Water is Life

One of the most important things you can do for yourself is drink water. Whether you're pregnant, breastfeeding, or neither.

One of the biggest problems in first world countries is chronic dehydration because people simply forget to drink enough water, or don't know a good way to keep track of how much plain water they've had every day. Tragic considering that there are places in the world where clean water isn't available, and here we are simply forgetting to drink enough, or passing the life giving liquid entirely for double lattes and fountain drinks.

It's not entirely our faults, household drinkware has the volume visible no where on it. Once you remove it from the box and recycle the packaging you've no idea how many cups of water each glass you fill has unless you measure them out, which is a little OCD. So here is a sure bet way to drink plenty of water, every day.

First things first: go here and take the hydration quiz. Next go the the store and purchase your favorite juice in a comparable volume to the above. As a pregnant woman I drank a ton of orange juice, so I found reusing the Tropicana jug quite fitting and simple. Next thoroughly wash out the jug and rinse completely. It may still smell like juice despite being clean so let it air dry, open, on the counter for a few hours. By now it should be clean and aroma free. Finally, simply fill with water and pop in the fridge! If there are multiple people in your household, you can each fill up a jug and write your name on it with a Sharpie to keep tabs.

You will know you've gotten enough water throughout the day if by the time you're ready for bed your jug is nearly empty and needing to be refilled for tomorrow.