23 Tips For Drinking More Water Each Day!

Not EVERYONE requires exactly eight 8-ounce glasses of water every day. The Institute of Medicine has determined that an adequate intake (AI) for men is roughly 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day. The AI for women is 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day.
So the traditional rule should really be stated as: “Drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of fluid a day,” because all fluids count toward your daily total.


But there’s no doubt that drinking WATER is important to our overall health and well-being. Water helps to flush toxins and waste products from our bodies. It aids our digestion and “keep us regular”. Drinking water prevents dehydration, and It helps us look better too. Water is proven to help with weight loss and helps hydrates the skin which in turn reduces the signs of aging.
There is no denying that your body feels happier and healthier when you consume enough water.
So how do we go about getting enough each day? If I knew EXACTLY how that could be accomplished I could write a book, it would become a best seller and I would become a gazillionaire! Since I don’t know EXACTLY how it’s done (because to be quite honest I really am BAD at it!) here are 23 ideas from your fellow readers for your consideration.

I personally am going to try them all!

• Don’t allow yourself a diet soda until you’ve had two to four glasses of water. Eventually you will find that you won’t crave the soda as much.
• Have a big glass of water at every transitional point of the day: when you first get up, just before leaving the house, when you sit down to work, etc.

• Make it convenient – keep a big, insulated water bottle full on your desk and reach for it all day.
• Down a full glass several times a day. Go over to your kitchen right now and fill up a glass. No sipping over time. Just drink it down right after you fill it up.

• Track it. Make a chart and tick it off each time you drink a glass. Do a chart for 30 days and you will have made drinking water a part of your routine.
• Have one glass every hour on the hour while at work or school. When the work/school day is done, your water quota is met.

• Freeze peeled pieces of lemons, limes, and oranges and use them instead of ice cubes – it’s refreshing and helps get in a serving or two of fruit.
• After each trip to the restroom, guzzle an eight-ounce glass to replenish your system.
• Set a goal to drink X amount of water a day, then write it down along with your reasons WHY! Remembering your motivation will help you keep going when enthusiasm fades.

• Every time you walk past a water fountain, take a sip or two. (This is actually advice my own doctor gave me recently after a nasty kidney stone incident!)
• Fizz it up!  Get a home seltzer maker like a Soda Stream and make your own fizzy H2O!  Add a dash of lemon or a splash of O.J. and you’ll have a super refreshing drink!
• Fill up a large cup with crushed ice or ice cubes and snack on them (like candy!) throughout the day.
• Make a bet with a co-worker to see who can drink more water in the course of a day.

• When drinking juice (apple, grape, or orange) fill half the glass with water or ice and make sure to consume all of it.
• Bring a two-liter bottle of water to work and try to drink it all before you leave work. If you don’t finish, drink it in traffic on the way home – it’s like a race.

• Keep a large cup full of ice at your desk and keep re-filling it with water. The key is drinking with a straw – you take bigger gulps and drink more at a time.
• Here’s a tip if you’re trying to shed some pounds: Let ounces of water double grams of fat: when eating something containing 10 grams of fat, drink 20 ounces of water.
• Drink two full glasses at each meal, one before and one after. Also, drink one glass before each snack so you don’t eat as much.

• Put reminders into your phone or calendar to drink at regular intervals. Surprisingly, this helps me a LOT!  I know it sounds lame, but I just plain FORGET to drink water!
• Carry a small refillable water bottle at all times and drink during downtime; while waiting in a bank line, sitting on the train, etc.

• Not ALL your water has to be COLD…drink some of it HOT. Have a nice warm cup of tea instead. But be sure it’s decaf since caffeine actually robs you of water (it’s a diuretic).
• Always keep a bottle of water handy while watching TV, doing laundry, making dinner, etc.
• Add drinking two glasses of water to your daily skincare regimen. Drink, cleanse, moisturize, then drink again.

If you’re like me, it might be necessary to use these ideas to TRICK yourself into doing something good for you….just until it (hopefully!) becomes a habit! 
Note: the amount of water that each person should drink daily depends on your physical health, the amount of exercise you do daily, whether you live in a hot or cold climate and other factors (such as pregnancy). Please get advice from a medical professional to find out how much water you should drink daily.

Source: One Good Thing by Jillee

www.dental2000nj.com

Healthy Snack to Soothe the Pain from Wisdom Teeth

I came across this post and had to share it with everyone, especially those who are experiencing pain with their wisdom teeth. Rebecca recently had her wisdom teeth removed which can be an uncomfortable time in anyone's life. You have to be careful with the foods you eat while your mouth is recovering from the minor surgery. This fabulous healthy living blogger combined a healthy snack with a pain reliever with her discovery of Lean Pops and customizable recipes! Read her post below, but first, let's meet Rebecca!

http://strengthandsunshine.wordpress.com/

Since I couldn’t (and still am not) drinking out of a straw due to my wisdom teeth, I had to figure out a “fun” way to make my nightly protein shakes. I usually just bland up my almond milk, protein, ice, and some water in my single-serve Ninja Ultima cup, and then suck it down icy and cold with my trusty stainless steel straw. Well I would not suck anything down and risk getting dry socket. So what’s a girl to do? Ice pops!

LeanPops came to me at just the right time! LeanPops is a company that creates Silicone Popsicle molds out of 100% food grade silicon that is completely BPA-free, latex-free, and non-toxic. LeanPops goal is to help us all make easy 1, 2, 3, healthy frozen treats (or in the case protein pops for me!). All you do is select what you want in your pop. Fruit, milk, protein, whatever! Then blend it up, and pout in to your LeanPop molds! You get 4 molds in a pack and they were just enough to freeze only 1 large protein shake for me. So how fun was that! I got to get 4 “popsicles” instead of just one shake! So let me take you through my mini recipe (non-recipe) for frozen protein pops!

Customizable Protein Pops

Ingredients: (serves 1, fills 4 molds)

+ 8oz (1 cup) Non-Dairy Milk (I used unsweetened almond)

+ Protein Powder (I used 2 TB of Vanilla Plant Fusion and 2 TB of Peanut Flour)

+ 1/4 Tsp Banana Extract (or other extract to your choice. Coffee would be awesome!)

+ 1/2 Cup Water

Directions:

+ Pour your milk, powders, extract, and water into a small blender. Then blend away!

+ Next, pour your shake into the LeanPop molds (I used a funnel for this) leaving about 1/2 inch of space from the top. Place your LeanPop lid on the mold. Repeat for all molds.

+ Then place upright in the freezer for a few hours until your ready to dig (or lick) away!

The great thing about these molds is that they are super easy to clean! Their dishwasher-safe so just pop them in and bam! Clean! Plus where their easy no-spill lid, you can eat half and save the rest for later. I was worried these would leak and spill all over in the freezer, but the lid fits perfectly and everything was safe, durable, and sturdy! I was able to find an up right spot to put them in to freeze (stuck in the bottom of the freezer rack), I only wish that they came with an actual stand in case you don’t have the perfect up-right area to put them in the freezer yourself.

I’ve never had Popsicle molds before this except some tiny cheap 4 slot plastic mold that I bought at the grocery store. It didn’t work very well and I never ended up using it after once or twice. But these are perfect! And so soothing for my post-op mouth ;) I will totally be using these all the time now (not just during recovery and “no-straw time”)!

Well these are really fun, that’s all I have to say. Plus it’s a great change-up from the boring protein shake. You get the exact same post-workout nutrition, just in a very summer friendly form ;) Do you all remember those Freeze-Pops that came is the most artificial chemical laden bright colors? Like pink, green, blue, orange. O man! I used to eat those. all that crap is though is sugar and artificial colorings. So scary and so bad! So if you want a healthy frozen pop, make you own! It’s so easy!

LeanPops is offering my readers (all of you lovely folks) $3 off your order of a 4-pack of LeanPops and a free recipe book that contain 20 easy and healthy ideas if you use the code: sunshine at check-out! I’d buy these with my own money and you should think about it too!

So tell me:

+ Do you make your own ice pops?

+ What was your favorite summer treat growing up as a kid? Do you all remember those half chocolate half vanilla ice creams in the little plastic cups with the paper pull tab lid? Those things were the best! The most fake ice cream you could possible eat, but a birthday party essential!

 

**LeanPops provided me with a free sample of their product for review. All opinions and thought are my own and completely honest!**

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.