Skip to main content

31 Days of Sobriety: Week 1



It's not technically a New Year's Resolution if you're only doing it for a month. Nonetheless, I've decided that for the month of January, I'm going to completely swear off alcohol.

I'm not giving up drinking; I think that changing your life for the better is all about moderation, not extremes. Giving up something you enjoy permanently isn't the way to go, unless you've got a serious condition that could seriously jeopardize your life (alcoholism, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, heart conditions, etc.). I'm grateful not to have to deal with any of these (yet, and hopefully never).

What I'm hoping will happen is this:

  • My tolerance will go down, allowing me to enjoy getting a buzz on a far more efficient amount of booze, saving me money in the short term, and saving my liver in the long term.
  • My sense of smell and taste will improve, making food taste better.
  • My memory will improve, making it easy to think clearly, allowing me to get done a lot of shit I want to get done this year.
  • Without booze, I'll have to try harder to find ways to entertain myself, especially on the weekends. This will lead to me doing more things I enjoy, and having senses sharp enough to enjoy them.
  • I'll lose weight, which is always a plus.
  • By the time the month is out, I'll be used to drinking less and doing other stuff more, translating to a healthier and more fulfilling lifestyle going forward. 

I'll be logging my progress here every Tuesday for scientific research purposes. To what end, I'm not sure.

Mainly I want to keep a personal log of my experience doing this - I haven't had such a solid break from drinking since I started drinking, really. 

Unlike other bloggers who've done similar experiments, I want to make this seem more like a positive experience and less like a struggle. If you're curious about taking on a similar challenge, hopefully this blog will inspire you. 

Starting Condition: Hungover. - January 1st, 2018

I woke up yesterday morning to move my car before 9. It was -10 degrees Fahrenheit. When I was done, I went back inside, collapsed on the couch, and proceeded to sleep for another 3 hours.

I woke up at noon and got lunch with the friend whose house I'd been at the previous night. I realized I hadn't taken my coat, gloves, or hat off before falling back asleep, yet I had gotten under the covers regardless.

I spent the rest of the day in a fog, watching Netflix and playing Civilization IV (shut up it's my favorite shut up).

I realized I planned the beginning of this venture well - there's nothing like a night of heavy drinking to make you want to swear off drinking for awhile.

Starting weight: 165 lbs soaking wet
Starting height: 5'11"

I don't anticipate my height will change during the duration of this exercise.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Thing

Capcom's anti-union hiring practices

Last week , I wrote about the remake of "Resident Evil 2," which was announced just before E3. This week, I want to talk about something close to my heart - even more so, possibly, than "Resident Evil"...because the only thing I care about more than the "Resident Evil" video games are the rights of the people making them. "Resident Evil 2" centers around the story of two protagonists: Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Before he went on to be the roundhouse-kicking poster boy of the franchise after the explosive success of "Resident Evil 4," Leon was a wet-behind-the-ears rookie who spent as much time complaining about how "nobody listens to me" as he did taking orders from civilians, despite being the only cop alive in the police precinct. After "RE2," Claire didn't see as much success. She next appeared in "Code: Veronica," my personal favorite of the series. Alyson Court, pictured above, re
Post a Comment
Read more

"Solo: A Star Wars Story," AKA what pisses me off about my fellow nerds

***Minor spoilers for "Solo: A Star Wars Story" herein*** On rare occasions, I manage to avoid trailers before seeing a movie like "Solo: A Star Wars Story." I go in a total blank slate, and I get to enjoy or dislike the movie pure of externally-inherited bias. That said, apparently it was a particularly good thing I did so with this movie. A couple  of articles, as well as this video , have been circulating the web. The consensus seems to be that a good number of people wanted the movie to fail because they don't like that it was a movie about Han Solo that didn't include Harrison Ford as the lead role. Or, they didn't like that the project was greenlit at all. Or...name any of the millions of reasons people could have for hating a movie they haven't seen. I genuinely believe a lot of the Web-based hysteria comes not from people who saw the movie, but fans of certain reviewers. Apparently film critic Angry Joe, the Forbes writer Dani
Post a Comment
Read more

Why the REmake of "Resident Evil 2" was inevitable

E3 came and went again, and while everyone else was freaking out over "Cyberpunk 2077" or "Dying Light," I was interested in another announcement that flew relatively under the radar. Anyone who knows me knows this...I am obsessed with "Resident Evil," especially the early games. "Resident Evil 2" is getting a remake. Arguably, "RE2" is the favorite among hardcore fans, aside from the legendary "Resident Evil 4." As far as the old-hat Resident Evils go, it's the one everyone can agree on. It's not the first time an old title got an "update;" in 2002, "Resident Evil," the first in the series, got a total overhaul from its original PlayStation 1 graphics on the Gamecube. Besides improved graphics and voice acting (and let's all thank our respective religious deities for that), it included new areas and new enemies, including Lisa Trevor - the unkillable face-collecting monstrosi
Post a Comment
Read more