in the car, and my snuggle buddy when I go to sleep. She’s become my new bestie (sorry Anita).

2. Support Group

Other than my trusty Bertha, being able to share the experience with my cousins was probably the second biggest reason for my success. I was a lucky member of the #titadetoxchallenge whatsapp group and it was soooo helpful. The awesome thing about a support group is that we get to not only share our challenges but we get to encourage each other throughout the day. Our whatsapp group actually became quite competitive, which made the challenge so much more exciting and led to many of us exceeding our water intake goals (lets just say we have a lot of prideful people in our family). My advice would be to make sure your group stays positive, excited and ACTIVE. Update your group on your water intake throughout the day. It’ll motivate those who are lagging behind and remind those who forget. It has been a huge help to me and I hope it can be for you.

3. Reward

About half way into the week I began to plateau and I found myself needing a little more motivation. I decided that it was time for a reward system. So I went in search of something that I would enjoy as a reward but was still healthy and lo and behold, my reward came in the form of big juicy STRAWBERRIES. I LOVE strawberries, so I froze a pack of them and dropped 3 strawberries in each filled bottle of water. I now literally gulp down entire bottles of water for no other reason other than to get to get to the strawberries at the bottom. And as an added benefit, I get to drink strawberry flavored water. Double Win! Now I know strawberries might not be enough of a motivation for everyone so find what works for you. Maybe a cube of chocolate or a 5 minute snapchat binge. Just try and keep your reward small and not too unhealthy. After all we don’t want to feel guilty about our rewards; that might be counter productive.

4. Variety

Now one of the things people overlook when trying to increase their water intake is the fact that there are dozens of ways to drink water. If plain water is challenging for you then try to spice things up. Add lemon or other fruits to your water to make it more palatable. Or play around with the temperature. For some, drinking ice-cold water or hot water is a lot easier than room temperature water. And if hot water works better for you, play around with adding herbal tea or just plain tea to excite your taste buds. Try different things until you find what works for you. Just try and keep it healthy and natural. We don’t want to counter the health benefits of water intake by adding loads of unhealthy sweeteners or other chemicals.

5. Health Benefits

Speaking of health benefits, the changes to your body from upping your water intake should be motivation enough. One of the health benefits that I was personally working for was clearer and more radiant skin and I haven’t been disappointed. I definitely feel a difference in the smoothness of my face and my skin really does look healthier. Apart from skin health, a high water intake is known to improve ones athletic performance, aid in weight loss, help one get over a hangover, improve ones mood, and is even known to protect against certain cancers.

So to those who are already of the water intake journey or those just starting out, let me know if you have tried any of these tricks and how they worked out for your in the comment section below.

Until next time,

Bertha’s New Best Friend