A drink after a long day to take off the edge, then a few more on the weekends to loosen up all the stress and anxiety the days prior might have brought. Sound familiar? It’s no surprise to any of us that after everything we had to live through in 2020 alcohol sales went up, but they didn’t just go up, in fact sales reached almost $5.6 billion and that was only accounting for e-commerce in just a matter of months.

As someone who picked up mild-moderate drinking during the pandemic I began to wonder the role that alcohol was really playing in my well-being. I have never been a fan of fab-diets or gimmicky health changes that might not be suitable for the long haul. That’s because any type of deprivation method with an expiration date tends to not have a lot of benefits once it’s over. However, I figured that giving up alcohol for 30 days wasn’t going to cause any harm, and in fact now that I am three weeks into this dry spell , the simple act of not consuming alcohol has given me some major eye openers, health benefits, and as an added bonus, it’s free and saving me money!

First, let’s define what moderate drinking means. The NIAAA uses the USDA Dietary Guidelines to define moderate drinking as up to one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men. Heavy drinking, according to the NIAAA, means consuming more than three drinks in a day for women or more than four drinks for men. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has a bit of a different definition, describing heavy alcohol use as binge drinking (four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men on the same occasion) on at least five days in the past month, the NIAAA explains.

So if your drinking habits are on the heavier side, you might find the transition into not drinking a bit more difficult, but just as worth it.

On week one of sober-curiosity I didn’t really feel any alcohol cravings. In fact, the only time I’ve been slightly tempted is when I met up with a friend for dinner. This is where your support system comes in place, after my friend offered a drink and I kindly declined, she didn’t insist or pressure me into drinking. If you’re planning on doing a dry month, make sure to let your friends know and get their support. If you have a friend or someone you know who will not let down that you’re not drinking, it might be best to avoid that person for the time being while you take on this challenge.

By week two is when I really started noticing changes, suddenly I started to feel under the weather, had headaches and felt a little cranky. At first, I brushed off as any other natural mood swing. However, after further research I realized all of these symptoms could be attributed to my body detoxifying from alcohol. According to the U.S National Library of Medicine, going cold turkey after drinking regularly, can cause you to possibly experience mild-to-moderate symptoms of alcohol withdrawal that feel like a nasty extended hangover, such as anxiety, irritability, nausea, fatigue, headache, and shakiness.

Thankfully for me, the headaches and moodiness only lasted about two days and after that is when I really started to feel the benefits of not drinking. For starters, my mood began to stabilize, I’ve been waking up more energized, have had overall a more optimistic mindset, and feel clarity and motivation to work on my long term goals.

It’s important to understand the effects of alcohol on your body when you begin to detoxify from it so you know how to help your body optimize this detoxification. Alcohol is proven to cause an imbalance of our digestive track. So it’s important to help support our immunity and gut during this transition by restoring our microbe with a variety of enriching foods such as: ginger, leafy greens, fruits and vegetables, healthy fats like avocado, and grains like quinoa and brown rice.

A lot of us gained what I like to call self-care weight over the last year. Some of this weight can be attributed to the alcohol we consumed on such “self-care” mentioned days. During an experiment by The New Scientist in 2017 participants who abstained from drinking alcohol for 35 days saw a significant decrease in blood sugar and liver fat. If you’re someone who is working on getting back in shape skipping that evening glass of wine can take you a step further in your goals.

A surprising fact I learned while doing research on the topic of Dry January, is that on average most adults who consume alcohol will spend 2 years of their life hungover. Yes two full years. That’s enough time to complete a college degree! Think of all the things you could accomplish if you weren’t hurting with a hangover after a night of too much drinking?

The reason why we get hangovers is that our bodies, and in particular our livers, are not able to process and metabolize the break down products from the alcohol quickly enough. In addition to needing enough enzymes, the liver also needs water to process and get rid of the toxins. When supplies run low, it takes water from other organs, including the brain. This is why alcohol is so dehydrating, and why you can wake up with a throbbing headache (and a dry mouth) from drinking too much. It is thus essential to drink a lot of water while drinking and before you go to bed… or better yet, not drink all together and enjoy a pain-free day the next day!

We all drink for different reasons. Maybe it’s to socialize easier, to whine down after a long week, to celebrate success, or maybe to simply help you cope with anxiety or stress. Whatever your reason is for picking up a drink, it’s important to take some time to reflect on why you drink and whether it’s really serving you.

It’s easier to rethink your relationship with booze when you have some distance from it. It’s been eye opening to realize how much more productive I am when I don’t drink. Does this mean I will quit drinking alcohol forever? Maybe, but probably not. However, this experience has definitely made me reflect on whether it’s necessary to have a second drink or if it’s worth drinking more than once a month.