You Don't Have to Drink 8 Glasses of Water a Day

iVillage: Why do women feel the need to stick to such stringent health rules and how can they go about loosening up a bit?

Dr. Love and Dr. Domar: We seek control so it can be reassuring to think that if we exercise an hour a day, we will be healthier and live longer. But this gets us into trouble since if we only have half an hour on any given day, we don’t think to exercise since “only an hour counts”. The fact is, there are only three tried and true health rules:

1. Don’t smoke.
2. Wear seat belts.
3. Practice safe sex.

All the other so-called rules either don’t have any solid research to support them (such as drinking eight glasses of water a day) or more likely, have far more wiggle room than we think. In fact, it is far better to exercise for a half hour than not at all.