This is one of the more mainstream “resolutions” that I am taking part in this year: no alcohol for the month of January.
It’s easy to see why this has become a trend over the last decade. After all the holiday indulgences, you take the first month of the new year to give your system a reset. This isn’t for everyone (and in fact, it can be dangerous for heavy drinkers to go cold turkey . . . Dry January is not treatment), but this year I’ve actually been looking forward to it.
I did a version of Dry January for the first time in 2017, looking at my hungover eyes in the mirror on New Year’s Day and deciding I needed to try to break the cycle of daily drinking I’d been nursing at the end of 2016. I did twenty days that year. In 2018, I did nearly the whole month but from the get-go planned only to restrict until my friends’ wedding that last weekend. Last year I skipped it altogether — I had a trip to Hawaii in January and really didn’t want to miss out on the aesthetic of having a beer on the beach while watching the sunset (a very vain excuse, I know, but look at this idyllic picture):
A few years ago, I considered Dry January a challenge: a break from my routine. Now, I consider it a relief and return to my routine. I don’t drink nearly as much as I used to, but I did get nice and lush over the holidays last month. I drank a lot of good bottles of wine, polished off my whiskey, and drained the entire champagne bottle on New Year’s. And I had a lot of fun! But I was also starting to sleep-in again (my alcohol brain always wants to stay up hours later than my body) and even come to expect a drink at the end of the day. Which is a little too 2016/2017-me.
God, even writing about alcohol right now makes me feel a little sick. I am so excited not to have any for a while. Everything in moderation, of course, but I need this extreme restriction in January to counter December and balance out the rest of the year.
Then again, part of me nearly threw in the towel yesterday when I thought about things going on this month … “oh we have a celebratory happy hour” … “oh I’m going to the board game bar with friends.” Like it isn’t possible to get a Topo Chico or Diet Coke and still hang out with people if I’m not drinking? I’m having a stern talking with my FOMO and telling it to calm down. I don’t need drinking as a social lubricant, especially not with my friends. I’ve already learned that lesson.
So here’s to Dry January! And here’s to going to Hawaii in February instead this year 🙂
With Love,
Natalie