The Year Without Beer

My neighbor invited me over to hang out on his patio the other day.  He’s got a new fire pit and everyone loves a good fire in winter.  He told me to bring some beers, and I said I’d bring wine.  It then occurred to me that I hadn’t had a beer in over a year. 

Something like that may not be a big deal if you’re not a drinker or if you hate beer, but to me it’s a huge deal.  Beer was the crutch in my functional alcoholic past.  There were times in my 20’s when it was a constant presence in my life. 

If I didn’t have one in my hand I was almost surely at work or driving.  Besides that, there was probably one in my hand. 

It took me until well into my 30’s to give up my heavy drinking habits.  And when I started finding the endurance athlete that was apparently inside of me my whole life, my drinking decreased rapidly.  I also gradually shifted from beer to wine when I did want a drink.  Beer is just too filling.

Throughout my 40’s I’ve gravitated mostly to wine and a mixed drink here and there, and beer is usually saved for special occasions with old-school friends.  But in 2020 I didn’t get the opportunity to hang out with my old school friends very much.  

Who Cares

Why am I telling you this? 

Since I’m fascinated by the lifestyle behaviors that affect personal finance, it occurred to me that I myself made a huge lifestyle change in my alcohol consumption habits.  But it took a long time. 

If you would have told 28-year old me that a couple decades in the future I’d maybe have a glass of wine with dinner at the most and usually go a few nights a week with no drink at all, I would have thought your were crazy.  Me…. wine?  And sometimes no drink at all?  What!? 

But here I am, that’s my routine now.  A few nights a week I’ll have a glass of wine with dinner, never more than one.  No beer.  If I break a cycling or running record that day I may celebrate with a small glass of bourbon as a special treat.  I do like bourbon. 

And I feel better than ever.  I notice the difference in my sleep.  It matters.

You Can Change

No matter where you’re at in life, no matter how much of a financial mess you are or think you are, you can change.  And if you fast forward five or ten years, it’s likely you will change.  If you want to of course. 

I’m writing this short post just to remind you that you are not stuck where you are.  That could either sound obvious on one hand or impossible on the other depending on your life situation.

If you think it’s obvious you probably already stopped reading and unsubscribed.  That’s okay.  If you think it’s impossible, look at me.  If I can lose 70 pounds, beat my lifelong stutter, and reduce my dependence on alcohol, you can assuredly do better. 

Because I’m an average jabroni from Baltimore. 

My year without beer made me reflect on how far I’ve come, and how far I still have to go.  In many ways I’m the same person I was in my 20’s.  I still love history, The Beatles, and being outside. 

But in other ways I’m completely different.  And most of those difference have made me a better person.  Beer was a destructive force in my past life, and if nothing more my year without it is symbolic of my trajectory.

Onward and upward.