My Dry July Experience

Also, how pregnancy helped me get over food issues.

This post deals with restrictive/disordered eating.

A few weeks ago, I went on a rant about feeling ranty. Feeling ragey. Feeling nuts. Mom rage! It’s a thing!

At the end of it, I mentioned wanting to do Dry July - not drinking alcohol for all of July. I was resolved to do it! Mainly, I felt like alcohol wasn’t really serving me. I got into a habit of having a glass of wine a few nights a week, kind of as a habit, and it made my anxiety worse, made my sleep worse, etc etc. I had a very festive May and June and wanted to just take a little break. After the 4th of July, I hit pause on drinking.

And it was a lot harder than I expected.

The novelty of the idea carried me through the first two days, and I thought This is so easy! And truly, I didn’t drink every night before, it wasn’t like a major lifestyle shift for me or anything. But it’s summer, and we’d be out to dinner on a sparkling west-LA evening, and a glass of chilly, mineraly, pointy, dry white wine sounded….like jumping in a crystal clear pool on a hot day. Just, ahhhh. But no. I refused. And it got harder, and harder, and harder.