After going 31 days alcohol free, you may be wondering….. How We Survived Dry July?
Abstaining from alcohol for a month no matter how much you drink is going to be beneficial for anyone. If you joined in the 4 week break and gave alcohol the flick as well, you’ll probably already have noticed a few changes mentally and physically yourself. (And good job too!).
We think we not only survived….. but found out a few AHA’s about ourselves along the way and also thrived.
Both Greg and I have different versions of how we felt and managed the month of Dry July, so we decided to interview each other about the 31 day challenge and it’s benefits, outcomes and ups and downs.
Let’s get to the nitty gritty of how we survived Dry July.
Q 1. How did you find the challenge over all?
Greg – Not too bad. Can you elaborate on question one Greg? For sure…..pretty easy really. Winter seems to be a better time to go on the wagon.
Sonya – A lot easier than I thought it would be. The 31 days flew by really quickly and I rather enjoyed it all.
Q 2. Would you consider doing it again?
Greg – Oh for sure….not in Summer thought. Be a bit too hard I think. I’m usually dry as a chip after work.
Sony – Yep for sure and I know I could do it again easily after know what to expect. I think I’d do dry week and not dry weekend if you know what I mean in general. One of my friends does a no vino Monday to Thursday and a couple of tipples the rest of the weekend.
Q 3.Did you notice any changes or anything different for you over the month?
Greg – Better sleep at night (and for my wife too. I can vouch for that). The snore factor increased tenfold. zzzzzzzzz
Sonya – Oh my….. I slept so well that each morning I had to ask myself “did I need to wake up in the middle of the night to do a wee or not?” I couldn’t remember. Greg would ask me some mornings, “did you hear the rain last night? It came down in buckets!”. And honestly I had no recollection of any unusual weather at all. Definitely a NUP from me. I was out like a light.
In the morning though I thought I would feel super refreshed and jumping out of my skin after such a solid sleep. But it was more like I’d been catching up on sleep I’d missed out on for the last 2 years and still felt like I needed a little bit more. By the end of the month I was feeling so much better though.
Another thing I noticed almost straight away was that my skin wasn’t dry anymore. I didn’t realise how much alcohol dehydrated your skin as a rule. I still continued my dry skin routine to ensure it was extra nourished and full of moisture.
Q 4. Was there a drink that you favored instead of the alcohol in the 31 days?
Greg – Water for sure. When we were invited out to a birthday dinner in the first week of going dry in July, I grabbed some Carlton Zero (no alcohol beer), and found that quite ok. I also had a couple of those during the month as well. Not being used to the zero alcohol drinks the first one went down a little rough but after that It was really great to drink.
Sonya – Sadly I seem to hit the coffee a bit harder which wasn’t soooo good. Water with a dash of low sugar cordial and some mint leaves became a go-to especially before and during dinner. The non alcoholic or de-alcoholised wines from McGuigan were rather nice.
At the birthday dinner I really loved a sparkling rose called Fizzero . A thumbs up was given from the other ladies at the birthday bash as well. As July is a cold I consumed lots of herbal teas during the day and last thing at night because I loved them so much.
Flavours of choice were mint and licorice and ones that helped digestion.
Q 5. Was there a downside to going Dry July?
Greg – not really. I’m ok with not drinking grog.
Sonya – I was actually very surprised at how “ok” the whole month was for me. Sometimes on a Friday afternoon I thought “Oh it’s happy hour” but got over it and grabbed a non-alcoholic version wine instead.
Q 6. What were the upsides?
Greg – It’s great to tune-up your routine at times. So many things go from a treat, to a regular occurrence and before you know it it’s a habit. S
Sonya – What was a really great encouraging thing was knowing that others family member’s and friends were also doing the 31 day booze free challenge. They kept me inspired.
Friends at the birthday dinner also gave the beer, wine and cocktails the flick for the night and have to say we really didn’t notice a difference at all. We had an awesome pitcher of “Nojito’s” – non alcoholic Mojito’s, another Mocktail loaded with mint and ginger ale which I can’t remember what it was but I drank heaps of it because it was soooo yummy. Also some sparkling zero rose, zero beer and lots of water to follow.
Good flush out actually without the fuzzy head the next day.
As Dry July was inspired by 3 young men to raise money for cancer research was not only really special to be a part of. Their encouraging tips and help on social media was really uplifting and fun. I really admire them.
The Round Up of going Dry July
I did wonder at times how we were going to survive Dry July. One of the fun things we loved doing during the entire month was our 31 Tips to Survive Dry July daily on our blog and Instagram too. This kept us motivated and got our creative juices flowing plus we really hoped it helped others to also stay encouraged and Dry in July.
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