Thursday 18 September 2014

Water intake



Since having a liver transplant almost three years ago, I've started to have some problems with my kidneys.  My anti-rejection medication is known to give kidneys a hard time and mine seem to be easily annoyed, along with the rest of my organs, by medication.  There's not a lot that can be done about it, just monitor them and keep my medication levels as low as possible.

One thing I do have to do is drink plenty of water.  Luckily, I already was a water girl and I don't drink tea or coffee and rarely drink soft drinks or juice.  I always have a water bottle with me, wherever I go.  If I forget it I always feel overwhelmed by thoughts of thirstiness until I get somewhere I can get a drink or buy a bottle of water from.  Other days, I just really feel sick of water.  On those days I might have a glass of juice or put a bit of cordial or lemon juice in my water. 

Even still though, sometimes I struggle to drink my two litre target.  I get busy at school or sleep in late or just completely forget to have a drink.  I'm not one to knock back half a bottle in one sitting, I'm more of a small mouthful and often girl.  So if I get busy or forget to have my regular small mouthful some days I only drink about 1400 - 1600mL.  It's a bad day if I drink less than two 750mL bottles.  And I can tell when I haven't had enough to drink.

One thing I'm loving about my fitbit is there is a function on the app that you can track your water intake.  I try to remember how much I've drunk during the day to add that in each evening and then I can graph my results, very interesting to look at (and doesn't that sound nerdy).

I know that people should aim for eight glasses or two litres of water per day but what I'm interested in is how much water do you actually drink?  Do you regularly drink two litres or do you drink much less?  What do you think your average water intake would be?  






4 comments:

nicole said...

Ooh I'd reckon I get between 1.5-2 l most days... I've always got a water bottle with me at work, but days I'm at home I definitely drink less! Need to get on top of that!

Hope your kidneys keep doing the right things!!
Xo

ANB said...

My obstetrician told that me that whilst breastfeeding I should be drinking 3L a day. 3 LITRES! I don't often manage that much but I would get through 2L most days, just by carting around a 750mL bottle.

Family Matters said...

I drink way more water in summer than I do in winter, when I have to FORCE myself to drink even just 1 x 750ml bottle of water!
I recently bought a 1.5l bottle of water and found it was like a challenge...I HAD to finish it by the end of my working day :) Since then I have refilled it every (working day) where it sits on my desk reminding me to get through it all. I feel so much better for drinking more water. And it's not even summer yet!

Ian said...


Hi Megan. I think the eight glasses a day has been debunked and replaced with drink if you're thirsty. Dr Karl (from the ABC) wrtote about it (I hope the link works)

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/11/20/3633741.htm

If your kidneys are mucking around maybe it's different for you. I hope they start behaving better. - Ian