I hate water. How do I increase my water intake?

Also, on the acid in the lemon... that's not bad for your body. It may not be the best for your teeth if you're drinking lemon juice all day, but when ingested lemon juice actually has an alkalizing effect in your body and does not create an increase in your PH or lead to acidity in your blood.

Just guzzle it. If sipping on it sucks, pour yourself a huge glass of barely cool or room temp water and then just down it all at once.
Do this several times a day and you've hit your water intake! Sip on other stuff throughout the day.
The "pain" is temporary, the benefits are worthwhile!

This is what I do too!

Water with lemon is absolutely fine! In fact it helps keep the body alkaline , not acidic. And room temp is best for proper absorption and cleansing. So if you find that is the best way to take in water , keep it up ! Your doing awesome !

Have you tried Redbush tea because I try to have at least 3 large cups of that a day, you can get redbush with honey and redbush with vanilla that makes it slightly sweeter without adding calories.

It's exactly the same as Rooibos, I don't drink regular tea at all now.

You could use MIO or Chrystal light in it. You can make some sassy water it has lots of good stuff in it. You can buy flavored bottled water as well just watch some are loaded with sugar.
Sassy Water
Time -
Serves 1
Ingredients

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2 liters water
1 tsp fresh, grated ginger
12 mint leaves
1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
1 lemon, thinly sliced

How to make it

---

Combine all ingredients in pitcher.
Drink all in one day.
(if you let it sit overnight, the flavors are stronger...personal preference)
Enjoy!

Just guzzle it. If sipping on it sucks, pour yourself a huge glass of barely cool or room temp water and then just down it all at once.
Do this several times a day and you've hit your water intake! Sip on other stuff throughout the day.
The "pain" is temporary, the benefits are worthwhile!

This is what I do too!

There are no benefits to drinking plain water over other fluids for the purposes of hydration. Drink what you enjoy.
Why endure the "pain:?

Personally I don't want to drink a minimum of 64 ounces of artificial sweeteners, or sugar, or any other thing that seems to be in most other beverages. It's actually not painful for me anymore. I love my water now, it just took some time. Now that water is my primary beverage, my skin looks healthier, my stomach hurts less and I generally feel better.

For you, that's great.
But the OP has stated she doesn't like it.
By the way, things like soup have things in them that have nutrients. Coffee has antioxidants and has been shown to prevent Type II diabetes so as well as the hydration factor it has benefits that plain water doesn't have.

Herbal tea and mineral water are good.
Green tea is good too, but it's also a mild diuretic and has some caffeine in it, so it shouldn't replace water in your diet.

Try drinking more juices and milks. or better yet. flavor your water with something low calorie. it will taste great and you'll still be drinking water.

Sometimes I get really sick of just drinking water too. Things that have helped me are putting a little lemon or orange in it and drinking it with a straw. For whatever reason, the straw helps me drink more!

i use sugar free squash. the water here is so hard and metallic even twice through a brita filter its undrinkable.

Mio Liquid water enhancer.

^^^^This...I have been able kick my soda habit entirely with Mio. I love the energy flavors!

As mentioned earlier, I actually prefer my water room temperature. If it is really cold I feel like it is kind of harsh when I drink it if that makes sense.

The other thing is honestly when I first started trying to increase my water I HATED it! Absolutely could not stand water! Didn't matter what I did to it. But I finally just decided to force myself to drink it. Eventually (and I mean after months and months.) I started to hate it less and less and eventually did not mind it at all. But I started out really dreading it.

It is kinda that whole thing about making it a habit. Once I had started doing it regularly it just happened and I didn't have to think about it anymore.

I don't know the specific name of the things but I did see in a shop (Cost Plus World Market if anyone wanted to know) these little plastic balls you can fill with juice or fruit or basically anything and freeze into ice balls to put into water to flavor it as well as keep it cold. I think they're meant for jugs and pitchers but it's something to look in to if you'd like to find another way that directly squeezing lemons into your water.

Myself, if I go some place that serves tap water or I'm at someone else's home I like to squeeze an orange into my water. I know it's still acid but I find the flavor much more pleasant.

Personally I don't advocate the packets of flavor stuffs like Crystal Light because of the artificial sweeteners. I find it too overbearing and I end up drinking twice as much water as I need because it makes me thirsty. I don't really believe they can really hurt you unless drunk in excess (and I mean excess) but I know a lot of people get upset stomachs, headaches, or just general unpleasantries from it, the same reason they cut down or stopped drinking diet sodas with the stuff in it. But, that's my personal preference and I'm not saying don't or do, that's your choice on that subject.

I really don't understand the "I hate water" argument. Water doesn't even taste of anything so how can you hate it?

Never had much tap water, did you? Either that or you're one of the lucky few that has tap water that tastes decent. The tap water where I live tastes a lot like chlorine so I have to rely on bottled water and a filter on my kitchen sink's faucet. I couldn't even make tea with the tap water because even though I'd boil it, it made the tea taste metallic no matter which kind I used. I stayed somewhere in Mississippi once when I was younger and their tap water tasted like it had a car tire soaking in it, I'm not joking. So really it's easy to hate the stuff when what's coming out your faucet, water fountains, and being served to you in a restaurant has a funk to it. It's why I never drank water in its pure form until I began my weight loss journey.

Just guzzle it. If sipping on it sucks, pour yourself a huge glass of barely cool or room temp water and then just down it all at once.
Do this several times a day and you've hit your water intake! Sip on other stuff throughout the day.
The "pain" is temporary, the benefits are worthwhile!

This is what I do too!

There are no benefits to drinking plain water over other fluids for the purposes of hydration. Drink what you enjoy.
Why endure the "pain:?

Personally I don't want to drink a minimum of 64 ounces of artificial sweeteners, or sugar, or any other thing that seems to be in most other beverages. It's actually not painful for me anymore. I love my water now, it just took some time. Now that water is my primary beverage, my skin looks healthier, my stomach hurts less and I generally feel better.

For you, that's great.
But the OP has stated she doesn't like it.
By the way, things like soup have things in them that have nutrients. Coffee has antioxidants and has been shown to prevent Type II diabetes so as well as the hydration factor it has benefits that plain water doesn't have.

She has stated that she doesn't like it, but she is also asking how she can get her 8 cups a day in. Clearly she wants to drink more water, just wants suggestions for how she can get herself to do it. From what I've seen, nobody here is arguing that things like coffee don't have benefits. But she isn't asking about coffee, she's asking about water.