The H is O

Unlike my esteemed fellow blogger, Alice Ockleshaw, I'm no good at punny titles. This is something for which she's mocked me on more than one occasion. Despite her, ahem, encouragement, I still can't do it. This leaves me tending towards thematically related titles for my (occasionally bi-) monthly posts. Today is no exception to that rule. While the SNL video I apparently got the Glenn Frey reference from is pretty disturbing, I hope you'll agree that it represents some exciting things happening here at NOTMY. At the very least, perhaps The H is O will reenter the vernacular as one of Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller's funnier contributions. Or not.

"What the hell is he rambling about," you may be asking yourself. Well, dear readers, it boils down to this. We're entering a new initiative here at Not On The Moon, Yet. While unemployment has been good to me in terms of getting to the gym more, and cooking for myself, it's been really bad for the amount of nights I've spent drinking in the past month or so. For a while, there was a birthday to celebrate, and St. Patrick's Day, and all manner of reasons to celebrate various achievements of friends with a few beers. After a particularly sudsy weekend at the Barrett farm in Wisconsin, I realized that my attitudes about alcohol needed some review and sober contemplation, literally. So after giving my social calendar about ten days to clear itself, I decided to set a date after which I was going to be sober for a period of no less than three weeks, and hopefully as many as five.

The five week goal was no coincidence, though it probably seems an odd number to choose. I'm currently in the middle of a twelve week weight loss bet with my good friend, Stacey. From March 21st, the date I chose to stop drinking, it was five weeks until the end of the bet. I figured that cutting out alchohol for that period of time might help me to sneak ahead in a bet I was losing, having leveled off in my quest to lose weight after about fifteen pounds. While the weight loss was no sure thing, I figured that sobriety would help me clarify sauce-resultant behaviors that were counterproductive, as well as allow me to get to the gym more frequently on the weekends and such.

So far, I'm ten days in to the test, and doing pretty well. I was out last Saturday all day with Package Barnett and Dario, eating chicken wings and watching the basketball tournament. Normally these two activities would be screaming for me to have a few beers, and maybe a few more after that. I am not going to lie to you, dear reader, I was sorely tempted to break my promise and have a few beers with my wings. Surprisingly though, the temptation passed after an initial round of willpower prevailed. I felt pretty ok about the whole thing, and better about the fact that I could be a sober driver for Patrick and Dario after a long day of basketball watching. I've been getting up earlier, getting out of the house more, accomplishing much more on the weekends than was ever possible with the recent spate of hangovers and late nights. It's been great.

So what have I realized about myself? Well, first of all, that quitting drinking for any period of time is way harder for me than quitting cigarettes ever was. I get the itch to drink a beer or have a cocktail far more frequently than I realized while I was actually allowed to have them without a second thought. The flip side of this is that I do have the willpower to say no in social situations where previously alcohol would have been a requirement to have fun, while still enjoying myself and my friends' company. This enjoyment has also made me realize that when I do go back to drinking, the fourth and fifth rounds, and pretty much all the rounds after three, aren't necessarily required for me to enjoy myself or my friends, so perhaps it's ok not to binge drink and still be social. Besides, I'm at the point in my life, as are most of my friends, where being the drunken idiot is no longer funny, it's just embarrassing. Does this mean that perhaps I'm going to spend less time at the bars with friends if I only have a few drinks? Probably does, yeah. Does this mean that I'll be able to get up at a reasonable hour without feeling like crap or resorting to eating unhealthy junk to fix my hangover? Probably does, yeah. There's a balance to the entire endeavor that I'm looking forward to once consumption resumes. While seeing less of my friends at two am is a potential result, I'm kinda ok with that. Overall, I'm feeling pretty good about this entire endeavor, and the results seen in my workout plan. Although some times it makes me feel old rather than grown up. I'm fighting that thought process as immature.

So what does all this mean, five paragraphs after referencing the topicality of The H is O? (And why do I keep starting paragraphs with questions?) Well, you see, part of this post is for me to publish my thoughts in order to organize them. It's all part of changing my behaviors in the future, and one of the original purposes of writing this blog. The second part is that as I was communicating the seeds of these thoughts to Alice, she got extremely enthusiastic about the idea of a weight loss competition, for health reasons as well as for blog motivation for each of us. Each of us has lost our way a bit when it comes to writing on a consistent basis. So we're challenging each other to a contest. There will be no divulgence of actual weights of our persons, per typical NOTM,Y policy, but we will be keeping track of the amount of weight lost and reporting it on at least a weekly basis, with the winner of the contest treated to a fancy dinner in May when Alice and Alex come to town. Blog posts will be sallied back and forth, hyperlinks will be linked (once I learn how, thanks Shirley), banter will ensue. You'll enjoy it. Or at least, we think you will. Either way, I will be entertained and motivated by Alice's efforts, and hopefully she by mine. Hopefully you'll agree, and everyone will be the better for it.

So that's it for now. I just have one thing left to say to you, the readers, and Alice.

The H is O, y'all. The H is O.