Cheers to 1 month of Sober Curiosity! 🙌

It’s been a bit over a month since I decided to play around with being “Sober-Curious” for a time, so I wanted to update you on my experience! First I’ll list some “sober firsts” that stand out from the past four weeks and then dive into some more detailed takeaways of what I’ve noticed in that time - head over gram.betterwithbecky.com to read the full post!

###Things I’ve experienced sober (where I’d usually have had a drink or two):###

• Travel
• Hurricane & Election Cycle Stress
• Spontaneous meetup with friends
• Meeting new people
• The opening of a Speakeasy
• Disney days & a night at Universal Citywalk
• Multiple Restaurant meals out with various friends and groups, several w/a pre-existing norm of getting drinks together
• Unusual events that I may perceive of either stressful or worthy of celebrating / noting (eg recording podcast interviews to promote the launch of the BWB app)
• A friend visiting and staying with us for a couple of days (& visits to theme parks + special restaurants together)
• Social events involving alcohol (fall festival, cocktail parties, car shows, a painting and “spooky sips” art class)
• Going to see a play with friends (note: the Book of Mormon is best seen in Orlando! 🤣)
• Halloween 🎃
• Date days and nights with Justin

###What I’ve noticed:###

• There are SO MANY non-alcoholic options these days - from mocktails to zero proof cocktails (yes, they’re different!) to NA beers like those from Athletic brewing, or even just a fun soda or sparkling water or mixer! I never felt deprived or like I couldn’t find something “special” to consume if I wanted it!
• Nobody actually cares if you’re drinking or not - Especially after the first drink order is in! 😆
• I have a hella-supportive partner 😍
• Got back to meditating regularly to process some of the thoughts and feelings around not drinking ✌️
• Better sleep quality and quantity (a given) 😴
• (& related-) Better energy during the day ⚡️
• Better adherence to and recovery from my workouts and an ability to push harder 🏋️‍♀️
• Fewer PMS symptoms around my cycle 😌
• More freedom to be fully present and playful (fall festival - dancing, hula hooping, etc!) 💃
• Greater hydration, better digestion, fewer headaches 💦
• A fairly chronic skin concern clearing up (perioral dermatitis)
• Some weight loss (most of which has been fat loss!) despite enjoying whatever NA option or food/dessert I want in place of alcohol (Note that I’m also intentionally tracking macros and prioritizing protein while lifting weights right now, so who knows if this is the chicken or the egg…but I’m sure they’re related both mentally/behaviorally/psychologically and physiologically!) There’s a LOT more to the topic of body recomposition…but that’s a post for another day! 🙌
• Generally feeling like I have a bit of a super-secret superpower 🤫🦸‍♀️ 🤣 - if I can show up to the opening of a SPEAKEASY or hula hoop my heart out sober? What can’t I do?! 😆 💃
• Related: more bandwidth for stress or to show up well for others (ability to support Justin, friends, family, etc)

I’ve also gotten much clearer on whether/when it may be “worth it” to me to drink, and potentially how much- after a lot of reflecting and curiosity, I began to identify that I typically only truly enjoyed the last ~1/4 of my first drink (which often led to ordering a second, but then, usually by the time that second drink arrived and I had a sip or two, I’d find I regretted the choice to order a second-and therefore maybe to drink at all? (Unsure why but it seems like if you’re going to drink, you should make it “worth it” with at least a couple lol ?!😆 probably some unpacking to do there psychologically!😝)

Anyways, I rarely experienced a “hangover” per se…but then again, what is 2-3 days of lingering, low-energy bleh-ness following drinking called if not a hangover effect? 🤔

One of our favorite TV shows is “Strange Planet” - it’s an animated cartoon featuring genderless beings that uses cute language to describe human-esque concepts in humorous ways (highly recommend!) For example, Strange Planet refer to alcohol as “mild poison” 💀. While it’s perhaps a bit over the top, and I wasn’t drinking “much” to begin with, it’s been a total game changer to be able to go out, socialize sober, skip ingesting mild poison, and wake up with great, clear energy ready to embrace and enjoy the day fully! 🥰

I’m still not planning on making any hard or fast rules around drinking (a privilege I’m lucky to have, and aware of!), since we all know rules are for breaking 😆. I know there will likely be moments that I want a drink, and I’ll just take it moment by moment to get curious and decide with intention if it’s worth it to me or not! 🥂