Apps

Over the past month I have attempted to use several applications to assist in keeping track of the enormous amount of water I am consuming each day. Counting the amount of drinks taken may not seem too hard, but when you're reminded to take a sip every so often, it helps. Now, I do have to make it clear, I do not make my goal every day. There are some days where I hit it right on the nose, and some I'm not even close. I have decided to not force the water onto my body and there is no punishment for not making the goal. To me, as long as I am trying my best, that is as hard as I need to push myself. I have made tremendous progress from drinking no water at all to drinking more than the average person before noon, so there is no need to pressure myself to drink more. Just like with food and counting calories; when you're full, you're full.

Each day I start off differently, I will either infuse my water at night (strawberries are great overnight and still hold up during the day) or I will go plain Jane and fill my bottle with ice water at work. Luckily at work we have a water fountain hybrid. It is a normal fountain like you would have seen in the halls of your high school but on the wall there is a water bottle filler. It even tells you how many bottles the fountain has filled so you know how many plastic bottles are not being thrown to trash and recycling bins. Go Vanguard for going Green.

Since day one I have cut down from 4 applications down to 2. The two that I'm using now are great but if they dated and had a baby, I would like that one even more. I will start off by saying that I have a Samsung Galaxy S-4 Active (the indestructible water proof phone that I have been known to break in the past). I'm sure iPhone offer different options and maybe even better ones but that is unbeknownst to me. The apps that I have used are Aqualert, Drinking Water, Hydro Coach, and Water Your Body. So there is no confusion I am going to explain some of the pros and cons of each.

Aqualert. What you see is what you get. It seems to be a bubbly, easy to use water tracker. You can semi customize your cup/bottle to predetermined ounces and it programs that same bottle every time you hit the green button on the dashboard screen. The dashboard or main screen seems fairly simple. By tapping the green drink button you are drinking the allotted amount of ounces that you have selected as your cup size. When tapping the red button you are deleting cups drank in case you accidentally over tap the drink button. Beneath the empty button it also calculates the number of ounces you have yet to meet your goal that is also listed in green under the cup size. Along with all of that they have included easy to share buttons on the right and other app features on the left. The additional app features include a bar graph that shows your weekly intake and trophies you can earn by the number of days you drink water. I probably used this app for about 2 days before it got annoying. The "take a drink" feature reminded you with this annoying drinking noise every so often and was way too loud at work. If you have a bottle that is a certain amount of ounces you can't customize. Annoying.

Drinking Water. This app is as simple as those two words. It is not customizable. There are cups of water, you start with eight 8 ounce cups, and you click them when you drink. Simple. Not enough for me. I got bored with this app about 2 weeks in. It took me 2 weeks to realize this since it was so easy to keep track, but it didn't make the cut. This one also has annoying reminders.



Hydro Coach. This app times how long you are awake for and divvies up that time with how much water it believes you should be drinking. In that aspect, I love it! It also shows what your hydration is weekly if you so choose. However, it does shame you for not drinking enough each day. If you forget to click on how much you've drank a little water drop character will appear in red with a sad face. I don't like feeling as if I have disappointed my app. But when you complete your goal and beyond, the little guy turns green and happy. I can't say he's not cute! This app is so easy to use and easy to calculate, but I miss the colors and cups I get from the other apps.

Water Your Body. With the customizable cup size, fun cup and bottle choices, and easy tracker at the top of the dashboard, this one takes the cake! The dashboard displays which cup or bottle you have chosen to use. From there you can tap on the same bottle when you finish drinking or you can switch it up with the arrows right next to it. The arrows will bring up another screen for you to select and customize the ounces for your cup or bottle. The dashboard will show your drink target for the day and show where you should be at that point in the day where the little green arrow is. If you get too far ahead of this arrow, it will disappear since you are on track to your goal. If you're getting behind the arrow will show up so you have an idea the next time you go to check it out. No annoying reminders or alerts! Perfection.

Whew! That was a long post! I was asked about the apps that I have been using and figured this would be the best way. I hope you enjoyed it and use some of these apps to help you keep track!

Thanks for reading! Update soon!