Hydration Station

I'll take a water, please.

This past weekend, I went to a BBQ for the 4th of July at our family friends' house. That meant 2 things: 1) I would be outside in the baking heat all day, and 2) I would be drinking alcohol. I'm sure you can connect the dots. Now, I'm really not much of a heavy drinker when I'm home, a couple drinks and that's enough for me - so when I woke up with a headache the next day I was both annoyed and confused. I made sure to have water yesterday so why on Earth do I still have a headache? Well, long story short, I had nowhere near enough water for what I was doing that day.

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Hydration is, and I can't stress this enough, truly the most important way to take care of your body. Our bodies are 70% water, so we rely very heavily on water to keep up alive and functioning. According to the Telegraph, the recommended amounts for daily water intake are 2000ml for women, and 2500ml for men (about 8 glasses). However, this really depends on your activity level each day. Even though I thought I had had the right amount of water when I was at the BBQ, I didn't take into account the 9 hours I was in the sun, and the amount of swimming I was doing. So the amount of water I had would've been sufficient for a day spent more or less indoors with average activity level.

On the topic of dehydration, it's important to not forget to hydrate our skin! Just like our insides get dehydrated, so do our outsides; skin and lips predominantly. I don't have a particular facial moisturizer that I swear by, I tend to just use whatever falls in my lap when I need a new one. Right now, I'm using one from the No.7 from Boots range. Conversely, however, the only lip balm I ever use is Burt's Bees. Right now I'm loving their coconut and pear flavor - tastes just like a pina colada so I love that.

Another tricky thing about hydration is alcohol. When you're drinking alcohol, it actually acts as a dehydrant (which is why we get headaches when hungover). But since we're performing the physical act of drinking, we trick ourselves into thinking we're staying hydrated. A good tip when drinking is to balance your drinks out with water - it'll save you from getting dehydrated and feeling gross and will allow you to drink more throughout the day!

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I used to be AWFUL at staying hydrated, but it really does come with practice. I was never a person who had a water bottle with her but was always like "yeah I really should" (aka I was just lazy). Now, I always have my CamelBak with me and won't ever go back. Here is a list of tips I used to get me drinking more water, and still use to this day:

Keep a water bottle with you all day

• Make it a nice color, or have a pretty design on it so you'll want to drink out of it, there's nothing less inspiring than a plain water bottle.

Purchase a water bottle with milliliter markings

• This way you'll be able to see how much you drank, and how much you still need to drink throughout the day. It's really difficult to picture what 2000ml looks like in your head, so these water bottles are perfect. You can even get 2000ml water bottles, so all you have to do it drink one of those a day - but they're huge and not the most practical, so best to stick to more manageably sized bottles.

• My CamelBak is 750ml, so I aim to have 3 full bottles a day, which puts me right in the middle of the recommendations for men & women's water intake.

Drink from a straw

• It's so much more fun and actually makes you want to drink more

Get a clear/see-through water bottle

• This way you can actually visualize what you're drinking. I noticed that as soon as I switched to a clear water bottle I wanted to drink more because I could actually see myself getting closer to my 3x daily bottle goal. It's all about the perception & psychology behind it.

Have a full glass of water before you have a meal

• Not only will this increase your water intake, but will inadvertently make you feel fuller, which could even boost weight loss.

FRUIT!

• If you don't like the taste of plain water, throw some fruit in there to spice it up a bit, it'll make it much more enjoyable.

• Or, you could just opt for the fruit, as they are filled with water. Here is a list of the 17 fruits with the highest volume in water.

Thanks for reading, hope this helped you out - now, GO GET A GLASS OF WATER!

-Lily

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