Chamber Insider Blog

Drink More Water: The Health & Wellness Committee’s January Live Well Challenge!

Post written by Jennifer Brady, Loudoun County Health Department

It’s a new year and the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce’s Health & Wellness Committee wants to help you and your employees live healthier in 2019! Our wellness challenge for you this month is to set the simple goal to drink more water!

Benefits of Drinking Water:

  • Maintain a Healthy Weight:  Water, unlike almost every other food and beverage, helps you decrease your weight gain when you increase how much of it you consume! Drinking one soda, sports drink, or sweet tea can be the equivalent of eating 23 teaspoons of sugar in just a few gulps. By choosing to drink more water instead, you make a HUGE and immediate impact on your daily intake of sugar and calories.
  • Boost your Energy, Focus, and Brain Power:  Even just a 2% decrease in our total body water content can start to make us feel a little down in the dumps. Dehydration can make us feel dizzy, fatigued, grumpy, and cause headaches. Drinking water throughout the day keeps you feeling your best!

Tips for Drinking More Water:

  • Bring a reusable water bottle with you wherever you go!  Never miss the chance to stay hydrated!
  • Don’t wait until you feel thirsty to drink water.  Feeling thirsty is your body telling you that you are already dehydrated. Sip water all day and drink water at meals to stay ahead of your thirst signals.
  • Swap your sugary beverages for water.  Eliminating just one sugary drink per week from your diet will eliminate up to 4,000 grams of sugar from your diet this year and decreases your potential equivalent weight gain from that sugar by ~5 pounds!
  • Eat more fruits and veggies!  Many fruits and vegetables have a high water content and you can increase the amount of water you consume simply by eating more fruits and veggies.
  • Add fruits, vegetables, or herbs to your water.  If you’re used to flavored beverages, experiment with new recipes for adding natural flavor to water. This RevYourBev Flavor Finder resource is a fun way to find water recipe ideas that match your personal flavor profile!

Water in the Workplace

  • Give out reusable water bottles.  Your team will appreciate the thoughtfulness and usefulness of a reusable water bottle and it will help them stay hydrated throughout their work day!
  • Have a healthy vending machine.  Vending machines can be stocked full of sugar-laden beverages which makes it easy to opt for a sugary drink during the day. Instead, stock your vending machine with plain, flavored, or sparkling water to provide healthier beverage choices to your team.
  • Serve water at workplace meetings and parties!  Fruit and herb-infused water is tasty, fancy, healthy, and inexpensive! Serve flavorful or sparkling water for any special work occasion and get in the habit of making water your beverage of choice!

 

Like the Loudoun Chamber’s Health & Wellness Committee’s Facebook page to follow along with water challenges all January long! The Loudoun Chamber Health & Wellness committee meets monthly toempower Loudoun businesses and employees by making positive lifestyle changes that improve our community’s health, happiness and productivity. Stay informed on upcoming meetings and events by sending an email to Danielle Kabban at dkabban@loudounchamber.org