I Got a Motivational Water Bottle to See if It Actually Made Me Drink More Water — Here’s What Happened

Written by

Ella CerónLifestyle Editor
Ella CerónLifestyle Editor
Ella Cerón is Apartment Therapy's Lifestyle Editor, covering how to live your best life in the home you've made your own. She lives in New York with two black cats (and no, it's not a bit).
published Apr 4, 2021
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If there’s a “final boss” in my self-care routine, it’s definitely drinking water. As a highly caffeinated person, I tend to reach for my coffee before I do my water, and while caffeinated beverages aren’t as dehydrating as many people believe them to be, I’m always on the lookout for ways to increase my water consumption. So when I saw a New York Times article touting the rise of the so-called “motivational” water bottle, the idea went down on my mental list of “things to try.”

Now, I’m not a water bottle person by nature. (Can you even be a water bottle person? Is that a thing?) Because I work from home, I often opt for a clean mason jar to serve as a makeshift indicator of how much water I’m drinking on any given day. Filling and re-filling a 16 oz jar four times over the course of one day accounts for 64 oz of water, or the generally recommended amount of water (though the eight-cups-a-day “rule” isn’t as hard and fast as most people believe; in fact, no one is totally sure where it even originated). It always seemed silly to devote an additional vessel to the water-drinking task, but if it worked for the people quoted in the Times — as well as celebrities like Chrissy Teigen — it could be good enough for me.

To start, I had to source a water bottle — which proved to be trickier than I realized, given the sheer amount of options available. Ultimately, I chose a 32-oz. bottle, because it seemed less intimidating than the half-gallon and gallon-sized jugs. This meant that to hit my water goal, I’d have to refill the bottle only once a day, which seemed entirely doable. I made a mental note of the mileposts on the side of the bottle once it arrived, washed the bottle out the night before I planned to start, and prepared to be quenched.

Day 1: Monday

I started off by filling my water bottle with chilled water from the pitcher in my fridge — and immediately took a big gulp of water that landed me just under the 8 a.m. deadline before the clock struck 8. Immediately, I felt satisfied and proud of myself. As the day went on, I found myself trying to race time and finishing a given amount of water before each corresponding deadline. I wound up refilling the bottle twice, and finishing it entirely before the night was through.

Day 2: Tuesday

I woke up already knowing what to expect — and thanked the previous version of myself from last night for filling my water bottle and storing it in the fridge the night before. I took a few sips to get myself below the 8 a.m. line and hit the ground running.

As the day went on, I noticed that I once again was being competitive with myself to hit certain line marks — but only if the water bottle was in the same room or close at hand. For example, I left the water bottle in the kitchen after grabbing a mid-afternoon snack, and only realized I hadn’t taken a sip once I looked up and wondered where my water bottle went. It helps that the version I got is a bright pink and yellow gradient, which sticks out conspicuously from the rest of my decor.

Day 3: Wednesday

By day three, I had gotten into a groove. Sure, I had begun to give into a different bad habit of accumulating multiple beverages on any given surface — but between my coffee mug, motivational water bottle, and the rogue green juice, three vessels maximum seemed more doable than my previous habit. (Those mason jars I mentioned? Yeah, I had a habit of “collecting” two or more on my coffee table as the day went on.) If the water bottle was both keeping me motivated, and minimizing clutter, I considered that a win-win.

Day 4: Thursday

Everything was going swimmingly with my water — until the day I had to run an errand. Not only did the water bottle seem a bit bulky to carry as I commuted on the subway, but I worried about removing my face masks and sipping water — not to mention finding a public restroom in an era of social distancing and limited shopping. I made the decision to leave the water bottle at home, as long as I promised myself that I would once again drink more water than I “needed to” by a given hour, and would catch up on my needs once I returned home.

Of course, this promise overrode my body’s thirst sensors, but I never felt queasy as I gulped my water down. It might be even easier to live the motivational water bottle lifestyle if you have a car and can leave the vessel in the cup holder while running errands, but for city living, having a dedicated at-home water bottle wasn’t so bad.

The Rest of the Week

Once I got into the swing of things, remembering to both use and refill my water bottle was easy. In fact, the only time I used any other vessel to drink water was when I completed a workout — the bottle I purchased is slightly too large for the cupholder on my exercise bike — but even this was helpful in its own way. It reminded me to take the pressure off of myself and not measure every ounce of water my body needed. As a result, I listened to my body while I worked out, and focused on what it needed rather than an arbitrary timestamp.

Now, I reach for my water bottle first thing almost every morning and take at least a few sips before I drink my coffee. (Hydration before caffeination strikes again!) I’m less regimented about when I hit my water goal, but knowing when I’ve downed two bottles’ worth of water is enough of a benchmark for me.