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This December I will finally achieve one of the resolutions I made for this year: not to drink any alcohol. It's not that I had a drinking problem or anything like that, but when my wife started to face the last stage of pregnancy, I thought it was the perfect time to give up alcohol completely. In Spain it is extremely easy to become a social drinker, because practically any small gathering is an occasion to have a few beers.
Not drinking alcohol seemed to me an act of "solidarity" with her, and at the same time, it allowed me to always be at 100% in case she needed any kind of help or support. Indirectly, it was also a boost to my general state of health, which, although not bad, is not that of an Olympic athlete. "There's no safe alcohol consumption" is the mantra I've repeated to myself every time I've thought about this topic. I want to be with my family to the fullest!
Whenever I've felt like a beer in a social context, I've always opted for "0.0%" beer. There have been times when it has been really difficult to avoid drinking it: dinners with friends, family meals, etc., but the ultimate test I would say was just the wedding we were at yesterday... In Spain, weddings are one of the social events in which people drink more uncontrollably, since during the twelve hours that can last on average, there is a mixture of beer, wine, spirits, etc... And all for free, of course: there are no limits.
Looking back, I don't miss it at all. I don't miss the hangovers, the headache, the discomfort afterwards, the insecurity for having made slightly inappropriate comments, the feeling of a slight loss of control, etc. It's true that some special meals lose a bit of sophistication when you swap wine for water, but my life alone is already pretty unsophisticated, so it's not a big change either.
Of all the New Year's resolutions I've made, I think this was one of the best, so I encourage everyone to give it a try.
-Originally published in CoHost