We all know that if one were to ask how much water to store that we would get as many different answers as questions. The Red Cross, ready.gov and FEMA all say 1 gal per day, and they even break it down to two quarts drinking and two quarts other. Doug recommends 5 gal per day per person for drinking and other uses.

I was pretty sure I was drinking more than two quarts per day so I tracked everything I drank for 7 days. I learned a lot about myself and what having enough water really means. Here is my TOTAL LIQUID CONSUMPTION over 7 days (in ounces). Comments to follow:

Day 1:
Water 43
Coke 24
Unsweet Iced Tea (Tea) 80
Day 1 total - 1 gal, 19 oz

Day 2:
Water 63
Coke 12
Diet Pepsi 12
Tea 66
Day 2 Total - 1 gal, 25 oz

Day 3:
Water 27
Coke 24
Tea 90
Day 3 Total - 1 gal, 13 oz

Day 4:
Water 26
Diet Pepsi 12
Tea 100
Day 4 Total - 1 gal, 10 oz

Day 5:
Water 56
Coke 40
Tea 47
Day 5 Total - 1 gal, 15 oz

Day 6:
Water 0!!!
Tea 100
Coke 12
Hi-C Fruit Punch 16
Day 6 Total - 1 gal, 0 oz

Day 7
Water 20
Coke 24
Tea 80
Day 7 Total - 1 gal (less 4 ounces)

As you can see, I averaged 139 ounces of fluid per day. This means I averaged 17 cups a day folks (or more than 4.25 quarts per day of beverages consumed).

Here are a few things I learned in general:
1. In a survival or natural disaster situtation, drinking only water would not be good for moral/familiarity, and it might even be boring. In a survival situation, this might be your only option, but in a bug-in situation, you should have plenty of teas, drink mixes and other options to enhance water.
2. We (or at least I) drink way more liquids than what the government and the Red Cross claim to be the "normally active" averages. Towards the end of the week I drank less, probably because I was tracking my consumption, and I can tell you that I felt thirsty at times.
3. This was done in winter, not in our super-sticky NC summers where consumption might even be more.

A few things I learned about myself which might help others:
1. I am addicted to Coca-Cola, and there is a certain time of the day (mid-day) were I absolutely crave a can, and my mouth starts salavating. Withdrawl might be difficult.
2. I drink alot of unsweet tea. I consider this equal to water in the benefit and not negative at all. Unless somebody can prove to my why it is bad, I will continue to drink large volumes of it.
3. I do not drink much milk! None in the week I tracked and none generally.
4. I need to drink some juice or something. See above.
5. I do not feel any need to drink coffee or alcohol, but perhaps coffee and alcohol drinkers feel the same things I do in relation to my tea and coke consumption?
6. The 7 gallons of water I have stored at my house for each person is not a week,s worth of water (and certainly not 2 weeks worth of drinking water as I assumed). You might think you have enough until you actually do the math, then you see you do not have enough, and we are not even talking about hygene/cooking.

Thoughts?