My Journey With Health And Fitness – On To Sober October

Ok, my apologies to anyone who looked for my blog on Tuesday. I actually didn’t realize that I had forgotten to write it until late yesterday afternoon. But I do have a good excuse, I was still exhausted from the trip home. Unfortunately our flight was delayed to the point where we didn’t get home until 2am Monday. Then it was up early to do the walk with the seniors. You would think that meant I slept well Monday night but nope, tossed and turned all night. However, now I am back on track.

Every year I do Sober October as a cancer fundraiser and I could have skipped it this year since we wouldn’t be getting home until the 15th (and no we could not have started it in Mexico) but I decided that we could simply start on the 16th and just go for a month. Seriously, after all the tequila that I drank in Mexico I felt it was a pretty good idea to go without alcohol for a while. Besides, it will likely help me to lose that rest of weight that I want before the end of the year.

There are 2 days that I will be breaking Sober October during my dry month. The first day I want to talk about will be November 11th, Remembrance Day. Now some will say I just want to go join my friends at the Legion and drink but that is actually not the case. You see to my family November 11th is a very important day. Our Dad was a WW II veteran who after 30+ years of fighting the government was finally deemed to have been disabled because of the war. To him, this day was one of the most important days of the year as he ‘celebrated’ what he did to help his country (despite have suffered both physical and mental injuries) and help preserve the rights of his children. And so it will be for my Dad that I raise a pint and say, thank you.

The other day is today. Yes, I have just started my dry month but today is the 7th anniversary of my Mom’s passing. Most women and many men will understand when I say that losing my Mom was one of the most difficult things I have ever experienced. Mom had been sick for quite awhile before she died but the last 2 years of her life she battled terminal cancer. We had her for nearly a year longer than they had predicted but still her death left a huge hole in my heart. Even after all this time when something significant happens in my life I always think, oh I can’t wait to tell Mom. I wonder what she would think about the work I do know and of our lovely Mexican condo. And so today we raised a glass of wine in memory of Mom and I have no regrets about doing that.

Seriously, 2 days out of an entire month that I will have alcohol, I figure that is pretty good. And I know from past experiences that doing the no alcohol thing has some positive effects including more energy, weight loss and supposedly better sleep (note, the better sleep thing is a big lie as far as I am concerned). It will actually give me a chance to focus on reaching my peak fitness level and lose that last amount of weight.

I’ll let you all know on November 16th how this has worked for me. Who knows, maybe I’ll decided to extend Sober October.