I stopped drinking alcohol for 30 days + this is what happened + why I think you should do it. 

January; a month where everyone and their mother sets new and sometimes unattainable goals for oneself with the hopes that it becomes their lifestyle. I shouldn’t say that. It’s too negative and I am not a negative person. We all set goals and new years resolutions for ourselves, obviously! Why wouldn’t we right? January is THE MONTH to reset. It’s such a beautiful thing in this world and the fact that we can literally create communities that support us in everything we do (aka social media sites) and we can create groups that hold us accountable is like a priceless and fantastic and genius thing! The hardest part is literally keeping our resolution and staying strong and actually making it a lifestyle or focusing on it all year long. 

I have failed at resolutions before. I have set myself up for failure actually almost every single time. Why? Because I set them so high and for long periods of time that if and when I do mix up or cheat on my diet or don’t do something I said I would, its a failure and therefore much easier to leave behind and start new another day or month or year. Each year I have this conversation of myself of “What is my “WORD” for this year?” Typically it is something that I try to focus on all year and when I am faced with obstacles or hardships or triumphs I refer to my “word” to get me through or celebrate or feel empowered by. It helps me to find my reasoning as to why I want to do what it is I want to do, which changes constantly sometimes! 

I set my expectations this year quite low for myself. I just got done with a HUGE year for myself so I wanted to take the time to just chill out with my family and enjoy the winter season a little. The holidays came and went and I found myself wanting to set all of these huge goals again and although I wanted to jump on so many bandwagons and set my intentions high (which again there is nothing wrong with that) to be able to say I succeeded, I just couldn’t. 

I literally entered 2020 blurry. Like actually extremely hungover and blurry. I have never ever done that before and that moment I realized I needed to set my intentions CLEARLY instead of HIGH. 

Being healthy is always going to be a goal I set for myself no matter the time of year or where I am in my life. That has become my lifestyle since I lost my weight in 2015 but that’s another blog post! Growth is my “word” this year and frankly I just cannot grow if I keep doing the same thing over and over again. I love to switch things up and I love to have fresh new ideas all the time. So hear me out! 

I have one piece of advice when you are entering a new year. That advice you can honestly take or leave because truthfully it is your life and you will ultimately do what you want! This is just my way of hoping that you find what works for YOU. 

Set your goals SHORT + CLEAR. 

I mean that like this; set a goal of losing 10 lbs this month. The month of January or perhaps saying you want to cook 4 home cooked meals this week. Maybe you want to save $150 this month (which will eventually grow as the months go on!) so that you can buy that ticket to your dream vacation. What if you want to declutter your life? Start small, such as getting your kitchen done first and by January 31. Write them down and set the intention clearly so that when you actually work towards it, it doesn’t seem so hard (because we all know that they are hard more times than they are not! Otherwise they wouldn’t be resolutions or goals! Challenges are a good thing!) 

I set two intentions for myself thus far this year that fall under the same resolution:

DRY JANUARY 

1: Do not drink alcohol (the original dry January) 

2: Do not buy any articles of clothing (very challenging for a style blogger but I want to really declutter my wardrobe and send my pieces to loving homes before I broaden my wardrobe!) 

The idea of dry January gets me. It makes me think RESET, REST + RENEW. 

I like my wine. Wait, no. I LOVE MY WINE. Everyone who knows me knows that. I enjoy a good glass of wine when I get home or sometimes in the middle of my day. I am not ashamed about my love for wine. My husband bought me literally 32 bottles for Christmas because they were one sale and he loves me ( I am so lucky). So when I decided to do “dry January” at first it was because of the way I entered this year and literally feeling sick when i thought about drinking anything but water or coffee. Then as I thought more I was like, this is necessary for my growth process. I want to feel better, sleep better, have more energy and maintain this healthy growth I am achieving thus far for the past 5 years. I want to build on that and truly see if going alcohol free for 30 days will actually change the way I see things, the way I feel or the way my mind works. 

I will say one thing. IT CHANGED EVERYTHING. 

Let me talk about week 1 without alcohol.

I increased my water intake to cover for the amount of alcohol I used to drink. During dinner instead of that glass of wine was two whole glasses of water. I started to notice that the amount of water I was drinking was helping tremendously with my daily energy. I was more clear and connected with my mind and didn’t feel so “foggy”. 

I woke up feeling more energized and had way more clarity in my daily work tasks. It set the stage for me to be able to not only do my work efficiently but also take on new work and tasks that I never really have been able to follow through with before. It was refreshing and easy for me to commit to! I have never really been a huge drinker before like “go out and get drunk type” but I have also never tried to just take a month off and force myself to make healthier decisions so this was huge for me that I actually was feeling the way I was by day 7!

I wasn’t bloated anymore. I was ready to take on the following week and it was setting the stage for what I thought was going to become more than just a month of this challenge for me! I had so much excitement towards how week two was going to make me feel! It wasn’t very hard for me to say no when we went out to eat or went to a bar with friends (which rarely happens) and I can only imagine that as the month goes on it could maybe get more challenging once we have more events and weddings to attend! But for now, things are going so good and I am extremely excited about week 2! 

Bloated used to be my normal. Like every single day something I put in my body made me bloated. Little did I know that every single thing I was putting in my body which was high in gluten and different products that literally hated me Alcohol was one of those things that was literally just working against me. I never even thought about it in depth until the beginning of this year when all of the sudden it clicked in my brain that what I was putting in my body was just not good for me anymore and as soon as I was mindful on what I was putting in my body the bloating diminished almost immediately! I have honestly never felt more accomplished than knowing that I am actually feeding my body with nourishment versus just coasting or getting by! Not that I will stay away from alcohol forever but it has made me realize what I need to be doing for my body to reach its optimal level! 

I have saved time for myself to be more authentic and spend my time intentionally. I am more present with my daughter and we get to do more things that make us happy! My priorities have shifted to what is more important! My good health that I am blessed with has brought me to so many places and there is always room for improvement so my entire being is going to stay focused on that and I am going to continue to watch my health take a better turn and feel my absolute best!

The reasons I feel you should try this out! 

Although I could talk about this forever I want to put them into a small list for you! 

1: CLEANSE — one word! You literally cleanse your body during this period. Amazing things happen when you cleanse and when you don’t drink alcohol for a period of time, your body starts to replenish what alcohol takes out of you! I personally had an amazing experience with this as I stated about not feeling so foggy all the time. You don’t realize how foggy you used to feel until you aren’t anymore! 

2: Health benefits such as weight loss! Everyone makes weight loss or healthier lifestyles a goal for the new year and of course dry January is a thing for a reason, but I mean this totally goes hand it hand and it helped me stay on track! 

3: Focus — Your focus will be on point! At work, at home, everywhere! I felt so much more focused on my everyday tasks, it helped me start to take on tasks that I have been wanting to do but never had the energy to do!

4: Energy!!! So much more energy throughout the day! 

5: You sleep better at night! — everyone could use a better night sleep!

6: You can be forced to mentally prioritize what is important to you, which I think is a good thing! 

7: It can become your normal and you can start to appreciate the times you do get to enjoy a drink with friends or family! 

8: Process your foods easier! — of course this means that you will be healthier and will presumably stop craving sugar and other negative toxins!

10: You emotions and feelings will stabilize! — feeling more mentally well and emotionally stable was huge for me in this! The longer you go without alcohol I think the better in this area!

I really hope this helps you in even just one way! I valued the idea of challenging myself to not drink for 30 days and it was surprisingly easy for me. Like I probably could have even gone longer! If you feel like this article has helped or if it has inspired you to give it a try, I’d love to hear your results!!

xoxo, 

Al!