Today marks the last day in my month-long pledge to abstain from alcohol. The month (5 weeks, actually) went by relatively quick, but it wasn’t completely devoid of trials. Passing up on partying and not being able to “tie one on” with friends wasn’t the problem, it was the random onsies and twosies scattered throughout life that were most tempting.
Thinking back on the last month, two examples of this stick out in my mind. One was having dinner with friends at a place that had a nice beer list and the other was coming home after a really crappy day/week at work looking to blow off a bit of steam. I don’t consider alcohol a crutch in either of these situations and it certainly wasn’t a necessity, but there’s definitely something mentally relaxing in “having a drink.” That said, I’m also willing to admit I believe some things are better with booze.
Perhaps the more interesting revelation is in just how much alcohol is part of our society. Not everyone drinks all the time but I definitely noticed that even when people aren’t drinking, there is still a decent amount of conversation about it. I know my social circle tends to be more privy to such things, but even the normal folk (read: squares) spent more time talking about beer, wine and drinking in general than I would have expected. I admit I was probably more sensitive to these conversations because I was purposefully not drinking; it still happened quite a bit.
Part of this experiment was to see how not drinking impacted my weight. The bad news is I’m still having a pretty big back problem. With physical therapy and general hurtage, I’ve only managed the gym about twice a week and half that time is spent stretching and working on core strength to address my back issue. The good news is it looks like despite this lower level of physical activity, I’m down about 5 pounds (1 lb/week).
It would be interesting to see what a full month of no alcohol and 5 day/week hardcore exercise would get me, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen any time soon. The more concerning thing to me is getting back to a point where I can ride bicycles and motorcycles… which seems pretty far away at this point. This actually makes me fairly sad because this Spring was the season I wanted to be obsessed with riding and lose another 20 pounds. Then there’s Emma… lonely, lonely Emma. Oh well, at least I can drown my sorrows tomorrow!
Cheers!
I will be late to the party tomorrow night, but see I’ll you on 😛 Get you 1:1 and then prestige.
Congrats. Doesn’t sound like an easy task… and -5lbs with hardly working out is serious business.
Now imagine not being able to drink for almost 10 months but gaining 43 pounds while at it? You know what I am talking about 🙂 I wish I could have been drunk every day of those 10 months… A pound a week is great though, so keep it up.