Why I Don’t Drink

…Or perhaps the title should read “Why I Choose Not To Drink”.

Although we have no problem having a glass of wine, or even a fruity cocktail once in a blue moon, C and I consider ourselves as non-drinkers. (gasp!)

I find it funny when we end up in certain situation where people are offering us a drink, and we say no thanks — or when we are out with friends and order water vs. alcohol. I swear we get the look of death from people as they ask us “WHY?!” As if there is something totally and completely wrong with us because we choose not to drink. I even got this comment the other day from a new coworker which made me laugh actually – “You’re going to Jamaica for your wedding and you don’t drink?! What fun is a dry wedding???” My response to him was something along the lines of “Well yes, we plan on having a few drinks on our wedding trip, but we certainly don’t plan on going there to get drunk for the whole week.”  The look I got from him was one of extreme judgement and although a look like that would have normally hurt me, I just smiled and the conversation was dropped at that.

Now I definitely wasn’t always a non-drinker.

During my high school days, I remember the majority of my class mates beginning to experiment with alcohol in the 9th grade. It was always offered to me, but I was shy and a bit of a goody-goody. I never even tried the stuff until I attended a party of small friends in grade 11.  I probably drank enough times to count on one hand throughout the rest of my high school years and that was it until university.

Oh university. The first time in my life where I felt like a teeny tiny little fish in a VERY BIG pond.

I attended university far from home and on that very first day, knew only my roommate (and we had only even really met once before). I was also shy and still underage as I wasn’t set to turn 19 until October.  I remember drinking a little bit with the girls on my floor in residence but I also remember staying back in my room as the girls went out to the bar night after night. (Being a goody-goody by nature, I was too scared to use a fake id like others had done)  That October came around and I was legal – finally!  I don’t know how I remember the night of my 19th birthday… I remember being given various shots in residence and then actually having to have the cab pull over on route to the bar (the bar was only a 5 min drive away) so I could throw up on the side of the road.  I got into the bar for my first time and proceeded to spend the next hour or so sitting at a table barely conscious until my friends brought me home.

Sounds fun right?

I definitely came out of my shell in university thanks to alcohol and those 4 years were years of many parties, many bar visits, many late nights and MANY hangovers. I just kept going.

I graduated university with a boyfriend of 2 years who also had a big love for the bottle. Although I then had a full-time job, the weekends of binge drinking continued on with no sign of slowing down.  His parents and family were the same and I think a part of my actually felt that was normal! I think I must have been under the spell of the life of alcohol and partying and no responsibilities when I agreed to marry him the fall after I graduated from university. 6 months later, only 1 month before we were to move into our first home, he broke my heart.  I had found out he had been cheating for almost our entire 3 year relationship and although it absolutely killed me at the time, I had enough. I moved into the house on my own, and that was that.

I was so sad and depressed at that time, that nightly glasses of wine became the norm for me. It wasn’t always one glass either.  I suffered for about 7-8 months until I think I finally hit my “Healthy Tipping Point” (as Caitlin would call it).  That boy didn’t deserve my tears anymore, and my body didn’t deserve the abuse anymore.

That is when I stopped drinking.

I started eating better, spent more time riding and within the first month or so, actually dropped almost 10lbs! I felt great!

A few months after that, I ventured on over to plentyoffish.com looking for someone who wasn’t into the ‘party scene’ and that is when I found C.

I honestly believe it was meant to be.

I found it so refreshing to actually find someone who had a healthy outlook on life just like me and someone who didn’t have to look to alcohol to have fun.

Now, I’m not in any way condoning people who drink. Because like I said, we will have a glass of wine or a cocktail from time to time. I’m just trying to say that without alcohol we are so extremely happy and feel great all the time (ie. no hangovers!).  Our bodies are strong and healthy, and it just works.

I should also take this time to thank C for pushing me even further.  If it wasn’t for his love and support, I wouldn’t have acted on my crazy idea to start running this past winter.  He supported me and pushed me and now I’ve actually found another way to stay active on top of my riding – and it’s something that I love!  Having a partner with the same views on health and life definitely makes things easy and fun and it makes me so excited to see where our views will take us in the future.

On that note…

I must talk about..

 Healthy Living Blogs . com!!!

 Healthy Living Blogs is a new resource for the health blogging community. Created by Lindsey of Sound Eats, HLB is a site designed to enhance the positive community of the healthy living blog world. Bloggers and readers can explore the site and find more blogs to love, bloggers in their area, and forums to deepen healthy discussion and support.

I think the best part about it is how you can find bloggers in your area! I only just found out about this site on Friday and already found Miranda’s blog – Miranda lives in the same teeny tiny town as me! So cool!

If you’re interested in having your site listed on HLB, simply send the following information to healthylivingblogs@gmail.com and check the site out for yourself!

• Email subject line: MEMBERS
• Your name (please share if you prefer to go by first name, first and last, or however you prefer to be known on the Internet)
• Blog Name
• Blog URL (please start with http://, not www.)
• Your twitter handle, if applicable
• Your location (if you prefer not to disclose this information for privacy’s sake, that is completely understandable. We’ll simply include your blog listing in the A-Z listing, not by location, too)
• Any specific labels (i.e. vegan, gluten-free, weight loss, running, etc.)

It’s such a great idea and I’m having a blast finding so many amazing new-to-me blogs! 🙂

Enjoy your afternoon!