755 Days of Hydration Tracking

How I used technology to make drinking water a priority

Yep, that’s a 755-day streak of hitting my hydration goal

I have tracked my water intake for over two years. That’s a 755-day streak of hitting my hydration goal within the Hidrate App. It may sound a little crazy, but I think this is the perfect example of technology making our lives easier.

Sure, we could always manually track how much water we drink. Plenty of people have just marked an “x” on a piece of paper each time they polished off a glass of water. By the end of the day, you hope to have eight x’s on the page and you’re good to go.

But modern devices have made this so much easier. It’s part of the greater “quantified self” tracking movement and it’s made a huge difference in my day-to-day wellness I can’t imagine not being aware of this data.

My tool of choice has been a HidrateSpark Smart Water bottle. After several iterations that all seemed to have major flaws, the company really knocked it out of the park with their HidrateSpark Pro line of bottles.

The HidrateSpark Bottle

Photo courtesy of HidrateSpark

These bottles look great and keep your drinks cold like any other vessel, but they also have some cleverly integrated smart technology. Each bottle has a small sensor puck that screws into the bottom. The sensor actively measures the weight of liquid in the bottle to keep track of how much you’re drinking throughout the day.

It comes with a companion app that syncs via Bluetooth so you can see exactly how much water you’ve consumed at any given point in a day. And if you just want to use the app to track water intake without connecting it to a smart bottle, that works too. It’s a pretty powerful app that also lets you clarify different types of liquid you drink during the day. It’s a great way to differentiate between beverages that may actually be dehydrating you (caffeine and alcohol) and up the amount of hydrating beverages to counteract the effects.

Once you get into the habit of using a smart water bottle, it becomes pretty effortless to keep track of your water intake. I still often drink out of other glasses and bottles and manually input the amounts into the app if I don’t have the Hidrate bottle nearby. I know some people scoff at the idea of sipping every drop of liquid out of the same bottle, but you can track things however you see fit.

The other benefit of the bottle is that it is equipped with glowing LED lights around its circular base. If you’re falling behind on your drinking goals, it can glow to attract your attention to take a sip. You can also set reminder notifications on the app if you’d like. But as you probably already know, I’m not a huge fan of excessive notifications on my phone.

My goals

There have certainly been nights when I notice I’ve fallen behind on my hydration goals and have to start chugging to make up ground. It’s led to plenty of trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but it seems like a worthy trade-off. Getting the right amount of water for your body and fitness needs is so important. Proper hydration can help overshadow things like lack of sleep or other minor nuisances. Hot days or heavy workout days can benefit from an increase in water consumption as well. You may not need the same exact amount of water every day, but you should be aware of the factors that impact your hydration and act accordingly.

So what are my specific goals? I typically shoot for a minimum of 90 ounces or 2.6 liters of water each day. That number comes from suggestions within the Hidrate app but it’s also a good ballpark number of at least half your body weight in ounces plus or minus a few more. On most days, I have no problem pushing over 100 ounces and on days with extra sweaty workouts can go over 150 ounces.

Conclusion

I’m not a doctor and I can’t prescribe specific hydration amounts for everyone. And you may also be saying “Chris, you’re insane, I’ll just drink when I feel thirsty!” and that’s a reasonable statement too. My setup may not work for everyone, but the moral of this story is to just be more in tune with your body. Maybe just track your hydration for a week and see how you feel. If it’s too tedious and time-consuming you can stop. But I’d guess that you actually start to notice improvements in your health even after a few days. Your results will vary, but fewer headaches, more energy, less brain fog, and appetite regulation have all been perks that I’ve personally experienced.

No, you don’t need to spend any money on a fancy smart water bottle if you don’t want to (although I think it’s a worthy investment and great use of smart tracking technology). Feel free to just start jotting down how many glasses of water you drink each day on your calendar or notebook. You may be surprised at the correlation between your good mood and water intake. And before you know it, tracking your drinking habits will become second nature and you’ll have a two-year streak of your own to be proud of.

Is anyone out there already tracking their water intake?

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Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!

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