Hello Sunday Morning

When I started writing full time, I decided to take a little break from blogging. I'm hoping to start up again, with a slightly different focus away from what I cover at work.

My big challenge at the moment is taking part in Hello Sunday Morning - a three month challenge to give up alcohol and blog about changes you notice as a result. 

My official start day was last Thursday (June 29), and now it's Monday. 

I made it through the weekend without drinking.  First thoughts: in your face to all my friends that said I would last ten minutes, and, well done self!

Living in a super-social share house, Thursday night beers are a pretty common occurrence. I distracted myself upstairs despite mutual friends gathering in the living room. Come 4pm Friday, however, the after-work drink cravings kicked in.

I met with a friend (also a new HSMer) for pre-dinner drinks. The bartender at Tartufo knocked us up some pretty stellar mocktails – basil smash (basil, lemon, simple syrup, soda – sans gin). The mocktail theme continued through the night; an iced tea with dinner at Byblos and berry number at Shadow Lounge before the sweetness became all too much and I stuck to water for the rest of the night.

Come Saturday night, I found that I didn’t even need an alcohol- substitute. Waters and a single red bull saw me through whereas I’d normally have a couple of gin and tonics.  Sunday night I normally have a glass of red wine with dinner but again, water was enough. Hydration, yo.

While I did enjoy a lazy Sunday, I ate a much healthier breakfast (poached eggs, avocado and goats’ cheese with mint - no cravings for greasy bacon) and managed to get all of my chores done.

Come today, I checked my bank balance and was shocked to see that I had barely touched my account over the weekend. While I had definitely splurged on a few ‘nice’ drinks (the one at Shadow Lounge was $9. Yikes.) I had spent much less over-all. Writing this also made me realise I generally consume way, way more alcoholic units that recommended by health experts. Also thinking about the sugar content of the three mocktails is scary – but I imagine that it would be less than the sugar content of three alcoholic drinks.

To be clear, I don’t usually drink so much that I’m hung-over every weekend, but I do definitely suffer from a certain fogginess after a few drinks and late-night.

Positives: Less foggy, more money and healthier diet.

Negatives: Not so bad, but pressure for friends, missing my expensive red wine and sick of explaining to everyone my motivations for not drinking. 

Stay tuned for some pretty rad mocktail recipes.