Blogger speaking

Hello and thank you for reading this blog! As a 'raid blogger', because 2 registered bloggers had to withdraw, I will start my first blog a little later. I am 40 years old, happily married (and still in love) and live on the edge of a nature reserve in the middle of nature. For me it is the fourth time that I have signed up for 40 days without a drop. In the coming weeks I want to explain why I'm doing this, what I'm trying to get out of this and why I consciously choose not to do this in January.

I am not a heavy drinker, I never drink during the week and moderately on weekends. The weekend for me is from Friday evening to Sunday. The days when I enjoy a special beer. Because I like that. Discovering something different every time, always a new taste and always special. This often means 2 bottles on Friday evening, another 2 bottles on Saturday and usually 1 more at an afternoon drink on Sunday. Are you a moderate drinker? I actually don't even know and now I'm suddenly wondering out loud.

So why IkPas, you might ask. That's because I do notice it's a habit. A habit I've been looking forward to since Thursday, maybe secretly sometimes on Wednesday evening. That moment when it's Friday night. That you're done with a week of hard work and that you're looking forward to that first sip. I want to challenge myself to be able to do without it. Incidentally, I have this with many more things. For example, my 40 days I always combine no coffee for 40 days. Also such a habit that is always there. And what would be an extra challenge for me, is also staying away from those candy bags... but whether I will get that far, I don't know yet.

But back to the break on alcohol. Because that's why I write. What always brings me these 40 days is a lot better night's sleep on the weekends. I run regularly (more on that in a later blog) and for that I have such a nice sports watch that also keeps track of my sleep statistics. While I know it's not completely accurate data, you can see a really nice trend from Friday through Sunday. In this my total sleep is always a lot more restless than the rest of the week. And since I need 8 hours of sleep per night as standard, I notice that I always feel a lot fitter during the weekend without alcohol. I also find it striking that this has increased considerably in recent years. When I was in my early 30s, I already had to drink a lot to notice something in my night's sleep. Now one or two beers is enough to influence my night's sleep. If I drink a few more, it will also affect my wife's night's sleep because apparently I also start to snore…

Is it really that easy, you might ask. The honest answer to that is no. Because I have a beautiful fridge that is almost completely set up for getting those beautiful specialty beers to the right temperature. And that fridge is just in the room where I come every day. Sometimes you almost feel like those bottles are waving at you. So there is plenty of challenge. Fortunately, I made it through the first week with flying colors, because immediately after the start of IkPas I caught a cold and the last thing I felt like was a beer. Now that I'm fit again, it really starts for me. With this blog as a stick behind the door. I wish you as a reader as much success with your 40 days challenge as I do myself. Put it on, and together we can do this!

Until next week!