Happy Monday y’all! Kicking it off with a post surrounding all things Dry January today to recap the month and how it went. I’ve had so many people ask me if I actually did the full month, and the answer is YES (also why did so many people doubt me lol???). I’m sharing what I experienced, why I did it, my tips and tricks and overall thoughts below. Reminder that this is just my personal experience, I am not a medical professional and everyone will see/feel different situations if they opt for a dry month. Feel free to DM me any questions on this I am an open book – have a great day and thanks for reading!

What Dry January Is
Dry January is usually what (some) people do to start the new year off by eliminating alcohol from their lifestyle. Some people do it because the holiday season is so alcohol heavy, some do it to help bring on that whole fitness lifestyle that naturally comes along with New Years resolutions, and some just do it to challenge themselves – similar to Whole 30 fans at the first of the year. You can read more about Dry January in this Harvard article.

Why I Wanted To Do It
I’ve toyed with the idea of 31 days without alcohol before but have honestly always just laughed at the idea. I’ve been someone who has never really cared about the mindset behind drinking alone because I’ve lived alone for so long, but as I’ve gotten older and have really scaled back what I’m drinking (mainly to wine), I do tend to look forward to that glass at the end of a crazy day or week. I eat relatively healthy/cook at home vs. going out to eat, I’m fairly active with anywhere from 5-7 work outs a week (hello Orange Theory and NY Pilates), but I’ve been at a plateau and overall unhappy with myself for some time and I wanted to test if the underlying factor to not reaching my internal goals was in fact, alcohol (spoiler alert: it was).

My dad made a comment over the holidays how I would be shocked what my body would do when I cut out alcohol completely, and boy was he right. Also want to throw out a disclaimer that I am obviously not a medical professional (nor did I consult my dad’s perspective for advice from a medical professional), and what worked for me may not yield the same results for someone else. A jump ahead to my key takeaway, Dry January really made me see just how much alcohol I was consuming and how many of my calories were allocated towards it.

The Experience
So many people say that they get the best sleep of their life, are able to wake up early and pop out of bed, and quickly lose that anxious feeling that comes alongside a night of drinking. That said, I was nearly opposite. I still sleep horribly and have always had trouble with a bit of insomnia, but the first two weeks of January were brutal for me. Because I wasn’t sleeping well I was also more anxious and groggy. I started to use Zquil to help get me to sleep and stay asleep faster, but I’m typically going to bed around 10, waking up at midnight and again at 4:45am (almost nightly, it’s very odd). I don’t pop out of bed when my alarm goes off but my body has adapted to an earlier wake up call.

The reason why I do think this was achievable for myself (and a big thing to note) is that I’m in such a different state of life than I was even just last year. I turn 28 next month, rarely go out to bars like I once did, have a boyfriend that I enjoy just spending time with doing normal things that don’t revolve around bar hopping, and NYC in January has been absolutely frigid this year making it not worth it in my mind to brave the cold. It was way easier to occupy my mind and find things around the apartment to do or develop new hobbies to partake in. Don’t get me wrong, I will always love a breakfast beverage or afternoon glass of wine, but it was refreshing to go without it (and knowing that I could easily do it again).

What Worked For Me
The biggest tip and trick I found is to find something that takes the place of wine that you can look forward to. For me, it was a daily kombucha (Healthade is my personal favorite). Tons of people share to put it in a wine glass at the end of the night for the same feel but I actually loved mine the most first thing in the morning when I’d get back from my workout class (I am very weird about water in the morning because I have a weirdly weak stomach). I replaced my wine re-stocks with kombucha re-stocks (not sure which is more expensive, but Costco does have a pack of Healthade Kombucha that is a bargain + available on Instacart for delivery for anyone in NYC). I also stocked up on Top Chico lime, AKA the most elite seltzer water, that I would switch off with so I wasn’t drinking multiple Kombuchas in the day.

I really tried to plan my days and time out better and occupy myself in the evening so that even if I had a hard/bad day, I had plans to go to Orange Theory or watch a show with my boyfriend and didn’t give myself time to think about getting or ordering wine. Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot to celebrate in January too (more to come there), but I got in the habit of getting my favorite Kombucha or pulling out a fancy glass to celebrate.

I used the buddy system and did Dry January with my boyfriend which obviously helped. Most of my friends were out of NYC in January and transparently a ton of them have left the city entirely, so the social aspect wasn’t as heavy this month than it will be in the summer.

I re-established my fitness goals so that I had something else I wanted to focus on, almost like a new hobby. Along with my work out classes I decided to start a caloric deficit again because that’s what helped me lose weight in 2020. Along with that I am tracking calories and scaling things out which I know can be controversial but it’s something that works for me/I enjoy knowing I’m getting proper nutrients and also scaling back in areas. I also aim to get 10K steps per day and burn 750 calories (usually more if I go to Orange Theory). I do think that these have helped me see the results I’ve seen, but these will continue on throughout the year.

Overall Results + Thoughts
In a span of 31 days I’ve dropped nearly 14lbs, and when I say I got to a point where the weight just started to fall off I mean it. This is really what made me realize just how many calories I was allocating to alcohol. I’ve never felt so not bloated in my life and it truly feels amazing. Since I’m less bloated and puffy I can see some of the differences in my body that comes from taking a few months of pilates classes – one day I just woke up and was like wait WHAT. I feel way more confident than I have in a long time and it’s truly the perfect way to start off the new year.

I definitely spent way too much on Kombucha and I really need to reevaluate that part because the overall best case scenario is that I should be saving $250-$350 per month by not stocking up on wine or drinking out. I did have a little bit more to spend towards myself which I definitely did.

I’m honestly debating either doing a dry month every other month throughout the year, or opting for a damp lifestyle in general. I know I’m not old, but getting older the hangovers just are not fun, my body doesn’t bounce back like it used to and to be totally honest I feel like there’s no point to spend so much money on fitness classes to not be doing anything in tandem to help me reach my goals. Now that we are one week into February (a heavy celebration month), I’ve had a couple nights of drinking again and I’m just not sure that I’ll ever resort to a “treat yourself” moment with a bottle of wine at home again, which is crazy! The times are changing. I also know that not drinking won’t allow weight to just fly off and that a lot of what I saw in the first month was water weight fluctuation and post-holiday things, but if it comes down to whether I can have a fancy cocktail or a baked potato I’m gonna go baked potato LOL.

I have my birthday this weekend which will be a bit of a celebration, followed by Valentine’s Day, a basketball game for my boyfriend’s birthday, and a trip to Paris with my mom. I definitely won’t be cutting out alcohol just yet, but I can see myself scaling back or being more mindful of how much I’m drinking over the next month. Let me know if y’all tried out Dry January too!