How Much Water To Drink In A Day + 11 Tips To Hit Your Goal

Welcome to the imperfectly empowered podcast with leading DIY lifestyle blogger on a Fullmer where women are inspired with authentic stories and practical strategies to reclaim their hearts and homes by empowering transformation. One imperfect day at a time. Hi, and welcome back to another episode of the imperfectly empowered podcast. I am your host on a Fullmer today. We are chatting all about. Water one. Why is water essential to living? Well, why do we need to drink water to how much water should we be drinking every day? Is there a formula? The answer is yes. There is a very simple formula that we can use to determine our personalized water goal. And three, most importantly, we’re going to chat 11 tips to help you hit your daily water goal. First of all, let’s talk about why, why is drinking water essential to living well? Well, when you consider the fact that God designed 60% of the human body to be weight of water, you can imagine it has quite a few roles to play in our day to day lives. These roles include. Regulating body temperature like sweating. We ever thought about that. Sweating is actually a means of our body regulating temperature, which is really, really important aiding in cognitive function. That would be like, um, concentrating. So to be completely honest, I think there’s a lot of kids. One of the reasons that they struggled to concentrate or even have headaches is probably that they’re not drinking enough water. You think about our teens or even our children. Probably not drinking enough water, not to mention adults, maintaining bowel and bladder function, transporting oxygen and nutrients to the cells that is hydration like blood volume specifically. Excreting waste through perspiration, defecation and urination, not something you thought you’d be hearing on a podcast, lubricating joints on and on. It goes, the reality is water plays such an essential role in our day to day physiological function in our bodies. And there’s a lot of. Common complaints that I think are probably simply due to dehydration. We do not drink enough water. One of the things that I want to point out is coffee does not count as water. Tea does not count as water caffeinated beverages do not count as water. We are talking non sugary. Non-caffeinated. Water. We will jump into several ways to drink more water that are not just simply water, but I want to be very clear that those types of beverages, they don’t count. They don’t count number two, how much water? How do we know how much water our body needs? Every. So we’ve talked about the fact that water plays a vital role in our body’s composition, but how much is enough? Well, again, when you understand that 60% of our body weight is comprised of water, it makes sense that one of the most common recommendations is that you want to consume half of your body weight, which is pounds in ounces daily. Okay. Ana, what do you mean by that? Let’s chat about that. So I weigh approximately 125 pounds, approximately. I don’t own a scale. I’ve tried about this. Y’all know how I feel about scales. So I weigh anywhere between like 1 25, 1 30, depending on what my annual wellness visit says. 125 pounds. I should be striving to drink approximately half of that in ounces daily, which is approximately 63 ounces of water every day. So take your body weight. If you are a male, you weigh say 180 pounds, you are looking to consume approximately 90 ounces of water a day. All right. So you do the math, figure it out in your head, and then just think about it as you’re listening, or as you’re watching, think about the actual number of cups. Think about what you actually consume in a day. Try to break that down mentally and you will probably be shocked. How little you’re actually drinking water, you’re actually drinking. So knowing that most people are not drinking enough water, what are 11 easy ways? These are 11 tips that we’re going to chat about to drink more water daily and hit your target goal. Tip number one. We all get tired of just drinking water. I know I do. So try naturally flavored, infused water. What do I mean by that? Well, you can buy the little like squeezy bottles at, um, the store. Just be careful with them. You guys know how I feel about artificial ingredients. Some of them are made of all natural sweeteners and flavors. Others are not. Please read your labels. Go for natural. Flavored infused water. You can also make your own there’s little, um, machines that you can buy. I never even knew this was a thing and you can create your own naturally infused water. That would be like cutting up cucumbers and, um, oranges, mint leaves. I’m trying to think what else that you can put in. I mean, fruit, any type of fruit that you want to allow, like lemons and limes are great to slice up and just let them naturally infuse their flavor into the water. That is what I mean about naturally infused water flavored water. There is also a link on the show notes today for some recipes for, um, infused water. If you want to try some of them. Tip number two sip while you prep sip while you prep, what do you mean by that? Is this be intentional about having a water bottle on hand? Wow. Prepping. So we all often have some sort of a rhythm in our day, some sort of moment in our day, where is a pretty consistent routine. When I say prep, I’m specifically talking about something like dinner, maybe lunch is more routine for you than dinner for me. I have gotten in the habit of drinking one seltzer water. Every evening while I’m prepping dinner, I have the seltzer water on hand and my goal is to drink one of them while I am prepping dinner. And then I drink something else at dinner. So sip while you prep, whatever it is that you, you know, any routine that you have on a regular basis, whether you’re prepping breakfast, even a lunch dinner, whatever, try to incorporate sipping while. Number three, invest in a heavy duty water bottle. Okay. You’re more likely to drink enough water when you only have to refill your water bottle once instead of hundred. There are lots of heavy duty water bottles. I carry around a 32 ounce. So this is mine. This is a Camelback water bottle. They last forever. You can, you know, drop them off a cliff, ride your bike over it, whatever. I think I’ve literally. Driven my van over this by accident. Um, so this is a 32 ounce. This is just the right size for me. I don’t like the supermassive ones, but 32 ounces is a good place for me to start. Remember, I need to consume 63 ounces a day. This is about half of my intake. So I try to have at least one of these in a day. And then I make up the rest in other ways. All right, you ready for this? There are also. 64 ounce water bottles. They could also function as a weapon, should the need arise. And I’m going to show you Zach’s for those of you watching here is. Yes, it is bigger than my head. This is a 64 ounce stainless steel water bottle from iron flask. You can get these on Amazon. I have linked it in the show notes on my blog@hammersandx.com. This thing is massive. I genuinely get concerned when my kids pick this up to drink out of it because it could break a toe if dropped. This is also really random. I’m just noticing on the strap of it. There’s a company. But in the world, you see this, look at that. There’s a compass on the strap. Well, anyway, I don’t know why you would hike with this because it like weighs almost as much as I do, but apparently if you go hiking with this and you get lost, there is a compass built into the strap, also functions as a weapon. So it’s really a multipurpose water bottle here. All right. If you really want to go bigger, go home. I kid you not. There is awesome. 84 ounce water bottles. They could definitely kill a man could probably also function as a torpedo. Truly there’s 84 ounce water bottles. Listen, whatever you need to do, maybe you get the 84 ounce water bottle and it just sits on your desk. You know, and you can just lean over and step out of it. You don’t even have to lift it up or lift it up and get a workout. You know, a bicep workout in. Anyway, these are all linked on the show notes. The point is this, get a water bottle. That limits how much you have to fill it up, especially, you know, Zach’s a teacher. So getting a big water bottle is beneficial for him because he doesn’t have to fill it up. Get a big water bottle. That is the point. Watch your toes. If you get the big ones, number four, dilute all sugary drinks with more water or ice. Okay. Y’all know how I feel about soda. If you don’t know how I feel about soda, we’re going to talk about it in the next tip. But the point is this. If you love your sugary drinks, you drink orange juice in the morning or apple juice. Maybe you’re a big juice person. Add more water, try to reduce just how much sugar is actually in it per ounce and dilute your sugary drinks with more water or more ice. And then obviously if you’re putting an ice, let it melt. This will also help you consume a little bit more water, but let’s go on to tip number five. Number five, replace soda with seltzer. My clients. Hear me say this on repeat that soda is a, no, it has to go. If there’s one thing we could eliminate from our diets and see significant improvement in our overall wellness, it is soda. Hear me when I say not just regular soda, also diet soda. Why you might ask this is another podcast for another time, but suffice it to say this artificial sweetener. Are even sweeter more often than not then sugar, then natural sugar. We are training our minds and our brains and our taste palettes taste buds to demand sweeter. Artificial sweeteners are not inherently better. Diet, soda needs to go. Regular soda needs to go. This was a massive change in our household. Takes work. It takes intentionality, Zach and I, uh, we were never big soda drinkers. We both grew up in homes where soda was consumed frequently, but we did really like the, um, like zero calories. Sugary drinks. I’m blanking on what they’re called. We used to get them at Costco. So sweet. You guys. We can’t even drink them anymore because they are so sweet. We transitioned to seltzer waters, flavored seltzer waters, and I hated them for years, friends can testify. I, it took me so long. They tasted gross to me because I had been so used to drinking. Drinks, even though they weren’t sugary drinks, they were zero calorie, but those artificial sweeteners had made my need for sweet, so much greater. I worked at it. Understand just cause my fitness and nutrition coach does not mean that I just was born with these habits. I created them intentionally be intentional. I’m telling you soda has to go regular or diet find flavored salts. On the blog post or the show notes, the hammers and hugs. I also have LinkedIn article, the 11 best sparkling water brands because y’all, they are not created equal. This is coming from somebody who had to really force herself to like seltzer water. Now it’s like, Oh, we drink. We love it here. LaCroix is personally our favorite lemon cello. If we’re going to be specific also the key lime, but they’re not all created equal. All right. Do yourself a favor. If you’re trying to make this transition, don’t go with the store brand. Go with a better brand. They truly do taste better. So again, check that out on the show notes. The 11 best sparkling water brands LaCroix again is our personal favorite. Number six, stick to salty snacks savory over. Sweet. Let me be clear here. I am not suggesting you should be reaching for a bag of triple salt pretzels. Y’all know what I’m talking about. It’s like, do you want a little bit of pretzel with your salt, right? I’m not talking about finding the saltiest pretzels you can possibly find and justifying overindulging in salt, but the point is. A savory snack is more likely to make you reach for a glass of water than a sweet one. So consider a small bag of beef jerky, or maybe a handful of roasted almonds. It will subconsciously make you reach for a glass of water before a sweet treat will. All right. Number six. Keep a water bottle at the most visited places in your day. Keep a water bottle at the most visited places in your day. Again, we’ve mentioned the water bottles. Here’s the other thing. They rarely require washing. This may grow some of you out. But the fact is if all you were putting in them is water. You do not need to wash them that frequently. Also huge tip. I just thought of this right now. I always always remove the straw. You may not be able to see this, those of you watching on YouTube, but I’m showing you my water bottle here. There’s a straw that normally comes in these water bottles that is attached to the bite valve up here. I always remove. And then I just drank out of the, the bite valve. It’s still, you know, still waterproof, but this eliminates a lot of need for washing as frequently. So, I mean, I rarely washed my water bottles. You really don’t need to, if all you’re putting in them is water. So consider buying a water bottle like we talked about and keep it at the most visited places in your day. For example, if you’re a reader at night, Uh, consider putting one on your nightstand and sip. As you read in bed, maybe on your dresser. When you get ready each morning, if you spend about 30 minutes each morning, on hair makeup, whatever it might be. Um, consider putting one on your dresser for the morning. Maybe it’s at your desk at work, make it your goal to empty a water bottle every workday, especially if you’ve got the torpedo version that is the 84-ounce flask. Maybe keep one in your purse. This, you know, would be a slightly smaller water bottle, but again, the point is, try to keep one at a place that you are most likely to reach for it. Car your car is a huge one. Consider keeping a water bottle in your car, especially if you have a commute. If you have a significant commute, keep one in your car and make it your goal to empty it before you get to work. I do recommend whichever one that you choose, be consistent, be consistent with it. So for example, my seltzer water, while I’m prepping for dinner, I’m consistent with that. I finished one seltzer water pretty much every night while prepping for dinner. If you’ve got that commute, be really intentional about sipping the water. Every time that you commute to work and make it your goal to finish it, be consistent, be consistent, start to get in the habit of just, you know, drinking it at whatever place or time you’ve established. Tip number eight, reuse your coffee, travel mug for water. Zach used to do this for many years until he got. The a weapon of a water bottle that I just showed you complete with compass in the strap, in case anybody needs such a thing. I don’t know who needs that, but maybe you do reuse your coffee, travel mug for water. So, you know, Zach would have that Yeti water bottle, you know, he travels, he’s a teacher. So five days a week, he’s traveling to work and he always filled up his Yeti water bottle. Coffee mug, I should say with coffee first, and then he would fill it with water. Once he got to work. This is also a great idea. If this is an easy or simpler way for you to reduce the number of water bottles that you have to drag around with you. If you’re like me at my desk, I will often end up having three drinks of some sort at all times a seltzer water, my protein shake and my water bottle. Maybe you don’t have the luxury of carrying 5 million drinks with you and you just want to reuse your coffee travel mug. That is a great way to get more water and reduce the number of things you have to carry. Carry with you. Tip number nine, drink one full glass of water before every. In full disclosure. I am really bad at this really bad at this. You know, if this tip, let’s be honest. If this tip said, drink three cups of coffee before every I would be a model citizen. It’s a really terrible, uh, do, as I say, not as I do, you’ll often see me sipping coffee during my workouts, not water, actually. I’m usually sitting. But the point is this Zack is pretty intentional about this. He, at least this is what he told me. He does not usually work out until he’s finished at least one full water bottle. He also has his pre-workout drink. That also includes a lot of water. So there’s again, another easy tip for you. Be intentional about one water bottle or one eight ounce glass before every workout. Or you could also say after your working. Consistency is key here. People, if you haven’t gotten that yet, whatever you decide to do, pick it and stick with it so that you are getting that water. All right. Here’s something a lot of people don’t think about. Tip number 10, consume more water, saturated fruits and vegetables, water. Saturated fruits and vegetables. Now, let me again, be very clear. You still want to stay within your recommended gram goals in a day, or your macronutrients for my clients who are listening. I have another podcast coming on macronutrients. If it isn’t. Produced yet, but we will talk about that counting calories versus tracking macros. But the point is I’m not suggesting you should just be chomping down on these all day long, still pay attention to your overall Graham goals. But let me give you some examples of what water saturated, fruits and vegetables may help you consume more water in a day. Lettuce is made up of 96%. Celery 95% water zucchini, 95% water cabbage, 92% water watermelon, 91% water cantaloupe, 90% water honeydew melon, 90% water. Now, obviously some of these may be a little easier to. Consume raw than others. I personally think celery is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted. I can’t stand the texture and it tastes like dirt. I would rather eat lettuce raw than celery. So listen to each their own to each their own. But the point is that. You can be more intentional about incorporating these particular fruits and vegetables into your diet, into your lunch, et cetera, in order to consume more water. All right, last but not least. Tip number 11. Add a large water cooler to your outdoor living space or back porch. Let me say that again, at a large water cooler to your outdoor living space or back porch. This is one of the easiest ways to keep from getting dehydrated over the summer. Or if you live in a warmer weather state, I don’t know about you, but I. So-so guilty of this. As soon as the weather warms up, we live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, cold weather state here. We’ve got, you know, half of the year, we enjoy warm weather, but especially for those of you who live in warm weather states, remember how I mentioned that body temperature control or regulation is a huge element of water in our bodies. It’s one of the reasons that our body is made up 60%, our body weight, 60%. When you perspire, you are losing water. It can happen by doing nothing. You can lose water simply by sitting in a chair in the sun because your body is regulating its temperature to that. Perfect. 98.6 degrees. You are losing. If you happen to take a walk in that sun, if you happen to do a workout that day, if you happen to garden, you are losing that much more water from your body on top of your resting requirements. Meaning that body regulation, the body temperature regulation is happening. Even if you’re doing that. I am very, very guilty of spending a lot of time outside as soon as it gets warmer and not consuming the extra water that I need to replace those daily requirements, headaches, headaches. I am convinced. Headaches are one of the most frequent signs of dehydration. I have seen this personally, if I know for a fact that I did not consume enough water, especially in warmer weather, um, over the summer, et cetera, it is very, very common that I can correlate a headache with lack of water or lack of hydration. I really, really believe that headaches are one of the most frequently reported symptoms of lack of. So I want you to really think about that. If you frequently suffer from headaches, be very intentional about tracking your water intake. Do me a favor, start tracking it and see if you find a correlation, you might be surprised how simple the answer is. You may just need more water, coffee, tea, soda does not count seltzer water. So when you add a large water cooler, um, I’m talking about the kind that you might see at work, right? That are like the big ones with the big, like plastic tub that sits on the top of it. You can also get re um, reusable ones that you just fill up with. With water or distilled water jugs, you can get even a water fountain installed, especially if you are designing a house or you’re doing an outdoor remodel, I will be doing this and we build our house. I am going to actually. A water fountain in our outdoor living space in the back, because I want to make it as easy as possible for myself and my kids to stay hydrated. So a cheaper way of doing that is getting one of those large water coolers and putting it on your back porch. Well, we’ve taught it a lot about water. I’ve mentioned, you know, my clients, if you are interested in learning even more with. Natural strategies to lose fat live well, gain energy. Feel strongly. I would love to have you join my next round of the faster rate of fat loss, where we not only chat water, we chat so many other strategies to live well and prevent disease and just create a sustainable lifestyle. I would love to have, you can click on the link in the show notes, water plays. An invaluable role in our day-to-day health. I hope you’ve calculated how many ounces of water you need each day. I challenge you to track it, give yourself at least a week and see if you can establish new routines to get the amount of water that you need. Thank you so much for joining us and here’s to drinking more water. Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of the imperfectly empowered podcast. It is my honor to be here with you. I am so grateful for each and every one of you. If you are watching on YouTube, be sure to click the subscribe button below. So you don’t miss a show and leave a comment with your thoughts from today’s episode below. If you are listening via your preferred podcasting platform, would you help keep us on the. By rating our show and leaving an honest review of your thoughts from today in case you haven’t heard it lately, your story matters and you are loved. This is your host on a former, and I will see you here next time on the imperfectly empowered podcast.