I’m VERY proud to say that I accomplished something that everyone, including myself, thought I’d fail at… I went an entire month without a drop of alcohol.  ACTUALLY, I went 35 days, pretty impressive, right?  I thought so too until I talked to a few people about what I was doing and they said to me “No, it’s not really impressive. I’ve gone 1825 days without a drop of alcohol, what’s the big deal?”  This really annoyed me.  To be quite honest, it really pissed me off.  If someone really loved chocolate or cake or something unhealthy for them and they were able to go 35 days without and they were SO proud of themselves for doing so, would you say “well I went such and such a time without having chocolate, what’s the big deal” if you were a person who didn’t really like chocolate in the first place and didn’t eat it anyway?  Probably not!  But because it was alcohol, it’s not a big deal if I go a month without a drop and in fact, someone said that if I can’t go that long without, I’m an alcoholic.  Well to clarify, I’m not an alcoholic but I do enjoy a cold beer or a nice glass of red wine and it is a big deal that I went 35 days without and I know most of you would agree with me.  I just wanted to vent about this for a second before continuing on.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about how AWESOME it was to not drink for a month!  Seriously, I’m not even being sarcastic! I know in the first few weekly posts about my not drinking I said how hard it was to not have a drink, and yes, not even getting to have ONE beer or ONE glass of wine sucks, but the end result was fantastic.

Here are some of the greater points of not drinking (or at least not getting hammered):

1. I LOST 8 LBS!!!!
   Yup, you read that correctly, I lost 8 lbs in 31 days!  Let’s put it this way; I can drink 12-18 light beer.  One light beer has 105 cals in it.  That’s 1260-1890 calories x 2 nights on the weekend.  Think of all those empty calories.  Even if you can only drink half of the amount of beer that I can, that’s still 1200-2000 empty calories in a weekend.  Not to mention the lovely greasy and delicious foods that accompany beer.  Chips, pizza, poutine, cheeseburgers… Dammit, now I’m hungry.
2. No Hangover
   I woke up every Saturday and Sunday feeling FANTASTIC!  No hangover, pounding head, nausea or anything else that comes along with a hard night of drinking the night before.  I was up at 8am (could have gone without that part, to be honest) and at the gym or out for a run or at some kind of fitness class or playing at sport and felt awesome!  I did some writing first thing in the morning and each day felt like I actually got things accomplished.  Such a nice feeling!
3. I ate really well
   I know I just mentioned this, but my diet improved 50%.  I didn’t want to eat crappy food at all.  I have  a “cheat meal” every week and it usually consists of greasy pizza or burgers or both, but not while I was on this.  My cheat meals consisted of extra lean ground turkey burgers or whole wheat pita BBQ chicken and veggie pizza (I made my own sauce) or my whole wheat rotini pasta and chicken dish.  The food was amazing and healthy but it also satisfied my craving for crappy food.
4. Saved Money
   It’s weird, whether I drink at home before heading out to a bar or just go right to the bar, I always seem to spend the same amount of money, about $160 (if not more).  That’s absolutely FOOOOOLISH!  There’s so much more I can do with that money.  I bought a new grill.  I bought a new laptop.  I want a new camera. I’m planning a trip to London, England with my girlfriend. And if I don’t drink for another month or two, or at least cut back on the drinking, I can get these things without any problems.

I know while I was doing my “A month without booze” I bitched about how hard it was A LOT and to be honest, I didn’t think I’d keep with it after I finished my month, but now I believe that my “going out and getting drunk with the boys” is going to be kept to special occasions and that I will drink less in general because of what I experience in the last 35 days.  I like how I feel and how I look and the money I have in my pocket and in my next post, I’ll explain to you how shitty I felt after my “Weekend of Gluttony” which followed my 35 days, which is another reason for my easing up on the booze.

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