I Gave Up Alcohol For Good, Or Did I?

I rolled through the finish line with tired legs, bristling in the West Virginia summer sun.  My buddies John and Todd were nearby, only a last minute sprint separated us.  We just finished an 85 mile gravel cycling race with over 7000 feet of elevation gain, and it was time to put calories back in. 

As we waited in line for the free meal included with our race entry, Todd said “hold my place guys, I’m off to get my free beer, I can’t wait!”  Racers also got a free beer for the after-party and this is where I had a decision to make. 

It was July of 2023, and I hadn’t had an alcoholic drink since mid-December 2022.  I didn’t consciously make the decision to go dry, I just tried it in January and February and it stuck. 

Six months without booze – it was the longest dry streak of my adult life.  And the reality was, life was as good as ever, maybe better. 

So, what was I to do?

 

I’ll Pass

I passed on that free race beer.  I still have to register that in my head… I turned down a free beer – me!! 

Well it technically wasn’t free as our race entry cost well over a hundred smackers, but who’s counting.  Either way, if you would have told the me of even 5 years ago that I’d refuse to have a beer included with my race entry after a grueling gravel race, I would have waved you off as a blasphemer. 

But this is 2024 and I’m in a good place.  The functional alcoholic of my past is gone, and I can now happily report that I went all of 2023 without even one drink!  It was a dry year for me. 

My last drink was a small glass of wine at a Christmas party in mid-December of 2022.

The shift to this lifestyle has been gradual.  I went all of 2020 without any beer, but I still drank wine and bourbon.  That was part of my overall covid diet experiments.  I largely took carbohydrates out of my diet in 2020 and I started feeling better and better.  Beer is full of carbs, so I stuck to wine for the most part. 

Then in 2023 I decided to try a dry January.  It stretched through February.  And when mid-March came along I wasn’t even thinking that “I’m still going dry for now”.  I just stopped thinking about alcohol, or wanting it.

 

I’m Super Trendy & Do All The Stuff Cool Kids Do

I hate trends, and generally zig when others zag.  But it turns out I’m part of a big current trend, two of them actually.  In the health and wellness ecosphere, especially the so called “bro-health” world, giving up or at least severely reducing your alcohol intake is clearly in.  You’ve surely heard of “sober October” or “dry January”.

Dr. Andrew Huberman of the Huberman lab podcast is probably the biggest name in this field with millions of followers.  His podcast dedicated to alcohol has no doubt influenced many.  He as usual cites the science, and it’s black and white.  Alcohol is bad for us, plain and simple. 

Perhaps it has benefits for many as a social lubricant, and I’ll freely admit this was/is true for me.  But I’d rather teach myself how to be more adept socially without the use of a neurotoxin.  It’s a work in progress but I like challenges. 

Along side the “bro-health” trend of less alcohol consumption, there’s the trend of non-alcoholic drinks, often called “mocktails“.  Non-alcoholic beers are flourishing. 

Gen Z and to a certain degree Millennials drink way less alcohol.  But I’m a Gen X’er and came of age in the 1990’s considered by some to be the peak of binge drinking in America.  I’m supposed to be on the sauce.

So now I’m just another lemming following trends, haha.  I can say that others are not influencing me so much to do this, it’s my own health that’s leading the way.

 

Repairs Ongoing

I destroyed my body for decades with alcohol.  It wasn’t the glass of wine with dinner, it was the 15 beers on Friday night, and Saturday night.  Every, friggin weekend. 

For a few decades. 

Toss in 2 or 3 beers on weeknights to “take the edge off” of a stressful job, and my body had had enough. 

As I gradually became health conscious in my late 30’s and found out I had a proclivity for endurance sports, I slowly decreased my alcohol consumption.  Fast forward to 2024 and poof, I’m now over 14 months without a drink. 

Our bodies are constantly turning over, we replace billions of cells every day.  I would like to think I’m an entirely new person now, but as that article details it’s not that simple. 

In reality my body is still undergoing extensive repairs.  It’s like when you stay at a hotel that has renovations going on, there’s a “pardon our noise and mess” sign up in my proverbial lobby. 

But I’m glad that trillions of my cells have never experienced alcohol.

 

Teetotaler Club

I haven’t decided if I’m giving it up alcohol for good, but I’m leaning in that direction.  Being that I’m already a very unusual person by our modern standards as detailed in the post above, I realize that being dry would add ‘yet another thing’ on the list of traits that separate me from most people today. 

I’m not immune to the risk of being looked at as a pariah, or weirdo more accurately, who seemingly lives life at a cross-purpose to most of society.  I’m frugal, I’ve never had Netflix, and I hate most movies and celebrities.  Those things alone are enough to get me kicked off the island we call America. 

But I’m having a hard time justifying a valid role alcohol could play in my life at this point.  I just don’t see it. 

And those non-alcoholic beers mentioned above, turns out one of them at least is really great.  A friend visited from out of town recently and I purposely and selfishly took him to a place that had Athletic Brewing Beer.  He loves beer, and I wanted to share in that with him by hoisting something that looks and tastes like it but that has no alcohol. 

I had their “Run Wild” IPA and man it’s really good!  This isn’t crappy non-alcoholic beer like in the days of O’Douls, it’s quality stuff.  To be clear I have no affiliation with Athletic Brewing, at all.  But if anyone from the company reads this hit me up, haha. 

I realized over that dinner that it’s the ceremony surrounding beer and drinking that I’m missing, not the alcohol itself.  Being at a cool restaurant with friends, each of us having a pint glass of beer in front of us, the smells, the dirty jokes, the camaraderie – that’s what I love. 

And now with the proliferation of non-alcoholic beer and drinks I can participate in all of the ceremony with none of the neurotoxin.  Win win.

 

You Do You, I Won’t Judge

I would never judge anyone who drinks, ever.  I did enough of it in my life already to cover for 4 or 5 people so it would be the ultimate in hypocrisy.  But for now I’m going to stay dry and see where it takes me. 

So far it’s led to good places.