How I Drink 1 Gallon / 3.78 Liters of Water a Day

I started drinking more water and eventually drank up to a gallon / 3.78 liters a day.

At first, drinking that much water seemed easy - how hard would that be??

I learned along the way, when doing a lot of something, it takes planning - especially when making it into a habit.

• Drink more earlier in the day
• Limit how much you drink at once
• Limit how much you drink before sleeping
• Measure

Drink Earlier

By drinking more water earlier in the day helps reaching the 3.78 L / 1 gal a day goal easier.

Having more water earlier helps your body with essential functions. Your body uses water for everything: digestion, bowels, heck, even waking up!

Getting water earlier in your day helps with your day in different ways.

Limit Amount in Single Sitting

I noticed when I drink too much at once - over 30 oz / 1 L of water - I would have a rough time, such as feeling bloated or my body would find other ways to expel the water rapidly.

I notice around 20 oz / 600 mL is a good limit for me in general. For times where I have higher water requirements, I would drink more.

Limit Amount Before Sleeping

After a certain time, I would just stop drinking, even if I do not meet my goal for the day. I notice by forcing myself to meet the goal by making up late in the day, I would wake up from sleeping - impacting my sleep goal.

Conversely, if you want to stay up late - drink lots of water late! ;-)

Measure

The biggest thing that helped me be consistent with my water drinking goal is measure.

Having an Apple Watch app that interfaces with the Health app to record the amount of water I drink throughout the day helps keep me on track.

Another thing that helped: knowing the volume my favorite cups hold. That way, I just key off of that and make my Apple Watch entry easier.

Conclusion

Drinking lots of water everyday is not as easy as it sounds - things that I found that helps me reach this habit:

• Measure what you drink throughout the day and knowing the volume of your favorite cup helped me stay on track.
• Limit drinking before bedtime. I don’t want my water goal to interfer with my sleep goal.
• Know how much you can drink in a single session - your body will get rid of too much water just as quickly.
• Drinking more earlier in your day helps your body do lots of things.

These are the discoveries I made after making drinking 3.78 L / 1 gallon of water a day over a year.