Sun 12th July 2009

So I made it through my 21 day challenge without a drink (alcoholic drink I mean of course). I know it sounds like I am a mad alcoholic going on about a mere 3 weeks drink-free, but I do not genuinely believe I had a major problem to tackle in the first place. My motivation was based on a realisation that I was drinking more nights in a week than not. What a difference one day can make to the tiny tipping balance between three and four days, which so delicately underpins such a claim. If only there were eight days in a week, things would have been on a more even keel and wouldn’t have seemed such an issue (but of course the eight day week is just another example of the false promises The Beatles made to us). I suppose drinking more evenings than not implied I was using alcohol as a kind of avoidance, for time that could be better spent. But if abstinence has taught me anything it is that the mind is strong-willed; able to find plenty of other ways to procrastinate without the aid of the demon drink.

I was rather curious as to whether my dry spell would have any positive alleviation on my irritable bowel. Turns out it didn’t. One time in particular, my guts were in so much turmoil, I reckon I could have managed a faithful recreation of John Hurt’s famous scene in Alien quite ably. If I remember rightly, I similarly expelled quite a few Gieger-esque creations of my own that day.

But least there’s been a brief lifestyle change for me; I’ve had lots of fruit, summer salads, museli and cottage cheese and I’ve done loads of exercise to the gym. I must, at the very least, have lost a little bit of weight (whatever protestations my mother’s apparently accurate scales made to the contrary). And despite having just reached the end of my demi-detox, I have already concocted a new regime for myself, which involves having to work off the equivalent calorie count at the gym in advance of any drinking indulgences. This should help me obtain better control over my drinking and sustain a healthier lifestyle in the future. Even though there seems to be no discernable benefit whatsoever.