10 Benefits of Drinking Water

Are you drinking enough water? After reading this post about 10 benefits of drinking water, you might be convinced to drink just a little more!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walmart. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have a really hard time drinking enough water. It’s one of those things that I know I’m supposed to do, and that it will benefit me in so many ways, but I just forget or get caught up with other things. I’m currently in a healthy and fitness challenge called #NoExcuses, and it has really pushed me to not just drink water more regularly, but A LOT more water. We started getting water in a water delivery system, which has helped, and I’ve also been tracking my water intake on MyFitnessPal. When I’m at home, I’ve been using my fun, mason jar infused water lid on a 12 ounce mason jar, and when I’m on the go, I’ll grab a water bottle, such as Nestlé® Pure Life®. It definitely makes it easier to drink water when it’s so readily available!

As I’ve started drinking more water, I thought it would be interesting to read about the benefits of drinking water. It seriously has so many benefits, and when I start reading about them, I just wonder why I haven’t always made an effort to drink it — it can save your life! So, I thought I’d share some of the best reasons I’ve found to drink water, as well as tips on how to get more water into your diet and how much you should be drinking.

Benefits of Drinking Water

1. It keeps you alive

I’d say that’s a pretty good reason to drink water, don’t you think? While you can survive for about a month without food, you can survive only a week (at the most) without water. While most of us probably have access to water and won’t probably go without water for that long, I’d say that staying alive is definitely the number one reason to drink water!

2. Flushes out waste and toxins

The body needs water to help remove waste and toxins from the body, mainly through perspiration and urination, and it also helps regular bowel movements occur. If these toxins aren’t remove, they can build up in the body causing everything from headaches, to toxicity, to harming the kidney and livers.

3. Prevents and helps with headaches

Headaches and migraines truly have the power to completely debilitate a person. While there may be other reasons why you have a headache, I think the first thing you need to ask yourself when one occurs is, have you drank enough water? I personally think that the brain is the first thing to be affected once you  start to get dehydrated. It is for me, at least!

4. Prevents Cancer

I know that I am trying to do all I can to prevent my body from getting cancer, and I was very pleased to see that water has been shown to do just that. I read recently that it can reduce the risk of colon cancer by 45% and bladder cancer by 50%, and it might even reduce the risk of breast cancer. If you think about it, it really makes so much sense. Water helps carry nutrients throughout the body, and it rids the body of harmful toxins. It helps organs keep going and work properly. So, if you aren’t drinking enough water, some of those nutrients might not be reaching the places they need to, and the organs might not be working as well, which is when cancer rears it’s ugly head. There’s a lot of factors that play into cancer, obviously, but if drinking enough water can help prevent it, I don’t know why we aren’t drinking a gallon a day!

5. Lose Weight

Oddly enough, one of the best ways to get rid of water weight, is to drink water. Seems kind of contradictory, but it’s true. When you are trying to lose weight, it’s absolutely essential to make sure you are drinking enough water. It helps keep you full for longer, gives you more energy to exercise, and helps keep you from getting dehydrated. When you are exercising more, you are sweating a lot more, which can lead to dehydration if you aren’t replacing that water that is being lost.

6. Maintain Weight

Even if you aren’t trying to lose weight, you still need to drink water. It helps make sure you don’t start gaining weight (especially water weight). I think drinking water is a great way to avoid overeating as well, which obviously can lead to weight gain.

7. Aids with Digestion

As I mentioned earlier, water helps to rid the body of toxins and waste. By doing so, it helps prevent constipation. And if you’ve ever experienced constipation, you know that’s something that you want prevented. Water is a lubricant that helps to soften the stool and aid in removing it from the body. Water is essential for helping the digestive track work correctly, and it can help (and sometimes, even heal) other digestive problems. This is a great article on how water can heal the digestive system.

8. Circulates nutrients throughout the body

I’ve already mentioned this a few times, but water helps to carry essential nutrients throughout the body, which in turn makes sure your body keeps working like it should.

9. Energy

Did you know that fatigue is often confused with dehydration? I totally believe it. I know that one the days that I haven’t drank nearly enough water, I feel like a truck ran over me. Who doesn’t want more energy? Whenever I drink water, I have more effective workouts, I sleep better, and I accomplish a lot more throughout the day. Water helps prevent electrolyte imbalances, dizziness, and fatigue!

10. Makes You Look Healthier

Have you ever heard people say that water helps your skin look better and younger? It’s true! I even read that drinking enough water can make you look ten years younger. Not that I really want to look that much younger — I’ve had quite a few people think I’m a teenager lately (weird. Very weird.)

How Much Water Should You Drink?

There’s lots of “debate” out there on how much water a person should drink. In general, I think if you are at least drinking 8 8 ounce glasses of water a day, you’re on the right track. However, it seems that more recently I’ve been hearing that you should be drinking half your body weight in ounces. For instance, if you weigh 160 pounds, you should drinking at least 80 ounces of water a day. I know a lot of people who drink much more than that!

If you aren’t used to drinking very much water, start slowly. Once I was doing this healthy challenge, and they said you had to drink at least 120 ounces of water a day. At that point, I was probably closer to like 50 ounces at the most (bad, I know.) Well, that first day I drank 120 ounces, and boy, did it water log me and make me feel miserable. So gradually increase your water intake…and also realize that you will need to go to the bathroom a lot more when you do! That’s quite the shock for a lot of people, I’ve found.

Tips for Drinking More Water

It really can be hard to drink water, and it’s something you actively have to remember to do. Sometimes I’ll find myself chugging a couple glasses during the last hour before I go to bed, just to make sure I get enough water in for the day — not really the best method. So, here are a few things you can do to make it easier!

•  Use infused water! Infused water is a bring trend right now, but it’s an awesome trend. I started drinking SO much water when I started to use my infused water bottle, and now, my infused mason jar.
• Drink from a cup or bottle that has measurements. I know that sometimes I have no idea how much I drank from a cup, or how many ounces a cup is. So, if you know that from that start, it’s easier to keep track. For instance, my mason jar glass is 12 ounces, so I try to drink at least six of those days.
• Carry a water bottle wherever you go
• Invest in a water delivery system or buy a water dispenser. We recently got this from Costco, and we are huge fans. It’s a dispenser that has filtered, spring water, and we are all drinking so much more.
• Drink water until your urine is almost clear! You know you’ve had enough water when it’s like that.
• Fruits and vegetables actually have quite a bit of water content in them — up your intake of these if you are feeling like you just can’t drink another glass of water.
• Sign up for the The Nestlé® Pure Life® Drink Better. Live Better.™ Rewards Program. It’s a fun, new program created by Nestlé® Pure Life® where you get rewarded for drinking water. Basically, you sign up for an account online, and whenever you drink a Nestlé® Pure Life® water bottle, you can redeem your points online for awesome prizes such as gift cards. You get 10 points just for signing up and another 10 points for sharing it on Facebook:

Disclosure: I am not a health professional, and this post should not be taken as a substitute for visiting with a doctor.