The Importance of Hydration

I don't know about you, but I have a ridiculously hard time drinking the amount of water my body needs a day. So in an effort to motivate myself into healthier aqua-ingestion habits, I did a little research. I learned not too long ago that the 8x8 rule (8 glasses, 8 ounces each, per day) isn't necessarily going to cut it. Instead, people who know way more than me recommend drinking half your body weight in ounces a day. So if you weigh, say, 200 pounds... that's 5 20oz bottles a day.

Honestly, that shouldn't be that hard. But without adding chemical embellishments like Crystal Light to fool me into thinking I'm drinking Kool-Aid, somehow I just can't manage it.

I thought perhaps I wasn't the only one with this issue... so here I've produced a list of a few ideas to keep water on the brain.

Keep a HUGE MUG OR GLASS of water handy at all times, within arm's reach... if it's there all the time, you're more likely to drink that. I've learned that this is much more effective if it isn't sitting directly behind a 20 ounce bottle of cherry Coke. Just saying... learn from my mistakes.

Not gonna lie... I seriously wish this was *actually* a little girl drinking water in a giant cup.

Consider making a huge straw, as seen below, and fill a baby pool with refreshing H2O, then stick the straw in the pool and just keep the straw between your lips all day. Seriously, you'll get hydrated.

You may look like this elephant doing so but I bet it's effective.

 If that's not practical for your lifestyle, maybe just refer back to the huge mug idea. I guess. Although seriously... if your life doesn't at some point include drinking a beverage through a giant straw straight from a baby pool, maybe you should reconsider just what it is you're living for.

Another idea is to make it fancy schmancy... Add pretty flowers (not poinsettas or anything poisonous... obvi.) and fill a pitcher with ice and fresh water, along with slices of oranges and mint leaves, or strawberries and cucumbers, or chocolate syrup... you know, whatever you like. Disclaimer: chocolate syrup not effective if you're drinking water to improve your health in any way.

I find that when making my water fancy-schmancy, my body best absorbs it when drinking it from a glass goblet with my pinky raised, and speak in a pretentious English accent about the travesty that is Western culture.

My point here is, there's no excuse if you just put a little effort in... and the benefits to your body are ridiculous. It's amazing what a cheap source of hydration can do for you physically if you just take the time to let it happen.  So embrace the wet life... drink it in, bath in it if you will. Actually... seriously, please do. For my sake if not for your own.

Here is a water PSA, so that all my ridiculousness can have a final, mature point.