Saturday, July 24, 2021

Day 14

 Saturday morning at 10:15.  I ran 5 miles, got cleaned up, did the grocery shopping, made a veggie scramble and a pot of coffee, cut up a watermelon and now there is a pot of rice on the stove for the fried rice that I'll make tomorrow.

I can't remember the last time I hit the pavement on a Saturday morning.  It felt so good to run with no hangover.  I wasn't running to sweat the alcohol out of my system because of a boozy Friday night.  It felt good to just run.  To make it even better it was only 64 degrees when I went out which is cooler than it has been all week at 5AM.

Fourteen days without alcohol.  I've done 14 days before.  The difference this time is that I'm not counting down the days until I will drink again.  This time I'm done.

I've been reading a few message boards of people who are on this journey.  I don't feel like I fit in though.  These people are really struggling with not drinking.  I can't say that I am.  As I've said before, it was more of a habit than anything else.  A bad habit that was slowly killing me.  I didn't need the alcohol, it was just part of my weekly routine.  I've replaced alcohol with tea in that routine.

I'm not really being tested or tempted.  If I were in a social situation would I be tempted?  Maybe but I'm confident that I will stick to my goal of not drinking.  I want "non-drinker" to be part of my identity like "vegetarian".

When I became a vegetarian I not only had to stop eating "food with a face" but I also had to figure out what to eat.  Vegetables, yes but what else?  It took me a while to figure it out but I have it now.  With giving up alcohol all I have to do is stop drinking.  Nothing has to replace it.  Some people need the non-alcoholic beer or some placebo that makes them think they are drinking.  That's not my story but I did pick up a bottle of seltzer water today.  I think a glass over ice would be refreshing.

I don't know ... I'm just super excited to be 14 days sober and I'm looking forward to 30, 60, 90 days and an entire lifetime alcohol-free.



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