Drinking Water, Any Tips ?

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  • cindys0417
    cindys0417 Posts: 1,155 Member
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    I use to hate water too.. never drank it...always diet 7-up until I found out what the soda does to your body and won't let you lose weight...I usually put 1/2 of those sugar free packets like grape,orange,berry (great value from walmart) in my orange thermo cup that holds a water bottle full of water (16 oz)..thats 2 cups and put a few ice cubes in and take it wherever you go...there...you have drank 2 cups already...just have to drink 4 like that...You will get use to drinking water...soon you will crave it! Good Luck!
  • BallsofFire
    BallsofFire Posts: 4
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    Oh, and as somebody already said, drink from a glass cup!! Water tastes unbelievable better! In fact, everything does! I've thrown out all the plastic years ago (except my refillable water bottle, glass doesn't stand up to the abuse it would get).
  • elleloch
    elleloch Posts: 739 Member
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    The biggest thing I had to overcome with drinking more water was just making it more convenient. I have a Camelbak water bottle that has the ounces marked on the side so I can tell how much I'm drinking. It's a 24 oz bottle. I keep it with me at all times and try to drink a full bottle before lunch, a full bottle before dinner, and then by the time I get done with my workouts in the evening I try to drink another full bottle (or about 16 oz of it). I mostly just sip on it all day. It can be kind of hard to drink water if you're just chugging full glasses of water between meals, kwim?
  • capriciousmoon
    capriciousmoon Posts: 1,263 Member
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    Find an 8 oz glass- keep it at the sink and slam one before and after each meal for starters- that will at least get you started to 8 glasses a day. Then make it a 16 oz glass (what I do) and slam those at least after the meal if not before as well.

    Have a glass before and after your shower, before and after a work out, before and after work- any places in your day where it would be convenient to just walk over to the sink and get a drink. Not hard just gotta make yourself do it.

    I could never do the "keep a cup of water near you" thing because water that has been sitting out is really gross. Refilling a cup before and after doing common daily activities seems a lot more reasonable.
  • newcs
    newcs Posts: 717 Member
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    If you like it but aren't remembering to drink it, try getting a decent sized water bottle and making a rule that you have to finish it before doing certain things (getting lunch, etc). That's worked pretty well for me. Some days I'll set a high goal for water and keep a note that shows my starting goal and then subtracting out each glass. For some reason, I find myself going to get water and downing a glass just because I want to update my progress so it's partially a mind game.
  • SexyLovinmeCook
    SexyLovinmeCook Posts: 1,393 Member
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    I would suggest keep a case in the car....set a goal to drink one at every 2-3 stops.....Keep a liter bottle at work to refill at all times....All helped me...
  • ajohniken
    ajohniken Posts: 2
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    Just starting this lifestyle change and not really having a hard time with the water yet. I have adjusted the temperature of my water so that is not too cold and not too warm. That way I can drink more at a time. I try not to add anything to it because for me that leads to that sweet taste which is my danger area. At work when I give a resident water for their medication sometimes they refuse the water for temperature reasons so I have to give them either ice cold water or tap water. In either case I take the first cup of water and drink it myself. I started doing this after a bout with dehydration which was not fun.
  • rpantusa
    rpantusa Posts: 267 Member
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    yes fresh lemon! it not only gives it taste but it makes me thirsty, so I drink more! Good luck! :wink:
  • newcs
    newcs Posts: 717 Member
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    I would suggest keep a case in the car....set a goal to drink one at every 2-3 stops.....Keep a liter bottle at work to refill at all times....All helped me...

    Be careful if you do this...I'm personally not comfortable drinking anything that's been sitting in heated up plastic so I wouldn't leave it in the car. My dad keeps a 2liter full of water with him at all times. But he takes it out of the truck when he gets out so it's not sitting in the truck baking tasty plastic chemicals into something he'll be drinking.
  • cjh03
    cjh03 Posts: 74 Member
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    It may be weird, but I make a game out of drinking water. I usually have a 32oz bottle of some sort with me every day at work. My goal is to drink the entire bottle before lunch and then drink another bottle before I leave work. This gives me 64oz or the recommended 8 cups of water a day. Now I have cut out most other drinks and really only consume water and milk. I will have the occasional Diet Dr. Pepper...but that's rare. I find things much easier when making a game out of it so them works well for me.
  • cjh03
    cjh03 Posts: 74 Member
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    I would suggest keep a case in the car....set a goal to drink one at every 2-3 stops.....Keep a liter bottle at work to refill at all times....All helped me...

    Be careful if you do this...I'm personally not comfortable drinking anything that's been sitting in heated up plastic so I wouldn't leave it in the car. My dad keeps a 2liter full of water with him at all times. But he takes it out of the truck when he gets out so it's not sitting in the truck baking tasty plastic chemicals into something he'll be drinking.

    I second this...I remember reading/hearing somewhere that leaving water bottles in the heat will release nasty chemicals that you don't want floating around in your body. :wink:
  • Theforce31
    Theforce31 Posts: 14 Member
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    I use slices of lemon in mine. I find that it softens the water.
  • Erica27511
    Erica27511 Posts: 490 Member
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    There are so many ways to naturally add flavor to water. Lemons, cucumber, mint.
    What is it about water you don't like?
  • 916lude
    916lude Posts: 305
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    Crystal light or flavored sparkling water can help
  • herillusion
    herillusion Posts: 62 Member
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    Honestly I hate water but I like it better when its ICE cold and thru a straw.

    Most of us confuse thirst for hunger so the next time you think you are hungry - drink 8 oz of water. Wait about 15 minutes and still see if you are hungry.

    I started drinking before/after a meal.

    Only downside is that I had an overactive bladder before and now I'm in the bathroom every 15-20 minues. :(

    But plain water with a slice of lemon or lime or something else is what your body needs.

    Try these ideas for fruits in water

    http://nancycreative.com/2010/06/25/feast-your-eyes-on-flavored-water/
  • ATT949
    ATT949 Posts: 1,245 Member
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    Hello,
    I was just wondering if anyone has any tips on how to drink more water. At the moment I struggle to drink a cup a day, not because I don't like it (although I will admit Dr Pepper does taste nice) it's more that I never feel like I need a drink of something.
    I hope that made sense :S

    I've "been away" for a while (haven't been on the forums much in a few months) and have seen one great change here on MFP - folks who "admit" that they've lost weight eating < 1200 calories aren't being shouted down now. I'm very pleased to see that.

    What hasn't changed, however, is that folks here are holding on to the myth of "8x8". "8x8" is the myth that you need to drink 8 cups of water a day.

    Here's a posting of mine from some time ago that explores the "gotta get your 8 a day" myth:

    "A lot of places urge dieters to drink water and for good reason - it can help you lose weight. If you have a stomach with lots of water, you feel full, and will tend to eat less. Many sites don't explain why they recommend 8 cups/day but the only reasons I've seen given are that it fills you up. And that's a good thing.

    As my fiancée, who runs a very successful weight loss clinic here in Southern California, clued me in on, there's a second benefit to drinking water when you're dieting. When some folks start losing weight, they get constipated. By drinking lots of water, the unneeded water can help loosen your bowels.

    That's about it. If doesn't make you skinnier faster, it does bloat you and add to the work that your kidneys have to do, and you end up spending money for it (bottled water is a multi-billion dollar industry), and you get to spend quality time peeing out all of the extra water.

    My take on it — if you need to drink water to control your urge to eat, do it because being overweight is much worse than drinking water all day. If you don't need help controlling you appetite, why bother? Most of us have the urination thing down pretty well, right?

    That comes across as a bias but it's one I've had for a while and part of it comes 'cause I grew up in a place where the drinking water wasn't that great (in Bermuda we used to catch the rainwater on our roof and store it in a tank under the house. Water tanks had mold and bacteria so we put guppies in the water tank to get rid of things like mosquitoes. Mold, stale water, and guppy…remnants — yummy!).

    Fast forward to now and it appears that there's no medical evidence to drink the infamous 8 cups a day.

    Yes, that flies in the face of "what everyone knows" but, heh, that's how life is some times. Everyone knows that stomach ulcers come from too much acid in the stomach, right? Wrong. It's a virus - a fellow won a Nobel prize when he proved it even though he had been denounced for his beliefs!. Another example - even the best scientific minds accept the fact that the human body will survive going faster than 10 MPH in a steam engine but it wasn't always that way. In the early 1800's, scientists were convinced that people would be killed if they were in a train going that speed. So, times change and we learn, right?

    References anyone?

    This paper, written by a Dartmouth MD, professor, and author of a book on kidneys has 100 footnotes.

    http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2002/aug/080802.html

    And here's another link to a different version:

    http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/283/5/R993.full


    Even Snopes gets in on this:

    http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

    In short:

    Is there value in drinking 8 cups of water? Yes!

    Do you have to drink 8 cups a day to lose weight? Nope.

    Do you lose weight faster by drinking 8 cups a day? Perhaps recent research has been posted that proves this but, as of a few years ago, there was no medical evidence to support this claim.


    The most recent issue of Running Times has an article on this subject. It's an excerpt from an upcoming book about running. I do realize that MFP isn't a web site for runners but that doesn't mean that knowledge isn't applicable.

    Here's the link:

    http://www.runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=26481

    And, yes, Dr. Noakes, makes it very clear that there is no need to chug down lotsa water.


    How much water do I drink? As it turns out, not a whole lot. I drink water when I'm thirsty (it's humid today so my run will be more demanding than normal) and I'm thirsty after a run. Other than that, I drink coffee (I know how "everyone knows that caffeine is a diuretic - it's measurable and immaterial for someone who regularly uses caffeine), diet soda, and iced tea. But what about when I get thirsty, what do I drink? Heh, I'm no fool. I turn on the tap and pour myself a glass of water!
  • Cathy_Daydreams
    Cathy_Daydreams Posts: 120
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    One way to make water more desirable to me is to get those crystal light or off brand flavored powder packets to pour into my water. They're only 10 calories per pack and they taste very good. Also what makes me really thirsty is moving. Like even if I just go on a short walk outside, I come back and I'm so thirsty. Drinking a lot of water throughout the day does get easier though after doing it a while, I am at the point where it is pretty much all I ever want to drink; I do 8 to 10 cups a day. Watch out for diet sodas though, they tend to have a lot of sodium in them which can bloat your tummy.

    I've never seen or heard of flavoured powder packets before but they sound like a good idea.
    Does anyone know if they're available in the UK ? I know a number of people have mentioned them and I wouldn't mind trying one.
  • Cathy_Daydreams
    Cathy_Daydreams Posts: 120
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    I am not fond of drinking water so I put one of those crystal lite packets in mine and find that I will drink more water. Also adding a lemon to your water is refreshing too. I agree with you though Dr Pepper is yummy but what my Dr told me is that by drinking soda pop it will increase your want for more sweets. I of course still drink a coke zero but only one a day :) Anyway...good luck and cheers to you.:drinker:

    I don't find that it does, I think part of the reason I like it is because my diet can at times be pretty bland. Mum cooks tea for all of us you see and we have the same thing week in week out, so you can imagine how much my taste buds ache for something different with a bit of taste. I do sip at coke during the day, usually during the morning to wake me up :3
  • Cathy_Daydreams
    Cathy_Daydreams Posts: 120
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    Personally if my thirst never kicked in Id see a doctor- I would wonder if thats a sign of something more serious. Dehydration is no joke and most ppl walk around dehydrated on the regular and they wonder why they are foggy, have head aches, muscle aches and various other ailments.

    Find an 8 oz glass- keep it at the sink and slam one before and after each meal for starters- that will at least get you started to 8 glasses a day. Then make it a 16 oz glass (what I do) and slam those at least after the meal if not before as well.

    Have a glass before and after your shower, before and after a work out, before and after work- any places in your day where it would be convenient to just walk over to the sink and get a drink. Not hard just gotta make yourself do it.

    I have to admit I have had a lot of headaches lately. It's something I'm definatley mentioning to my doctor when I see him again at the end of the month. I understand what you are saying and I always take water with me, but I tend to find that I'm just not thirsty at all and I'm very cautious of drinking too much water when I'm out. I would like to actually be out and not sitting in a public toilet all day ...
  • Cathy_Daydreams
    Cathy_Daydreams Posts: 120
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    I hate water, being perfectly honest. When I would try to get eight glasses a day in with nothing in it, I would gag on it. I know that's ridiculous but I just can't stand it for some reason.

    So I use Propel Zero packets are the Crystal Light Pure. I use them because they don't have aspartame like other water sweeteners, which gives me a migraine, plus the Propel has no calories but it has a ton of flavor.

    Also try drinking water whenever you feel hungry, because sometimes it's your body signaling you that you're dehydrated so instead of overeating you're hydrating yourself.

    Plus if you just don't want to drink water, I'm the same way, I always make myself drink a few glasses of water before dinner or before you have that soda, that way, you have on soda and not multiple. Hope that helps!

    My mum always tells me to drink when I feel hungry and thank you for the suggestion about the soda. It is helpful because we don't always have soda in the house so I generally have to walk to the shop to get some, which makes me a little thirsty. Thank you for the suggestion.

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