Drink More Water Challenge

This post is a collaboration with Zulay Kitchen. All opinions are my own.

Water is such an important drink. As humans, our bodies are made up of about 60% water and drinking enough of it is essential to your health in many ways.

Towards the end of last year, I realized I was really slacking on my water intake. So I decided to start off this new year by doing a Drink More Water Challenge to help make sure I am getting enough water. First, I started researching how much water I should be drinking.

What I found in my internet searches is that there doesn’t seem to be one set amount a person should be drinking. It varies depending on your body weight and exercise routines, among other things. The most common thing I found was what is referred to as the 8×8 rule. On average it is suggested to drink eight 8-once glasses of water per day (8×8), which equals 64 ounces of water a day.

Since I am pretty active and also drink quite a bit whenever I eat, I may tend to be a little on the higher than average side in those regards. However, based on my body type and weight I’d be on the lower end. Another pretty average answer I discovered is to drink between half a once to a once of water per day for every pound that you weigh. For me, this is pretty doable so this is the amount I based my challenge on. However, I realize it’s not as doable for everyone. For example, my husband said it would be nearly impossible for him to drink his whole weight in water a day. If it feels unattainable for you I would recommend trying the 8×8 rule.

I, for one, have always been a pretty big water drinker, however, sometimes it gets boring drinking water due to the lack of flavor. One of my favorite ways to combat this is to put my favorite fruits in my glass to help add some flavor. I can drink cucumber water all day! I have been putting cucumbers in my water for a while now.

Zulay Kitchen gifted me with this wonderful 34oz water bottle with timelines on the outside of the bottle to make sure you’re drinking enough water. And the best part is that it also has it’s own fruit infuser to put fruits in when you drink. This has been such a great tool to aid in my water challenge! And it helped me combat those water blues by being able to mix up some different fruit blends in the infuser.

Some of my personal favorite fruit blends are:

• Just plain cucumber
• Cucumber + Raspberry
• Pineapple + Raspberry
• Blueberry + Mint

There are endless options and you really can’t go wrong. Many fruits and veggies have amazing benefits by themselves. When you combine them with your water you get double the benefits. Lemon has huge health benefits and is commonly used in water. I’m personally not a fan of lemon so I use cucumber in most of my blends instead.

The Zulay Kitchen Water Bottle with Fruit Infuser I used for my water challenge is 34oz. Based on the timelines on the bottle, you would need to drink two full bottles a day and this would equal 68 ounces. This would be just slightly over the recommended amount of 64 ounces for the 8×8 rule. After the first couple of days using this water bottle, I realized I actually went through two water bottles pretty easily, so I decided to make it my goal to go through 3 bottles in a day. That brought my water intake up to 96 ounces a day which put me right in the target range of drinking half an ounce to an ounce a day per my body weight. Win/win!

When the new year started I began actively trying to drink more water. I have only been 100% monitoring my intake amount since using my Zulay Kitchen water bottle. For about the last two weeks, I have been drinking between 85 and 96 ounces of water a day regularly. And other than peeing constantly (which is nothing new to me) I’m already noticing a difference and feeling better.

A big reason I wanted to do this challenge was that I could noticeably tell I wasn’t drinking enough water. Drinking enough water has big impacts on multiple areas of your body, health, and in turn your life. In my research as to why you should drink more water, I came across these areas that benefit from it. A lot I already knew or had seen for myself in my life, but I was honestly surprised at just how many benefits there are!

I’ve always had pretty good skin which I contribute to the fact that I drink a bunch of water. Growing up, if I ever had a headache my dad would ask if I had been drinking enough water and/or just say “drink more water”. I have also noticed in my own life that my energy and mood levels are both better when I drink more water. I’m not as hungry throughout the day which I attribute to drinking so much water as well.

If those aren’t enough reasons to start drinking more water than I don’t know what is. I challenge you to try the 8×8 rule and drink more water. If you realize like me that it doesn’t seem like enough then up your ounce intake higher. Try the Drink More Water Challenge for 30 days and just see the differences for yourself! Let me know in the comments below if you’ve tried a water challenge before and what differences you saw in your own health.