Health | Lifestyle | Productivity

4 Life Hacks I Used to Keep My Water Balance for 365 Days

Stay hydrated all day with these simple tricks.

Most of the human body is water — an average of 60%. So, drinking enough water seems like a good plan. But it is not so easy to achieve.

Why so?

To keep optimal water balance we need to drink a lot. There are different daily norms for men and women. U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine defines them as:

• 16 cups (~4 liters) of water for men
• 12 cups (~3 liters) of water for women

A lot of water to drink. Luckily, we can take into account any liquids: tea, coffee, juices, milkshakes, and of course, pure water.

Also, 20% of the required water norm we receive with food. So you can decrease the above norm by 3–4 daily cups of water.

Still, 9–12 cups of water a day is a lot. No wonder most people don’t drink enough. Especially, because it doesn’t have any visible effects in short term. We all know what do we need to do. The question is how to do it?

Here are 4 tricks I used during my 365 days water drinking challenge. They helped me to drink the required amount of water every day.

Morning cup of warm water

Morning is the most important part of the day. You do the first actions, warm up your body and start chemical processes inside. The better you spend your morning, the better day will be ahead of you.

There are different important things to do in the morning: meditation, workout, healthy breakfast, planning the day ahead, etc. But there is one simple habit that helps you perform better all other actions.

Drink a cup of warm water in the morning. Let it be the first thing you do in the day. It doesn’t require a lot of time but gives significant results.

Right after getting up, your body is sleepy, metabolism is low, chemical processes run slowly. You need to give them an initial impulse. Drinking water gives that impulse and increases metabolism.

Crucial moment: water must be warm!

Perhaps you remember from the school chemistry course the following thesis. Increasing the temperature increases the speed of the reaction. What does this have to do with our case?

Water has to be warm when your body consumes it. Your body is awesome enough to warm it up by itself, but it would require energy. Spending extra energy will slow down metabolism.

So when you drink warm water, you help your body consume it. You help to begin the chemistry of life. When someone else drinks cold water in the morning, it works vice versa and slows down the process.

Drink at work

After a good start, you need to keep the pace. You need to drink enough water during the day. It’s a tricky challenge.

Most of us have to spend a lot of time working. Work takes a big piece of life. Keeping the water balance during working hours is important.

So, you need to drink at work. You can achieve it by following the next rules:

• always have a cup or bottle on the working place
• as soon as it gets empty refill it
• take a small sip every time you feel thirsty
• make this drinking ritual a habit

Boost your productivity with water

Your brain is only 2% of your body mass, but it consumes about 80% of the energy you spend daily. So keeping yourself full of energy throughout the day is an easy way to keep your brain productive.

Water is one of the three must-have ingredients that make your brain work well. The other two are oxygen and glucose. Keep these parameters high, and your brain will work like a charm.

Do the exercises

Balance means two sides of the equation. Water balance is not an exception. You need to drink enough and lose enough water during the day. Two opposite powers that keep your body fresh and hydrated.

Every day you lose water through your breath, sweat, and visits to the bathroom. But it is not enough if you plan to increase the amount of water you gonna drink daily. You need extra exercise.

Even a small amount of daily exercise would be a great addition to your new water diet. 10 squats daily is an excellent starting point. Long walks outside are good, too. The perfect case would be to run or exercise hard and get sweaty. The shower keeps you hydrated, too.

This way you send a message to your body to increase metabolism and work better. Drinking more and exercising will give you a significant health improvement. The key is to keep balance.

Always have a flask or bottle with you

The hardest part about drinking enough every day is drinking when you are not at home. We’ve covered rules for working place, but home and working place aren’t the whole life. There are other parts of it.

You need to drink even when you are outside: walking in the park, driving a car (not at the same time, please), or traveling. The issue is that you need water to do it, and it’s hard to find drinkable water in the park or on the highway. There is a simple solution.

You need a supply of water and a tank to carry it. I bought myself a shiny flask made of stainless steel. I like how it looks and feels. It fits easily in my backpack and always provides me with a water supply.

A 0.5 liters plastic bottle is good enough, too. It easily fits in a bag or backpack. Just do not use it longer than a couple of days.

Also, drinking more leads to peeing more, so don’t wonder. You will learn the map of toilets in your city. I would say it is a bonus of this routine ;)

Final Thoughts

Drinking more isn’t a big change in life, but it leads to significant results. My health and overall well-being improved during this 365-day challenge.

I hope the above tricks will help you improve your own life, too.

Completing a one-year-long water drinking challenge proved to me that I can. It gave me faith in myself. It’s a life-changing experience. I strongly recommend it to everyone. It’s worth it.

If you must do something, then you can do it. It became my new motto.

Debes Ergo Potes in Latin.

Also, you can read about my other 365 days challenges here. For example, 365 days exercise challenge or 72 days of building meditation habit.

P.S. If you liked this thing, follow me and clap a couple of times. Good luck!

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