Proud of you, man. Been doing some reading this month on alcoholism and problem drinking and trying to figure out what bucket I belong in. Taking a break for 30 days was not hard for me; not physically and really not socially either. An alcoholic - going by the clinical definition - can't do that easily. The body is physically dependant on alcohol so giving it up is hard and often requires medical supervision.
But problem drinking? Yeah, I can fit a lot of those descriptors and I'm not very proud of that. I have GOT to learn how to become a moderate drinker who doesn't over serve himself and cause problems. Because I'm not ready to just quit forever. Perhaps one day I will, but not today. If I can't become a more disciplined drinker then I absolutely will need to consider cutting it out for good. It's not worth it. Physically it takes a toll and I don't want to depart the earth too early or in agony because I couldn't moderate myself when all the warning signs were present (and they are). It takes a toll emotionally too. Heavy drinking has caused me to think some really dark, troubling things over the years and those thoughts were completely vanished this past month. My relationship with my wife has vastly improved too, so really, the net benefits of being off the sauce - even for just a brief amount of time - have been tangible.
I do think I'm done with heavy IPAs unless I'm out to dinner or somebody hands me one at a party or something. I won't buy them for the house anymore and I will look for an alternative if I'm at the bar. Those things wreck my stomach and my digestion has been much improved without them. They are tasty, but my god, at 7-8% ABV, I don't need them. I'm also going to try to implement a curfew for alcohol. No more night caps. No more late night bourbon or scotch. 9pm, the tea kettle is on and I'm having my chai, ginger fire tea. More exercise too. I've logged probably 70-80 miles walking since Feb 4th, so I'm going to keep that up too and will hopefully start jogging again.
Regardless of all that above and no matter where I am in life after Super Bowl LIII, I'm doing this again at a bare minimum. It's been a huge plus in my life and it's been great to log in here and use this as a diary of sorts. The support from you guys has been awesome too. And while my man Rock is going to keep on keeping on, I'm down to 52 hours on my quest! 52 hours from right now, I'll be polishing off the at least
some of beer that's been sitting in my man-cave fridge since Super Bowl Sunday.