The 30 Day Challenge - Halfway Home!!

Yesterday was my 17th consecutive day without a drop of alcohol!!  I'm halfway to my goal of 30 days!!  It definitely hasn't been easy.  In fact, yesterday was my first really tough day at work where I really would've loved to relax while sipping a bourbon when I got home.  Right now things are really busy at work and I have a ton of stuff to do and keep getting distracted or nagged by little things that prevent me from making any real progress on the bigger things I need to get done.  It's really just annoying but all those little annoying things led to a mini-meltdown of sorts haha.  Now that I'm over the halfway mark, I'm a little comforted by the fact that this is almost over.  My life hasn't really changed much.  Here are some new observations:

• I still feel full all the time.  I doesn't matter if I eat a little or a lot.  I feel full and bloated or something.  Maybe alcohol was helping to break down the food and aid in digestion?
• Energy is slightly up and I've gotten a little more accomplished on the weekends thanks to getting an earlier start on my day.
• Pooping is down considerably which could explain the full feeling all the time.  I just haven't been regular.  I'm thinking that while I'm on this no-alcohol kick I might do a little cleanse to clean me out.  I know you will sleep better now knowing this.
• In the past 6 days since my last update, people have applied a little more peer pressure or suggestions that this challenge is a bad idea and that I should just have a bourbon.  It's been tempting but I've held strong.
• I've become somewhat more irritable and at times can't figure out why.  I think maybe I'm just stressed from having to force myself to NOT do something that I love to do?  Maybe I feel exiled from my regular social life because I'm not going out as much or for as long?  I don't know.
• I met a friend at a bar for the Heat game on Sunday and almost took a sip of her beer because I was thirsty when I arrived at the bar and I wasn't thinking for a second.  It was like I was a robot that had been reverted back to its original programming.  Luckily I caught myself before making that mistake.
• I did a weigh-in on Day 16...  I've lost one pound.  Conclusion - drinking has little to no effect on weight loss over the period of 16 days.  That was frustrating to learn, if only because it gave me another reason to quit on this challenge.  I told that reason to go F itself shortly after though so it's cool.  Nothing is stopping me from getting to Day 30 at this point.

A funny thing happened to me too over the last six days...  I went to dinner at Joey's in Wynwood on Saturday night, Day 14, with a friend and some other people she knew.  Dinner was disappointing and I learned to stick with pizza and pasta at that place.  We wrap up dinner and everyone decides to go to a bar for a drink.  I opt to head home because I'm tired and off the booze so I've really got no motivation to stay out.  I begin walking to my car which was about a block away.  It's about 11pm.  A woman is walking in front of me with whom I presume are her two little girls.  It's late so I'm not surprised when she pulls them closer to her side when she sees me, a stranger, walking behind.  Just before I catch up to them at the street corner, I scuff the bottom of my shoe on a crack in the sidewalk.  I get to the corner and the woman says to me, "You gonna make it to the car?"  "Huh?", I reply, having somewhat of an idea what she said and why but pretty shocked to be hearing it.  She repeats herself, "You been drinking a whole bunch, huh?  You gonna make it to the car?"  I am a tad angered by this but it's late and she's walking with her two daughters in a not-so-great neighborhood so I tell myself she is probably just being protective of them.  I look her dead in the eyes and politely say, "Lady, I haven't had a sip of alcohol in 14 days.  I just finished some dinner with my friends and will be getting on my way now.  You have a nice night."  She apologized, smiled, and wished me well. 

I still thought it was pretty messed up that the woman would make an assumption like that but I guess I understood.  At least it made for a funny story to tell.  The strange part is that has never happened to me on a night where I've been drinking.  The situation reminded me again of that feeling I got when I was driving home late at night for the first time on a night where I hadn't been drinking at all.  The paranoia of getting pulled over was still there even though I knew there was not one drop of alcohol in my system, of being hassled because an officer might assume I'd been drinking simply because of what hour it was.  I guess we are all capable of being stereotyped or profiled regardless of the situation. 

Today is Day 18.  At midnight tonight I will have 12 days to go and 3 of them will be Memorial Day Weekend.  I'm almost there, so close I can taste that Day 31 bourbon...