I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time keeping track of how much water I’ve drunk in a day.  Theoretically, I could count glasses, but with everything else that’s going on throughout the day, it all sort of runs together and I lose track.

So, for a long time, what I’ve been looking for is a water bottle that will hold pretty close to exactly what I need to drink in a day.  Then I can fill it up in the morning and, if it’s empty at the end of the day, I know I drank what I should have.  (Or a bottle that’s right at half, so I can fill just two water bottles per day.)

There are a variety of recommendations regarding water intake, but the general guideline that makes the most sense to me is the one that suggests drinking half of your weight in pounds, in ounces.  (That is, if you weigh 150 lbs., you would drink 75 ounces of water each day.)  This makes sense to me because unlike even more generalized recommendations such as “8 glasses a day,” this one takes one’s size into account.  (It doesn’t make sense to me to suggest that I should be drinking the same amount of water in a day as an NFL linebacker.)

Sooo…with all that said, a 48-oz. bottle is pretty close to what I need for a day, but it’s hard to find.  The Nalgene 48 oz Wide Mouth Bottle, HDPE (shown at left, above) that I got from Reuseit.com is actually the only one I’ve found.

I sort of wish it weren’t plastic (‘though the Nalgene bottle is BPA-free).  But it’s so heavy when it’s full that I don’t know that I could manage it if it were metal or glass, so I guess the plastic is a good thing.  The wide mouth is nice because ice cubes can fit through it.

So far, it’s working well.  It is a very clear visual of just how much water I have – or haven’t – drunk in a day.  It can be a little overwhelming, though, seeing that huge bottle full of water first thing in the morning!  It’s nice to empty it, as it’s easier to hold and drink from the emptier it gets.

All in all, I think I’m glad I did this; I think it will be an effective tool for building the water habit.

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