Today is very significant for me as I have made it 150 straight days booze free.

Woot, woot!

Only 215 days to go to the end of my 365-day challenge of taking a break from alcohol. I believe in the power of visualization and clearly see myself accomplishing this goal on February 11, 2019 feeling and looking my best.

Some of my friends are already asking, “What are you going to drink on day 366?”

“I don’t know!,” I say.

So how am I different than 151 days ago? The list is lengthy:

• I wake up without an alarm clock on most days between 5am and 6am raring to go. Gone are the days of feeling lethargic after having a wine fest with friends the night before. As such, I have more time to do the things I want and need to do.

• I have jumped on the bandwagon trend of turning my shower to 100 percent cold water the last three minutes. I do this daily. Who cares if I scream like Janet Leigh in the famed scene from Psycho (sorry neighbors!). I feel totally amazing once it’s all over. Cold water therapy is an ancient practice backed up by science. Doing so is said to increase alertness, refine hair and skin, improve circulation and ease stress. I agree across the board.

• I meditate every day for 10 minutes. This has made a massive improvement in taming down my busy-bee mind. I cannot recommend Headspace strongly enough. Love that Andy Puddicombe. It took me awhile to get into the daily meditation groove, but I now have my standard routine and dedicated spot on a little frou frou bench with a furry seat in my living room. Day in and day out I plop my tail down to work on my brain and my thinking.

• Each evening, I write down three good things that happened to me that day in my “Three Good Things” journal. This practice helps me see the silver linings of life, even when I perceive my day as being crappy.

• I’m saving a ton of money. Booze is expensive, especially where I live.

• My confidence and mental fitness have taken a boost. I am more focused and seem to be sharpening my decision-making skills.

• If you like the booze, taking a break from alcohol can be a super challenging journey so I don’t recommend going it alone. I now have tons of new friends in my life who are also doing this alcohol-free challenge. They are sharp, funny, adventurous and courageous souls. I love these people and my life is much enriched because of them.

• All of the sudden, I am landing new clients (another one this week!). And they are amazing projects. Yippee ki yay.

• And, finally, I just feel overall better (although most of the people in my life think I have gone bananas).

So here’s the one thing that perplexes and frustrates me. While I am exercising more and no longer diving into late-night munchies, I haven’t lost any weight. Argh! Howeverrrrr, if I’m honest with myself I have to confess I have this sneaky belief that since I am taking a break from alcohol, I have license to eat during the day like a chipmunk heading into winter. Oh well– so many changes are taking place within and around me–all in due time. I will focus on the slimming down and increased fitness the remainder of my challenge.

I cannot begin to adequately express how grateful I am to Andy Ramage, Ruari Fairbairns and the team at One Year No Beer. These are the incredible, outstanding, awesome folks leading the challenge I’m in. They are helping tens of thousands of people all over the world change their relationship with alcohol. Their booze-free challenges are fun, thought-provoking and heavily laced with passion to help us become better versions of ourselves in all areas of life. How amazing.

One final sidebar note–changing my relationship with alcohol is also resulting in a changing of my relationship with technology, food and money. I’ll write more on these topics in future posts.

So that’s it on my Day 150 of alcohol-free living. Feeling good, feeling happy, feeling thankful.

Cheers and love,

Kathleen