2 years sober, my story
Originally posted in Substack.
2 years since I drank alcohol! October 16, 2023.
I was a “social” drinker. I was not what I would have considered to be an “alcoholic”. I drank with friends, at dinners, on vacations, concerts, sports, parties, holidays- all the normal places people drank at. I wasn’t hiding bottles. Or blackout all the time. I didn’t even drink every day.
But here’s my story.
2 years ago I was 35 pounds heavier, chronically inflamed and my hormones were so out of line that I had cyst removal surgery and prescribed HRT (which I refused).
After trying everything I could to lose weight (and it not working), I decided I’d do a “cleanse” to try to lose weight. Not even connecting the rest of my health problems with alcohol. Part of my cleanse/diet was removing alcohol. Alcohol was, so I thought, so little of a problem for me that I really thought I would be able to quit whenever I wanted! (Though I never had tried before to remove alcohol ever - other than pregnancy.) So that was it - I started a ‘cleanse” and I quit drinking 100% with the goal to lose weight. That’s it. The only reason. Jeans that don’t fit called for desperation. And that was me, desperate. 🤣
I 100% did not expect to quit drinking forever. I thought I’d just like do 30 days or whatever and lose weight like I did in my 20s. But that’s not what happened.
30 days - I lost no weight. I was emotional. I couldn’t sleep. I found it hard to live my life without alcohol. And if you’ve ever said something like “oh I love drinks at dinner” or “oh I could never quit drinking with my friends” this should sound familiar how strong the social aspect of drinking really is. It’s everywhere. It’s at the hair salon. It’s a drink after you run a marathon. It’s normal and it is harder to stop than people even realize. Until you stop, then it is all just glaring you in the face and these moments just are SO obvious how much alcohol controls your life.
When I quit, I learned that all of my life revolved around: having a drink, meeting for a drink, ordering a drink, or bringing a drink.
It was so much harder to stop and live my life than I expected it to be. That alone made me keep going. This to me was a red flag - why is this hard? Why do I want a drink so much if I am not “really” addicted. I sure felt addicted. It was not in a physical way, but an emotional way.
I kept going. (So much more on the in between to come!)
30 days… Very little change. My skin became hydrated very quickly and that is what kept me going. My bloating got worse. I cried all the time. It was an oddly emotional time for me.
Fast forward to 90 days and I experienced a slight improvement in weight and inflammation and sleep. Ahhh sleep… with sleep came the real healing.
Around 6m, my body started healing. But it wasn’t until 1 year or more that things actually went away. It took my body ONE YEAR WITHOUT BOOZE to reset from 20+years of consistent drinking.
My hormones? 2 YEARS TO RESET! Only last month did my dr. apologize for misdiagnosing me with PCOS because, “there is no way you have that with hormones this level…” No mam, I promise you my hormones were just that bad before I quit.
Did you know that the CDC definition for chronic drinking is only eight drinks per week? I did not. Did you also know that chronic weekly drinking can impact your hormones and your body for years even after you remove it? No, I didn’t know this either… but it’s true! (We will get into this so much more! I could talk for days about this topic alone.) If you’re only just drinking one drink a night you’re just one drink away from a chronic heavy drinker! A bottle of wine has five drinks. It doesn’t take that much to be considered a chronic heavy drinker by definition and that’s what I didn’t learn until after I quit drinking. That is the message I want to spread most. So many of us are chronic heavy drinkers and have NO idea!
That was me.
I was a chronic heavy drinker -and I had no idea bc I felt in control of my drinking and I didn’t drink daily.
So many of us are consumed by this must drink culture and in return we are experiencing so many problems amplified by our drinking that we do week after week, year after year, for decades without thinking twice.
Here’s a look at my issues that magically went away with no booze and time:
I lost and have kept off 35 pounds. I went from a size 8 to a size 2/4. Once I lost the weight, this has been the only time in my life I have not immediately gained anything back.
Hormonal regulation finally balanced which impacted my entire life. Hormones control so much more than you might think - weight, sleep, and mind, too.
My hair stopped falling out. In fact my hair is shinier, fuller and less breakage. I can’t keep up with hair cuts bc it grows so fast.
Turns out I was also malnourished bc when you drink the body can’t absorb nutrients as efficiently so I had things like brittle bones and vitamin deficiencies.
Plantar fasciitis (caused probably from full body inflammation)
A lingering broken rib injury finally healed after years of daily pain. Which I broke playing golf, which the dr said “never happens” unless you have brittle bones.. which, I did at age 35!
No more headaches
hydrated skin - my skin turned from a gray color to full of life!
No more bleeding gums
I can sleep 8+ hours without waking up every night multiple times.
No more bloat or stomach issues. No more leaky gut.
Anxiety near non existent.
My son also improved in sports, school and mentally which came as a surprise to me. But when you are clear mind it’s easy to see when a team or school isn’t the right fit or you stop skipping optional 7am practices bc you’re tired too. You start eating better and so do they. These small things. These change them. And this I didn’t expect.
I’m always asked if “all I did” was quit. Anyone who quits knows that is not possible to “just” quit. When you quit drinking. You are able to find this time and consistency that you otherwise could not. Because you aren’t perpetually behind and exhausted you have TIME like you wouldn’t believe. You sleep. You don’t miss days. You have the mental capacity to focus on things. You remember to take your vitamins. You wash your face. You floss. You can find root causes of things like (allergies or leaky gut) bc alcohol isn’t impacting you anymore and with that removed, you can see when something is truly wrong. It’s the wildest thing that I never expected.
Alcohol was the domino impacting every single part of my body, mind and life.
It’s like everything I have tried my whole life came together when I removed poison from my body.
I am not ever foggy or behind. I say less I regret. I am organized 99.9% of the time. I honestly feel and maybe even look better now at almost 40 than I did in my 20s.
I am still social. I still have friends. I do all the same things I did before I quit. So I started sharing my story on my Instagram
Soberly_Positive
and my goal is to have a book launch soon. If you have ever wondered if maybe drinking isn’t the right thing - send me a message. It might just be taking more than you think.
Also I do not care if others drink. I don’t care just like you should not care if I don’t drink. But I want to share just so you know you can stop if you want to and continue the life you want. Drinking at every single event/party/vacation/holiday/weekend means you are drinking SO much more than you might realize.
Thanks for being here and following along as we explore more about alcohol and how to quit to unlock your best life! You won’t regret it! It is the best life hack I have ever experienced.
xo,
Jackie