With 3 days to go on my year of living sober I thought it would be a good time to recap my 12 months of sober living.

Today’s post is a quick-ish look back over my shoulder at some of the sober highlights of my YOLS as well as some of the stuff I normally would have done with a drink in my hand and a couple already in my belly.

And maybe with another one in my sights!

But, and as you’ll know from reading any of the previous 137 posts on how I’ve experienced and coped with a year off booze, I made a commitment to myself to do everything I’d normally do in a life which had for over twenty years included alcohol almost every week (and immediately pre-YOLS, every night) without a drop of booze.

And, I am happy to say I have—so far—kept that commitment.

Not a drop of alcohol in 363 days.

So now, let’s get into…

12 Months of Sober Living: A Big Drinker’s Year Off Booze

Month 1

After an excruciating and blinding (literally) migraine following a boozy family wedding I made the vow to myself not to drink any alcohol for a year. My wife was surprised but supportive. As she was seven months pregnant and not drinking herself I thought it would be a good time to do something good for my health and maybe my family too.

- K.D. Lang concert. YOLS bonus: enjoyed awesome show from one of my favourite singers and didn’t have to line up at the public toilets to relieve myself of any beer, wine or spirits purchased at the bar.

- Flew to Sydney to promote my first novel (The Last Great Day) on national morning television show, Sunrise. Would have normally been tempted by hotel bar-fridge but spent down-time writing instead (did first NANO, during which I completed a draft of a yet unpublished novel in one month). YOLS bonus: more productive.

Month 2

- Public reading in support of foreward I wrote for creative writing compilation book. Free booze but none for me. YOLS bonus: drove home happy to be pulled over and breath-tested for driving under the influence. Wasn’t.
- Christmas. Didn’t drink but still probably ate more than I needed to. YOLS bonus: would probably have pigged out worse if I’d been drinking too.

Month 3

- Daughter born! My wife Pauli, and my then not yet two-year-old daughter, Honey, welcomed our second child, Cherry, into our family. YOLS bonus: being stone cold sober may have given more confidence to my wife I was ready to drive her to hospital should our plan for a home-birth not play out. It didn’t. I drove us to the hospital. (N.B. The emergency C-section went perfectly fine and everyone is healthy and happy).

Month 4

- Exercise. My calendar for this month is FULL of exercise entries. Running, biking, push-uppering. YOLS bonus: on 29th of that month I did 25 push ups. Room for improvement but it was a start.

Month 5

- Quit TVC acting. Twenty-something years ago I was a kid with a dream of becoming a movie star. Somewhere along the way the acting part of my creative output ended up being auditioning for one television commercial after the other. Not only have the rates of pay not gone up for actors appearing in television commercials (not even in line with inflation) but I had become increasingly bored with the way many directors treat actors like cattle. And I had become resentful of being made to wait for an hour to humiliate myself miming eating junk food for a director who’s only direction often is something like ‘I’m not sure what I want from you but do something different this time.’ YOLS bonus: solution to my angst was clear, simply tell the agencies not to call you for commercials anymore.

Month 6

- New novel. Besides blogging about my YOLS and extending our family (!) much of this year has been about me finishing and publishing my second novel, Zippin Pippin. YOLS bonus: no hangovers=more writing. More clarity too.

Month 7

- Emerging Writers’ Festival ‘Structure’ seminar. As an official blogger for Melbourne’s Emerging Writers’ Festival I was also very happy when they asked me to present one of the seminars for emerging writers. YOLS bonus: spent night before seminar preparing notes instead of polishing off a bottle of wine, no doubt reaping rewards of the smooth presentation the following day.

Month 8

- Birthday. Generally on my birthday I’ll have a few drinks. At least some champagne. But this year, nothing. YOLS bonus: focussed on family fun instead of sloshing self. Go big daddy, go!

Month 9

- Final edits, formatting and packaging for Zippin Pippin: there’s a lot to be done as an independent author! YOLS bonus: even get some work done AFTER dinner.

Month 10

- Zippin Pippin published and promoted, cast to act in indie film with mate (Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla coming to a screen near you in 2013!), and Honey turns two. YOLS bonus: fit quite a bit into Month 10.

Month 11

- Continued healing. Over the year I’d been having a treatment about once a month of kinesiology/reiki. I really feel these sessions, combined with my year off booze, have helped liberate more energy and focus my attention on a new, positive future of me manifesting all I want with life by bringing more awareness to everything I think, say and do. YOLS bonus: saving money on booze meant I could happily spend it on investing in my health.

Month 12

- Goal in sight. Perhaps the most significant thing to happen in the final month of my year of living sober is that I will complete it. With three days to go I’m quietly confident I won’t lose my resolve now. YOLS bonus: knowledge I can accomplish something I never have before.

My name is Ben and I’m a dipsomaniac.

Today is Day 364 of my year of living sober.

☆

Little Booze Joke

A penguin walks into a bar and says to the barman, “Have you seen my brother?’ The barman says, “I don’t know. What does he look like?”