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Does your willpower get tested when you're on holidays? Mine does. This weekend I took a quick break in Margaret River, to recharge my batteries before a big deadline at work.

In two days I managed to break every rule of healthy eating! But I stuck to my guns and did not buy or accept any bottled water at all, although there were a couple of close calls.

My husband and I popped into the supermarket to get water and some lollies to snack on as we usually do if we have a long drive ahead. But I remembered just in time, and we filled up our own bottles before we left (we still got the lollies, though).

And every restaurant and cafe offered us a choice of water: still, sparkling, or tap. We always asked for tap and had no problems. I saw a lot of people drinking bottled water in restaurants, most of it in glass bottles.

While we were out and about, I saw plastic bottles all over the place - sadly, even thrown by the side of the road.

A change in our everyday schedule can make it hard for us to stick to our good habits. If we're in a situation where buying bottled water is hard to avoid, what can we do to reduce our impact?

• Buy local - check the label to find out where it's from, and choose one that hasn't been shipped all over the world.
• Choose glass bottles over plastic - they take less water to make, and use less material than plastic.
• Make sure you recycle it - hang onto the bottle until you find a recyling bin.
• Buy unrefrigerated water if possible - it takes a lot of energy to keep them cool, and if you're going to let it get warm that energy has been wasted.