Someone once said that water is the “magic elixir of life” and they were so right.  Life on Earth cannot exist without water.  Any living thing that is deprived of its necessary water supply will die; and making sure you have plenty of water is crucial to your health and well-being. Many people say they just don’t like the taste of water.  That’s not abnormal. If you didn’t drink a lot of water as a kid it can take time to learn to love it, but it’s totally worth the effort.  Since humans are made up of about 3/4 water, learning to love water is the same as learning to love yourself!  Still not excited about downing a glass of plain water?  Here are a few reasons that may help change your mind.

1. Water is a great way to lose weight!  If you are trying to rid yourself of extra pounds and you’re not drinking plenty of pure water, you’re making things much more difficult than they need to be. Other drinks like soda, sports drinks, juice and even “water” drinks contain extra sugar, calories and chemicals that you don’t need when you’re trying to lose weight.  Most sodas have 150 calories per can, unsweetened apple juice has about 115 calories per cup, and Vitaminwater has about 125 calories per bottle. And what about the sugar?! Each of these drinks contains about 30 grams of sugar (give or take).  A regular size snickers bar only has 27 grams of sugar! Let’s not even get into the added chemicals, colors and other unknown substances.  So if you substitute water for another beverage, three times a day, you save yourself about 400 calories!  That’s almost 1/4 of a 2,000 calorie diet.  Imagine how much weight you could lose before you even hit the gym! Water is weight loss made easy.
2. Skin, hair and nails cannot thrive without enough to drink. Remember how we said you are made up of 3/4 water?  Well that means all of you, including your skin, hair and nails.  Want to know how to get longer, shinier, healthier hair?  Stronger nails? Smoother, clearer, younger looking skin?  You guessed it! Drink more water.  The fountain of youth pours right out of your kitchen sink…and it’s free!  The right skin creams and hair serums can certainly be helpful, but if you’re not getting enough water, you’re working in circles.
3. Water is the best cleaning agent known to man.  There are not many things that we clean without adding water.  We add fresh water to detergent to wash clothes, dishes, mop floors, etc.  Our bodies are the same. We add fresh water to the right vegetables, fruits and vitamins to clean our insides.  You wouldn’t add fruit juice to your laundry would you?  So why do that to your body?  The best way to clean unwanted food, toxins and other waste out of your body is to drink plenty of water. In this day and age, it’s difficult to completely avoid unwanted toxins in our bodies whether it’s through food, air or otherwise; so flushing your system with water is the best way to rid yourself of these toxins as quickly as possible.
4. Water is the best cleaning agent known to man part II.  Just in case you missed it, water is the best cleaning agent known to man :).  Drinking plenty of water will clean you on the inside but water is also the best way to clean your outsides.  Most women should wash their hair with water at least once a week (more or slightly less depending on hair texture).  You should wash your face twice a day, every day!  Splash your face 20 times with warm water after your last lather then 10 times with cold to close your pores.  The more you splash, the more water that can get into those pesky pores.  This last one goes without mentioning but we’ll say it just for completion sake.  You should wash your body daily with your favorite soap and water.  It’s important to clean the dirt and toxins from the day off of your body and prevent unwanted odor 😉

A few tips:

*You should try and drink 1/2 gallon of water a day.  We love the Intak Hydration Bottle by Thermos because the top locks so we can carry it around in our purse and it has a meter so we can keep track of our intake.  Three of these a day equals 1/2 gallon, so we always know how much we have to drink to reach our goal.

*I do drink a small glass of orange or apple juice each morning if I didn’t add any to a smoothie or have time to eat a piece of whole fruit. The vitamins in natural fruit juice are worth the extra sugar and calories if you aren’t sure you are going to get enough whole fruit that day.  Stick with natural juices with no sugar or other ingredients added. The rest of the day is water.

*If you really don’t like the taste of plain water, try adding fresh squeezed lemon or fresh mint.  If that doesn’t help, you may just have to suck it up for a few months until your taste buds adjust.  In most cases, after 3-6 months, other drinks taste too sweet and become less desirable and you actually start craving water.  Learning to love water is worth the struggle.

Xoxo
Zyn Beauty

photo credit: www.cleanwateraction.org