I cannot tell you how much happier I am this week, now that FEB FAST is FINALLY over. THANK GOD. Fletch and I celebrated over the weekend, starting with dinner at a Japanese restaurant on Saturday night where I ordered a JAPANESE MOJITO. I’d never heard of a Japanese mojito before, so I ordered it because I could and it was FABULOUS. Then late on Sunday we left the kids at home and wandered down to a nearby wine bar, which led to a pub-crawl on pubic transport to most of the liquor establishments within a five-kilometre distance of home. It was silly, juvenile and FUN. We even took SELFIES. (The kids will be SOoooo embarrassed.)
I’m not saying FEB FAST was all bad. It just wasn’t exactly a fun-filled month. I’m glad I did it to prove that I CAN survive without alcohol, but I don’t think I’ll do it again. I did one of those lists – pros versus cons – to weigh up its appeal: The Good Stuff about Feb Fast: 1. Time goes veeeerrrrrryyyy slowly… If you’re one of those people who always complains about time moving too quickly, DO Feb Fast and you’ll be amazed. It might be the shortest month of the year, but, but God, it will feel like the longest… 2. You save quite a bit of money. Probably because you don’t want to go out much because you can’t drink, you stay at home. You don’t spend money at bars, restaurants, or taxis OR shout all your friends drinks when you’ve had too much… 3. You meet all your work deadlines EARLY because there’s nothing much else to do… The Bad Stuff about Feb Fast: 1. It’s VERY, very boring. 2. You DO NOT lose weight. This was THE most disappointing aspect of Feb Fast. I should have listened to Linda, my hair colourist, who told me this would be the case and I didn’t believe her. But it’s true. When deprived of wine, you adopt the crazy rationale of, ‘Gee, I’m not drinking, so of course I can have that three kilo block of chocolate!’ Which goes to prove that you should ALWAYS listen to your hairdresser. 3. You don’t see your friends as much. Because you’d rather not join them at the pub where everyone is laughing and drinking while you stand there with a soda water feeling as bitter and twisted as the floating lemon in your glass. 4. There’s nothing to look forward to at the end of the day. Not that I drink EVERY day, but even the possibility is more pleasant than a definitive NO. 5. There’s nothing to ease the pain of a crappy day. 6. Did I mention that it’s very boring? See? I told you. It’s not worth it. And now I’ve now finished FEB FAST, I’m going to have to think about getting back on some kind of diet because I sure as hell ate more than my fair quota of chocolate over the last month.
At a recent girls lunch, I caught up with Emma the Guru (you may remember, Emma owns/produces THE MUESLI, which has no added sugar) and was again reminded of how important it is to cut sugar from our diets. Emma is proof. She’s consistently one of the slimmest of my friends and is not a yo-yo dieter at all. (bit annoying really… ) So when I went to the supermarket today, I started checking labels again. One product that’s very hard to find with low sugar content is TOMATO PASTE. Often I’ll buy home brand products but here’s proof why it pays to spend a few pennies more on a labelled brand.
And LEGGO’S contains 9.8 per cent per 100 grams. So even though I can’t seem to find a tomato paste that fits the UNDER FIVE PER CENT sugar rule, Leggo’s wins. And when it’s a product we use all the time and is a pantry staple, I thought it was worth pointing out. And spending the extra twenty cents on. Pay less, get more sugar. Food for thought indeed. If you have any tips about low-sugar content products, please let me know!
Leading up to the beginning of the month, I was REALLY looking forward to starting Feb Fast. Along with Fletch, we both decided we’d had a pretty indulgent festive season and it was time for a healthy kick-start to the year. Time to give up the grog for a month. I was enthusiastic and ready for the challenge.
Now I KNOW Feb Fast is a great concept – especially because the money raised goes to helping young people and families who are tackling serious alcohol and drug issues – BUT I’ve discovered…
… IT IS REALLY, REALLY ANNOYING!!!!!
For many reasons. Which I’ll tell you about in a minute.
It started out really well. I felt energetic at the gym, was writing more, meeting my deadlines and waking up fresh as a daisy. If you’d like to get a clearer picture of all the benefits, just check out this graphic put out by the Feb Fast group. Of course, some of the statistics also relate to the other things you can give up in February if you’d rather keep drinking grog – like coffee, sugar and social media.
But that self-satisfied smug feeling about saying ‘NO’ to alcohol and being strong wears thin by about Day Four. After a crap day when it’s getting close to dinner time, all you can think about is wanting to crack open that lovely chilled bottle of chardonnay tempting you from the fridge.
So you say ‘NO’ to yourself and go back to sorting through emails or getting on with domestic chores. Then you sit down to watch some TV and again you can hear the chardy singing your name.
Still you say ‘NO’ but remark to your husband that you might be missing your wine. Just a little. Is he missing his beer? ‘No, I don’t think about it, really,’ he says, smiling. Shrugs nonchalantly. Of course, it’s easy for him. I’m just being silly.
GOD, THAT’S ANNOYING.
And I think ‘not drinking’ makes me a little irritable. Just a teeny, weeny bit. After 6pm anyway. It makes me cranky to think about that famous quote from Frank Sinatra – ‘I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.’
He’s right. It’s even worse at social events. Especially because just when you think you’re doing fine and enjoying yourself, someone notices you are NOT drinking alcohol, and wants to talk about it. Really annoying.
Then you get some people who look at you strangely when you tell them you’ve given up the grog. They listen for a bit and then nod sympathetically, and throw in a little comment or too that suggests the real reason they think you are doing Feb Fast is because you have a drinking problem.
Seriously? Some people can be VERY annoying. Like it isn’t possible to just want one month of healthy living?
But there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Well, halfway through the tunnel in fact. Fletch has decided to buy himself a ‘leave pass’ this Friday night when we go out and celebrate Valentine’s Day. YES!!!! Well, I can’t let him drink on his own, can I? That will still make it TWO WEEKS without drinking which is more than I think I’ve done in about ten years. And we’ll go back to Feb Fasting on the Saturday right through till the end of the month.
Right now I’m feeling quite smug again as it’s the middle of the day and I can feel proud of myself that I’ve lasted ELEVEN DAYS without cracking. But I’m still dreading that witching hour at about 6pm when my mind drifts toward the fridge. Or back to when we were on holidays by the pool and I had this AMAZING passionfruit mojito…. Ah, memories.
