What to Know About Water?

Though we all know the importance of drinking water, there are several surrounding issues I would like to address pertaining to this topic. These issues are the very ones that I often discuss with my clients and even struggle with myself. As a teacher or person working in education, it is so important for us to be at the top of our game each day with our students. Performing at our best can often simply be a matter of being hydrated throughout the day!

· The first concern with drinking enough water is the making it a priority. This alone is big step in adding additional H2O into your daily routine. So, what’s the return on the investment of adding more water? How about, creating additional energy, better sleep, possible weight-loss, better focus, and even generally better health! Remember, knowing and doing are two different things. Implementing a strategy to drink more water is the next issue. General rule of thumb is to drink approximately ½ of your body weight in ounces. This is a rough estimate and if you are working out or spend a large amount of time outdoors, this may be conservative estimate. I won’t go into detail on this, but the cleaner the water, the better.

· The number one strategy that I could suggest relates to changing your environment to make drinking water an easy step. If having or accessing water is a difficult challenge for you during the day, you’re likely to default to one of two options. Either you will make a less health choice by choosing something more convenient like soda or that 2nd cup of coffee. The second option will be that you simply won’t drink at all. Changing your environment might include, carrying a water bottle with you throughout the day, loading your nearby refrigerator with healthy clean water, or adding a water dispenser inside your home or workplace.

· The third concern with adding water into one’s daily routines, “which is a bit more of concern for individuals than I previously had thought,” is some individual’s lack of taste for water. If water isn’t your thing, my suggestion is to add some simple flavoring that is void of sugar or an artificial sweetener. I am partial to water that has natural fruit essence or even a flavoring that is made by True Lemon. This does have a very small amount of stevia and less than one gram of sugar. However, this is a much healthier option when compared to other water flavorings that use sucralose, aspartame, or even heavy doses of sugar.

In summary, I think it is clear of the benefits of drinking additional water during the day. How to add the water into our routines is the challenge. Setting a timer/notification on your smart phone, scheduling a time to drink water in-between each of your classes, making it a priority to have 8 to 10 ounces first thing in the morning are all great strategies to get more water into our bodies.