How's everyone doing? Any thoughts regarding the upcoming holiday season?
I have been alcohol free for roughly 2.5 years or so. I stopped for a few reasons. I felt that drinking was becoming a regular occurrence and I didn't like that. I didn't like the disruption in my sleep. And, I knew it was a negative factor in regards to my physical goals. It helped that my social circle is comprised mainly of non drinkers so I didn't experience any pressure in that regard.
Lately, I have been thinking of trying some non-alcoholic beers, just to add some variety of flavors, in an easy to consume manner. I just drink water, sparkling water, tea and coffee now. Though every once in great while I will come across a mocktail at a restaurant that sounds intriguing enough to order.
I'm now 33 days AF and grateful for this thread.
Rivendale, I stopped for the same reasons as you -- I really started hating the sleep disruption, the frequency of drinking (which felt increasingly unhealthy in a way I couldn't exactly articulate), and it has been a negative for my physical goals, too; the empty calories inhibit weight loss, and I also find post-workout recovery is much worse when I've been drinking.
My biggest challenge is that my social circle consists of several heavy drinkers. Not sure how that's going to play out yet, but DH and I are trying to branch out and make some new friends who don't care much about alcohol. We recently joined a running group, and I love the fact that it meets every week and everyone is super chatty, but alcohol is not a part of it at all.
Echo these exact sentiments - I'm 40 now and while I have been drinking far less than in my 20's, it seems that even a "moderate" night of 3 alcohol units in an evening would leave me feeling less than amazing the next day. Multiply this by on average 3 nights per week (because it seems like there is always some reason to drink!) I felt like I was always either drinking or recovering and knew deep down this wasn't the pattern I wanted for my long term health.
My husband and I have just started 6 weeks alcohol free. It sounds like nothing, but we've attempted this about a half dozen times over the past few years and always caved after a couple weeks with a "screw this, life is more fun with beer" attitude. Only on day 3 now, ha, so we will see how this time around goes.
There's a whole relearning process of how to reframe "fun" and "celebration" without drinking.
It takes time, and your brain will seriously gaslight you along the way to convince you that not drinking means the death of joy and fun and really, you deserve to have joy and fun, so why would you deprive yourself, right?
If you stick with it long enough though, that starts sounding insane.
What I now am able to perceive is that my brain was making fun stuff *less* fun unless I would give in and drink. For example, a dry wedding was just unbearable.
It's not that the alcohol made it fun, it's that I felt like I couldn't unlock that fun without alcohol. Now that I am a non-drinker (as opposed to being a drinker who is in the quitting process but still feels like a drinker) I don't need alcohol to unlock "fun mode" anymore. I have the exact same experience of getting hyped up at events, celebrating things, and chilling with a cool beverage on a patio in the summer, which all used to require alcohol to tap into.
Alcohol doesn't make these things more fun, it just throttles your ability to enjoy them unless you drink a specific kind of beverage.
Which really does kind of sound insane when you're not addicted to it.
And don't downplay 6 weeks. It's a lot easier to hit 2, 3, and 9 years once you've gotten to 6 weeks than it is to hit 6 weeks in the first place.
I would happily tackle the next 20 years than ever have to do the first 10 days ever again.
