Keeping Hydrated: Tips to Make it Easier 💦

Keeping Hydrated: Tips to Make it Easier 💦

If you follow the RuK lifestyle, you're definitely active, and often on the go. Because of that, hydration is critical, especially as we start to enter the summer months. Staying hydrated and drinking PLENTY of water is essential for biochemical reactions, supplying nutrients throughout the body, aids in removing waste and helps to maintain blood circulation and body temp.  Essentially, getting enough water every day is important for keeping your body functioning correctly.

It’s sometimes easy to go about your day without thinking about how much water you’ve had to drink or you forget to take those sips. But, especially in the summer heat, water is vital to helping your body stay healthy and hydrated.

If staying hydrated is difficult for you, here are some tips that can help:

Track your water intake

Tracking and knowing how much water you NEED and how much you actually INTAKE are two very important steps in stay hydrated. First, you should know how much your body realistically needs to maintain proper hydration. A great rule of thumb to follow is 131 ounces for men and 95 ounces for women. 

To make sure your drinking enough, get a water bottle and know exactly how many full bottles to drink to get your recommenced amount. For example, A RuK Iceshaker bottle is 26oz. So, men should drink 5 full ice shakers and women 4 full Iceshakers! This will also help reduce cost and waste from having to buy plastic bottles of water throughout the day.

Drink better-tasting water

Don't like the taste of tap water? That's an easy excuse to avoid drinking water all together. But there's several easy and non-expensive ways to make your water taste better. Try getting a water pitcher with a filter to keep in your fridge. This will take your tap water to the next level. Other inexpensive ways to 'spice' up your water is to add lemons, strawberries, cucumber slices or mint to give it a refreshing and summery twist!

Eat foods with high amounts of water

Luckily for us, plenty of tasty summer foods are hydrating for us to eat. Examples of these are watermelon, cucumber, grapes and celery. You can eat them as a snack or add them to some of your favorite salad recipes. Regardless of how or when you do eat them, adding this in to your diet will help increase your water intake insuring you stay hydrated.

Be mindful of coffee and booze

Coffee and alcohol are diuretics, which means they actually rid your body of water. Resist the impulse to only drink those especially when in the hot sun. Try having your first drink of the day and/ or at a party be a glass of water. Then continue to have water between each alcoholic drink you have to maintain hydration.

Listen to your body

When you’re feeling hungry, drink water. Thirst is often confused with hunger. True hunger will not be satisfied by drinking water but it will help to curve that feeling if you're bored rather than truly hungry.

Stay on a schedule

If you have trouble remembering to drink water, drink on a schedule. For example, drink water when you wake up, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and when you go to bed. Or, drink a small glass of water at the beginning of each hour.

One important fact to note is you should never wait until you notice symptoms of dehydration to take action. Actively prevent dehydration by drinking plenty of water.

Water makes up more than half of your body weight. You lose water each day when you go to the bathroom, sweat, and even when you breathe. You lose water even faster when the weather is really hot, when you are physically active, or if you have a fever. Vomiting and diarrhea can also lead to rapid water loss. If you don’t replace the water you lose, you can become dehydrated.