I don’t really like drinking water. What can you suggest to get the water and stay hydrated?

Question

Rosanne Rust,MS,RDN · Answer

I really don't like drinking water. What can you suggest to get the water and stay hydrated? Well, water is an important nutrient. My first suggestion is ask yourself what you do like to drink, and if you enjoy juice or you enjoy sports drinks that are flavored, start by watering them down, making them diluted with water. Another tip is to start keeping a container, a drink cup, a straw, something that you liked to drink out of and drinking water out of that, whether it's a sports bottle or a container with a straw. As you drink the diluted liquid flavor of your choice, you start to get used to it. I never used to like drinking water either. Now, I almost crave it. I started by diluting other flavored beverages that I enjoyed, and adding ice, and having a cup by my bed every day. Every night, I have a cup on my bed so I can take a sip of water during the night. I think the feeling of being actually hydrated is also a positive influence on maintaining your water intake. I hope that helps.

Kellsey Frank, MS, RD, CSSD, LDN · Answer

This is definitely a common problem. I don't really like drinking water. What can you suggest to get the water and stay hydrated? So first things first, you can always put things in your water. So, you know, fresh fruits, citrus, cucumbers, whatever you want to give it a little bit of flavor and spice it up a little bit. You can go on Pinterest and look for all different sorts of recipes. They are definitely out there. That can definitely be helpful. Beyond that, there's definitely other ways to stay hydrated. So any form of liquid that you drink is going to be somewhat hydrating if it's a fluid, right? So like milk is an example of that. If you like milk, maybe alternate that or, you know, introduce some of that as well. But there also are a lot of foods that have what we call high water content. So your fruits, your vegetables, and your dairy foods are going to have a relatively high water content compared to other foods. So making sure that you're incorporating some of those into your diet as well are going to help maintain your fluid balance.

Kelly Jones, MS, RD, CSSD · Answer

Okay, I don't really like drinking water. What can you suggest to get the water and stay hydrated? Well, to meet your fluid needs, we don't just have to look at water. It's good to get some water and I'll talk through strategies related to that, but a cup of coffee actually counts towards your fluid requirements, maybe even two. Tea is a great alternative and there's so many different flavors of teas. You don't have to like green tea or white tea. There's even some fruity flavored teas that you can get and that can increase your fluid consumption. Seltzer counts, flavored seltzers or sparkling waters count. So there's a variety of options there. But when it comes to water, you can also consider easy ways to flavor it, especially if you're active, add a splash of juice to add a little bit of flavor. Obviously you can hear the recommendations like adding a squeeze of lemon, a squeeze of lime. That's not always practical, especially if you're on the go. Myself and a few of my friends were just talking to me the other day about True Lemon and True Lime. It's this, I don't know if it's a new brand or it's been around for a while, but I've been recommending it to some clients where it's a little packet that you can keep with you and add in essentially crystallized citrus, lemon, lime. I think they have orange too. So that adds some flavor without added sugar or any artificial sweeteners or fake colors like you'll get from a lot of other options. If you are really athletic, go for things like Liquid IV, Noon, because you need those electrolytes and some extra energy too.

Elizabeth McNear,MS,RD,CSSD · Answer

I don't really like drinking water. What can you suggest to get the water and stay hydrated? So this is a pretty common one. If you don't like water, I would find other fluids that you do enjoy. So this might be a fruit infused water. You can do like muddled up strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and mix it with different herbs. So like rosemary or basil are popular ones. Lemon water is also a really popular one. If that is not enough of a flavor change for you, you could even try some of the different products that are on the market like Mio or Crystal Light. Some of the calorie free flavorings can be a great way to kickstart some of that hydration. And then also look at getting some fluids through your food. So plan smoothies, plan soup, eat popsicles, have a lot of high water fruits and vegetables, things like cucumbers and watermelons. All of these are going to start contributing to that fluid intake throughout the day. And those can be some great ways to get your hydration in, even if water isn't your favorite thing to drink.

Mandy Tyler, M.Ed, RD, CSSD · Answer

So this is a great question. It says, I don't really like drinking water. What are some ways that you can suggest to help me get the water and stay hydrated? So first and foremost, I would suggest to give that water some flavor. If you're not a fan of plain water, adding some flavor to the water may make it more desirable for you to drink more throughout the day. So you can make an infused water by adding in a variety of fruits, vegetables, or herbs to give that water some additional flavor. You can go on Pinterest and get a whole variety of flavor combinations to try out. Or you can do this really simply. One of my favorite tactics to try is just in the morning when I'm filling up my reusable water cup, I put in a slice of cucumber. So every time I refill my water bottle throughout the day, I get a nice fresh cucumber flavor to my water. It definitely entices me to drink more. You could try others. So you could add in a lemon wedge, or maybe a lime wedge, or a piece of orange, or some berries. Once again, all day long, every time you refill that water bottle, you'll get a nice fruit or vegetable flavor. Once again, it entices you to drink a little bit more water throughout the day. I hope you try this idea out and that it helps.

Tara Collingwood, MS, RDN, CSSD · Answer

Alright, if you don't really like water, how can you stay hydrated? Well, it's not just water that hydrates you, all fluid is going to hydrate you. So you don't have to just drink water water, although water is calorie free and so that is a good bargain in terms of giving you hydration without costing you anything in terms of any calories. But you can add things like, of course, lemon, lime, cucumber, you can add some strawberries, raspberries, whatever to a glass of water or pitcher of water just to give it a little bit more flavor. You can add some of these flavor sticks to it. There's lots of different brands that are calorie free or five calories or less that you can put into a glass of water, again make pitchers of lemonade that are, you know, sugar free or very low calorie. And you can, you know, drink sparkling water. You can get a soda stream and, you know, make the the bubbles out of the, out of just water and and make it sparkling water. And for some people that makes a huge difference than just plain water. You can also play with the temperature. So some people like it room temperature, some people like it really cold. And just remember again that it doesn't have to be water. If you want to make it into tea, if you want to make it into coffee, decaf coffee will hydrate better than regular coffee, milk, juice, you know, all of those things are also going to hydrate you just like water will.

Swimming

Strength

Triathlon

Photography

Track & Field

Nutrition

Physical Therapy

Running

Pets

Cycling

Podcasting

HealthCare

Musculoskeletal

Hockey

First Responders

Integrative Medicine

Chiropractic

Cross Country Skiing

Adaptive Sports

Mental Health

Surfing

Climbing

Tennis

Military

Mind Body

Scholars

Criminal Justice

Liquor

Golf

CrossFit

Soccer

Pickleball

Hunting

Public Speaking

Venture Capital

"I don’t really like drinking water. What can you suggest to get the water and stay hydrated?"