My journey of cutting out alcohol has been anything but linear. While I was never the one slurring their words or noticeably drunk, I’ve had my fair share of hangovers. In fact, alcohol has been a part of my life since I was 15. As an adult, alcohol changed from something I drink on the weekends at parties with friends to loosen up, to my reward at the end of the day, my cooking buddy- an easy way to unwind and destress.
We’re living in the most health conscious time in history. There’s a mass movement of people young and old all over the world who have begun to question the consumption of alcohol. The fact that drinking is something humans have “just always done” doesn’t seem to cut it anymore for the modern day free thinker. So much research has come to the surface which proves that no amount of alcohol is healthy for you, it actually increases overall baseline stress, is cancer causing, and basically hinders all our body’s functions.
I started noticing myself craving that glass of wine at the end of the day. Sometimes that one glass became two and I would feel it the next day, the sluggishness from poor sleep with a tinge of heightened anxiety, making me even more likely to look forward to my glass of wine that evening. And so begins the cycle of alcohol dependence. Whether it runs in your family or not, everyone is on the slow or fast track toward alcohol addiction, because you are human and alcohol is addicting. Its really as simple as that. I think I felt my pace speeding up a bit and luckily have enough introspection to recognize the signs. My Oura ring didn’t have to tell me that my sleep was impaired after even one drink because I’m no stranger to the 3am thirsty/anxious wake up.
After doing some research on exactly what alcohol is doing to my body and brain, I decided to do a little social experiment on myself: One year no alcohol. I have cut out alcohol before, while I was pregnant, but never completely (I still had a glass of wine a few nights a week if I wasn’t too nauseous from the pregnancy. And giving up alcohol when I was pregnant was just different- I wasn’t doing it for me or because I wanted to, I did it for my baby and because I had to.
I’ll be keeping a journal of my findings, so please check back in with the blog to see how i’m dealing with cutting out alcohol. Here are some books Ive loved so far on my sober curious journey!
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