Im realizing that I’ve actually been chronically dehydrated for a good portion of my adult life and I’m looking to change that. I just don’t enjoy drinking water (as silly as that may sound).
Any advice is appreciated.
You must log in or register to comment.
Are you drinking water with meals? I find washing something down, even a single chip, causes you to drink more than you could by itself.
Also, keep it at hand. A refillable bottle is worth investing in. If you like it ice cold, get a vacuum insulated vessel.
I have a water bottle but I can never finish it in a day.
I think the washing down food idea is really good and im definitely going to try that going forward.
Rinse after you eat anything (or drink anything other than water) and you’ll never get cavities.
You go: “Wow, I’m an adult now and sometimes I have to do things I don’t want to do”. And then you drink the water.
The fact of the matter is that almost nobody’s favorite beverage is water, but in a display of forbearance (combined with not being too fond of the whole dehydration thing) we drink it anyway.
Additives and things can help you in the near term, but developing good habits takes time and effort (and is very often the cornerstone of good health).
eventually good habits become self re-inforcing.
I can’t drink mass market soda anymore, it’s disgustingly sweet. some of the smaller boutique sodas have way less sugar and are tasty.
does sparkling help? cucumber, slice of lemon, orangeslice?
I know a lot of people get those huge bottles and it helps them - just having it with them all the time 🤔
Generally not really… sparkling water mostly just makes me wish I was drinking normal water or just normal juice. Its kinda just the worst of both worlds.
I have gotten really into making my own juices recently like oranges and apples and yada yada but even then I dont even think I drink enough. (Plus juice is far more sugary than normal water even if its natural juices)
You could always water those juices down a bit. So a half glass of juice mixed with a half glass of water. Basically homemade (non-sparkling) Spindrift.
And it’s also worth combining the sparkling water with the juice! If the sparkling water is just making you crave it anyways. Basically instant soda. Start with 4:1 ratio or to taste and you’ll be surprised after a month or two just how little juice you have to add to the water to taste it. Getting a sodastream with little sugar free flavor squirts made a huge difference to me being able to ditch a childhood sugar addiction.
does sparkling help?
I’m craving sparkling water now. I forgot how much I liked that stuff. It’s been years
I love that shit, got one of those sparkers at home to make it with. is good shit
Haha, yes yes we’re taking over the world with Kohlensäurehaltigem Mineralwasser!
Start by adding some flavour, like slices of lemon or orange. In time you’ll start to like how hydrated you are. Just don’t put sugar into it.
cucumber is great for this
Just drink water. You’ve ruined yourself over all these years by drinking juice/soda/Brawndo. You keep buying into the lie that “you don’t like water”.
You’ll get used to it and eventually come to want water. It’s literally what your body craves. Humans have existed for 300 millenia; mass produced sugary drinks have only existed for what, 100 years? You’ve evolved to drink water.
One thing to consider is that your relationship with taste might need to be re-examined.
Human beings can go most places in the world and find food. Taste is a big part of our ability to do so as a species, sure, but the fact remains that being able to eat/drink solely to satiate your desires (rather than survival) is actually an abnormality if we compare it to the rest of human history. In a sense, it is a privilege to simply be able to say ‘no’ to something strictly based on the flavor.
Try to guage it based on how you feel rather than how it tastes. You should be able to feel the difference between how a day with only water feels vs a day without water (I’m not including beer or soda here, yes it can keep you hydrated no it is not a solution to hydration unless you’re trapped in adesert). If it’s hard for you to notice a difference, give it a week. Being regularly hydrated should effect how you feel at every part of the day, especially in the mornings.
sugar free soda is absolutely fine for hydration, the addatives just go straight through your body
I think if you look at in isolation, sure, much like beer in a survival situation. Sugar free soda is still linked with things like higher blood pressure, diabetes — which, to me, sounds like you’re just better off drinking water.
source? Because all i’ve ever seen is that sugar free soda is almost identical to water
I can find sources but for one thing, aspartame has been looked at for years as a carcinogen, 4-MEI (caramel coloring) is also a carcinogen, articles like this one point to sucralose being quite bad for you in many different ways.
If your sugar free soda contains caffeine then it can actually contribute to hydration loss, this is because caffeine is a dieuretic (something that increases urine production and removes extra salt and water from the body).
Plus the simple logic is: sugar free soda cannot be almost identical to plain water because of the sheer amount of additives. You will always be better off health-wise drinking clean water.
Water tastes better with a few grains of salt or a slice of lemon in it (it’s got what plants crave)
Why do you think you’re chronically dehydrated? Is your urine brown? Have you been fainting? Do you have kidney stones? (I don’t actually want to know - please don’t share your personal health information on the internet - but if the answer to any of those questions is yes please see a doctor.) Otherwise if the answer to those questions is “no” you are likely getting more then enough hydration. It’s a myth that we need 8 glasses of water a day or need to be constantly drinking water to be “hydrated.” Just keep your water of choice available and drink when you are thirsty. You don’t need to (and shouldn’t) force yourself to drink beyond that. Our bodies are really good at self regulation and forcing more fluid into our system just equates to extra unnecessary trips to the bathroom. You don’t need to force yourself to “like” water. If it’s the only thing you have on hand to drink you’ll drink it when you get thirsty.
A different approach to the not liking water, get a good filter. I used breta filters for years but a few years back installed an under sink reverse osmosis filter because the water here is so hard that it just tastes bad whether left hard or softened. I knew water could be better because I grew up with decent water and liked it even back when I preferred pop or juice.
I wonder if anyone who claims to dislike water has only ever had subpar water. Note that I include a bunch of bottled waters in that, as I vastly prefer my RO tap water to any store bought bottled water, though some were on par with breta filtered water, though I’ve always hated the waste involved in buying bottled water (other than those big ones you can refill and stick in a water cooler, which can also be RO water if you have a good water place to get it from).
If you do go for RO, make sure the system you get has an extra stage that adds some minerals back into the water. The RO on its own actually leaves the water too pure to be safe to drink regularly, as it causes osmosis to pull nutrients out of your cells (or something like that). I’d also only suggest it in an area where water is plentiful, as it does use more water than what you get from the filter, though adding a passive pump can improve efficiency.
Berkey water tank with a set of Doulton filters.
Hydro Homey gang.
While the mineral issues are a concern, for most people it’s overcome with a decent diet. I’m not sure that those remineralizers do an awful lot. But I don’t leave water standing eg in kettle!
Add flavoring, like ginger + citrus, melisse, tea. Some teas also can make you more thirsty.
If you have a stationary job, then just plop a big ass water bottle with a straw on the desk between you and the keyboard for easy access. Water is the only thing I drink after only drinking iced tea every day until I was 18. Remove everything that isn’t water from your home. Turn your bottle into your fidget toy if you have to, having a straw helps even if you use it to open and close it. Hopefully before you know it you won’t even realize you’re drinking water. You don’t need to enjoy it. Same way people don’t enjoy medicine, you put up with because you’re an adult. If that seems too daunting, then you have some other demons you may need to tackle first before being able to get onto water.
Keeping water at arms reach is probably what helps the most. But I read a few things when I was pregnant that really helped me with upping my water intake.
-
Have water at bedside table. When you wake in the middle of the night have a few big gulps before going back to sleep.
-
Have a drinking vessel with a straw. Something about moving head down or up making drinking difficult, a straw might help.
And of course, not everyone needs two litres of water a day. Hope it helps!
story time. growing up my older brother kept a glass vodka bottle filled with water near his bed. He was just starting college and I was a kid with my friend over on a weekend. He was sleeping in. He wakes up and like every morning downs the bottle of water. My friend comes to me and is like. Your brother just drank a whole bottle of vodka!
-
Big Water Bottle has everyone convinced that we need to be chugging water 24/7.
Unless you live in a really hot place and work outside, or have some other risk factor (like dementia or diarrhea), thirst should be enough to keep you hydrated enough.
If you dont have additional risk factors, and you dont just exist in a constant state of thirst, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Echoing this:
Being dehydrated has real and generally unpleasant symptoms which drinking water alleviates. Dehyrdation is not just when your urine has a color.
If you have to go #1 on a regular basis, you’re probably not dehydrated.
Get a big insulated metal jug 1 liter or more, keep it in arms reach when sitting around or wherever convenient for where you spend time. Get a second one for work. Make it a goal to empty it at least once, preferably twice a day. Can’t stay hydrated when the water is in a different room. Water next to the bed beacuse that shit hits different at 3am.
Store any liquor, pop, beer, etc in an inconvenient location so the water is always the lazy and low effort option. No mini-fridge at the gaming setup. Your taste will adjust over a few weeks.
For me, having a large water bottle within arms reach at all times is what helped me start staying hydrated. I used to use gallons of water from the store and refill them until I felt it was time for a new one, but now I have a nice 64oz water bottle. Importantly for me, I don’t like sucking on a straw to drink water. It’s too much work and too slow. I like my water just cooler than room temperature. Having that in arms reach at all times means every time I started feeling hungry, I could drink water because I was actually thirsty and it felt the same to me.
