As I mentioned in my last blog, last month we decided to take part in the Dry January movement — giving up all alcohol for 31 days as a “reset” on our relationship with alcohol. But as long-time readers of this blog know, we like our cocktails! So you might be wondering; how did Dry January go?
We didn’t miss the booze
First things first – we found that we didn’t really miss the alcohol. We replaced our nightly adult beverages with mocktails or sparkling sodas, and never really felt deprived.
There were a couple times — once while watching the Capitol Insurrection on January 6th, and again after a particularly hard day of work later in the month — where I definitely thought “ugh, I really need a glass of wine to deal with today.” But even in those moments, it wasn’t particularly hard to just redirect that initial reflex into another activity like working out or indulging in some dark chocolate.
In fact, I think it made me a more thoughtful drinker, because I wasn’t just having a drink because I was thirsty, or because “that’s what I do when I watch tv.” I only made a mocktail if I really wanted one, and I hope that intentionality continues on with alcoholic drinks moving forward.
However, this all comes with the big caveat that we were still in Corona-quarantine during this January. I didn’t face any social pressure to drink because…I didn’t do anything social. In a normal year, I could see how it might have been slightly more challenging to stay dry in our very alcohol-obsessed culture.
The touted “benefits” of giving up alcohol were a little hit or miss
If you Google anything related to giving up alcohol, you’ll discover an absolute wealth of good things that will allegedly happen to you if you go sober. I think, with all of these, it may depend on how much you were drinking to begin with. In some cases, we saw mild improvements; in other cases, we didn’t see any changes at all. Here’s our verdict:
- “You’ll Lose Weight” – I did lose a little weight during Dry January, but I also started incremental fasting and was in the middle of a challenge to complete a Peloton class every day. So it’s hard to say if that was alcohol-related or not. The hubby did not lose any weight during Dry January.
- “You’ll Save Money” – This probably would be true for most people, but because we decided to sample every single ad we saw for alcohol alternatives (which, btw, are not cheap!) it was pretty much a wash for us.
- “You’ll Sleep Better/You’ll Have So Much More Energy” – If anything, I slept worse. With a glass of wine or two before bed, I usually fall asleep within 10 minutes of getting in bed, and stay conked out until my alarm rings in the morning. Without the wine, it tended to take me a little longer to fall asleep, and I tended to wake up more throughout the night. I also started waking up earlier, before my alarm would go off, which I found kind of annoying. The hubby’s sleeping habits were fairly unchanged. As for energy during the day, we didn’t notice a difference one way or another.
- “Your Skin Will Look Better” – Again, no noticeable differences for either me or the hubby on this front. My skin actually seemed a little drier than usual last month, but I was attributing that to dry winter weather, rather than Dry January.
- “You’ll Be So Much Healthier” – Tough to say! We did notice that both of our resting heart rates went down after kicking the booze – both of us saw a drop of about 5 BPM average. So I think that’s a positive!
We became better mixologists
How can you become a better mixologist when not drinking, you ask?! But we did.
Coming up with creative ways to utilize the alcohol alternatives we’d purchased required a lot of trial and error, but both of us can now make you some delicious mocktails that will rival anything you might find in a fancy craft bar.
Essentially, we landed on the “mocktail secret formula” which goes a little something like this:
- You need a kick – something to replace the “bite” of alcohol. Good options for this include bitters, tonic water, or one of the various alcohol alternatives.
- Balance the kick with something sweet – mix in juices, teas, or syrups to make it palatable.
- Finish with freshness – the best mocktails utilized fresh squeezed citrus, herbs, and/or a splash of soda water to make the drink “pop”
- Garnish goes a long way – you’ll feel a lot more fancy if you put that orange twist or salt rim or cherry on top.
But I guess the biggest question is — did Dry January change our relationship with alcohol, as promised?
And I would have to say it did. The biggest evidence of this is what happened on February 1st, our first day of “freedom” so to speak. Did we start off the day with mimosas in celebration, or crack open a beer as soon as we finished work?
Nope. We just had more mocktails. The nightly bottle of wine that sustained us through 2020 just didn’t seem as needed anymore. The following day, February 2nd, we grilled steak for dinner, and opened a wonderful bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon to go with it. But it felt like a nice treat — an enhancement rather than an inevitability.
And that, my friends, was the whole point.
