By Erin Bush
Typically, I am into social and behavioral experiments of others. There’s always something interesting about seeing how people react to different stimuli, or how they behave when put in awkward situations. This time around, I did a little experiment/test for myself. A mind-body-soul cleanse of sorts – but without all the hippie overtones and cleanse elixirs. For two weeks, I would be on the Three “B”s Diet, eliminating Booze, Boys, and Baked Goods. Originally I’d planned to quit for only one week, but when I’d told my friend I was planning to go off booze for a week he said, “Do it for two, trust me. It takes a week for it to get out of your system and in the second week you really start to feel jazzy.” SOLD.
I had decided to do this little cleanse because really, the booze and baked goods had been unexpectedly piling up and were starting to show, I added boys to the mix because, well, you read the blog. And! It’s easy when you’ve already been off them for over three months. Plus, it rounds out the alliteration nicely.
I honestly thought it was going to be far more difficult given that booze had become an everyday part of life – at least 2-3 glasses of wine a night, or if I was going out double or triple that in beer and shots – hello, twenty-something life. It really didn’t seem like a lot of drinks, until I started to do the math – for the calories and the alcohol. Let’s just say that “I’d rather be a good liver than have one” was a mantra that was not workin’ for me.
After just three days, I felt so much lighter. Actually kind of happy. Now, I understand the logic here: alcohol is a depressant, blah blah blah, so naturally when you go off it, you’ll see a little internal lift, blah blah blah. But, you don’t truly believe it until you do it.
I felt good, energized, bouncy even.
And then, came the real test – 12 hours with some of my best drinking buddies and friends up in the hills, on my last day of the “cleanse.” The thing that made it great for me was that telling them all “no” felt really good. It became a game – even after I explained to each individual person my reasons for not partaking in all the “fun.” After a while, they started to still want me to play beer pong and flip-cup but would allow me to have a substitute like grape juice or soda water. Thanks, friends.
One of the best quotes from the day was, “Erin, I was really unsure about you not drinking while all of us were. But then I realized sober-Erin is the same as drunk-Erin.”
Can I tell you how long it took to get to midnight? Forever. And ever. When it did finally roll around, I had myself half a cup of wine, which was far less exciting than I’d imagined it would be. So, anticlimactic. I also had myself half a cupcake, which was amazing.
Overall I’d have said it was a success – lost a few lb’s, gave my liver a rest, tried to focus on me and not some lame dudes. On Tuesday, I went out and had three glasses of wine at the bar and awoke the next morning with a headache. Seriously?! Well, at least now I am back to being a cheap date. Fellas, any takers?
Love the cleanse!!!! Great will power and determination.
So, after two weeks, did you ever feel “Jazzy”?