Gallon A Day Challenge

Last weekend I decided to challenge myself to drinking a gallon of water a day for 3 days. That may not seem like a lot, so let me break it down. One gallon of water is 128 ounces, about 7 pounds and almost 6% of my body weight. That's really A LOT of water. The recommended daily intake per day is 64 ounces. So I doubled that. And how many of you actually drink the recommended amount daily?

Here's some background: Ever since visiting Morocco last summer, I have been very anxious about getting dehydrated. Just the feeling of a slight dry mouth can send me into a panic. So most days I drink somewhere between 70 and 80 ounces of water. So in this challenge I was adding another HALF of my daily water intake. I thought it would be difficult, but it really wasn't that hard.

How did I do it? Easy. I work right away in the morning and I told myself I had to finish at least one of my 40 ounce water bottles during my shift, another during my workout and the final one at home in the final hours of my day. I made sure to even it out as much as possible, which I think helped a lot!

What did I learn? No one truly needs to drink a gallon of water a day, unless you are doing something insane like running a marathon and you're actually sweating it out. But upwards of 80 ounces a day is definitely beneficial. My skin felt like it was starting to clear up, I had more energy & believe it or not, it resulted in a complete lack of Sunday morning hangover. That was after having a family gathering Saturday afternoon and night and drinking WAYYY too much. I somehow managed to be up for work at 4am without a hangover the next morning. So I suppose in addition to drinking that much water if you're running a marathon, you may want to do it if you're drinking a lot as well.