I’m awful at drinking water. I’m not even one of those people who doesn’t like the taste of water, I just struggle so much at drinking it. Tom Brady, a hero of mine, loves drinking water. Just last week he announced that he drinks about 25 glasses of water a day (which is absolutely not recommended by doctors and you really should not try it). I decided to follow in Brady’s footsteps but quickly decided that making the jump to 25 glasses would be difficult, so I ended up trying to drink the recommended daily amount of water a day for six days. Generally doctors recommend following the 8×8 rule, or 8 glasses of 8 ounce cups. This meant a minimum of 64 ounces, or two of my Nalgenes.
Thursday:
I drank so much water in the morning and I was so proud of myself. I drank almost my full Nalgene within an hour and a half of waking up. However, throughout the day I kept forgetting to drink more water. I ended up chugging my whole Nalgene at ten o’clock that night, trying to get in the 64 ounces.
Friday:
Friday went about the same way as Thursday, only I realized around 2 o’clock that I needed to drink a lot of water. This resulted in me feeling pretty dehydrated late at night, as I went back to my old ways of just not drinking water.
Saturday:
The weekend was definitely when I tried my hardest to stay hydrated. On Saturday I was actually able to drink more than the minimum of two Nalgenes, and I felt pretty good all day. Saturday was also incredibly warm, so I was so proud of myself for staying healthy and energized.
Sunday:
Unfortunately, drinking a lot of water also meant going to the bathroom a lot. As someone who has a small bladder, this was not necessarily fun. However, I kept up with staying hydrated. Sunday was by far my best day, probably because it was the longest I had consistently stayed hydrated.
Monday:
On Monday I was back to the old routine of drinking a lot of water in the morning, and then slowly drinking less throughout the day. I actually did not end up drinking 64 ounces of water, I accidentally drank less. I was not feeling my best, to say the least. Malala was on campus, and I was too distracted and anxious the whole day to remember to drink water. I certainly paid the price for it. I was lightheaded and shaky, which again might have been the Malala excitement.
Tuesday:
Tuesday was a rough day for me, but I still somehow managed to drink my water. I had two essays and an economics exam, yet I still managed to power through. I think this was in part because of staying so hydrated, otherwise I would have been so much worse.
Overall I was surprised at how much I felt the effects of staying hydrated and not staying hydrated. I had never paid so much attention to my drinking habits before, and was shocked by how much better I felt about drinking water. It was hard to get myself to drink the water at times, so I might start setting reminders on my phone to drink water. I’m definitely going to try and drink the same amount of water every single day, as this experience showed me that staying hydrated really changes how I feel.