One healthy habit that I’ve been working on is staying hydrated. I’ll admit, I’m not the best at remembering to drink water, but I do try.
Over the past few months, I’ve been filling a cup up with water and taking it to bed with me. I set it on my night stand. When I wake up in the morning, my water is right there. I drink it while getting ready for the day. It is one thing that helps set the tone of my day and it’s self-care.
Having my water there to drink in the morning is a good prompt, but what about for the rest of the day? For the rest of the day, I use the MyFitnessPal app to help me remember and track how much water I drink. The app is also useful for tracking food/nutrients and exercise.
Carrying a bottle of water with you throughout the day is another idea. Bottles that have a measurement marked on the side are even better.
Did you know that dehydration is linked to stress, anxiety and depression? It is. Being hydrated is something that we might not think about in the hustle of our day, but it’s something we need to make sure we’re doing.
Another thought about hydration is that coffee (caffeine) is linked to anxiety. If you’re like me, you might have at least one cup of coffee with your breakfast. Coffee can also cause us to dehydrate.
One last healthy habit tip, for 2-3 months (I used it until I was tired of it and didn’t like feeling like I was on my phone all day), I used a fun app called Habit Forest. Someone I worked with shared with me that they used it for a while, so I decided to try it.
Because I’m a trail runner, I loved the cute little theme of growing a tree, which overtime, became a forest. You enter in what habit/action you want to build up, and you can be specific of days (M, Tu, Wed…), times (9:00 AM, 11:30 AM, 5:00 PM…), and number of times to complete the habit per day. One of my habits was drinking water. This app helped me with my goal and like I said above, I did this until I felt done with it.
If you’re working on making sure that you’re staying hydrated, it’s okay to test out ways to make sure that it happens. If one method doesn’t stick (water near your bed, carrying a bottle with you throughout the day, MyFitnessPal, Habit Forest, etc…), that’s okay, find another. The main thing is that you’re making an effort and drinking enough water.
Be well!
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