Ten Days of Sobriety...

On Friday night I hosted my women's power group at my home. It is a small group of ladies and we meet to discuss endeavors and provide one another support for our goals. We are working on setting a groundwork so in the future when other women join, we could show some tangible results of our our support of one another have helped us reach whatever goals we have set. In the midst of our discussion I realized that I wasn't having a drink (they aren't big drinkers so we never have alcohol at our meetings). I further recognized it was the first day that week I hadn't...I realized my drinking has been heavier since I moved to New Orleans.

I don't have drinking issues per say-no DUI's, no blackouts, no drinking til I throw up-nothing like that. I just really enjoy the way certain cocktails taste (my fav is the pineapple mojito at the Bridge Lounge!). I hate the taste of alcohol so I drink fruity concoctions that are appealing to my eyes (and nose). They taste so good, I'll have a couple (or a few depending on the occasion) and bc I know my limits I don't think its that big of a thing. Recently I was at the doctor's office and read a magazine article about this young, black woman who worked in entertainment and it sounded a lot like my life (except her career rise was in NYC as opposed to L.A./NOLA). More... It was very similar in a fun way until she said how she hit 34 and the drinking began to affect her differently (headaches, longer recovery time, stomach issues, sluggishness, forgetfulness). While I don't think I'm an alcoholic by any means, I am not naive in that I know liquor can have plenty of adverse affects. I've seen the horrors of substance abuse in my family over the years. Also, it is not always as easy for me to bounce back as it used to be. And where I used to feel tipsy after one good drink, I'm no where near that after 2 now. In addition to reading the article and facing concerns about ending up in AA, the fact that I've cut out plenty of normal diet and am not losing weight indicates that dumping cocktails may help out those goals a bit. I'm going to go a little cold turkey and give my body a rest. While I'm not committing to NO alcohol forever, I figured 10 days liquor free would be a great start. So as for now, no drinks for this girl. We'll take the days after that as they come.