How I did it: After reading an article about how people confuse hunger for thirst, I immediately thought to myself "No wonder." So I started to try to drink more water, but it really didn't work because I thought that an eight ounce cup was one of those "Plastic Red Cup" cups and I was drinking about 16 ounces of water at a time. So I ended up drinking too much water daily, which really upset my stomach and strained my bladder. About 3 weeks after trying that in a final attempt to drink more water, I used a calculator and it figured that I should be drinking about 2 liters (about 8 cups of water) of water everyday. So instead of figuring how much water each cup in my household contains, I just went out and bought one of those cute eco-friendly aluminum bottles to drink from. Then in the morning I would fill the bottle up take a drink and then have breakfast. I would occasionally drink from the bottle the entire day (and of course fill it up once more) and without even much of a thought I had just drank 2 liters of water!

Lessons & tips:

• Know the measurements of the cups in your house. Instead of making the mistake I made and guessing that a 16 ounce cup was an 8 ounce cup and over-hydrating myself, check the measurements of the cups in your household or use a reusable water bottle with an already predetermined measurement.
• When you're hungry drink a cup of water and wait fifteen minutes before you indulge. Scientists have found that people mix up their feelings of thirst with feelings of hunger, so drink up, wait fifteen minutes, and if you are still hungry eat up! (Read the Article)
• Find out water you should be drinking everyday. The "eight cup standard" is no more! Use a calculator to figure out the amount of water YOU should be getting everyday.

Resources: What really helped me the most was using a one liter reusable water bottle. You can find them almost anywhere now. I bought an Aluminum Sigg 1 Liter on Amazon for about $12.

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Aug 22, 2009, 05:58AM PDT | 1 comment | 4 cheers