All of January I’ve been feeling amazing! I wake up bursting with energy, I feel clear, vibrant and motivated and everyone is telling me how well I look. It’s almost the end of January and I have, like many other Brits, been practising Dry January – this is an annual UK tradition where, after the excesses of the festive season, many feel they want to try giving up the booze for a spell.
I never anticipated for a moment that it would feel so great. Now, don’t get me wrong – I wasn’t drinking loads, not by any means but I HAD got into a regular and consistent routine of a glass of wine (or two, sometimes even three) at the end of a workday. It was a way of relaxing, letting go of the day and a chance to indulge. – A kind of reward I guess….
It’s been a revelation to me to discover how much lighter, positive and even joyous I’ve been feeling. Okay, the first week of January was hard. I kicked off with New Year’s Day at a family gathering where champagne (which I adore) and good wine was flowing. But I was fine. After that it became challenging because although I had decided to do this month off alcohol my husband hadn’t so I would be eying up his glass of wine rather enviously of an evening.
I then discovered that it was just my brain associating reward with alcohol and then had a bit of an awakening as I realised some of the things that having even a glass of two of wine was doing to me physically. But I discovered that more from the benefits:
I am sleeping more deeply – I tend to be able to sleep all night now rather than wake up in the middle. Ok, it’s also true that I am bouncing off the walls a bit with new ideas so maybe need to work on winding down in the evenings…
I have more energy – I really do and this has been fantastic – I just feel READY all day long and not so tired later in the day or first thing in the morning
My skin is much brighter – love this – because it’s totally anti-ageing!
I’ve lost 3 kilos – yes, I’ve also been eating super healthily but think about all those empty calories in wine, not to mention all t the sugar
I’ve got other ways to reward myself in the evenings – whether that’s a hot chocolate or my new fave drink Kombucha if you simply replace the alcohol with a different reward it works
I’ve learned so much about myself and my relationship with alcohol, that I thought was a healthy one, that I’ve decided to keep going – why not when I feel better than I have literally in YEARS!
PS – how to get my husband to cut down is a separate story….
