How To Make Water Taste More Interesting
For something as simple as drinking water, we’re not very good at it.
The National Academy of Medicine recommends about a gallon of water per day for men and about 90 ounces per day for women. Instead, a good percentage of us just forget that water’s even a thing. In fact, fully ⅓ of us drink just about a cup of water a day, with 7% of us not drinking any water at all.
(Like taking a horse to water and not being able to make him drink, you can show a human to the science, but … well, no, you can’t make him drink, either.)
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Though the numbers we’ve been given about water (drink 8 glasses a day! Drink a gallon!) can vary widely, it’s safe to say that most of us don’t actually reach any of those suggestions.
And though it seems like one of the culprits is likely our fear of being out and about with nowhere to go (the US is tied with Botswana in terms of numbers of bathrooms per 100,000 citizens at just 8…), the other is likely water being so plain.
As much as a list of 12 ways to drink more water will have inventive ways to approach water throughout the day, it barely touches on the fact that water isn’t all that interesting when you’re not thirsty.
So we’ll take another tact to supercharge your water consumption. Below are a few ways to make your daily water a little bit more palatable.
3 Tricks To Make Drinking Water More Enjoyable
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Spice Up Your Life - Though there’s nothing quite as refreshing as water on a hot, dry day, we can’t simply conjure up the Sahara when we want to drink more water. You can, however, heat up your food. Push your limits with some extra spicy peppers and you’ll be chugging water to cool down - and hitting your hydration goals as a result.
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Add A Splash Of H20 - If you’re already going to be ordering juice, lemonade, or an iced tea, watering it down doesn’t just have to be a cheap way to make your drink last longer! As Self suggests, adding water or an ice cube to a drink that came a little too sweet is a way to still enjoy the flavor while also upping your daily water intake.
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Eat Your Water - When we think about lettuce, celery, and cabbage as vegetables, they pale in comparison to their more flavorful counterparts. But what if you reframe your thinking, and compare those leafy greens to water? Well lettuce (90% water), celery (95% water), and cabbage (92%) may just have become a lot more interesting. Plus, vegetables don’t get to have all the fun - fruits like watermelon (91% water), cantaloupe (90% water), and honeydew melon (90% water) will also help you take a break from the glass.
As you make your way up to 64 ounces a day per week to a gallon a day for a month, we’ve got beautiful coins just waiting to mark your achievements - check out the IRLA Hydration Pack. It’s one of our favorite motivations to drink more water.
And we want to hear from you, too - what are your tried-and-true techniques for staying hydrated?