{"id":1630,"date":"2011-01-30T18:51:44","date_gmt":"2011-01-30T23:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=1630"},"modified":"2011-01-30T18:51:44","modified_gmt":"2011-01-30T23:51:44","slug":"my-yearly-alcohol-detox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/01\/30\/my-yearly-alcohol-detox\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2605 My Yearly Alcohol Detox"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year, I took a break where I didn’t have a sip of alcohol for a month. I did this in the spring time but, looking at my calendar, I think it’s time to do this again. Alcohol can be a social lubricant, a drink enjoyed before or after dinner and something you enjoy after a long day at work. A lot of people drink socially and many of them drink often by themselves. For a while, I defended the “drinking alone” idea that if you drink alone, you’re certainly an alcoholic or beginning the steps that will lead to alcoholism. For me, I began drinking more upon moving to San Francisco while attending networking events socially. Alcohol was a contributor to my weight gain, increased blood pressure and era of decreased productivity. I disagree that I had a disease, everyone was doing it and I was 21-23 and the drinks at these parties were free. Let’s move on.<\/p>\n

The day I made a commitment to a healthy lifestyle and a healthy body is the day that I decided to lay off the juice for a while. This, along with fitness and a diet change equalled a nice drop in weight. Alcohol is an enemy of weight loss. The amount of sugar that comes from each ounce of alcohol can lead to some serious weight gain among other issues. I actually didn’t drink alcohol for quite a while and drank only water. Water was the only liquid I ingested for a while. It was pretty great.<\/p>\n

One of my dear friends who is much older than me and has been in my life for some time now is an alcoholic or at least that’s what she calls herself despite the fact that she hasn’t had a drink in many many years. She means the world to me and I love her and, lately, she has been up front with me saying that alcoholism can sneak up on you and it is too late for many who drink often. Knowing my history, I don’t believe I have an\u00a0addictive\u00a0personality. I’ve never been addicted to anything and readers of this blog know that I quit Twitter, blogging, iPhone usage, coffee and other things just to make sure that I can still reset myself in the event that I am becoming dependent on one thing.<\/p>\n

This friend cares about me deeply. She doesn’t believe I have a problem but is warning me because drinking goes hand in hand with my cooking. I entertain people almost every night. I cook extravagant meals, pour wine and make fancy cocktails and I really really love doing that. My home bar has grown to hundreds of varieties of alcohol and mixing concoctions and making people smile is really a passion of mine.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0involves\u00a0me drinking as well and I do it too often.<\/p>\n

With this said, I am taking a break. The idea came to me on my own and no one is making me. I’m going to take one month away from alcohol and that includes wine, beer and liquor. I’ll continue drinking coffee but won’t increase my caffeine\u00a0dosage\u00a0of 2 cups every other day.<\/p>\n

A removal from alcohol while bottles are still very much accessible in my house is my little way or freeing myself\u00a0from\u00a0any guilt that I’m growing dependent and allow me to taste food in a new way having only water as my “pairing” to whatever dish comes from my recipe book.<\/p>\n

Finally, I will be setting an alarm to remind myself that I have made it a full month. If, before that alarm goes off, I feel that I need to make a cocktail or pour a glass of wine, I will add one day to that alarm. I have to go a full month and not desire or think I need alcohol and only if that alarm goes off and I go, “oh yeah, I guess it has been a month” will I be sure of my lack of addiction.<\/p>\n

I’m not doing this for my friend. I’m doing this for myself. I don’t think people should follow in my footsteps but boy wouldn’t it be nice to take a full month off from drinking or smoking or eating certain foods that we know are doing harm to our body? Taking a month off coffee perhaps? One month isn’t long but, for an addict, it can feel like a lifetime. I’m confident in where I stand with alcohol but, just like my martial arts training with my father, you won’t know that you can actually do the technique until you’ve actually done it. Every other assumption is just bullshit.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year, I took a break where I didn’t have a sip of alcohol for a month. I…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-life","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-qi","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3897,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2012\/12\/26\/3897\/","url_meta":{"origin":1630,"position":0},"title":"\u2605 My 11th Annual Detox starts January 1st","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"December 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a brand new year. 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