Water Week

When the weather gets cooler, people forget about drinking water and staying hydrated. Get them back on track with Water Week!

What’s Water Week? It’s five days of facts and tips about the importance of drinking water:

  1. W – Why do we need to drink water?
  2. AAmount – how much water do we need to drink every day?
  3. TTaste – don’t like the taste of water? There are many ways to add some flavor!
  4. E – Eat foods that have lots of water in them, like fruits and veggies.
  5. R – Routine – make drinking water a regular part of your daily routine and you won’t have to think about it.

Water Week can be as simple or elaborate as you want it to be. Here are some ideas for activities:

  • Include a water-related fact in your school’s daily announcements.
  • Post messages about water on your social media pages.
  • Put up our Drink Water poster.
  • Give away fun water-themed stuff like our bookmarks, stickers, or wristbands.
  • Give teachers or employees special water bottles and have them track how much water they drink each day.
  • Offer free bottled water. (During non-COVID times, you could set out pitchers of water with various flavor-enhancers, like fruit and herbs.)
  • Have your students debate the pros and cons of bottled water versus tap water.

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

 

Choose Water

When it’s hot and humid, it’s time to remind people to drink plenty of water. Our Choose Water bookmarks and wristbands are perfect for this! Put them in a basket on your desk so whoever comes by can take the message home with them.

Here are a few more fun ways to nudge people towards water:

Around the water cooler

 

  • Put some of our Choose Water wristbands or bookmarks nearby.
  • Set out a bowl of lemon and lime slices for people to add to their water.
  • Write some of our water facts (below) on sticky notes and put one or two up every day for a week.

In the break room

  • Write “free – drink me!” on brightly colored paper and rubber-band it around an unopened bottle of water. Put a few of these in the break room refrigerator.
  • Be sneaky – write some of our water facts (below) on sticky notes and put them on the soda machine or near the coffee pot.
  • Serve an afternoon break with fresh fruit and water.

And here are some water facts to get you started:

  • Why do I need to drink water?
    • Water regulates your body temperature.
    • Water lubricates and cushions your joints.
    • Water protects your spinal cord and other sensitive tissues.
    • Water aids in digestion and getting waste out of your body.
  • When do I need to drink more water?
    • When it’s hot and humid.
    • Anytime you’re physically active.
    • When you have a fever.
    • When you’re sick with diarrhea or vomiting.
  • General success tips:
    • Drink a cup of water every morning, before coffee or tea.
    • Never pass a water fountain without stopping to take a drink.
    • Carry a water bottle with you every day.
    • Order water at restaurants instead of soda.
    • Flavor it up – add slices of lemon or lime, and other fruit.
    • When you reach for a diet soda, have a cup of water first.

Healthier choices are as easy as 1-2-3

Our Healthier Choices 123 materials provide a simple way to encourage people to make healthy lifestyle changes. The three step concept is perfect for all audiences, from busy, budget-conscious adults to short-attention-span kids.

Set up a health fair or table display with the Healthier Choices 123 poster or banner as the focal point. Then add an activity to go along with each step. Here are some ideas:

Step 1 – Drink water instead of sugary drinks.  

  • Fill an empty 20oz soda bottle with 16 teaspoons of sugar. Compare that to a bottle of water that has zero teaspoons of sugar.
  • Energy drinks, teas, and sports drinks can have as much sugar as soda. Display bottles and cans of these beverages so people can check the grams of sugar per serving.
  • Choose alternatives: water (add fruit or herbs) or unsweetened tea. Have a pitcher of ice water, small cups, and some cut up fruit for people to add.
  • Replacing one can of soda per day with water saves more than 50,000 calories in a year. Think of the money you’ll also save (tap water is free!).

Step 2 – Choose activity instead of screens.

  • How many more calories do you burn by moving instead of sitting? At least twice as many!
  • Replacing 30 minutes of screen time with 30 minutes of brisk walking will help you burn an extra 40,000+ calories per year.
  • Write different 10-minute activities on small pieces of paper or index cards (walk the dog, do laundry, vacuum, shoot baskets, etc). Fold them and put them in a large bowl or jar. Let each person take out three. When they do all three in a day, they’ll have moved for 30 minutes.

Step 3 – Choose fruits and veggies instead of sugary or fried foods.

  • Fruits and vegetables have fewer calories but more nutrients compared to foods like chips, French fries, and cookies.
  • Replacing a bag of chips with an apple will save you 25,550 calories per year.
  • Use food models, pictures, or real food to compare calories in fruit- and vegetable-rich meals vs higher fat choices. For example, you could show two meal choices at McDonald’s: a southwest grilled chicken salad (350 calories) vs a double cheeseburger & medium fries (770 calories).

As a take-home message, set out blank index cards and colorful markers. Ask people to write or draw the healthier choice they plan to make for each step. Tell them to keep the card in their wallet or on their refrigerator – wherever it will remind them of the changes they want to make.

Click here to get 15% off this collection for the first week of April 2019.

Are You Drinking Candy?

Sugar is always a popular topic and beverages are a major source of added sugar in the American diet. So why not put together a sugary drink display for your next health fair or class? Our materials make it easy!

You’re sure to catch everyone’s attention with our Are You Drinking Candy? Sugar Awareness poster, banners, and tearpad handout. Using a lollipop as a reference point for a teaspoon of sugar, people can see just how much ‘candy’ they drink when sipping on soda, sports drinks, sweet tea, and more. The back side of the tearpad handout and the free printables that come with our posters and banners provide even more information on sugar and better beverage choices.

Our colorful materials are bound to attract a crowd around your display. Get them thinking about what they’re drinking with these five conversation starters:

  • Do you see your drink of choice on the poster? How many teaspoons of sugar are in it? If you have this drink every day, how many teaspoons of sugar is that each week? Month? Year?!
  • Water and unsweetened tea are great choices to replace sugary beverages. How can you spruce them up a bit? How about adding fruit or fresh mint? Have you tried green tea, chai tea, or herbal tea?
  • When is tea as unhealthy as soda? When it’s sweet tea! Did you know a large sweet tea has more sugar than a large soda? Do you drink canned or bottled tea? Check the label – you might be surprised by the amount of sugar per serving, and the number of servings per container.
  • Do you drink smoothies because you think they’re healthy? What’s in your favorite smoothie? How big is it? Watch out for smoothies made from a mix or with juice or added sugar. And check how many servings are in that big smoothie-shop smoothie!
  • How many teaspoons of added sugar per day do you think most Americans eat? The answer is 28-32 teaspoons. How many do experts recommend? The American Heart Association says we should have no more than six (for women) to nine (for men) teaspoons of added sugar daily. Based on the examples on the poster/banner/tearpad, how many teaspoons of added sugar do you drink every day?

That’s just the beginning! Check out our entire collection of handouts, banners, posters, PowerPoint shows, wristbands, and stickers. Whatever you need for your display, we have you covered!

 

Water Poster Is Here

When we wanted to create a poster about water we defined the art style first. It had to be simple yet enticingly beautiful. Water is one of the greatest resources and our bodies are made mostly of water. By choosing water over the other sweetened beverages individuals can really dig in on a path of better health.

Plus the poster had to have a scientific infographic format.

So we sketched up the data and the specs and gave it to our best graphic artist. When he came back with this one I knew we had a winner.

Here is a visual tour with a list of the lessons:

The title is so gorgeous it makes water look better than soda, at least on paper!

You need 9 cups a day because your body uses water for many important functions! Now we are giving them a reason to do more of something instead of less!

And your body is comprised of 60% water!

Water is found in many beverages but be careful of added sugars:

Every system in your body uses water!

The water poster is ready to go in the NutritionEducationStore.com now – along with many other items that will match such as stickers, bookmarks, banners, and wristbands.