Two years, no booze.
Two years, no embarrassing mishaps.
Two years, no hangovers.
Two years, no shame.
Two years, no regrets.
Subconsciously celebrating my two year soberversary, I went out for meals in restaurants twice in the past week and both times I did not for even a moment think about the alcohol offered on the menu.
The first restaurant, a brewpub, I had an Athletic Brewing NA IPA.
The second restaurant, a pizza place, I had a raspberry iced tea.
As I enter my third year of sobriety, I am astonished at how well I feel. How happy I am. How even-keeled I have become.
And how little I miss the booze.
new normal
The ‘new normal’ is more often used for the new way of working / schooling / interacting since the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard in 2020. But for people who have given up drinking alcohol, there is definitely a relevance to this term as you develop a whole new normal way of socializing, relaxing, wining and dining.
A good example is how I am able to socialize with clients and attend client dinners without telling my life-story to justify why I am not drinking. Nowadays, I manage to order myself Heineken 0.0s, mocktails, sparkling waters and sodas without anyone asking me for my ‘why’ or offering it up myself unprompted. Funny thing is, nobody seems to really notice what I am drinking as they are so very interested in what they themselves are drinking.
Just last week, I was fortunate to go to a fabulous new restaurant with clients here in San Diego, Huntress, where I ordered a delightful mocktail called Sinless which was made with apple cider syrup, lemon and ginger ale… and served in a sleek cocktail glass. It was delicious. As my coworkers and clients drank liquor-forward cocktails, they didn’t seem to notice or care what I was drinking. And at the end of the meal when a decadent chocolate cake was served, I ordered an Americano and other people followed suit.
What’s more, after the meal, when clients wanted to keep raging, raving and mis-behaving, I accompanied them to a fancy rooftop bar, got them situated with espresso martinis and bottles of Taittinger, had a jolly good chat with a few senior clients before doing an Irish exit to head home to my pajamas.
I am not sober boring. Or sober resentful. Or sober self-pitying. I am sober furious and fabulous.
730+ days
When I first quit drinking, like many of the people and posts on Sober Curious social media groups, I expected large paybacks from my behaviour shift. Monetary, mental health and sleep improvements for example. Here’s some of the benefits and rewards I think I have been reaping:
- Money saved = $10,428 (104 weekends of not drinking x $100 a weekend conservative average bar tab)
- Sleep gained = 416 extra shut-eye (104 weeks of improved sleep twice a week at an average 2 hours extra quality)
- Minutes of meditation = 8030 by doing my morning ritual of affirmation meditation every-single-day
- Mental health improved = 1,825mg less lexapro (from weaning myself off post-baby-blues meds)
- Cups of tea drunk = 2,124 a mixture of every kind of black, green, herbal, fruit and senna teas imaginable
- Books read = 32 fiction and no -fiction, quit lit and non-quit lit (from my more chilled lifestyle)
- Podcasts listened to = 9 (which is a small number but podcasts are painful to me. Most of these have been Glennon Doyle, We Can Do Hard Things which I highly recommend)
- Bedtime kisses given to my children = 3,650 (at least five kisses each time, none of which have had wine or dragon breath)
- Non-alcoholic beverages sampled = 38 (15 beers, 5 kombuchas and sparkling teas, 6 mocktails, 5 non-alcoholic spirits, 7 wines)
one more wine
To celebrate my two year soberversary, I made a classic lasagne and served it with a non-alcoholic merlot from Fre. Fre themselves are pretty pleased with this wine as they describe it quite elegantly:
With its plush, luxurious taste, and gorgeous garnet color, our alcohol-removed Merlot delivers plenty of style and grace. With seductive black plum aromas and soft cherry and spice flavors, our Merlot is velvety smooth, with a full, rich finish—a classic beauty.
Fre Wines
And to be honest, they are not far off. When paired with a rich dish like lasagne, the wine holds up for us non-alcoholic aficionados. It is smooth and does have a depth to it that helps everything come together. Pairing the wine with herb-crusted lamb chops, hearty stews or juicy hamburgers, as recommended by Fre, really does help it stand up. And that goes for many wines, be they NA or otherwise. Successful wine pairing enhances the dining experience, heightening flavours, textures and qualities in the food. Fre Merlot is able to do that and I will buy it again next time we have red meat or rich food.
Ingredients
- Fre Merlot, stored and ready to serve at room temperature.
- A nice wine glass.
- A rich, hearty or red meat based dish
Instructions
- Open and serve immediately (there doesn’t seem to be any benefit from letting NA wine ‘breathe)’
- Enjoy a maximum of two glasses with your meal.
- Store at room temp for no more than a week.
Bon appetite!