We live in Texas, so it’s the high 90’s and low 100’s all summer. I have mentioned before that our daughter has Cystic Fibrosis and a big part of this disease is hydration. Due to the inter-workings of the mutated genes of CF she sweats and loses salt faster than someone without CF. This means that her staying hydrated and salted is extremely important, more so during the summer.
Hydration is an important part of our body, and everyone in the family can benefit from drinking the proper amount of water all year long. So I wanted to put together some great tips and tricks to help everyone stay hydrated from your toddler to your spouse!
The first question we should ask is how much water should we be drinking every day? The new recommendation is not the old 8 glasses a day for anyone and everyone. Now it’s recommended that you drink based on your weight. You can read more about this here.
The next question to consider is what counts as water intake, unfortunately coffee doesn’t. You can read more about it here, but you want to avoid counting Alcohol and Caffeine as your water intake.
Here are 3 tips to help you and your family get on track.
- Track Your Intake – If each person in your family has a smart phone or tablet download this app Plant Nanny! It was helpful for us when our daughter was a toddler because it gave her incentive to drink water. It is challenging so the family can compete with each other on their personal water goals. Also your plant will die if you don’t water it, which was sad when it happened to me! (I’m so bad about drinking my recommended amount!) Apple Download, Android Download. You can also track your intake in your Planner, or Bullet Journal, and by setting alarms to remind you to drink your water.
Water Bottle – Have designated water bottles to help you track and motivate you to drink your water. I love this new trend of water bottles that have a fun hydration related sayings, “Drink your Effing Water, Can’t be a Mermaid without Water, Suck It Up Buttercup, Don’t Wish for it Work for it” etc. Then have the ounces and times listed on them. It’s super helpful when you are working and can look over at your bottle on your desk, easily seeing if your behind or right on time. You can find a ton of options on Etsy and if you own a vinyl cutter, here are a few images I made that you can use to create your own. I have found in our house, once every one picked out a bottle that was theirs for water they drank more. (One bottle each, no need to go crazy and clutter your house will excess bottles) We added a water dispenser so it was easier for all to access cold water and it has increase our intake substantially. We have two 5 gallon jugs that we fill at our grocery store during shopping.
One word: FLAVOR! Let’s cut the crap, water is boring. Today there are so many drink options that are more enticing than water. But we found some great affordable drink packets at our local HEB. (If you don’t have an HEB, and I’m super sad for you) LOL Passion Fruit is our favorite flavor, and Lemonade is our daughters, and we also love these energy drink packets, and these. This True Citrus brand is also amazing. (Alight we’ve obviously tried many of these ha!) There is also the option to add fruit to your water to flavor it, and this will cut out the Citric Acid from your diet if it bothers your stomach.
If you have any other ideas to help increase our water intake leave me a comment and let us know!