Giving Up Alcohol
I never meant to give up alcohol completely but 6 years ago on Christmas Eve 2019 became the last time I drank any.
This is my story and if it helps just one person then it is worth sharing with you.
My dad shared his Guinness with me when I was eleven years old, at the working man's club in Eastleigh. I had cycled and met him there. It was always a noisy and smoke filled place. I only had a couple of sips and did not like it, not one bit. When I cycled home I felt weird. Maybe that was his plan, to put me off drinking, I will never know.
However, at 16, that all changed. I had just turned 16, we were on holiday at Pontins or Butlins and that is when I had my first pint. Except it wasn't just one. It was never just one.
I am not saying it was all bad, at the time I was very shy and it brought out a different side. All of a sudden I could talk to the girls, dance with them, and date them.
There were definitely some good moments. But there were downsides, like waking up in a strangers house not knowing how I got there. Shaving off an eyebrow (and then the other one). Or climbing out my mates sunroof at 100mph down the motorway. Yes I really did.
I never thought I had a problem though as I used it when I was younger as a social lubricant. But as I got older, I used it to help me handle stress and pressure, so instead of drinking just when going out, I started to incorporate it into my evening routine. Before I knew it, I was drinking Jack until I crashed into a drunken stupor. Rinse and repeat. You get the idea. It didn't so much help in a useful way, more help me to temporarily forget.
This is when I rediscovered running and found how much I enjoyed it. Though I was still drinking in the evenings, I was also running and clocking up the km's.
There was an extract from a book in one of the running mags which was intriguing. Essentially a 30 day alcohol experiment which I could test to see if it improved my running. Getting up in the morning and doing an early run after a drinking session was always hard. I purchased the book on the 3rd January and read it a couple of times, but didn't start the experiment until the 24th December, almost a year later.
I went for a couple of days, then a week, noting how I felt better and more energised for my morning runs, then 2 weeks, then the 30 days.
That was the point where I said to myself, lets do 2 months, then 3 months. After that I stopped tracking it.
And here we are today at 6 years with no desire to drink.
Looking back now I am so thankful that I came across it. There is no way I could properly care for my wife while still drinking.
Merry Christmas everyone. Now it's time to watch Die Hard. And yes, it IS a Christmas movie. Yippee-ki-yay, you very nice person.
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