Day 2

As I've mentioned before, there have always been a few booze free days per week anyway, so going dry for the first two days has really not been a problem or a burden yet (what a relief!).

I discovered that I managed to fit in a lot of activities to my booze free day No1. I went for a 6K run, read a book, did a bit of a jigsaw puzzle and watched a movie without falling asleep 10 minutes into the film. 

Nevertheless, there are these thoughts creeping up to my mind and I keep asking myself if a whole month without any alcohol (read: wine) is really that necessary? What if I did it only on weekdays and allowed myself a glass of wine on a Saturday night only? What harm could that do? It's still better to have 5 booze free days rather than 2 booze free days, right? 

Even according to some UK health experts one unit of alcohol per day for women (and no more than 7 units per week), and two drinks per day for men, is perfectly normal, legal and even healthy, so what am I on about here then! Binge drinking only starts once you've had 4 drinks per session, which certainly is not a daily habit of mine anyway. So am I trying to cure a problem here that doesn't even exist? Why am I making myself a social outcast with this pointless experiment? 

What if I control my drinking so well, that as long as I only enjoy a glass or two and only on two evenings a week; and as long as I will never wake up with a hangover, or better yet, not even in the middle of the night, crawling to the kitchen for a pint of water at 2am, I could replace the Dry January promise with a, let's say, "Sensible January" promise? That sounds much better than Dry January already.

But. Then I slap myself in the face and remind myself that THAT is exactly the kind of drinking what I can and should do for the next 11 months of the year anyway. "Sensible 11 months". So is it really that hard to motivate myself to keep just one of them completely dry? 

Let's ask Internet for help. After browsing around on various websites that explain benefits of cutting off alcohol for a while or for good, here is a bit of summary what positive effects it will bring about: 

- Allows liver to recover, reduces risk of cancer and risk of cardiovascular disease (nice!) 

- Makes the skin look healthier and younger (yes please!) 

- Improves mood, reduces mood swings (I think Carla will benefit from that more than myself.)

- Boosts brain power (can I get a promotion then?) 

- Helps to lose weight (please be true!)

- Saves money (for sure!) 

- Improves quality of sleep (so I am literally planning to turn into a Sleeping Beauty) 

Ok. The Internet research has brought up quite a few convincing positive points about stopping all alcohol for a month, so the least I could do is really give it a go. If it hasn't been hard for those 2 days, then it shouldn't be that hard for the next 28. 







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