Photo by Janine Joffe
Full disclosure: While I have gone 10 days without drinking, they have not been consecutive. I had two glasses on wine on Christmas Day. It was sort of a slip-up, but I learned from the experience. And relapse is part of recovery, as they say. Anyway, I’ve noticed a lot of changes over the past 10 days without booze. Here are a few of them:
1. I’ve lost two pounds. I’ve been eating far more pecan pie and chocolate-dipped pretzels thanks to the holidays, so this weight loss must be due to a lack of wine calories (about 300-400 per day).
2. The cravings tend to hit at the same time. I’m accustomed to drinking at dinner, so that’s when I really want to open a beer. But if I make it past that hour, the cravings vanish like vampires at sunrise.
3. I have cross-addicted with this blog. I am very fixated with blogging right now. I haven’t felt this fired up about a creative project since I took a photography class in college. I’m having a lot of fun with it, as you can see, since it’s Saturday night and I’m soberly blogging.
4. My brain feels more responsive. This is a weird one. It’s like I had a program running on the laptop of my brain. And it was slowing my processes down more than I realized. Everything seems to happen faster now. I have an idea; I act on it. I feel like a Porsche or some other expensively sensitive machine.
5. When I drank on Christmas Day, it was underwhelming. I craved wine SO HARD and built it up in my mind as being SO GREAT. But when I was actually drinking, it was kind of meh. Being drunk is more fun in my fantasies than in reality.
Stay strong, you can do this! You’ll feel better mentaly, physically, and emotionally. See you at the Finish line!
Thank you for the support, Rich. I am feeling better already.