Water is good for you in many different ways and is essential to good health and great when you’re dieting.  Why?

Water gives you a false sense of fullness.  Experts say that a majority of the time that you think you’re hungry, it’s really just your thirst mechanism.

Water cleans out your system of elements it doesn’t need and gives your cells the water they DO need to function at their highest level, metabolically.  The reason you feel hungover after a night of drinking is because your cells don’t have enough water because your body’s process to break down the alcohol (carbs) you drank used it all.  It’s called your Krebs Cycle, bitches.  Know it and love it.  Feed it with water.

It’s great for your skin, as it clears away the yuckies mucking that up as well.  Expect clearer and healthier looking skin with your eight glasses a day.

Doctors recommend you imbibe 8-12 glasses of water a day, minimum – more if you’re sweating out at the gym or in some other physical activity.

Some tips to sneak in more water into your diet:

1. Take a bottle in the car with you.  I know when I am bored, I’ll drink it just because it’s there.
2. Have it at your desk while you work.  It’ll give you something to do, again, just because it’s there, and with the need to get rid of it (potty breaks) you’ll have an excuse to get up and stretch your legs.
3. Drink a glass of water before you eat each meal.  It takes up a good amount of space in your stomach so you eat less.
4. Always have it on hand while you’re working out.  I know I drink a lot more water when I have a bottle in the cupholder on the elliptical than if I have to wait until my 20 minute workout is up.  Then you can drink when you want, as much as you want, without the skeevy guy breathing down your neck, waiting behind you for the water fountain (or “bubbler” if you’re from Wisconsin).

Hopefully these ideas and tips will get you into the habit of drinking more water.  Do you guys have any more tips for integrating more water into your day?  Leave your ideas after the jump.

This prevention.com Health Tracker has been really helpful. Just today I figured out the ration of carbs to protein to fats to alcohol in my diet. Unfortunately, it wasn’t necessarily awesome news. This was the summation of my diet yesterday. Thankfully I made up for some bad decisions making with about two and a half hours at the gym. I ended up, all being said, eating the calories I should (1400-ish), without any exertion to lose weight, and tacking on an extra 1100 calories burned.

I am on a slightly better trajectory today with only 36 grams of fat. I can’t imagine eating another 26 before the end of the day (though I wouldn’t put anything beyond my awesome willpower). Sixty-two grams of fat yesterday. Jeez. But it says so long as I do about 1400 calories a day, I should get to my desired weight of 120 by mine and the SM’s 2 year anniversary, on St. Patrick’s Day, 2009. That’s not bad.

Point being:  Try to integrate more protein into your diet.  Its more filling and takes away time from eating carbs and fat.  Plus if you do have the time to work out, it helps with the building of muscle.  Protein is generally meat…so it makes sense to put more human meat on your bones, instead of fat, you should eat more protein.