Last year I looked around and found a lot of my social life incorporated beer, then a deeper dive showed a good amount of my evening work life did as well (networking, dinners, team building). Then when we saw family on the weekends they incorporated booze. I felt like John Wick when a contract was put out on him, needless to say it was becoming expected I had a beer or drink with a good amount of people....a lot of them would question when I passed and almost got annoyed with it.
That really pissed me off, so I quit cold turkey and started eating really well. I figured if I was going to need tell everyone “no” for the blockheads to accept it. There were a couple of times people would not get off my case at a social function about not drinking, I wanted to punch the worst offender in the face, but rather I told him, “fine I will have one of your fancy beers”. He poured it in a pint glass, we cheers and I poured it right on his lawn as I stared in his eyes. I then asked for another. Needless to say he was not happy, but he did not ask again.
I went from New Years to 3/25 last year, at that point I became heavily involved with work and was putting in eighteen hour days as was my wife. Lost about thirty pounds and felt better than ever. The hardest part was telling people “no” that were used to leaning on you for a cheat meal or a bunch of drinks.
COVID life brought me back to crappy food and booze, but once again I have grown tired of said people/agenda. I should rephrase, my reaction to COVID life brought me back. I have put most of the weight back on but am ready to give this a go again.
At no point do I think I have a problem, the hard part again is just saying “no” to people. The scary part I find is what you see when you are sober, especially in settings you usually would not be sober in. The sad part for me was realizing that the main or sole hobby some of my acquaintances have is drinking. It still boggles my mind when people do not have a hobby outside of TV / watching sports / or consuming substances.
As I get older and hopefully more mature, I have access to some time/opportunities. The best ones I have found/experienced never include booze.
One last thing I will add was that I used to love a beer after a really stressful day at work. I switched this out last year for a walk, not a ride. The walk was much slower and forced me to think/work through whatever irked me rather than drown it or forget about it. A huge tip was to do this with your phone off, no music.
If you are on the fence, I would suggest putting yourself first and doing it.
Three days in, hoping to go three months again but who knows🤷🏼♂️
