When dry January becomes dry July

Picture this. You are sat on a balcony in Greece in a t-shirt and shorts, overlooking the beach. You can see the crystal clear waters cascade across the beige sands every couple of seconds. The sun is still beating down hot and heavy, as the day enters the golden hour before evening begins. But you are lapping up the last of the heat as this is what summer is all about. To your left, your towels and swimwear are drying ready for use again tomorrow. On the table in front of you sit your half-eaten bag of lays and a nice glass of crisp sparkling. You take another sip and the coolness of the drink and the bubbles hitting your lips at the same time as the rays of the sun is the true sensation of bliss on holiday. The feeling only seems to get better every year. The only change between this year's holiday and last is I said a glass of sparkling and you instantly thought of water and not wine. So you wonder when did this thinking change?

Well, at the beginning of the year, like many other people, you tried dry January. You tried it as it seemed a fun challenge. You tried it as it was good for some banter with your friends. You tried it to see if it would change your life; as that is what the new age God known as 'the internet' seems to suggest. But somehow between the fun and the jokes of dry January, it turned into dry July, and you don't quite know how that happened. Although I guess it is like any habit in life, where if you do it for long enough it becomes your normal and not the exception.

I can remember how this happened now, as dry January ended on a Wednesday, not a weekend. February 1st was a Thursday, and let's face it at our age, we are not doing 'thirsty Thursdays' anymore so we just let the day roll over into Friday the 2nd. However, Friday nights out were board game nights in during dry January, and this weeks had already been arranged and couldn't be cancelled. That meant no drinking on Friday. Then on Saturday night, a film had already been lined up for solo film night, so that plan may as well be stuck to. Plus, watching a film and getting an early night on Saturday nights meant waking up clear-headed on Sunday for marathon training. Then suddenly it is Sunday and the weekend is gone and work is creeping up on us again tomorrow, so it is probably best to just wait to end dry January next weekend. Then it was the start of the first week of February, and it had happened without you noticing. The following weeks and months just began to roll on to a similar fashion as above with you enjoying your new lifestyle, not noticing that anything had changed. That is until it is a summer's evening in July and you are on the balcony sat with the sparkling water you have been drinking all day without realising that you'd subconsciously chosen it over your usual wine.

I think this is what people do not expect from dry January, for their whole lifestyle to change without them realising. People think the point of dry January is to have a break from alcohol, to become healthier, or to just stop drinking altogether. However, I think they are missing the point as I think the point is you find out what else you enjoy doing. Think about it, before you started going out and drinking when was the last time you had a Friday or Saturday night where you had to plan an activity for yourself to keep you or you and your friends entertained? I think most of us would say at some point in our teenage years. What dry January allows you to do is see what you would fill that time with as an adult. Board-games, film nights and marathon training were the choices here, but there are so many different hobbies and passions that you could use the alcohol-free time to explore and pursue. Naturally, you may find you may even prefer them to the booze-filled nights out. Or you may finish dry January and slowly go back into your old habits, but at least you gave new interests a chance. Hey, you may even want to alternate new hobbies with the old ones. The point is dry January pushes you to try new things so you can customise your life even more to your enjoyment.

Let's finish back on the balcony in Greece. Are you going to enjoy a few glasses of something nice with your mates? If so, what will that be, water or wine? As you now know: the choice is yours.