A word of warning to start this off: I’m big on the whole “self-help,” “get healthy” thing. I picked up a book yesterday at the library that provided 52 small changes you can make to be happier and healthier. Of course, it’s designed so you can take one change per week, but I plan to just read through it all and do it as I go along, and see what works and what doesn’t.

The first change is to drink more water. Sounds easy enough, right?

Think about how much water you drink per day. The book recommends that you drink half of your weight in ounces on a daily basis. For instance, if someone weighs 130 pounds, they should aim to drink 65 ounces of water each day. (Factors like alcohol, exercise and pregnancy will alter this equation.)

After I read this, I realized…. wait. There’s no WAY that I drink that much water in a day. Thinking about it, I usually down about 2 bottles per day. At nearly 17 ounces each, that’s only about 35 ounces total – far less than I should be hydrating. Oops.

Now, how can I go about changing this? I know, realistically, as the book says, it won’t be a quick change. It takes humans a while to form habits, but if I work my way up to it, I think it’s possible.

So, for the next few weeks, my aim is going to be working my way up to three bottles a day by, say, October 31 – that’ll be nearly 51 ounces daily.

While it’s still not the amount I really should be drinking, it’ll definitely be an improvement. I think spacing it out, drinking a bit each hour, and keeping it easily accessible can help me reach this goal. It’s a small change, but perhaps it’ll make a bigger difference than I anticipate.

So I’d like to challenge you to investigate if you’re getting the recommended amount of water daily – not soda, not juices, not coffee or Gatorade – and if not, work a little bit at a time to try and resolve this!