Every new year that rolls around I make promises to myself to make some sort of health and wellness improvements and changes, however, they never stick. I always feel some sort of pressure to make drastic changes to my life, I see it all over social media, 75 hard, dry January, 2 litres of water a day, whatever it is, I feel some sort of pressure to get my life in order and try something new each year.

Last January I attempted dry January. It lasted 6 days. 6 days then right back to my old habits. To be honest, I didn’t really care about the failed attempt, I thought who cares? I’m young, I’m having fun, it’s not like drinking is affecting my grades or day to day life, so whatever, back to my routine of heading home on a Friday afternoon, stopping at the liquor store and having drinks with friends to kick off the weekend. 

Over this past winter break I decided to commit to the whole dry January. I’m 14 days in now and have been doing some heavy self reflection which really isn’t usual for me. I don’t even know why I’m doing this, I guess to prove a point to myself, I’m a competitive person and have always had a pretty determined personality so this time I’m sticking with it and seeing how it goes.

So far it’s been pretty smooth sailing and I feel good. I’m not wasting my weekends and I definitely notice less brain fog and I’m more productive than before but the one thing that keeps coming back to my mind is what will happen once this is over? I definitely can’t see myself quitting drinking forever but then what’s the point of this? I guess it’s good to have a healthy reset month. I’m going to keep this whole dry January thing up, keep it day by day, and see how I feel and not stress too much about the future. 

I think the hardest part was last weekend, I was skiing with a couple of friends and they all wanted to go for drinks after, I don’t think I’m at the point yet where I could put myself in a drinking environment with friends and say no to a beer, cause who does that! So I went home and skipped out on the apres. But at the end of the day it was another day to check off and it was onto the next. I felt good, even proud and woke up the next morning ready to tackle the day hangover free.