Follow-up to the Water Challenge

It has been a little more than three weeks since I started my water challenge so I need to report on how I did. The challenge was mostly successful. I think it really helped that I have been working on this for more than a year, although the last three weeks I was definitely trying harder.

Things that helped:
1. Marking my big red cup. It holds two full cups so having to fill it just one time per meal helped.
2. Tying it to events that happen every day.
3. Having a cup in my bathroom and remembering to drink a full cup right when I wake up.

Challenges:
1. When my big red cup was dirty, I didn't have a good substitute. Fortunately this didn't happen very much.
2. I don't follow my routine quite as well on weekends, especially in the mornings, so this threw me off.
3. There were a few days that were just too busy and I really didn't do very well.
4. Fast Sunday. I have decided that going completely without water in addition to food for an entire day is too hard for me (and my one kidney) but even with that decision, I didn't even come close to drinking the right amount, although I did try to compensate at the end of the day. Perhaps if I went into Fast Sunday better hydrated, going without water might be easier.

All in all, my plan seems like a reasonably effective way to drink more. Finding more big red cups to purchase, and mark so I have backups would be pretty helpful (but I'm doubtful I could find any). I also found that 10 cups of water is actually closer to my ideal than 8. Maybe it's the dry climate we live in. In light of that, I should probably change my breakfast consumption from 1 cup to 2 cups, in case I miss a cup later in the day.

The downside to the whole water challenge is that I feel like I have been obsessing about the amount of water I've been drinking. Maybe that's what it takes to stay on top of it but I'm ready to move on!

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