Water, water everywhere.

It's almost the end of the year!  Which means it's almost time to start the water challenge!

A gallon, or half gallon, of water is a lot.  And if you're anything like me, it's going to be about a gallon (or half gallon) more than you usually drink.

I've been looking around a little bit to try to find some ways to make drinking water a little more interesting and an easier goal to accomplish.

I tried out several different water tracking apps.  My favorite so far is one called Water Your Body.  This app is really easy to use, easy to set up, and easy to customize.  With several other apps the goal was already preset, either based on the 8 glasses a day rule or based on the users height and weight.  Some of them required a Google plus account, or required the user to have friends in order to provide a "better experience" or wanted access to contacts, photos, or things like that.  Water Your Body seems like a basic app that asks for basic access to basic things.

HydroCoach also looked like an interesting one.  It allowed you to set your own daily goal and had a lot of options for glass sizes, and even different types of beverages.

A wax pencil against a glass water bottle will also do the trick. :-)  But if you plan on using different sizes of cups and glasses throughout the day a tracking app might help make chipping away at the daily goal easier to keep track of.

A good way to keep track without an app would be to use the same bottle all day every day.  I'm using this really cute glass bottle (because plastic ruins everything) which is 22oz.

In order to get all the water I need I need to drink this 5.8 times, but I imagine it will be safer to call it 6 times since I can't imagine I'll be filling this to the tip top every time.


Some interesting ways to make drinking water more delicious can be found here:
http://www.fitbie.com/slideshow/12-ways-make-water-less-boring

Some of the ideas from this link include:

• Make a pitcher ahead of time filled with sliced cucumbers.  Very refreshing.
• Add fresh, sliced fruit (like cherries, mangoes, berries, things like that) would probably be particularly delicious if you have a taste for carbonated water which, unfortunately, I don't.
• Add herbs or florals like sliced ginger, mint leaves, rose hips, lavender, and things like that.
• Add unsweetened fruit juice.
• Brew, or cold brew a pitcher or glass of tea with standard tea bags.  My personal favorite is peppermint tea.  It's very refreshing and brews really well in ice water.

This website also has a link to a recipe I wanted to try a while ago.  This is a "slimming water" called Sassy Water.  I haven't tried it yet, but I'll let you know.  I found it while I was living in Korea and the ingredients, which will be easy enough to find here, were either impossible to find or would have been so expensive a pitcher of Sassy Water would have been equivalent to a pitcher of some very fine single malt scotch.  

Here's the recipe: http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/flat-belly-diet/flat-belly-diet-and-sassy-water
The ingredients to this make-ahead water include fresh ginger, fresh spearmint leaves and lemons.  Doesn't that sound delicious?

Do you have any ideas on how to make this challenge a little easier?  What do you think the biggest challenges will be?  Do you think this crazy challenge is even possible?  I know in the middle on Winter some people would rather just reach for hot coffee or hot chocolate than a gallon of ice water, but what can you think of that can help everyone make it through these 30 days?  See you on the 1st!