30 days being Sober Curious Reflections

Random Observation/Comment #644: “It wasn’t a drinking problem, it was a drinking solution.” <Narrator’s Voice>: Nope, it was a drinking problem.

The Challenge

Realistically reduce your alcohol consumption. This was attached to dry January, but started on an arbitrary date.

Why this Challenge?

It’s something I’ve been wanting to do and putting off because of intermittent excuses.

How did you do?

With a few exceptions, I think I did pretty well. This was by far my hardest challenge because I honestly haven’t paused drinking since picking up a habit of “it’s okay to drink during the day or with a meal” from studying in Germany (and also marrying an Italian). Here were the 30 tips I followed.

How was hanging out with friends?

Social situations are not that boring or unbearable without drinking. Some of them end a little earlier because I’ve already talked about enough topics with different people and would like to get to bed earlier and have enough energy to be productive on other non-drinking activities.

Is this worthy of being a longer lasting habit?

Yes. I will keep my rules without being a buzzkill.

Lessons Learned

  • Don’t make a big deal about it – Peer pressure is real and it’s better to just start without telling people.
  • Take joy in the feeling of being sober – We can be very productive with side projects and feel motivated to work on things
  • Reallocate the time you spent drinking to do other more productive things
  • Drinking is not a competition – What I had to unlearn from my 20s is that drinking is not about who drinks the most or gets drunk the fastest. There’s no one you need to impress other people.

Final thought: Like many other things, drinking is for the journey with friends and not the destination.

My 5 arbitrary drinking rules (on top of the ones from my earlier list of 30):

  1. Drink in celebration with friends
  2. Don’t have more than 3 per night, less than 7 in a week
  3. Alternate alcohol with water
  4. Try not to drink at home
  5. Only buy the good stuff

~See Lemons Sober