Nope I don’t mean wine or beer…I mean water.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we all said we were drinking too much water? It seems that all we hear is that no one is drinking enough. How much water do you drink every day? Have you read this article from The Washington Post being circulated around social media lately, 3 Surprising Reasons to Give Up Soda.

Years ago, I gave up drinking soda. I was only an occasional drinker but decided to really kick it totally when I became pregnant with my son. After he arrived and grew into a toddler, my husband decided he wanted to quit drinking it too. He wanted to set a good example and frankly just didn’t want it in the house. He was more of a one-soda-a-day drinker. So he decided over Christmas break that year, he would give it up.  In exchange we both committed to drinking more water instead. We even purchased some fab water bottles to give us some incentive. He experienced a few headaches from withdrawal but now remembers it not being so bad. Of course we still occasionally have a soda but for the most part we don’t miss it.

We shoot for drinking 96oz of water per day. Seems like a lot right? Trust me, once you actually measure it out it isn’t so bad. After measuring, we know that six of our drinking glasses equal 96oz and three of our water bottles do too. According to a lot of nutritionists 96oz seems to be pretty universal advice. I have also heard of a different recommendation; drink ½ your body weight in ounces. For example if you weigh 150lbs., you should drink 75oz of water every day. Make sense?

It did take us a while to work up to drinking that much water and honestly we have gotten out of the habit lately so we are going to re-commit. When plain tap water gets boring we spice it up a bit by drinking flavored sparkling water like LaCroix or adding some flavors to our water bottle. I like adding lemon, mint leaves or fresh ginger slices to switch it up. What do you like to add to yours?

Who is going to join me in committing to drinking more water? Or maybe finally kicking the soda habit?

~ Liza Atkinson, Feature Contributor