You’re probably very familiar with the many health benefits of drinking water; water aids digestion, flushes out toxins and boosts your immune system and metabolism.
But do you struggle to get enough water each day? One strategy that can help is to start tracking your water intake – you can do this on paper or with an app.
I started doing this over a year ago. Originally my tracking consisted of tallies. It worked well but there were times when I lost track and wondered if I’d tallied that last glass of water or not. So my new system is that each day I write on my pad several dashes – one for each glass that I want to drink that day and then on each I write the hour (or the time but I find that I don’t often finish 2 glasses of water within the same hour so just writing the hour works just fine).
I won’t say that I always reach my goal and my goal shifts sometimes. But when I was writing tally marks it was like I was just recording how much water I’d drank without incorporating a goal. By writing out those dashes, I’m setting at least an intention to drink that many glasses. I don’t always hit my goal but it’s a better tracking system and sometimes it borders on being a game. Like when it’s almost the end of the hour and I try to finish a glass of water before the hour is up, or sometimes when I realize that I’m on a streak (a glass at 9, 10 and 11 for example) and I try to keep the streak going.
Tracking any behavior tends to modify that behavior. Want to change your eating patterns, be more productive or spend less money – track that behavior.
A good habit that can also help you eat less is to drink a glass of water before meals.
And I recommend a refillable bottle instead of buying bottled water (unless you’re somewhere where the water is actually unsafe).
Speaking of safety, bottled water may not be as safe as we believe it to be – there are stricter safety regulations on tap water than on bottled water. And there are several options for at home or even on the go water filtration, if like me, you prefer filtered water. You can learn more about the high cost of bottled water in this 2 Cents video.