How to Remember to Drink Water During the Day

Most people know they should drink water during the day, and most people still reach the evening and realise they barely drank any. It is not because they do not care about their health. It is because water is quiet. It does not remind you the way hunger reminds you, and it does not sit on your desk asking for attention the way a phone does. On a busy day, you move from one task to the next, you drink a cup of tea or coffee, and by the time you feel thirsty, you have already gone hours without a proper glass of water. This article is about fixing that in a simple, practical way. It does not ask you to count every sip or follow a strict plan. It shows you how to build small reminders into a normal day so that drinking water becomes something you do without thinking about it.

The first thing to understand is that forgetting water is normal. Your body does give you a signal, which is thirst, but thirst is often a late signal. By the time your mouth feels dry, you have already been short of water for a while. Many people also mistake thirst for hunger or tiredness. They feel a little low in the afternoon, they reach for a biscuit or a sweet drink, and what their body really wanted was a glass of plain water. That is why waiting for thirst alone is not a good plan. A better plan is to drink a little water at regular points in the day, before you feel very thirsty, so your body never has to send a strong warning. The habits in this article are built on that idea: small amounts, often, tied to things you already do.

It also helps to stop thinking of drinking water as one more job to remember. When something feels like a job, you put it off. When it becomes part of something you already enjoy, you do it without effort. A glass of water with breakfast, a bottle on your desk, a sip every time you finish a piece of work — these are not big changes. They are tiny links between water and your normal routine. Over a few weeks, those links become habits, and habits are what carry you on the days when you are tired, busy or distracted. This article will walk through each link, one by one, so you can pick the ones that fit your life and leave the rest.

Why We Forget to Drink Water

The main reason we forget water is that our days are built around other things. In the morning, we think about getting ready, getting children to school, catching a bus or starting work. At work, we think about the next task, the next message, the next meeting. At home, we think about cooking, cleaning and rest. Water does not fit naturally into any of those thoughts unless we put it there. It is not that we decide not to drink. We simply never decide to drink, and the hours pass. If you work at a desk, you can sit for three or four hours without standing up, and if the water is in another room, you will not go and get it. If you work outside, in heat or dust, you may drink when you stop for a break, but between breaks you keep working and forget. The problem is distance and habit, not willpower.

Another reason is that tea, coffee and sweet drinks take the place of water in many people’s minds. A person who drinks four cups of tea in a day may feel that they have drunk enough, because they have had four cups of something. But tea and coffee are not the same as plain water for the purpose of this article, and sweet drinks bring sugar with them, which is a different matter altogether. A cup of tea in the morning is a pleasant habit, and there is nothing wrong with it, but it should not be the only drink you have all day. Plain water does a simple job: it replaces the water your body loses through breathing, sweating and using the bathroom, and it does so without sugar, without caffeine and without any extra work for your body. If your day is full of tea and coffee but has almost no plain water, your body is still short of what it needs most.

There is also the simple fact that many of us were never taught to drink water regularly. As children, we drank when our mothers gave us a glass. As adults, nobody hands us one. We have to build that habit ourselves, and most of us never get round to it because it feels too small to matter. But small things add up. A person who drinks one extra glass of water in the morning, one at lunch and one in the afternoon has added three glasses to their day without any effort. That is the kind of change this article is about. It is not a diet, it is not a challenge, and it does not need an app or a special bottle. It needs a little thought about where water fits in your day, and then a few small changes that make drinking it the easy choice.

How Much Water Do You Really Need in a Day

People often ask for one exact number, and the honest answer is that there is no single number that fits everyone. How much water you need depends on your size, your work, the weather, how much you move, and what else you eat and drink. A person who works outside in summer heat needs much more water than a person who sits in a cool office. A person who eats a lot of fruit, vegetables and soup gets water from food as well, while a person who eats dry food needs more from a glass. The common guidance you hear, about six to eight glasses a day, is a useful starting point for most adults, but it is a guide, not a rule. Some days you will need more, some days a little less, and that is normal.

A better way to think about it is in small, regular amounts rather than a daily total. If you drink a glass when you wake up, a glass with each meal, and a glass or two between meals, you will usually reach a sensible amount without ever counting. The total matters less than the pattern. Drinking a large amount all at once in the evening, because you suddenly remember, is not the same as drinking steadily through the day. Your body uses water steadily, so it makes sense to give it water steadily. Think of it like eating. You would not eat all your food for the day in one sitting and then eat nothing else. Water works the same way. A little, often, is the pattern that works best.

You can also learn to read simple signs from your own body. If your mouth often feels dry, if your lips are cracked, if you feel tired in the afternoon for no clear reason, or if your urine is dark yellow most of the day, those are common signs that you may not be drinking enough. Pale yellow urine during the day is a common sign that you are drinking a reasonable amount. These are general signs, not a medical test, and they can be affected by food, heat and other things, so do not worry about one dark morning sample. But if the pattern repeats day after day, it is a gentle hint to drink more water, earlier in the day, and to keep a bottle near you. If you have a health condition, or a doctor has told you to limit how much you drink, follow that personal advice, because general guidance in an article cannot replace it.

Keep Water Where You Can See It

The simplest reminder in the world is a glass of water in front of your eyes. If water is on your desk, you will drink it. If it is in another room, in a cupboard, or at the bottom of a bag, you will forget it. This is not a small detail. It is the whole secret for many people. Put a glass or a bottle on your desk, on the kitchen table, or beside your chair, and keep it filled. When you can see it, you will reach for it without thinking. When you finish it, fill it again straight away, so the next glass is already waiting. That one habit, refilling at once instead of leaving an empty glass, is what turns drinking water from a task into a background habit.

At home, the same rule works. Keep a jug of water on the kitchen table or on the counter where you pass it many times a day. Every time you walk past it, have a few sips. Keep a glass beside your bed at night, and a glass on the table where you eat breakfast. If you have children, keep their bottles filled and visible too, because children copy what they see. If they see you drinking water through the day, they will do the same, and they will not need to be told. The point is to remove every small barrier between you and water. You should never have to search for it, wash a glass first, or walk to another room. It should be there, ready, every time you look.

This also works when you leave the house. Carry a bottle with you, even a small one, and keep it in your hand or on top of your bag, not buried at the bottom. If you travel by bus, keep the bottle where you can reach it. If you go to a market, carry it with you. Many people buy water when they are out, which is fine, but a bottle from home costs less and is already in your hand when you need it. The size of the bottle matters less than the habit of carrying it. A small bottle that you refill is better than a large bottle that you leave at home because it is heavy. Choose a bottle that fits your bag and your hand, and make carrying it as automatic as carrying your phone or your keys.

Tie Drinking Water to Things You Already Do

The best reminders are not alarms. They are habits you already have. Every day is full of small moments that happen without fail: you wake up, you brush your teeth, you eat breakfast, you start work, you take a break, you eat lunch, you finish a task, you come home, you eat dinner, you sit down in the evening. Each of those moments can carry a glass of water with it. Drink a glass when you wake up. Drink a glass with breakfast. Drink a glass when you sit down to work. Drink a glass before lunch and one after it. Drink a glass when you finish a piece of work. By the end of the day, those small links add up to a good amount, and you never had to remember a separate job, because the water was attached to things you were already doing.

Meals are the easiest anchor of all. A glass of water with each meal is a habit that many families already have, and it is a good one to keep. It helps you slow down while you eat, and it means you drink at least three times a day without any effort. If you eat a snack in the afternoon, have water with that too. If you make tea, have a glass of water first, then your tea. That way, water comes before the drink you enjoy, and you never reach the evening having drunk only tea. The trick is to pick two or three anchors to start with, not ten. Pick the ones that feel easiest, such as water with breakfast and water when you start work, and do those every day for two weeks. When they feel natural, add one more. Building slowly is how habits last.

Work breaks are another good anchor. If you take a short break every hour or two, use the first minute of that break to drink water. Stand up, stretch, fill your glass, drink it, and then sit down again. That short pause does two useful things at once: it gives your eyes and your back a rest, and it gives your body water. If you work outside, drink at every natural stop: when you finish a load, when you sit down for a rest, when you eat. Do not wait until you feel very thirsty, because by then you are already behind. A sip at every stop keeps you ahead, and it is far easier than trying to drink a lot all at once at the end of the day.

Use a Bottle You Like and Know Its Size

A bottle is not just a container. It is a measuring tool and a reminder in one. If you know that your bottle holds about half a litre, and you finish it twice before lunch and twice after lunch, you know roughly how much you have drunk without counting glasses. That simple knowledge takes away the guesswork. Many people do not drink enough simply because they have no idea how much they have drunk. A bottle with a known size fixes that. You can look at it at midday and see whether you are on track. If it is still full at lunch, you know you need to drink more in the afternoon. If it is empty twice already, you know you are doing well.

It also helps to like the bottle you use. That sounds like a small thing, but it matters. A bottle that leaks, that is hard to open, that tastes of plastic, or that is too heavy to carry will stay at home. A bottle that is easy to open with one hand, that fits in your bag, that keeps water cool, and that you enjoy picking up will go everywhere with you. You do not need an expensive bottle. A clean, simple bottle that works well is enough. Wash it every day with clean water, and leave it open to dry overnight so it stays fresh. A bottle that smells stale will put you off drinking, so keeping it clean is part of the habit, not an extra chore.

Some people like to mark their bottle with simple lines for morning, midday and evening, so they can see their progress through the day. That can help in the first few weeks while the habit is new. Others like a bottle with a straw, because sipping through a straw feels easier than lifting a heavy bottle again and again. Others prefer a wide mouth, so they can add a slice of lemon or cucumber. There is no right choice. The right bottle is the one you will actually carry and use. Try one, use it for a week, and if it does not suit you, try a different one. The bottle is a tool, and like any tool, it should fit the person who uses it.

Reminders That Help Without Annoying You

Phone alarms can help, but only if you use them wisely. An alarm every hour, all day, will annoy you, and you will soon start ignoring it. A better use is one or two alarms at the times you most often forget, such as mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Set an alarm for ten in the morning and three in the afternoon, and when it sounds, drink a full glass of water. That is it. Two alarms, two glasses, and a habit that covers the longest gaps in the day. After a few weeks, you may find you no longer need the alarms, because your body and your routine have learned the pattern. If the alarms start to feel like a nuisance, change the sound to something gentle, or change the times, or stop them for a week and see if the habit holds on its own.

There are also reminders that need no phone at all. A small note on your desk, a glass left in the middle of the table, a bottle placed on top of your notebook — these are quiet reminders that do not beep or buzz. Some people put a glass of water next to their toothbrush, so they drink when they brush their teeth in the morning and at night. Some keep a bottle by the front door, so they pick it up when they leave. Some ask a family member or a workmate to remind them, and they remind that person back, so they help each other. A shared habit is easier than a lonely one, because you notice each other’s empty glasses and fill them without being asked.

The most important rule about reminders is that they should make life easier, not harder. If a reminder makes you feel guilty, or if you feel you have failed when you miss a glass, the reminder is doing more harm than good. Missing one glass is not a failure. It is one glass. Drink the next one and carry on. Habits are built over weeks, not in a single perfect day. A person who drinks well on five days out of seven is doing far better than a person who tries for one perfect day and then gives up. Be kind to yourself, keep the reminders gentle, and let the habit grow at its own pace.

Food, Weather and Movement Change How Thirsty You Feel

How much water you want in a day is not fixed, because your body loses water at different rates on different days. On a hot day, you sweat more, and you need more water. On a cold day, you may feel less thirsty, but your body still loses water through breathing and through the bathroom, so you still need to drink. Many people make the mistake of drinking less in winter because they do not feel hot, and then they wonder why they feel tired or why their lips are dry. The rule is simple: drink water through the day in every season, and drink a little more when it is hot, when you are sweating, or when you have been moving a lot.

Food changes the picture too. If you eat a lot of fresh fruit, such as watermelon, oranges or cucumber, you are taking in water with your food. If you eat soup, you are drinking water with your meal. If you eat dry, salty or spicy food, you will feel thirstier, and you will need more water to balance it. That is normal, and it is your body asking for what it needs. Listen to it. A salty meal followed by a glass of water is a natural pair, and there is no need to feel guilty about being thirsty after it. Spicy food, long walks, housework, gardening and playing with children all use water too, because they all make you breathe harder and sweat a little, even if you do not notice it.

Movement is the part people most often forget. You do not have to run or play a sport to need extra water. A long walk to the market, an hour of cleaning, a day of physical work, or a long journey in a hot bus all count. If you know you are going to be active, drink a glass before you start, carry water with you, and drink again when you finish. That is a far better plan than waiting until you are very thirsty and then drinking a lot at once. Your body will thank you for the steady supply, and you will feel less tired at the end of the day. The more your day asks of your body, the more water your body will ask of you, and the simplest way to answer is to keep water close and drink a little, often.

What to Do on Busy Days, at Work and When Travelling

Busy days are when water habits fail most often, and that is exactly when you need them most. On a busy day, you do not have time to think about water, so you need a plan that runs without thinking. Fill your bottle the night before, and put it on top of your bag or next to your keys, so you pick it up without a decision in the morning. Fill a glass before your first task, and keep it on your desk. If you have a meeting, take your bottle with you. If you go out, take it with you. The plan is not complicated. It is simply: water is ready before the day starts, and it stays within reach all day. When the day gets busy, the water is already there.

At work, the place you sit matters. If your desk is far from the water tap or the water cooler, you will drink less. If you can, sit near water, or keep a jug on your desk that you refill at the start of the day. If you share an office, agree with your workmates that someone fills the jug in the morning and someone else fills it after lunch. Small shared jobs like that make the whole office drink more, and nobody has to remember alone. If you work in a shop, keep a bottle under the counter where customers cannot see it but you can reach it. If you work outside, keep a large bottle in the shade where you take your breaks, and drink at every break without fail. The work may be different, but the rule is the same: water within reach, refilled often.

Travelling brings its own problems, because you are away from your normal taps and your normal routine. The answer is to carry water with you and to buy more when you stop. On a long bus journey, keep a bottle in your hand, not in a bag under the seat. On a hot day, buy an extra bottle at a stop and keep it for later. In a new place, drink water that you know is safe, and carry enough for the journey ahead. Do not wait until you arrive to drink, because the journey itself uses water. A traveller who drinks steadily arrives feeling far better than a traveller who arrives thirsty. The habit you build at home, of keeping water close, is the same habit that will carry you through a busy day, a long shift and a long journey.

My Take:

If you ask me what I think about remembering to drink water, my honest answer is that most of us do not have a water problem. We have a visibility problem. Water is invisible in our day because we never put it where we can see it. I have seen this in my own life and in the lives of people around me. The bottle sits in the kitchen, the glass sits in the cupboard, and the person sits at a desk three rooms away, wondering why they feel tired at three in the afternoon. The answer is usually sitting in the kitchen, untouched. Put the water where you sit, and half the problem disappears. That is not a clever trick. It is just common sense, and common sense is what most health advice is missing.

I think the reason so many water plans fail is that they ask too much at the start. Drink three litres a day. Set an alarm every hour. Download an app. Buy a special bottle. Follow a chart. Who has time for that? A person who works all day, comes home tired, and has a family to look after does not need another chart. They need one glass on the desk and one bottle in the bag. That is my view, and I hold it strongly: start with what is easy, and let the easy thing grow. A person who drinks one extra glass a day for a month has changed their habit far more than a person who drinks a lot for two days and then stops. Small and steady beats big and short, every time, in water as in everything else.

I also think we should stop waiting for thirst. Thirst is a late messenger. By the time you feel it strongly, you have already been short of water for hours. I learned this the hard way on hot days, when I would work through the morning, feel fine, and then feel a headache and a dry mouth by the afternoon. A glass of water at that point helped, but it did not undo the hours before it. Drinking a little at regular times, before you feel thirsty, is a much better plan. It is like eating before you are starving. You do not wait until you are shaking with hunger to eat, so why wait until your mouth is dry to drink? A glass with breakfast, a glass with lunch, a glass in the afternoon — that is not a strict plan. That is just looking after yourself on time.

There is another point I want to make, and it is about tea and coffee. I am not against tea. A cup of tea in the morning is one of life’s small pleasures, and I enjoy it as much as anyone. But tea is not water, and four cups of tea do not mean you have drunk enough water. I have met people who drink tea all day and almost no plain water, and they are surprised when they feel tired or when their lips stay dry. Plain water does a plain job, and nothing else does it quite the same way. So my advice is simple: keep your tea, enjoy it, but drink a glass of water first. Water first, tea second. That one small order change means you get both, and your body gets what it needs most before what you enjoy most. It is a small change, but it is an honest one.

I also believe in tying water to things you already do, because that is how real habits are made. Nobody remembers a new job, but everybody remembers breakfast, lunch and the end of a piece of work. Those moments happen every day without fail, so they are the perfect places to hang a new habit. Drink when you wake up. Drink with each meal. Drink when you finish a task. After a few weeks, you will not need to think about it. Your hand will reach for the glass at the same time as it reaches for your plate or your notebook. That is what a habit feels like: not a decision, but a reflex. And once drinking water becomes a reflex, you have solved the problem for good, not just for a week.

The bottle matters more than people think, and I want to say this plainly. A bottle you like is a bottle you will carry. A bottle you dislike will stay at home, and you will forget water again. So find a bottle that fits your hand, fits your bag, opens easily, and does not leak. It does not have to be expensive. It has to work. Wash it every day, because a bottle that smells stale will put you off, and you will stop using it without even noticing why. I keep my bottle clean, I keep it filled, and I keep it where I can see it. Those three things — clean, filled, visible — are my whole system. It is not fancy, but it works, and I would rather have a simple system that works than a clever system that I abandon after three days.

I also want to say something about busy days, because those are the days that test every habit. On a busy day, you will not remember water unless the water is already ready. So fill the bottle the night before. Put it next to your keys. Take it with you. That is the whole plan for a busy day. If you wait until the morning to think about it, you will be in a rush, you will forget, and you will reach the evening thirsty. Preparing the night before takes one minute, and it saves you a whole day of forgetting. I think this is true for many good habits, not just water. The night before is when tomorrow is decided. A bottle filled at night is a promise you make to yourself, and it is a promise that is easy to keep.

I am also honest about the fact that no habit is perfect. You will miss a glass. You will have a day when you drink almost nothing. You will go on a journey and forget your bottle. That is not failure. That is life. The question is not whether you are perfect, but whether you come back to the habit the next day. A person who misses one day and returns to the habit is doing far better than a person who misses one day and decides the whole thing is not worth it. I have seen people give up on drinking water because they missed a few days, and that is a shame, because the habit was working. It just needed a little patience. Be patient with yourself. Drink the next glass, fill the bottle again, and carry on. That is all a habit asks of you.

I think about children when I think about water, because children learn from what they see, not from what they are told. If a child sees you drinking water through the day, they will drink water too. If they see you drinking only sweet drinks, they will want sweet drinks too. So the best way to teach a child to drink water is to drink it yourself, in front of them, every day. Keep their bottle filled, keep it where they can reach it, and let them see you do the same. You do not need a lecture about health. You need a bottle on the table and a parent who uses it. That lesson will stay with a child far longer than any advice I could write in an article.

The seasons matter too, and I want to be honest about winter. In summer, you feel thirsty, so you drink. In winter, you do not feel thirsty, so you drink less, and then you wonder why you feel tired or why your skin is dry. Your body still needs water in winter. It loses water through breathing and through the bathroom, even when you are not sweating. So do not let the cold fool you. Keep the bottle on your desk in winter just as you do in summer. Keep drinking with your meals. If you like, drink water at room temperature in winter, because very cold water feels less pleasant when it is cold outside. The habit stays the same. Only the temperature of the water changes, and even that is a matter of taste.

My final view is simple, and I will say it plainly. Do not buy a complicated plan. Do not count every sip. Do not feel guilty when you miss a glass. Put water where you can see it, tie it to things you already do, carry a bottle you like, drink a little and often, and drink more when it is hot or when you are moving a lot. That is the whole method, and it fits on one line. If you do those things for a few weeks, drinking water will stop being something you have to remember, and it will become something you just do. That is the real goal. Not a perfect day, but an easy habit. And an easy habit is one that lasts, because it does not ask you for willpower, it does not ask you for time, and it does not ask you for money. It only asks you to keep a glass within reach, and that is a small price to pay for feeling better through the day.

If a friend asked me for one piece of advice about drinking water, I would not give them a chart. I would give them a bottle, fill it, put it on their desk, and say: drink this before lunch, fill it again, and drink it again before dinner. That is it. If they do that every day for two weeks, they will feel the difference, and they will not need me to tell them to carry on. The habit will carry itself. That is what I believe about water, and about most good habits. They do not need to be big. They need to be easy, visible, and tied to a normal day. Get those three things right, and the rest takes care of itself.

I want to add something about sweet drinks, because they are the quiet rival of water in many homes. A sweet drink feels like a treat, and on a hot day a cold sweet drink feels like exactly what you need. I understand that. But a sweet drink does not do the same job as water, and if you drink sweet drinks all day, you will still feel thirsty, because your body is asking for water, not for sugar. I am not saying you should never drink a sweet drink. I am saying you should drink water first, and then enjoy the sweet drink if you still want it. Most of the time, you will find that a glass of water takes away the thirst, and the sweet drink becomes a small pleasure instead of a habit. That one change, water first, sweet drink second, has helped many people cut down on sugar without feeling that they have given anything up.

Travelling is another place where this habit is tested, and I think it is worth a few words. When you travel, your routine breaks. You are on a bus, you are in a market, you are visiting family, and the bottle you keep on your desk is at home. So carry a bottle when you travel, even a small one, and buy water when you stop. Do not wait until you arrive, because the journey itself makes you thirsty, especially on a hot day in a crowded bus. A traveller who drinks steadily arrives feeling fresh. A traveller who arrives thirsty feels tired, and then they drink a lot at once, which is not as good as drinking steadily. The same rule that works at home works on the road: keep water close, drink a little, and drink often.

I also think it is worth thinking about who else drinks water because you do. If you live with family, your habit becomes their habit, whether you mean it to or not. A father who keeps a bottle on his desk teaches his children to do the same. A mother who drinks a glass with every meal teaches her children that water belongs on the table. You do not need to lecture anyone. You only need to be seen doing it. That is how most good habits spread in a family, quietly, by example. And if you work with other people, the same thing happens. One person with a bottle on their desk soon has a whole office with bottles on their desks, because people copy what is easy and what is visible.

One last point, and it is about patience. Habits do not arrive in a day, and they do not arrive in a perfect line. You will have a good week, then a bad week, then a good week again. That is normal. The people who succeed are not the people who never miss a day. They are the people who miss a day and come back the next day, without a fuss. If you miss a glass, drink the next one. If you miss a whole day, fill the bottle tomorrow morning and start again. There is no score, no test, and no one watching. There is only you, a glass of water, and a day that will go better if you drink it. Keep it that simple, and the habit will stay with you for years.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does remember to drink water during the day happen in everyday life?

People forget to drink water in everyday life because water is quiet and the day is busy. Work, meals, travel and chores fill the hours, and if water is not within reach, it is easy to go for hours without a glass. Thirst also arrives late, so waiting until you feel very thirsty means you have already been short of water for a while. A steady routine, with water visible and tied to meals and breaks, makes drinking it far easier to live with.

Is remember to drink water during the day something most people experience?

Yes, forgetting to drink enough water is something most people experience at some point, because it is tied to ordinary daily life rather than anything rare. People who work at a desk, work outside, travel a lot, or care for a family all have days when water slips their mind. Comparing your own days with someone else’s is rarely useful. What matters is your own pattern over a few weeks, not a single day.

How long does remember to drink water during the day usually take to settle into a routine?

There is no fixed number of days, because every routine is different. Most people find that a small, steady change needs a few weeks before it feels natural. Drinking a glass with breakfast and a glass when you start work, repeated every day, will usually feel like a habit after two to four weeks. The useful approach is to keep the change small, repeat it daily, and judge it after a fair stretch of time.

What simple daily habits help with remember to drink water during the day?

Simple habits help more than dramatic changes do. Keep a bottle or glass where you can see it, drink a glass with each meal, drink a glass when you wake up, and drink at every work break. Carry a bottle when you leave the house, and refill it as soon as it is empty. Pick one habit, keep it small, and add another only when the first one feels easy.

Can remember to drink water during the day change with the seasons?

Yes, drinking water can feel different in summer, winter, or the rainy season, because heat, cold, daylight, and daily routines all change. In summer you sweat more and need more water. In winter you may feel less thirsty, but your body still loses water, so you still need to drink through the day. A habit that works in one season may need a small adjustment in another, usually a small change to timing or amount, not a whole new routine.

When should I ask a health professional about remember to drink water during the day?

You should ask a qualified health professional if drinking water keeps worrying you, if it interferes with sleep, work, or daily life, or if it changes suddenly. This article is general information only and cannot judge an individual situation. A professional can look at your own history and give advice that fits you, including if a doctor has told you to limit how much you drink.