I Quit Drinking Alcohol

Well here’s a big life update for you…I quit drinking alcohol.

How I Started to Quit Drinking

Coming up in May of this year, it will be 3 years. And that is pretty unbelievable to me, because wine was such a part of my every day normal.

The thing is, is that I didn’t intentionally quit. I was planning to start the AIP diet (autoimmune protocol) because I had this weird rash thing on the back of my neck that wouldn’t go away. So I wanted to do AIP and eliminate a bunch of food groups to see if that ended up helping.

I was going to give it 30 days and fully commit to it, and you can’t have alcohol while on AIP. While that was annoying at first, I still committed!

30 days came, and guess what?

I survived without wine.

And I didn’t miss it. Didn’t really even crave it anymore. So I just continued on.

I also stayed with AIP because I liked how I felt. I liked how the inflammation was less and less in my body, and I liked how I wasn’t bloated at the end of the day. I did lose about 10 lbs which was even more of a bonus. ;) The weird thing on my neck didn’t completely go away, but it did help and definitely wasn’t as itchy and inflamed.

The Results I Saw After I Quit

A year passed by and I thought ”WOW! This is a pretty big deal!”

I not only feel better, but I feel like a better mom and wife. I’m no longer waking up feeling miserable, and no longer counting down the hours till bedtime so I could get some wine and relax and work. I still look forward to bedtime don’t misunderstand that part, but it’s just different now.

2 years passed by, and I thought ”DANG, this is really incredible!”

And all I could think of at that 2 year mark is how incredibly grateful I am that the Lord delivered me from alcohol.

To no longer be a slave to wine and have it be something I thought about way too often, is a really great feeling.

I wasn’t the type to get drunk and wasn’t a party animal by any means, but I was the typical 2 glasses of wine per night gal.

Now here we are, coming up on 3 years in May, and I’m still just so grateful. I don’t ever think about it, I don’t run to that when things get stressful (and believe me we’ve had a LOT of stressful times!), and I am just so thankful I was free from this when the pandemic hit. I believe God freed me at His perfect time because who knows what I would have done all day being locked up.

Another really cool thing about this? Is that my husband stopped drinking also. His 3 years will be this October, and I’m just so proud of him. I’m proud of both of us for stopping something that was wrecking us and wrecking our marriage.

I’m not here to tell you what to do. I’m just sharing a little bit of my story. And it doesn’t matter to me one bit if you drink! But if you know deep down, it might be a little too much or too often, just know that you can change. It doesn’t have to rule your life. Alcoholism runs deep in our family, and I don’t want it to trickle down to our girls. It doesn’t have to be a normal part of socialization like society makes it out to be. You CAN have fun still with your water or kombucha or whatever you like. :)

I’m here for you always if you want to talk about it, or if you want to share a story you have in the comments I’d love to hear!

~Emily