We all have been taught the benefits of drinking water for our body. We know if we are stranded on an abandoned island, we can live a couple of days without food, but we can’t go a couple of days without water.

In a previous post, I dove deeper into the benefits of drinking water.

This week I decided to practice what I preach (who does that these days?). So, I challenged myself to drink the recommended amount of water each day for a week.

I assumed drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of water is the recommendation because that is what I’ve always heard. So, this would be 64 ounces in a day, and 448 ounces in a week.

However, when researching to confirm the idea that eight glasses of water is the best recommendation, I found a new insight saying to drink an ounce of water for every pound you weigh, each day.

For little kids, there isn’t much of a difference between eight 8-ounce glasses of water and drinking an ounce of water for every pound.

But for adults, this is a huge difference! I weigh 200 pounds (I’m 6’4), so to complete my challenge in this way, I had to drink 200 ounces of water instead of 64 ounces—more than three times the water consumption.

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Seven Days Of Drinking Water

After a week of drinking what I consider an insane amount of water, here is what happened.

My skin is normally pretty clear with maybe a couple blemishes, but the first benefit of drinking water is I noticed my face became less dry and looked a little clearer than usual. I’ll take it!

I didn’t experience any headaches or fatigue during the week, which sufficient hydration can prevent, but I don’t experience those regularly so it could have been a coincidence.

Without going into too much unwanted detail (sorry in advance), this constant flow of water in my body also created regular and perfect bowel movement.

I would go into more details, but then I would probably lose half of my readers. So, trust me on this one.

However, the biggest difference is that the act of drinking water all day significantly influenced a greater focus on my health in other areas.

Drinking more water caused me to think more about my body, and this in turn caused a desire to work out more and eat healthier.

Because my body wants more water while working out, going to the gym became easier because I knew doing so would also help me in my water challenge.

If you can add an incentive to go to the gym besides simply exercising, then you’re more likely to go.

And, where I would have snacked on chips (chips and salsa are my favorite, I can’t get enough), this water challenge influenced me to eat fruit. Or, instead of sausage and bacon in the morning (also delicious, but high in fat), I chose oatmeal.

I don’t know if this is causation or correlation, but whatever it is, I treated my body better plus ate healthier when consistently drinking water.

(I also want to say, after more research, I found drinking half of your body weight in ounces is sufficient. For me, that means drinking 100 ounces a day instead of 200. I’ll probably drink half of my body weight for the long-term. But, I’m happy to accomplish the extreme, week-long challenge of drinking an ounce of water for each pound I weigh.)

Final Water Challenge Statistics

Total consumed water over seven days= 1,400 ounces

Bathroom visits over seven days= around 117 trips (stopped keeping track)

After 1,400 ounces of water flowing through my body in a week, I cleansed my body in a healthy way. No lie, I now feel sharper mentally and physically.

Try The Water Drinking Challenge Yourself

There are two different levels to this challenge.

For beginners, who find it hard to drink any water during the day, first set your goal at drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of water (or 64 ounces) each day, for a week.

For those who regularly drink water and want the advanced challenge, drink half of your body weight in ounces each day, for a week.

No matter what challenge you choose, follow the steps below to get all the benefits of drinking water.

1. Identify the main one or two reasons you’re doing this drinking water challenge. Some reasons include a happier mood, more energy, better skin, fewer headaches, to be healthier, and to save money.

2. Download the free DailyWater app, which you can use to mark how much water you’ve drank and get reminders throughout the day to keep drinking. Or buy a reusable water bottle to more easily keep tabs on how many times you’re filling it up during a day.

3. Publicly commit to this challenge by: telling your friends or parents, sharing this link with a comment that says you’re doing it, or directly commenting on this post below. Social pressure will help you complete this challenge.

4. When this challenge gets hard or annoying (or both), remember the main reasons why you’re doing it to stay committed.

5. Come back to this post and comment below when you’ve finished this challenge with your results and key observations. I would love to hear from you!

Why don’t you give it a try to get the benefits of consistently drinking water?

You’ll find that daily habits, like drinking water, may seem small (and they are individually). But, these small habits set the foundation for small wins each day, which turn into large wins over time!

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