One Year Earlier…

After a particularly mortifying New Year’s Eve rager, I woke up the next day feeling beyond embarrassed and frankly tired of my shit. It was fun in the moment, but was it worth spending the whole next day with my head under the covers, trying to hide from my own shame? 

I wasn’t showing up as the person I believed myself to be or the person I wanted others to see me as. I knew I wanted to do better and be better, and could think of a lot of ways to get there, and getting that toxic, hot-mess friend Alcohol out of my life needed to be a part of it.

When I started to consider evaluating my relationship with alcohol, I took more than a year to educate myself and prepare to take action. As much as alcohol was not serving me, I also believed that it was protecting me in some way and I had to really take the time to evaluate the pros and cons until I truly believed the cons of staying the same outweighed the pros of jumping in and getting started.

But when I finally took the leap, I was 100% all-in. I had read all of the quit-lit and knew what science had to say about the negative effects of alcohol. I had managed a previous 3-week break from alcohol (that spanned both a very stressful life event as well as a vacation), and also experienced how absolutely horrid I felt at the end of that break when I decided to “treat myself” with a night on the red wine. And since I quit more than 2 years ago, I have never once been tempted to revisit that habit. 

It wasn’t easy at first, but the time I took to mentally and administratively prepare is absolutely what kept me moving forward, even on the most difficult days.

If you asked me now about all of the positive ways in which my life has changed, I wouldn’t know where to start.

I have so much more confidence in myself; I accept myself as I truly am and proudly let my weirdness shine (that’s what makes you YOU after all!) I can trust the promises that I make to myself and others. The amount of chaos and drama in my life is practically zero. Mood swings are also practically zero, and small things bother me far less. My sleep is amazing, and best of all, I NEVER WAKE UP WITH A HANGOVER (or drinking anxiety!) 

Just to name a few!

***If you are physically dependent on alcohol, quitting abruptly can result in severe health consequences. Please work with a medical practitioner when making drastic lifestyle changes.

---