8 Cups of water a day... HOW?!

It was very difficult for me at first. I was afraid to drive more than 20 minutes away from the house for the first few days because I was peeing every 2 seconds, lol. But you get used to it and it becomes normal after a while. I used to never drink water, and now I drink 10-12 glasses per day.

Step one: Put it in the mouth hole.
Step two: Swallow.

Giggity.

:laugh:

Even then it's things like tea or milk or juice

Well there you go.

I find it really easy but here's why - when I first started my weight loss journey, I started with cutting soda and pop first, then milk. I still have coffee and almond milk from time-to-time, but when I do, I make a point of drinking extra water (coffee tends to stunt my appetite).

Also - I try to keep water with me at all times. Often i find that when I feel a craving or hungry, I'm not hungry at all, I'm actually just a little dehydrated and instead will drink some water first, wait 5 minutes and see how I feel..

I keep my water bottle filled at my desk. I don't really "like" water, but I find I'm more apt to sip on it if it's sitting right there.

I add a little flavored balsamic to mine (currently rotating between tangerine, blueberry and fig). I get the health benefits of balsamic and a little flavor in my water (2 TBS for a 24 ounce cup). I try for 4 refills at work and then 2 more at home. My skin has shown much improvement and I feel better (but to be fair I've also switched to a plant-based diet so I'm sure that's helping too).

I was always dehydrated when I used a stupid cup. Then I got a 34oz Nalgene water bottle (with the wide opening for my cleaning and chugging convenience.) Fill it twice. Bam.

I can't enjoy eating if I'm the least bit thirsty. It will drive me insane until I chug something.

It's the matter of a habit. Just develop this habit of drinking water and you'll be good.

Hating plain water is like hating clean air, both are necessary for life.

These little Mio & similar flavor enhancers are wunderbar for my water intake. The Kool-Aid tropical punch is my favorite.

And yeah, artificial blahblah and bad for you yacksmack, whatever.

I have these Contigo water bottles I bought at Costco and they seem REALLY easy to drink from. I can take down 12oz in a few gulps and it doens' t feel unnatural or forced. LOVE these bottles!

http://www.amazon.com/Contigo-AUTOSEAL-Water-Bottle-Ounces/dp/B003KZKDRW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380044251&sr=8-1&keywords=contigo+water+bottle

8 cups? nothin!

I'd try to drink at least 2 Gallons of water a day when I was training for Free Slurpee Day. (got 50 free slurpees this year)

there is an adjustment period. but you do get used to it.
now that I've accomplished my Free Slurpee Day goal, I usually just drink like at least 1 gallon a day.

i used to hate drinking water, find it hard to swallow. i can only drink 3 cups in a day and only pee once for whole day!
but i know that's disastrous for my health so i tried to find ways.

I bought a 1-litre bottle with a straw and place it in front of me when I work at the computer. So I can type away while just lower my head to drink with the straw. Yup, lazy method but it work! Seems like it's easy for me to drink absent mindedly and easier to swallow with a straw. You know what... now I can easily drink 2 bottles... that's 8 glasses of 250ml, plus the extra cups before and after work, I exceeded!

Btw, peeing more often is a good sign! it means waste & toxins are flushed out of your system. =D
I used to have serious water retention... and i was wondering why... since i drank so little.
Then I realised it's because i drank too little and my body was holding onto the water.
So after I drank more, my condition improves much more and I look less puff up. yeah!

I drink 16ounces when I wake up. I drink 16 after breakfast, at lunch, midday, at dinner, and then if I work out I usually consume 32+ ounces. It really helps in weight loss. There are times when I know I am not hungry but in need of hydration. Before my lifestyle changes I mistook my needing water for being hungry. Keep at it and you will reach at least 8 glasses a day.

Exactly! There are so many times that I feel like I am hungry but my body is really just craving fluid and my brain can't tell the difference. Trust me. If you make yourself drink lots of water a day (and at first you will really have to think about it and make yourself do it...but then it will come natural), you will not want to eat as much food. Plus, it helps flush the extra sodium out of your body!

I drink when I'm thirsty. Lucky for me, water is all I drink, except for one or two cups of black coffee in the morning. And wine on weekends. But I love water and it's not hard for me to drink. I think the whole "8-cups-a-day" thing is a public health campaign to get people off the sodas and other sweet drinks, which contributes to the obesity epidemic. If you're getting the majority of your liquids from those, you end up drinking a lot of useless calories and it can lead to kidney problems down the line. Like many other diet trends (low fat, low carb, eggs are bad, eggs are good, gluten is bad, etc.), I think this water thing has been blown out of proportion.

This is not new. Here's an article from Scientific American in 2009:

Virtually every health-conscious person can quote the recommendation: Drink at least eight eight-ounce glasses of water per day. Other beverages—coffee, tea, soda, beer, even orange juice—don't count. Watermelon? Not a chance.

There's no denying that water is good for you, but does everyone really need to drink 64 ounces or more every day? According to Heinz Valtin, a retired professor of physiology from Dartmouth Medical School who specialized in kidney research and spent 45 years studying the biological system that keeps the water in our bodies in balance, the answer is no.

Valtin says that for people who have specific health concerns, such as kidney stones or a tendency to develop urinary tract infections, drinking lots of water can be beneficial. But after an extensive search in 2002 for the origins of what is commonly referred to as the "8 x 8" guideline and a review of associated health claims, he reports finding no scientific evidence supporting the notionthat healthy individuals need to consume large quantities of water. In 2008 Dan Negoianu and Stanley Goldfarb reviewed the evidence for the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. They came to a similar conclusion: "There is no clear evidence of benefit from drinking increased amounts of water."

In fact, Valtin found that the 8 x 8 guideline may have originated from a misunderstanding. In 1945 the Food and Nutrition Board, now part of the National Academy of Sciences's Institute of Medicine, suggested that a person consume one milliliter of water (about one fifth of a teaspoon) for each calorie of food. The math is pretty simple: A daily diet of around 1,900 calories would dictate the consumption of 1,900 milliliters of water, an amount remarkably close to 64 ounces. But many dieticians and other people failed to notice a critical point: namely, that much of the daily need for water could be met by the water content found in food.

The Board revisited the question of water consumption in 2004. Its panel on "dietary preference intakes for electrolytes and water" noted that women who appear adequately hydrated consume about 91 ounces (2.7 liters) of water a day and men about 125 ounces (3.7 liters). These seemingly large quantities come from a variety of sources—including coffee, tea, milk, soda, juice, fruits, vegetables and other foods. Instead of recommending how much extra water a person should drink to maintain health, the panel simply concluded that "the vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their daily hydration needs by letting thirst be their guide."
Advocates of the 8 x 8 guideline sometimes claim that thirst is a poor hydration indicator. They assert that many people are so chronically dehydrated they no longer recognize their bodies' signals for water. Barbara Rolls, professor of nutrition sciences at the Pennsylvania State University, disagrees. Her studies, she says, "found no evidence that people are chronically dehydrated." Although some drugs can cause problems with thirst regulation and the elderly may not experience thirst as intensely as younger people, Rolls maintains that most healthy people are adequately hydrated.

Weight loss is another benefit often touted by proponents of the 8 x 8 guideline. They claim people mistake thirst for hunger, which causes them to eat when they are really just thirsty. They also allege that drinking water suppresses appetite. Given theobesity crisis, every little bit (or drop) helps.

But Rolls disagrees, arguing that "drinking water and waiting for pounds to melt away does not work. We all wish it were that simple." She explains that "hunger and thirst are controlled by separate systems in the body. People are unlikely to mistake thirst for hunger." Furthermore, she reports that her studies "never found that drinking water with or before a meal affected appetite." Nevertheless, there are some elements of truth in the misperception. Rolls did find that water-rich foods—as opposed to stand-alone water—tended to help people consume fewer calories. And, she says, "there is a way that water can help with weight loss—if you use water as a substitute for a caloric beverage."

Neither Rolls nor Valtin opposes the idea of including water in a healthy diet. They both note that the body needs water to function properly and that dehydration hurts the body. They do object, however, to the notion that a universally true guideline governs ideal water consumption. "Water requirements depend so much on outside temperature, activity levels and other factors that there isn't one rule that fits everybody," Rolls says. And Valtin cautions that in some situations drinking too much water can actually be dangerous, even fatal.

So how much water should you drink? Here's their advice: If you have specific medical concerns, talk to your doctor. But if you are healthy, Rolls recommends that you "have a beverage with meals and drink when you are thirsty." In other words, heed your thirst signals, enjoy that watermelon, and stop feeling guilty for not guzzling those extra glasses.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=eight-glasses-water-per-day