Four reasons why I'm still not drinking right now

A three-year update on my "30-day" self-experiment

It’s been THREE years since I began my “I’m not drinking right now” experiment, and my relationship with alcohol continues to progress. The original “not drinking” experiment started in September 2018, when I decided on a whim to not drink for a month. I say “on a whim” because there was no impetus for the choice other than, “I wonder what would happen if I didn’t drink at all?”

I wasn’t a regular drinker before, and I certainly have never had a problem with alcohol. To the contrary, since my first Whole30 in 2009, I’d found myself naturally drinking less and less alcohol each year. And when I started dating Brandon (my now-husband) in 2017, I drank even less, as he’s never had a drink. Still, every time I did have a glass or two of wine (never more), I wondered… was that really worth it? Did I really need it?

There were a ton of people doing the September Whole30, and though I didn’t need a full Whole30 at the time, it felt like a natural move to experiment with not drinking. So I adopted the phrase “I’m not drinking right now,” which felt accurate and a little less constrictive than saying, “I may never drink again.”