How To Make Sure You Stay Hydrated

It's no secret: I hate drinking water. I'm just not one of those people, and I'd usually rather be doing anything else. But I also know it's good for me, and so the question then becomes how to stay hydrated even when you hate drinking water.

According to a study featured in the Chicago Tribune, almost half of Americans are not drinking enough water. And according to Paula Burke, clinical dietitian featured in the same piece, "The human body is about 70 percent water; we need it. It helps our circulation, makes us feel better, helps rid our bodies of toxins and prevents constipation. And drinking water before meals helps you eat less if you're trying to lose weight." It also helps prevent things like (the extremely painful and unpleasant) kidney stones.

And at the end of the day, most of us don't need a study to tell us that we don't feel great when we're dehydrated. There have been countless times when I've just felt downright yucky, only to realize I hadn't drank a single glass of water all day. Plus, most of us drink caffeinated beverages throughout the day which make us lose water, meaning it's easy to not stay hydrated without even realizing it.

If you're not the biggest fan of H20 but know you should be getting more, here are seven tips that will help keep you on track.

1. Make It Flavorful

Infusing water with fruit and cucumbers not only makes it flavorful, but it makes it super fun and luxurious to drink. Check out the above video on how to make "spa water" of your very own, or even just throw some fruit and mint leaves into a mason jar for a single serving.

2. Get A Cute Water Bottle

S'well Water Bottle in Bikini Pink, $35, Swellbottle.com

This is another personal tip. I found that as soon as I got myself a cute water bottle that I actually liked carrying around, the more water I drank. I even liked the way it looked on my desk at work, which made me way more likely to drink and refill it often.

3. Grab The Coconut Water

Tase Nirvana Real Coconut Water 12-Pack, $31.71, Walmart.com

A compilation piece on ways to stay hydrated for MindBodyGreen.com recommended drinking simple (no sugar added) coconut water in place of plain water if you're having trouble meeting your daily quota. Plus, it provides you with potassium and electrolytes.

4. Try (Decaf) Tea

The same MindBodyGreen piece suggested drinking non-caffeinated herbal teas for some extra hydration. Not to mention, some herbal teas — like green tea and mint tea — provide other helpful benefits, like fighting bad breath and providing antioxidants. I've found herbal teas also have helped me wean myself off my coffee addiction, which also helps to keep me hydrated since coffee is a diuretic.

5. Eat Lots Of Fruits and Veggies

A piece on ways to stay hydrated for SF Gate recommended eating fruits and vegetables high in water content, like lettuce and watermelon. "Your food provides an average of 20 percent of your daily hydration — the higher the content of water in your food, the more hydration it provides," the article noted. "Watermelon, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery and similar fruits and vegetables generally contain approximately 90 percent water weight."

6. Opt For The Soup

A piece for The Daily Beast about increasing our water consumption recommended drinking more soup. They also noted that yogurt and oatmeal are also great fluid-filled options, so try inculpating more of these into your diet if you know you likely aren't drinking enough water.

7. Set Goals

And finally, I've found it has always been supremely helpful to set concrete goals for myself. This way there's actually some structure to how much I drink each day, and I find that even if I don't meet it exactly, I've often drank more water by the end of the day than if I hadn't set a goal at all.

Staying hydrated can be a challenge — especially if you're not that into drinking water in the first place. But don't fret — just recognizing that you should be drinking more water is the first step towards actually doing it, and with some or all of the above tips you'll already be significantly upping your intake.

Images: Getty Images (3); Giphy (2)