I have a simple trick that helps me remember to drink my recommended amount of water each day. I use buttons.
You may already know how much water to drink. The recommended amount is 8 x 8 ounces (not including coffee, juice, etc). That’s a total of 64 ounces (approx 2 litres). My glass holds around 11 ounces (335 ml) so I aim to drink that 6 times.
So I have 6 buttons. I start with them all outside the little pot each morning. Every time I fill my glass, one button goes into the pot until they’re all in. I’m usually done by around 4 pm.
You can do this at home or in the office. If you move around a lot during the day, you can carry a water bottle. Figure out how many times you need to refill it to get your 64 ounces, then put that number of rubber bands around it and remove one each time you fill it.
It’s so much easier when you have a system!
Drinking pure water is good for our body for many reasons, but it actually helps us lose weight too. Water helps the body to release toxins and excrete them through the kidneys. Many of those toxins are stored in fat cells, so when the toxins are gone, the body has one less reason to hold on to the fat.
Can You Have Too Much Water?
You may hear people say that drinking too much water can kill you. This is true but it’s not likely to happen in normal day to day life.
If you drink the recommended 64 ounces spread through the day you will be fine. Just don’t drink it all at once.
You have to drink several quarts in a short time to be at risk. Then you can get something called hyponatremia or water intoxication where the water floods the system, diluting the essential electrolytes in the body to the point where the brain cannot function.
People who drink huge quantities of water for a contest have occasionally died of this. It’s also possible for people doing long exercise routines such as running a marathon, if they drink a lot of water instead of something that replaces the electrolytes (sodium, potassium and other nutrients).
But most of us have no need to worry about water intoxication!
See my Metabolic Factor review here
