Dry January

Have you heard of Dry January?

If you live in a place that has “wet” counties and “dry” counties, you may guess that it has to do with not drinking alcohol. I think most people have heard of Sober October, and it is along the same lines, but you are only giving up alcohol.

I think many people rethought their relationship with alcohol during the pandemic. For me, it was before that though. I had an injury and noticed that alcohol made my inflammation worse, slowing down my body’s ability to repair. Did you know that your liver serves over 500 functions? 🤯

So I decided to cut back. I’ve never been what I would call a heavy drinker, I rarely got to the point where I wouldn’t feel comfortable driving a car full of babies. 😂 (I use this reference because so many people think that they only have to worry about themselves when driving under the influence and seem to forget about others on the road!) But at one point I did have a beer after dinner more nights than I didn’t for something to sip on and to help unwind.

When drinking less, I noticed that it wasn’t the alcohol itself that I missed, but the tradition. Deciding on a flavor, grabbing a special type of glass, and having something to sip on. At that time, I substituted sparkling water each night and that feeling of missing something was filled.

Fast forward to the last day of January and my first official #DryJanuary in the books.

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A post shared by Amanda MoveMintYoga (@yogibrarian)

Honestly, since I haven’t been drinking much since October, I didn’t really notice any super big changes in skin, sleep, mood, etc. But I know that many people do. The biggest positive this month has been connecting with a community of like-minded people online who were all looking to focus more on health. And because of that, I’ll definitely do it again.

Big thanks to Drink Hiyo for sponsoring our #YogisDryJanuary challenge on Instagram! (I ordered a bunch of their drinks, they are really delicious and have nootropics in them.)

Did you or would you participate in Dry January? Drop a note below!