Thursday, January 23, 2014

What you're calling the cause, I call the cure

There are precisely 50 days left until spring break.  I have decided that I will not purchase any alcohol until that point.  I figure there will be three main benefits to this.

1) This will help my weight get back to where it should be.  I've spent all of 2014 so far in the 175-180 pound range when I should be in the 165-170 range.  This certainly isn't all just booze weight.  I've definitely been lazier this year when it comes to working out.  In my defense though, marathon training is significantly harder when the wind chill is consistently 15 below and you're allergic to treadmills.  Cutting back on the drinking will help though.  The biggest issue is that one drink frequently becomes two or three and when I've had those couple of drinks, I look for food to accompany them because my will is reduced and also, it feels better on the stomach.  Its certainly not brown rice and baked chicken I'm ingesting either; the vast majority is sugar-laden or drenched in grease.

2) Alcohol is expensive.  My grocery budget is higher than I'd like anyway so this will be a nice boon for that in February.  I certainly don't drop as much on booze as some people, but two six packs of decent beer and two bottles of wine will run me $40 for a month.

3) I may have once accidentally drank the 64 ounces of water you're supposed to get each day.  I am perpetually dehydrated and its my own fault.  Drinking less will certainly help with that and that will be nice for things like my skin.

I've tried this twice before.  For consecutive years in grad school, I gave up alcohol for lent to see how hard it would be.  The first year, there were a few struggles, but not much and I felt really good at the end of it.  The second year, I didn't see the need for it as much and I killed it right around St. Patrick's Day.  Note here that I'm not doing the same thing exactly.  I haven't said I'm going to stop drinking - I'm not going to buy.  I've still got a couple of bottles of wine and that will have to suffice for the next 50 days.

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