Now instead of taking the easy way out and lie, and tell you how difficult it has been, I thought I would be blunt.

Yes, I have had a beer… and some wine. However!!! With dinner… It still counts doesn’t it. My perception of drinking seems to not apply when I have one to two drinks. That isn’t what we are trying to achieve here, I know. Its difficult to say no to 1. But its proving easier than I imagined to knock back the rest that lead to a night that I would rather forget. Maybe its the Marathon training that has ensured that I do say no to the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, sebenth, afth, n… nyy… nyynnnf beers. Thats good! What happens after the Marathon? Nooooo!!! Temptation! Self-discpline?

HELLO SUNDAY MORNING!!!

At least without a lot of beers, I haven’t had a cigarette. Plenty of positives to take out for the first two weeks. ooo God – 2 weeks. Tough. T.U. double F – tuff.

Overly dramatic? Haha, it could be a lot worse! Great stuff all and great reads. Makes this a lot easier!

Until next time,

Pete

It’s my sad duty to let you all  know that I fell off the wagon. I  wasn’t sure if I should admit it or  not, but I figure my conscience  will last with me much longer  than your disappointment. Who  knew that going from drinking  everyday to not drinking at all  would be so hard? I expected a  challenge but it goes beyond that.  You need to develop whole new  ways of socialising, relieving  stress, enjoying meals,  everything. My advice to anyone  about to start HSM would be to  go a couple of weeks just drinking once a week to prepare yourself for the three month marathon. I’m now going to start again at the beginning, and I know it’s going to be tough again.

Well I’m into week two of my sobriety challenge. I’m happy to say that I’ve moved past the stage of being annoyed and frustrated that I’m not drinking, though I’m not yet at the point where I’m happy about it either. Hopefully it will come, I guess when I start to feel the health benefits of this choice. You never really realise how much drinking is a part of nearly everything we do – start of semester socials, lunch with friends, hanging out on campus – until you stop drinking.

As promised, I wanted to say a little bit about one of the motivations for me accepting what many would believe (and have told me) is a ridiculous challenge. American dissident, Henry David Thoreau, decided to give up the luxuries of his home to go and live by a pond in the bush. He wrote: “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die Discover that I had not lived.”

While my gesture is no where near as extreme as Thoreau’s, I would like to think that giving up alcohol for 12 weeks is my equivalent to going to live my Walden Pond. I’ve already realised how much we habitually and instinctively drink. If I came out of this experience just having learnt to drink when I really wanted to drink, and not out of habit or social conformity, then I think it will have been worthwhile.

If we wish to truly live our lives, we must be deliberate about the actions we take. We must be at the helm. As someone who likes to be in control, this sits well with me.

We can all be the person we want to be, live the life we want to live, and inspire those around us.

Check out inspiretheplanet.org Catch you soon.

A friend who no longer drinks told me to make sure I started my stretch with a hangover, and boy did I honour his advice.

Monday was an awful day, though not one on which I had any desire to drink. The first test came on Tuesday. After a stressful day joining my friends at the university bar to watch them drink was frustrating… and unfortunately my number one method for dealing with frustration is drinking so I was caught in a no win situation. I guess I’m going to have to find another way to deal with it.

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