There's a daunting number of hydration-related apps out there. I tried to pick one that was (a) free, (b) highly rated and (c) widely used. The one I downloaded on Friday asked me to input my gender, my weight (!), activity level (sedentary/mildly active/very active, etc.), weather (you need to drink more when it's hot outside), and the size of my glass/container. Whenever I finish a glass, I hit the water glass button on the app and it adds to my total intake for the day. If I haven't done that in a while, it will send me a reminder that it's time to drink more water. The notification both buzzes and makes a sound like water gurgling as it fills a glass, lol.
The app's current recommendation for me is to drink 87 ounces of water daily. That's a LOT of water -- 11 8-ounce cups, or about 5-6 500 ml bottles/large glasses. It's 2.5 two-litre bottles. I spent the weekend feeling like I was about to float away. And making a lot of trips to the bathroom, lol.
Do you think you drink enough water? Do you ever track your intake?
You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.
I've never thought of tracking my intake like that. And I'd need an app that converts into mls, because I have absolutely no clue about ounces in liquids! But yay for a phone with lots of room for new apps. lol
ReplyDeleteI drink less water (on average) these days than when I was working and exercising more regularly more intensely at the gym. Sometimes I get to the end of the day and realise I haven't had enough. Or I get a headache, have a glass of water, and as the water goes into my body, I literally feel the headache dissolve away! So I try to have a glass always beside me, and always have water at the lunch or dinner table, along with a green tea. And in the winter I drink more herbal teas because cold water isn't very appealing.
It's good to get in the habit of drinking plenty. When my mother and in-laws were ageing, the health assessors always wanted to check that they were drinking enough, and included ice-cream in the liquids category. Roll on old age and lots of ice-cream! lol
Haha! That's the first I've heard of ice cream counting as liquid! -- I want your mother's doctor, lol!
DeleteI remember from my WW days that we could count juice as water (with the proviso that juice has a lot of sugar in it, so to watch the points value), clear/non-caffeinated soft drinks (ditto) and herbal or decaf tea &/or coffee. Caffeine is a diuretic and does not hydrate the same way water does, so we could not count that. At the moment, I'm just counting plain old water consumed. One fluid cup is 8 ounces, and I measured how much one of my large glasses holds before I started tracking on the app (not quite 2 cups). I do have orange juice with breakfast and a couple of cups of tea during the day as well.
P.S. You can use whatever measurements you want; there's a "units" feature in the settings you can change.
DeleteLike you, I've had doctors (both western- and easter-trained)tell me I need to drink more water. I try, but I'm not sure I do.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in knowing the name of the app you're using, if you think it's helping you stay more hydrated.
It's called Water Tracker by Gradient Health Apps (rated 4.8 on the GooglePlay Store). The logo is a happy little cartoony water drop, holding a glass of water, on a blue background, with a clock in the bottom right hand corner. :)
DeleteI drink a good amount of water - I have probably close to that 87 ounces/day. I drink probably 20 oz when I get up in the morning before I go for a walk, then I have 2 24 oz bottles at work that I usually almost finish. Then I may drink another 20 oz over the course of the next couple hours before I go to bed (and usually get up and get a drink of water in the middle of the night!). But if you're eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, that helps with hydration.
ReplyDeleteI could do with some improvement on the fruits & veggies front too...! :(
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