I have been thinking a lot lately about alcohol and drinking. Dry January this year prompted several of my friends to participate. Some have reported being surprised at how much they missed it (“It scared me how important alcohol was to me”) and some have decided not to drink at all since then.
Some lost a good amount of weight and another friend of mine decided to try giving up alcohol to see if he could take off a few pounds.
I think Dry January is a great idea. A chance to reset. Personally, I don’t drink. It’s not that I am completely abstinent, but I just have lost my taste for it. Now, a single drink has a big effect and I don’t like the feeling anymore. But the more and more we find out about alcohol and the effect on your body, the more I think it is just not a good idea to drink.
When I was 24, I was a big drinker. One day, I realized that the “reason” I liked to drink was that it was an excuse for behaviors I wanted to engage in with impunity. But I realized also that there was no reason I had to be drunk to do those “things”. Basically, I had to acknowledge that I wanted to behave that way and choose to do it or not.
I don’t think alcohol affects everyone in the same way – have known people who didn’t ever feel the effects of alcohol – but I think it is worth evaluating your alcohol habits. It can be expensive and you will never regret not having that drink in the same way you might regret having it.