One wine-free month has been completed!  Yay for me and The Boy!

In this case, unlike quitting smoking, I am totally giving myself WAY more credit than him!  He isn’t a drinker.  He likes an occasional Jack Daniels or Makers Mark, but it doesn’t bother him in the last if he doesn’t have one from month to month.

Me, I’m a wino.  Not really but probably.  I love a glass of wine.  In fairness, I love a bottle of wine.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s never been a nightly thing (expect when his father was here, but that was a necessity) and since meeting The Boy, it’s been a lot less.

Meeting him coincided with me deciding that I’ve been in Dubai and kicking the woohoo out of brunches for too long.  I get absolutely violent hangovers because I am getting old, and on top of that, I know the amount of damage I could inflict on my stomach with the booze and the rubbish food to get me through the hangover.  Don’t get me wrong… I’m not an angel and there are times where a good brunch still sounds like a marvelous idea.  It’s just less regularly than before.

My wine intake has been pretty much reduced to Thursday nights and the odd ladies night. I am quite happy with that so Dry January should have been easier than it was.

I’ve tried to complete the month a few times now and always failed.  This time I was determined!   Then I fell poorly, as I have said before, and so that made the first couple of weeks super easy!

Sadly it didn’t continue being that easy.

I had to find a new apartment, deal with the old landlord, deal with the new landlords, move and sort out the entire apartment, and deal the onslaught of maintenance problems and deliveries/installations.  It wasn’t too bad when we moved last year as The Boy was with me as much as he could be.  This year he is in the UK and although the has been super supportive on Skype, it’s not the same as having him there to hug me when I have the mother of all meltdowns.

So added to the stress of moving, is the stress of him not being with me.  Call me soppy but life is so much easier when I have him to come home to.

Anyway, I digress…

Because of the aforementioned stresses in my life, I am incredibly proud that I did make it through without a glass of wine.  I think he will be proud too, but more pleased than anything.  He dated a woman who was a bit of an alcoholic (2 bottles of wine a night totally counts as an alco, right?!) and so when I have a bad day and reach for the wine, I can see him flinch a bit.  He has never said anything and never would, but I can see it bothers him and so it’s nice to be able to show him that it is a choice when I do it and not a necessity.

I think I’m rambling again but I do have a good bit coming up….

I was reading an article about Dry January and as always, it says that if you complete it there will be numerous health benefits. According to it’s Ambassador, Dr. Amber Appleton (total porn star name so I am not giving her much credit to start with), the most commonly reported benefits of an alcohol-free month are:

• improved quality of sleep – That’s balls.  I’ve slept just the same as before unless I was coughing up a lung with the chest infection!
• improved ability to concentrate – No visible improvements.  I’m still a goldfish.
• more energy – I don’t think so.  I’m still falling asleep at the same time.
• more stable moods – Haha!  Nope!  I’m just as crazy as I always have been.
• weight loss – I wish.
• improved digestion – No different at all.
• better immunity – LIE.  Not only was I ill but it went on forever and I still haven’t been able to fully shake it.
• better skin – I’m blessed with really, really good skin so no improvement has been noted.

Perhaps you have to be more of a hardcore drinker to notice the benefits?  Perhaps I would need an even longer recovery time from my cold/flu/evilness if I was still drinking?  Maybe had I not been so stressed my moods would have been more stable?  Maybe if I hadn’t had an EPIC food binge then I would have lost weight?

It’s impossible to say what the benefits of Dry January are or could be with so many variables at play.  I know that I don’t feel any different, aside from that I am really in the mood for wine… Then again it’s nearly the end of the week so that’s not much different to normal either!

I am however totally counting down until The Boy’s flight lands.  Mostly because I have missed him so much but also because I have a lovely bottle of Mumm sitting chilling in the fridge for us to celebrate his return.  You just can’t “cheers” as well with Robertson’s Orange & Pineapple!!