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What I Learned From a Month Without Alcohol.

What I Learned From a Month Without Alcohol.
Carly Jacobs

As you probably know from my endless Facebooking and Tweeting I’ve been participating in the Dry July challenge to raise money for adults living with cancer. I had a goal to raise $500 but being surrounded by such generous and supportive souls, I managed to reach my second goal of $650. I’m so grateful to everyone who donated and I wanted to personally thank all the people who donated to my Dry July challenge.

My beautiful and supportive reader Jasmine Norrie.
The gorgeous Pam Power who’s my partner in internets stalkage.
The wonderful Tara Invarity, one of my most loyal and awesome Canberra readers.
The spunky Elise from Stuff That I Bought, who’s my PR angel in all things blogging.
Bek, my Sydney Correspondant who needs to get her faux Canadian butt back to Oz pronto.
My beautiful friend Na.
My lovely Auntie Janice who donated to every single person she knew doing Dry July. Champion.
The gorgeous Natalie Mulfood, fellow blogger and crazy gal.
My delightful ex-student Jamie.
The gorgeous Kavitha, my fellow stage angel.
The lovely Ingrid, all the way from New York.
My Tae.
Crazy Canberry Grant Heino.
My pancake princess Amanda.
My beauty guru and boyfriend hang out saviour, Nina.
The enabler, Fi.
The gorgeous and generous Mae.
My birthday buddy Pat.
The Queens from Queans.
My Browny.
The extremely yummy mummy Amy.
The beautiful Linda.
My blogging buddy and provider of endless inspiration Chantelle.
The awesome Nuffie Tim.
My Fliss.
My faux cousin Robbie.
My Stephi Lee.
My booze hound mother.
And the beautiful Lee who bumped me over the edge to $650!
And one sneaky anonymous donor

Although the month wasn’t entirely booze free (I had Golden Tickets enabled so my piss head friends would be encouraged to donate if they wanted to have a drink with me!) I can say it was entirely hang over and generally being tipsy free. Here’s a few things that I took away from the experience.

Red Wine is Evil

I still get a hangover even if I only have one glass of red wine. I’ve clearly never had only one of glass of red wine in my life because I just figured this out during Dry July. Lesson? Always have a bottle of red wine. Make the hangover really worth it.

Individual Bottles Make You Feel Less Awkward

If I was going to a party, I’d take a six pack of Diet Ginger Beer and drink them like regular beer. Hardly anyone noticed and I had a drink in my hand all night.

My Body Runs Better Without Alcohol In It

Sad but true. I feel pretty freaking tops having only had around 6 standard drinks for the whole month of July. Clear head. Clear skin. It’s disappointingly amazing.

Mineral Water is Nectar of the Gods

On Golden Ticket evenings I’d always take a bottle of Perrier to have in between my drinks to slow me down and keep me hydrated. I plan on doing this for the rest of my life.

It’s Actually Okay To Not Drink

It really is. Any time I felt awkward it was because I felt awkward not because anybody else felt that way.

Did you do Dry July? Or have you in the past? How did you go?

8 Comments

  1. JicyJac 12 years ago

    Congrats on the fantastic fund raising effort,  now off you go and continue to “enjoy alcohol  in moderation”

  2. sar - Accidentallentil 12 years ago

    well done! 

  3. Sammy 12 years ago

    I always want to participate, but I drink sooooo rarely that I can’t imagine anyone sponsoring me to do the same thing I always do! Have to stick to doing fundraising events like Relay For Life, which I love.

  4. Natalie Mulford 12 years ago

    Yay! Congrats on reaching your 2nd goal! I’ve never ‘officially’ done dry July, but honestly, nearly every July is dry for me as I hardly ever drink 😛

  5. Anonymous 12 years ago

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