We all know that we should drink more water and that we should be drinking primarily water, yet, most of us probably don’t drink enough and many don’t drink any water at all. But how the heck are you supposed to hit a half a gallon a day, let alone a whole gallon a day when you hate drinking water? As someone who used to absolutely hate drinking water, I get it. But I can also tell you it is possible to go from hating drinking water to drinking only water most of the time. Today I am going to share how I went from drinking almost no water every day to drinking almost only water every day.
If you are like I was not too long ago, then it may seem impossible to switch from whatever your go-to beverage of choice is to water. It probably sounds very, very unappealing as well. I know it did for me. You probably know the recommendations that people should be drinking at least eight, eight-ounce glasses of water each day, yet you can’t seem to get even one of those eight-ounce glasses of water in. I was the same way. I didn’t really drink a whole lot of liquid during the day most of the time, and the thought of drinking water sounded so boring. Eventually, I learned about the importance and benefits of drinking water and after about a year I was able to switch to drinking primarily water through the day.
Looking back, there were a few key things I did that helped me make the switch.
- Start small.
- Make incremental changes.
- Reminders and timers.
- Track intake.
- Other helpful tips.
For most of my life, I thought very little if anything about what I drank throughout the day. Until about six years ago I was drinking coffee from when I got up until about lunch time. By mid-day I’d be drinking diet soda until I got home from work. Then I’d drink either more diet soda or wine. I used to see people that were really good about drinking water and wonder how on earth they could stand it. At the time, I hated drinking water. It was so plain and boring. I was so used to drinking caffeine, soda, or tea the thought of plain old water couldn’t have been any more unappealing.
It wasn’t until I started in a weight loss coaching program several years ago that I learned about the benefits of drinking water, particularly for weight loss. While it took me about a year, give or take, to switch to drinking only water for the most part, I eventually switched. Now I really notice it and feel it if I don’t get enough water. So, how did someone who used to drink a several large coffees and a ton of diet soda all day every day switch to water?
Well, there were a variety of things I did. So, let’s get into it.
- Start small.
Having been through numerous and various types of changes in my life, I have learned that change is best made in small, incremental steps. We have heard the sayings Rome wasn’t built in a day or eat the elephant one bite at a time. They may be cliché, but they are so fitting. If you want to successfully make changes, especially in your habits, you are far more likely to succeed if you start small. If you are drinking coffee or soda all day every day, then it’s going to be nearly impossible to stop all that completely tomorrow and suddenly drink a gallon of water a day.
Start with small goals, meet them, then go for more. For example, start with a cut off time for your coffee, like, you will stop drinking coffee by 10 AM or noon. Replace one or two of those coffees with a glass of water. You can also start by setting a smaller daily target for water intake to begin. Yes, we know 64 ounces is the recommended minimum, but you aren’t there just yet, so aim for half of that every day, or aim for 24-ounces a day to start. You can do this by swapping out one of your normal drinks for water the first week, then upping it to two, and so on. - Make incremental changes.
Following from the example of starting small, is making incremental changes. Say you’ve successfully started getting in 24 ounces of water every day and you’ve been doing that for, say a month. Now it’s time to aim to double it, or maybe even go for the 64 ounces. You can follow the same process I mentioned a minute ago, or whatever it was you did to get you to that 24-ounce a day mark.
The key is to keep setting smaller, more doable goals for yourself along the way to the bigger goal of drinking 64 ounces, and ultimately more, water a day. Breaking old habits and establishing new habits both take time. It can be overwhelming to look at it from start to finish. Instead, focus on smaller goals and milestones along the way to the finish line. Give yourself some time after you reach a milestone to really lock it in, then start working toward the next one. We set ourselves up for failure when we try to do everything at once, then we feel like a failure when we don’t succeed, which just makes matters worse. - Reminders and timers.
One of the most effective tips I ever got for helping me go from being stuck at less than minimal amounts of water intake to exceeding the minimum (64 ounces) was to set reminders or timers. Initially, I had a reminder every hour that popped up to tell me to drink some water. When it popped up, I’d drink some water. Then, someone gave me another tip to take ten big gulps every time you drink water. You can actually get close to 20 ounces of water doing this. So, then I started doing that when the reminder popped up. After a while, it just became automatic and I’d be drinking my water at the hour. - Track your intake.
There’s a saying in the research and evaluation world: what you measure you improve. It’s true and it is why I am so big on tracking. Keep track of how much water you are getting in each day. For one thing, it gets you in a mindset of hitting a target, which keeps it top of mind. It helps you see where you are and how you are doing hitting your target each day. It helps shift the focus from not drinking soda or coffee or whatever else to reaching your daily target of water intake. Last, tracking helps lock it into your brain and reinforces the behavior or new habit you are establishing. You won’t need to do this forever, though I still like to track even after several years. - Other helpful tips.
So, everything I laid out so far has been more focused on how I changed my habits and got started drinking more water and ultimately to shift to primarily drinking water. Even after I got to the point that I was drinking between a half gallon and a gallon a day, I still had my morning coffee and my diet soda or iced tea with lunch. It’s not that you need to give up everything else entirely, but if your go-to when you are thirsty is soda or iced tea, then you’re not very likely to get in enough water or any at all. Gradually, as I shifted my mind away from not having soda ore iced tea to getting in my water, I ended up decreasing my intake of other beverages without really realizing it. It was gradual and happened one day at a time, one step at a time.
In addition to what I’ve outlined here already, there were other things that helped me shift to drinking primarily water. One was making what I call spa water. This came from one time I stayed at a hotel with a spa and had gotten different services like massage, skin treatment, etc. Well, they had these water coolers that were full of cucumbers and it was so refreshing. So, I would fill a pitcher or cooler at home and add cucumber and different fruit. Sometimes I add limes and cucumber, sometimes watermelon and cucumber. Another thing I did was swap out soda for flavored mineral water. There’s also the flavor packets you can put in water that help. I still use these a couple times a day. One of my favorites is Waterdrop, which I found from an Instagram ad. I love the unique flavors and that there isn’t any sugar. No I am not affiliated with them or anything, I just happen to like it.
Water bottles are another tool I use to make sure I get enough water. This became really important at work. I often don’t have time to go refill a cup or smaller water bottle. So, if I only took a smaller water bottle to work, then I struggled to get in much more than that through the day. So, I bought a half-gallon water jug, filled it before I left for work. That way, I could at least get in my minimum during the day when I was at work and had water on hand, longer before I had to refill. Like everything else, preparation is key.
So, that is what helped me go from drinking hardly any water each day to drinking primarily water. I said it at the beginning and I’ll say it again, it took me a year to go from zero water to averaging about 112 ounces to a full gallon daily. I’ve reached a point where I don’t drink much else anymore. I rarely have a soda. I do still drink green tea, but now I just drink it plain without sweetener when I do. This doesn’t mean you have to give up the other things you like. It’s a matter of prioritizing water and hitting at least the minimum amount each day, which will also result in decreasing the amount of other types of drinks.
I hope this gives you some pointers for getting more water in for yourself. I did not like drinking water at all, so I get it. You can make the change and reach the daily water goals as long as you start small, make incremental changes, and find the other things that help you switch to more water, like tracking. I have a number of fitness and progress trackers available on amazon. They include places to track your workouts, food, and water. Check them out at the links below.
Beauty & Barbells Fitness Tracker https://a.co/d/aWO2VjY
Faith Fitness Joy Fitness Tracker: https://a.co/d/hjcqfO7
I Can & I Will: Weight Loss & Fitness Tracker (Tie-Dye) https://a.co/d/1HS8oYA
Progress not Perfection: Weight Loss and Fitness Tracker https://a.co/d/grjHQtf You can check out the covers and interior in the Store, here on the website.
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