There is a reason why this entire blog is about failing and then refocusing. I set out to do 30 Days of No Alcohol after Laiken issued the challenge for January, and I came up short.
There are 2 reasons why this happened:
- I thought I started on a different day
- I had a shitty day and came home to have a beer
While I can’t remember at this point what my shitty day was about, I clearly remember thinking,
“Fuck it, it’s a day early but I need this beer in my life tonight!”
Thoughts on 30 27 Days of No Alcohol
The 30 Days of No Alcohol was surprising tough for me the first 2 weeks. I have sort of conditioned myself to want a drink after CrossFit and definitely a few more on the weekends.
Not having that and just the routine of having a drink was something that seemed “missing” for about 2 weeks.
After the 2 weeks I didn’t even realize I was “missing” the alcohol. I was feeling better in the morning and ended up actually losing about 6lbs. (I don’t get on the scale very much at all so I only weighed myself twice.)
Read how I felt on Day 19 here
On top of that I did surprisingly well in situations where I would normally drink. My cousin and his wife recently had a child and we headed to their house to meet the newest member of the fam, and to have dinner. Beers should have been consumed! But they were aware of my challenge and I passed on the alcohol.
Moving Forward With Alcohol
Well, I’m already drinking again. Surprise surprise!
Laiken bought me two 6 packs of some seasonal Abita as a surprise for after the challenge. I found them early which is why I came home that day and went for the beer.
I have been trying to not just drink for the hell of it. I have yet to finish off 12 bottles of beer and we still have a bottle of wine from my mother’s birthday dinner.
This. Is. Not. Normal.
But maybe it’s my new normal.
Laiken and I have been having more talks about my “need” to drink versus my “want” to knock back a few. Just the other night my sister-in-law was over giving me the rundown on her latest adventures with cocktails. She’s never been a drinker and recently started to partake.
She was telling Laiken about her “bar” at the house and what it’s stocked with. Laiken looked right at me and said,
“We would never be able to have a (semi-)stocked bar because Jared would just drink it all!”
OUCH! ?
In a way she’s right. As I move forward with cutting back my alcohol I hope to figure out my “need” to drink versus my “want” to drink.
Overall, I’m extremely happy to have done the 30 Days of No Alcohol Challenge (even though it was 27), and will certainly do it again soon.
Bottoms up! ???
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