the boozey blues

my first post is a note on booze. from adventures and misadventures with the substance, ive come up with this rule: have at least three full days a week without any alcohol. not one beer. not one glass of wine. definitely no johnny on the rocks. totally clean.

if you’re a social drinker like i am, this can be harder than it sounds. there are so many excuses: “my boyfriend just got back into town”… “i’m meeting a friend”… “today at work sucked”… “it’s somebody’s birthday”… “i’m eating out” etc.. .etc.

this advice is not a judgement on alcohol. i love good red wine and cold beer and the instant relaxation they deliver as much as anyone else.

but alcohol is a also like a drain you pour your energy into. along with your clarity, your patience. and your immune system. day in and day out booze saps you. it’s a proven depressant. it clogs up your system with the tedious busy work of detoxing so it can never properly heal itself. it leaves you cranky. it definitely messes up your sleep cycle. it gives everyone a belly, which might be burnable in your 20s, but is usually permanent thereafter. alcohol gives you the boozey blues, that hard-to-shake, the-world-looks-a-shade-darker phenomenon. (thanks to my friend Willy H. for coining the the term)

so if you want more energy, or to loose weight, or to maybe just to sleep better, or to ward off a cold, or to feel baseline happier, or to stop snapping at your coworkers, or stop having a meltdown when you can’t decide what to wear, my advice is to stop drinking. not entirely, but for 3 solid days out of any 7. they don’t have to be 3 days in a row. just three booze-free days a week. 

i recently challenged a friend to do this. she was in the habit of drinking most days and was looking for a general life pick-up. she was under enough stress as it was, so offered her some solidarity and matched her day for day. after 3 days she felt the world looked a bit brighter, and that sense of impending dissolution had abated. and it was fun doing it together. we both felt like we’d accomplished something.

booze is just a habit, and humans are creatures of habit. if you can get in the habit of one thing, you can get in the habit of another thing too. 

try it, and let me know if you feel any different. and if not, you are lucky lucky lucky.