Dry January – Week 1

New Years Eve passed as it generally does, I always find New Year to be a bit of an Anti Climax, there is a lot of build up to Midnight then the bells chime; we raise a glass before we join hands and sing and then everyone slowly starts to drift away.

2017 arrived and we upheld the New Year tradition of not doing very much at all, My Wife was still feeling pretty rough so we went home and just relaxed.  The idea of a drink wasn’t really bothering me but it seemed like every scene of the television shows we were watching was set in a pub or had someone pouring some kind of alcoholic beverage. 

On the Morning of Jan 2^nd I woke up and did the weekly food shop and this was where I first saw the benefit of being booze free.  The shopping bill was nearly half of what it normally comes in at. I was really surprised that it actually made such a difference but when I sat down and actually worked out the normal spend just on Alcohol it was, ironically, quite a sobering thought.

The first real test, though, came in the afternoon, as we had not done much over the Christmas break we planned on going out for lunch, the idea was to head into town, park the car and go to an American style diner for a burger.  We failed on step 2.

The town was just pure chaos, the main car park had turned into a vehicle dumping ground with people adopting a creative use of the spaces and even places that weren’t quite spaces seemed to contain some kind of vehicle.  After about half an hour on the car park we gave up and left, Plan B was put into action and we found an Ember Inn.

So 2 days into January and we were in a pub...What could possibly go wrong?

Well, my burger was a bit tough and my Wife’s lasagne was cold and had to be returned but apart from that we stuck to our guns and drank water and Diet Cola.

Day 3 saw us beginning to settle into the normal routine and the first day back at work beckoned, this is the next milestone to getting through the dry spell and this, again, passed with any hiccups.  The normal evening drinks have now been replaced with water but we ended the night with a relaxing cup of Hot Chocolate.

My initial worries about being able to sleep without a beer were completely unfounded and I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow and I slept right the way through until 6.30 but in the morning I woke up feeling like I had been out all night.

Day 4 was the first real challenge so far, I really fancied a beer.  It would have been really easy to go home and open up a can.  Instead I went for a run and then drank 2 or 3 pints of water. 

The next few days were quite easy but then it was the weekend.  Not drinking on Saturday evening  was hard, it would have been really nice relax with a beer or 2 but we stayed strong and the fizzy water took a battering instead.

On Sunday morning we went for another run, we were just having breakfast and the TV Show we were watching reminded me how easy my  actually challenge was.  There were 2 guys being interviewed and they were also doing the Dry January but they had decided to give up Caffeine as well.  I know that I would really struggle with that.

January, You can take my Alcohol but keep your hands off my Coffee!!!!