A lot of health experts will tell you to drink 8 glasses of water per day but I don't think that's enough.
You should really make drinking a gallon of water your daily goal.
A gallon of water sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? It looks like a lot too – 16 cups!
There are very good reasons why you should drink a gallon a day, and as soon as you start you’ll feel a real difference.
The first thing you need to understand is that clean water is a nutrient. It’s just as important as the vitamins and minerals that we strive to include in our daily diet.
But it also gets lost more easily than most of those nutrients.
We lose water through our skin, when we breathe, when we exercise, and as part of our normal bodily functions. Because we can’t see that water is lost, it is hard to remember to replace it.
But once you start drinking more of it and feel the difference it makes, it will be hard to forget!
When you take in less water than you lose, you get dehydrated.
You need water constantly – your body is 60% water – but the signs of dehydration aren’t obvious.
TweetIn fact, you can be tricked into thinking that thirst is something else, like hunger, or skin problems, or being tired.
Being dehydrated means you’re operating below optimum level for some of your most important functions, including carrying nutrients to cells throughout the body.
The amazing thing about drinking a gallon of water a day is that you can’t appreciate how much good it does until you start doing it.
You’ll start seeing and feeling the results right away.
7 Things Happen When You Drink a Gallon of Water Every Day
1. Bumps up your energy level. You’ll find that you feel more spring in your step, and much more wide awake.
2. Helps you think more clearly. More water in your diet helps you stay focused.
3. Your skin will clear up. The more water you drink, the more toxins you flush out. Plus, your skin will be moister and you’ll see fewer wrinkles.
4. Helps you lose weight. Water not only helps you feel full, it also carries out toxins that cause the body to cling to fat cells and boosts your metabolism.
5. Fights infection and disease. It carries out germs and bacteria and helps fight against colds, flu, and other illnesses.
6. Keeps you regular. The more water you have in your system, the more effective your digestive system is at carrying out waste, and the lower your chance of getting constipated.
7. Eliminates headaches and cramps. You'll be surprised how many of these pains and aches are happening just because you're dehydrated.
Since most people don’t drink nearly enough water in a day, it can be a big change to start drinking an entire gallon.
But once you start to make it a habit, you’ll find yourself missing water when you can’t drink all you want.
4 Fun Hacks for Drinking Your Daily Gallon of Water
If you don’t enjoy the taste or miss sugary drinks, try getting creative.
1. Add slices of fresh fruit or herbs to make it more palatable. What’s most important is that you stick with it.
2. Mark up a gallon container with the times of day that you should have consumed that amount of water. Divide the lines evenly and know that if you're awake for 16 hours then make 16 lines on the gallon jug. Mark each with times like 8 AM, 9 AM etc.
When the clock strikes that hour you'll know that your water jug should be down to the corresponding line to stay on target for your daily gallon.
3. Play a drinking game to make it fun! This will be a much healthier drinking game than the one that you may have played in college. Tell yourself that every time a certain thing happens, you'll drink your water.
Choose an event that happens a lot in your daily routine. Examples could be:
- every time you get an email, text message or phone call if you do a lot of communicating during your day
- every time your child says “mom”
- every time you see a commercial if your television is on during the day
4. Set a timer on your phone to remind you to drink every 10 minutes. There are even some water drinking apps you could try!
You’ll be amazed at how different you feel within a few days of starting so bottoms up!