Friday, September 23, 2016

Why I'm happy to drink less.

If you would have told me 6 months ago that I would be happy to barely ever drink, I wouldn't have believed you. It all started with having a couple drinks at home after work to destress a couple times a week. Then it was 4 or 5 times a week and I couldn't wait to get home to have my drinks. I started to realize I was looking forward to happy hour just a little too much and I wanted to figure out why. I wanted to be high on life. I also wanted to eat better and lose some weight. There are a lot of calories in booze!

So I stopped drinking for a month. The first week or so was the hardest. Life seemed so boring without it. I know how ridiculous that sounds! The good news was I really started to fill my time with other things that were more productive and interesting. Don't get me wrong I still craved a glass of wine and some cheese now and then (did I mention I'm not eating any dairy right now either?) But the cravings weren't ruling my world. I was feeling better every day.

I finally had a couple glasses last Saturday with dinner. The first glass was nice. After that it was just meh. Then I had 3 glasses last nite with some wings with friends. The first 2 glasses were nice but I really didn't need the third. I wasn't hungover or anything  but I realized how it impacted my behavior. I didn't get rowdy or say anything bad but your behavior does change when you've had a few. I'm learning I really don't like that. I'm an expressive person on a normal day and drinking just amplifies that to an annoying degree. So it was great to have that reminder because I don't need to drink to have a good time anymore. If you need to have a drink to have a good time there are some issues that need facing.
You know what I don't miss about getting drunk? Falling down and hurting myself, embarrassing myself and others, saying something mean or hurtful to someone and binge smoking to name a few things.(pretty much quit smoking as well too!) Only time I want to smoke is when I've had more than 1 or 2 but it's slowly getting non existent. I don't care if you can say this but I am proud of myself! I want to be healthy and happy and have as little regret as possible! Im trying to keep the foot in mouth comments you get from drinking to a minimum! I tend to be hyper critical of myself. Spending half the next day regretting/analyzing stupid drunk things I said is a horrible way to spend my time.

It doesn't mean I'll never enjoy a nice glass of wine. It just means I'm keeping it to once a week and maybe 2ish glasses. There's always the odd special occasion of course. In general though, I have to say I'm much happier now that I've made this change. Now if I could just do something about my hormones and hit the gym more I'd be set. (Physical health wise anyway;I'll say nothing about my mental health!)

2 comments: