We’re now well into February which means that’s it’s definitely time to talk about my 2024 challenge.
Wait, is this what you used to call your January habits?
Well, yes. But they weren’t particularly successful (apart from the 10,000 steps a day one) so I’ve had a rethink and I’m focusing on just 1 thing for the year.
So what have you decided on?
I’ve decided that I’m going to go the whole of 2024 without drinking any alcohol.
Couldn’t you just do Dry January like everyone else?
Well, yes, but that wouldn’t be a challenge. I’m sure I’ve gone a month without alcohol before, both intentionally and unintentionally. The real challenge is doing it for a whole year.
Have you managed it so far?
Yeah, of course, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing about this…
The two tricky moments so far were visiting a friend the other day who I hadn’t pre-warned, and going for a curry (seriously what Indian restaurant only has fizzy drinks as the non-alcoholic options, and who wants a lemonade with their rogan josh!?).
Have there been any other benefits?
Well I definitely haven’t saved £200 (or even the average of £118), but I would never spend that much on alcoholic drinks anyway. To be honest, other than the one or two times mentioned above, this has had minimal impact on me so far.
What’s the small print? There’s always some sort of exclusions to the rules?
It’s not an exclusion, but I’m also not drinking non-alcoholic beers. I feel like if I just wanted a beer I should have a beer, not something that tastes like beer but without the alcohol, so that’s out. Other non-alcoholic drinks (mocktails etc) are fine if they’re not alcohol derivatives.
Conversely, alcohol is fine if it’s part of the food cooking process, for example beer-battered fish. Alcohol is also fine in a church communion setting (if that happens to be a thing during the year). Those are the main (very rare) situations I’ve thought of so far.
Will you be continuing this into 2025?
Highly unlikely. I’ll have to think of something else for next year.