I’ve been alcohol free (AF) for 60 days.

Back in late July I decided to clear the decks.  I’d gotten back on a solid workout plan and the next step was to clean up my diet to remove a few extra COVID pounds that had settled in.

And in order to get the best results I decided to go all in and step away from the habit of grabbing a glass or two of Chardonnay and walking away from the IPA for a month.  This was a habit that wasn’t serving my health or fitness goals and as you know, I love a challenge.

I was just planning on doing this on my own but I found a free program online called The Alcohol Experiment by Annie Grace and it put some structure around my plan.  Daily videos, some questions to answer and options to journal and really dig in.  It’s basically looking at your behaviors around drinking, with some serious some truth-bombs about alcohol.

After the 30 days I decided to start a fitness challenge and one of the “rules” was no drinking.  So that’s how I got to Day 60.  Again, you know how I love challenges 🙂

I didn’t find non drinking particularly hard.  I mean, I’d been pregnant twice and was a total non-drinker both times.  But you know, I missed the social part of it.   The cracking open a beer on a Zoom happy hour with friends or having an ice cold glass of wine after a long day of work.  I got creative by making some tasty mocktails with sparkling water and hibiscus tea or a splash of margarita mix over lime La Croix and ice.

I also decided to check out the non-alcoholic offerings that are sol.  I tired an “alcohol-removed” wine.  Gross.  I also tested out a hoppy non-alcoholic beer from Brooklyn Brewing Company and a non-alcoholic IPA from Athletic Brewing Company which were actually good.  Plus they have less than half the calories of a regular IPA so they’re a nice option and bonus, they are sold locally at Scotty’s Market and Marinwood Market.  Mostly, however I drink water and sparkling water.

So what’s changed after 2 full months of not drinking?

• I have better, more restful sleep
• I don’t feel sluggish in the morning
• I lost weight (I don’t weigh myself but I can tell by how things fit)
• I have more energy
• I feel healthier

I’ve decided to do another round of the fitness challenge and that means another 30 days of no alcohol.  Sober October, here I come.

If you have questions or want to join me in October, please let me know.

Now go run!

Keli 🙂