No Mas Tequila

March 1, 2020

I was halfway through a trip halfway around the world when I made the decision to stop drinking alcohol. It happened as I was sitting in the lobby of the Kaisu hostel in Tokyo, Japan, enjoying a rather strong brew of Matcha green tea. As I watched the steam billow up and gently climb over and down the other side of my teacup I had a sudden realization. It was November 30, which meant that 2019 was quickly winding down.

I began to reflect on the past year and what I had accomplished, as well as areas of my life where I had fallen short. As I sat there in my indoor Japanese slippers, I started to mull over my relationship with alcohol over the past 11 months. Like a stereotypical high school relationship, I had been on-again off-again so many times throughout the year that no one ever really knew where my relationship with alcohol stood. It was always a toss-up between if I was drinking that weekend or if I had gone back to another cleanse.

The issue for me was that I simply stopped enjoying the act of drinking alcohol. Not only had my hangovers become a multiple-day event, I actually stopped feeling good in the moment of drinking. Gone was the talkative buzz and the gradual loosening of social inhibitions. Those had long been replaced with dizziness, nausea, and headaches. The ironic thing is that I would feel so terrible once I started drinking, that I would actually become less talkative and more awkward because I no longer felt my usual self.

The very reasons why most people consume alcohol, namely the injection of energy, charisma and liquid courage, no longer existed in my world of drinking. All I had been left with was a foul tasting liquid that had zero benefits and a laundry list of costs. Part of me believes that I developed an allergic reaction to alcohol over time. The other part thinks that I unconsciously made my body reject alcohol because I knew it was working directly against all my goals.

I come from a unique family situation where both of my parents don’t drink. My dad was raised Christian Science so he never really experimented much with alcohol. My mom has always been health oriented, and the extent of her alcohol consumption for all of my life has been about half a Corona a couple times a year.

I have always known that I would eventually quit drinking, mostly because I was raised by two incredible people that seemed to be doing just fine without alcohol. In fact, I would argue they are doing better. Both my parents look about 15 years younger than their biological age, and they still both surf, ski, wakeboard, and mountain bike with me. If deciding to stop drinking at age 25 can help me be even half as active as they are when I’m their age, then sign me the f@!# up.

For all of the above reasons, I have decided to go all of 2020 without having a single alcoholic drink. I am three months in I already feel incredible. I am in the best shape of my life and I have a seemingly endless supply of energy. I am sleeping better, eating better, and swear that I have become more athletic. I truly feel like I am operating at a level of peak performance and that nothing can stop me. 

Simply put, I feel unlimited.