And there it is. April. The end of the month (sort of) without alcohol.

For those not keeping tabs, I was asked by Spunout.ie at the beginning of March to try a month without alcohol. Have a look here:

http://spunout.ie/action/article/hello-sunday-morning

As you may have read here, I lapsed once, while we were in Boston. I had a couple of glasses of wine with dinner one night and a couple of beers with dinner on another. Nothing bingey, nothing radical.

Yesterday marked the end of the month. My duty was discharged. I was free to drink again. Here’s the thing.

I didn’t.

Bank Holiday Monday. Perfect time to, too. I just haven’t felt the craving. My normal pattern when it comes to alcohol is that we’d open a bottle of wine or a couple of beers at least one evening during the week, probably on Saturday night too, certainly if I was ever out for a meal in the evening.

As of now I don’t feel the low-level “craving” for a drink I would from time to time (stress, peer, food related). I have no plans to have anything to drink this week. In fact I have plans to start running again and see where that takes me.

I know this has been easier for me than most – I’m almost 40, I don’t go to clubs or almost ever to pubs, I don’t socialise in drinking groups, and my wife did the month with me in solidarity.

It’s been an interesting process, although, to be honest, I haven’t really thought about “not drinking” for a lot of the last 3 weeks at least of the process.

I’d recommend trying it, if only to see what you learn about yourself and what your body says when you do…

(originally from http://hellosundaymorning.org/rickoshea)