31 Days of No Drinking

I set a challenge for myself to see how long I could go without drinking.  I don’t drink all that much anyways (generally once a week or so I have a couple of glasses of wine or beer), but I wanted to see how long I could go without drinking. So far I have made it 31 days and am pretty pleased with myself.

One of the most challenging parts of not drinking is the fact that so many people in my social group do drink.  Tara has a glass of wine on most nights. A group of friends just went to Vegas.  Most of my other friends around LA like to go out to bars or clubs on Friday and Saturday night.  I have had to generally avoid those situations – peer pressure is an amazingly powerful force.

To keep my mind off going out to drinks with my friends, I have been more rigorous about scheduling different activities.  Basically, I am not telling myself “no” to drinking, I am planning out other fun things that take up most of my time and energy:

• Reading – it’s amazing how much reading you can done when your head is clear and you aren’t spending time at bars
• Rock climbing – I took up rock climbing earlier this month and am having a blast doing it. The last 2 friday nights I went to the rock climbing gym and climbed from 8-10:30 and came home happy and tired
• Working – I do tons of work
• Play – I went to see “The Irish Curse” by myself over the weekend