30 day challenge: Drink a gallon of water a day
My sister shared an article on Facebook about a month ago: This Woman Drinks a Gallon of Water Daily for 30 Days. See What Happens! I think this person’s before and after has more to do with lighting and Photoshop, but my wife and I decided we needed to drink more water anyway so what the heck, we’d give it a try.
The first week was miserable. I had to pee. All. The. Time. It was hard to remember to drink water. And I was still thirsty all the time. If anything, I was more thirsty. It was a bit strange.
But after the first week, things changed a bit. I started to notice the benefits, and IÂ didn’t have to pee so much (or maybe I did and just got used to it?). I also wasn’t thirsty all the time. Drinking water was becoming a habit.
Here are some of the benefits I noticed:
- I started sleeping better. I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to go nearly every morning. It was an awesome and very welcome change.
- My blepharitis cleared up. This is a frustrating condition that causes inflamed, irritated, itchy eyes and eyelids. I had to have surgery on one of my eyelids because of this awhile back, so this is a huge deal to me. It isn’t completely gone, but it is vastly improved.
- The dark circles under my eyes are lighter. They aren’t completely gone, but I no longer look like I got punched in the face.
- My lips aren’t as chapped. Again, not a perfect remedy but much improved. I’ve been a chronic ChapStick/Vaseline user for years.
- My allergies aren’t as bad. My wife is using more Kleenex than I am, which I don’t think has ever happened before.
I found a free app called Water Your Body that has been helpful. It isn’t a great app, but it was the first I tried and works well enough. It makes it easy to track my water intake throughout the day, and lets me know if I am ahead or behind schedule.
My wife gave up partway through the challenge (although she is still drinking more water than she was before we started) but I plan on continuing to drink a gallon a day.