Last month, Dave and I decided to take a stab at the whole alcohol free challenge thing. We picked February, because, lets be honest, it is the shortest month! We had tried it in the past, and couldn’t make it past the second week, mostly because of my whining, about how weekends were no longer “fun”. Now that I’m recently retired, every day is fun so I decided to give it another go. My expectations on being a changed person were fairly low but I did learn a few things;
1. Better sleep. Yep, it’s true, I wasn’t up as much. As a frequent toss and turner and bathroom visitor, I would say that my average wake-ups went from about 3, down to 1. Not bad. In addition, there were no “I didn’t sleep last night” claims (this would often happen if I had more than one or two drinks).
2. No weight change. What!??? Yes, but something else really cool happened. I didn’t have the yo-yo weight change which I had gotten accustomed to. No more weight going up by 3 or 4 pounds after a weekend of drinking and eating, followed by strict dieting for 3 or 4 days. Weight was stable.
3. Campfires without alcohol is ok! I was able to have fun, enjoy the conversation and not worry about who was the designated driver. In addition, I didn’t have to worry about saying or doing something stupid!
4. It’s a habit. Before, I would say, “I’m making dinner”, so I should have a drink. Or, “I had a busy day”, I should have a drink. Or, “I did a lot of exercise”, I should have a drink. “It’s Friday!”, I should have a drink. This will be different for everyone, but I found that once I broke that thinking pattern, it’s been fairly easy to not reform the habit after the challenge is over.
5. Less brain fog. This is probably the biggest one for me. Instead of super groggy in the morning, I was almost jumping out of bed and my mind was in full thinking and creativity mode. Full disclosure, that I did start journaling at around the same time so it could have been a combination of the two changes, but it’s so nice to have my full brain with me again.
Overall, I would give the experience a solid 8 or 9 out of 10, and would highly recommend it to anyone trying to curb their drinking habit. Have you gone dry for a month or more? What did you learn?