I’ve never been a water person.

I know. I know. Water is life. Drink eight glasses. Carry the emotional support Stanley cup. Romanticize hydration.

Respectfully, no. Bleh.

I’m a coffee person. A “realized at 6 p.m. that I’ve had one sip of water just to choke down a vitamin and somehow survived” person. And unfortunately for me, my kids seem to have inherited the same anti-water energy.

So lately, in an effort to become at least a semi-functional, hydrated adult, I’ve been experimenting with what I’m calling an “eat your hydration” approach.

Translation: if drinking water feels like a chore, can food pick up some of the slack?

Turns out: kind of, yes. But also, not entirely.

One thing I didn’t fully appreciate until I started reading more about hydration is that water doesn’t only come from your water bottle. Foods, especially fruits and vegetables, contribute to your overall fluid intake, too.

In fact, many are made up mostly of water. Cucumbers, celery, lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries, watermelon, oranges and bell peppers all contain a surprisingly high amount of water, often upwards of 90 per cent.

Which honestly felt super validating.

Suddenly my toddler eating half a jumbo watermelon in one sitting felt less chaotic and more… wellness-adjacent.

So, I started leaning into it.

Watermelon at snack time. Cucumbers beside basically everything. Smoothies loaded with frozen fruit. Salads that feel less sad and more crunchy. Yogurt bowls topped with berries. Soupy dinners. Pasta sauces packed with tomatoes and vegetables.

A diverse assortment of frozen fruit has also entered the chat in this household.

And if I’m honest? It’s helped.

Not in some dramatic, influencer-before-and-after kind of way. But I feel better. Slightly less sluggish. Slightly fewer “why do I feel vaguely terrible?” afternoons.

But here’s the important caveat: eating hydrating foods doesn’t mean you suddenly no longer need to drink fluids.

Experts are pretty clear that food contributes to hydration, but it works alongside beverages, not instead of them. Your body still needs fluid intake from drinks, and plain water remains one of the simplest, most effective ways to stay hydrated.

The good news for fellow water haters is that hydration doesn’t have to mean chugging plain tap water all day.

Sparkling water? Counts. Fruit-infused water? Counts. Herbal tea? Counts. Milk, smoothies, broth-based soups, and water-rich foods all contribute to your overall hydration. Even coffee, despite its bad reputation, isn’t the dehydration villain people once made it out to be when consumed in moderation (whatever that means).

And while yes, technically you can overdo water intake, serious overhydration is uncommon and usually linked to drinking extreme amounts in a short period of time, which can disrupt sodium balance in the body.

My biggest takeaway from this little hydration experiment?

If you hate drinking water, stop thinking about hydration as pass/fail.

You do not need to wake up tomorrow and suddenly become a cucumber-infused-water-at-6-a.m. person.

Start smaller.

Eat foods with more water in them. Add fruit to your snacks. Blend a smoothie. Keep sparkling water around if that makes hydration feel less miserable. Put mint and lemon in your water if plain water tastes aggressively boring to you.

And yes, still drink water. At least try.

I wish I had a more rebellious conclusion here. I was hoping science would tell me I could survive indefinitely on watermelon and iced coffee.

Unfortunately, adulthood wins again.

If you’re curious about practical ways to support hydration beyond plain water, check out our list of high-hydration ingredients that can help add more fluids to meals, snacks, and smoothies. And if all this hydration talk has you wondering whether there actually is such a thing as too much water, we dug into that too in Can you actually be too hydrated?