Lienke blogs 1

I can't call it drinking, even drinking regularly is going too far. With a drink or 3/4 a week I score below the average of the Dutch in terms of alcohol consumption.
I cannot deny that this has also been the case. In my wild years, I was twenty and single, I loved to drink. It was good for everything; if i felt shitty i had a drink, i felt happy i drank a drink, if i felt stressed i had a drink. And I took for granted that it didn't stop at one drink. It was part of it, because without a fat hangover on Sunday you were just a boring box.
When I became pregnant I of course stopped drinking, but the first sips after giving birth were a real pleasure. A good white wine was brought into the house and it was as if heaven opened up as the first sips passed my throat.
I cannot deny that a drink has given me this feeling to this day. I think it's dellicious. And relaxing. And cosy. Because I can hardly imagine an evening with friends but without a drink. And yet it is right there. Because why couldn't I have a good time without a drink, why wouldn't the evening be complete, why couldn't I feel so free without that alcohol intoxication?
I'm taking on the challenge, I'm going to stop drinking alcohol. For a month for now. Who knows, it might feel so good, so normal to say 'No' to drink, that I could last a whole year.
For now I'm just worried because with dinner this Friday (with girlfriends), a party from grandma and a reunion with my old football team (with the third half being the main half) there will be three very big challenges during my 'dry January'!

Lienke