7 Reasons Not to Drink This Year

Since deciding to become a triathlete, I have done more and more thinking about the things I do every day.  Physical fitness and my well-being has come to be more and more critical as the race gets closer.  One thing I have spent a lot of time thinking about is drinking.  I have read articles on the pro's and con's and seen writings from athletes that drink occasionally as well as those that don't at all.  After much debate, I have decided that as of 01/05/2012 I will no longer be a drinker.  A few of the reasons are competition specific, but more importantly, I think it's important to look at a decision like this in a broader scope and how such things affect our lives as a whole.  Some of my reasoning is listed here:

I Just Don't Have Time~  I currently work 40-48 hours per week.  Outside of that I am spending time with my fiance and my dog.  We're currently planning a wedding, honeymoon, and looking to purchase our first house.  Outside of all of that, I am spending at least 8 hours in the gym each week training for my first triathlon.  The simple truth of the matter is I have better things to do than spend my time drinking.

$$$$~ If you're a drinker then you know this one very well.  Go through your bank statement and add up all of the money spent on alcohol or activities that involve drinking in any way.  It's a shock to most people exactly how much money we spend each month on drinking.  Think of everything else that could be spent on.  Savings, bills, retirement, vacation!

The Hangover~ On New Year's Day I saw, "Enjoy your hangover everyone!" plastered all over Facebook.  Why is that a good thing? Is it a social pride thing to feel sick all day and waste a good day lying sick in bed?  There's usually drama during the night of intoxication, most of which would probably be avoided if I were sober.  Personally, I hate how I feel after a "good" night of drinking.

"Because I Can"~ It's common.  "I'm going to try and not drink for a month."  The simple fact that one would have to "try" to not drink for a month means there's some level of dependency, no matter how small it may be.  Taking complete control of our habits can be one of the most rewarding things a person can do.

Weight Loss~ It's well known, the infamous "beer belly."  Lose the beer and you're one step closer to losing the belly.  When we drink, we eat, and generally not well.  Bar nachos and stadium hot dogs. Pizza and more empty calories from booze. Drinking alcohol is a fantastic way to keep all of that unwanted flab!

Dehydration~ Much of what we are feeling when we're hungover after a night of partying are the effects of dehydration.  As a person about to push his physical limits to the extreme, dehydration is the very last thing I need to help cause.

Long Term Health~ Many of us don't think about the long term.  The fact is that while alcohol has been shown to have positive affects in small amounts, large consumption of alcohol can cause severe health problems over many years of use. We aren't given very long to live and I want to be around, in good health, for as long as possible.

I'm not saying drinking is terrible. I'm not even saying it's bad.  In fact, I've had some great times that involved alcohol.  I'm simply giving some of my reasons for making the decision to not drink.  I want to enjoy every minute I have with the ones I love. I don't want to spend that time in a stupor where I'm not myself, may not remember it anyway, and quite possibly am going to feel like I have the flu the next day.  I want to keep my body in peak physical condition and I want to try something new.   I want to find other ways to enjoy the precious little time I have and experience to the fullest all of this improbable madness.

Mental Madness

Staying with my plan to rest on the days I work and train on my days off, I hadn't worked out for the past two days.  I went bike shopping two days ago and got a little overwhelmed.  I don't know how I'm possibly going to afford a bike to have by race day with all that I have going this year.  I may end up renting one for my first race but at this point, I don't know.

This kind of made me push away from wanting to train.  I woke up this morning in a funk.  I had planned on getting up and running when I woke up since it has been record high temperatures here in Sioux Falls this week but I just couldn't find the motivation.  Honestly, I sat around all day and wasted a great day.

I think this is what I do.  I think this is what a lot of people do.  I try to find a reason to not accomplish a goal instead of finding a way to overcome the obstacle.  It's simple to take the easy way out and say, "I can't afford a bike right now, I'll do it next year when I'm not so busy."  Whatever the excuse is, at some point it has to stop.

While sitting around today I thought about this and came to the conclusion that no matter what, I was going to finish this race.  Not only that, I am going to finish in the top 25%.  That's all there is to it. Done. Finished. End of story.  NO MORE EXCUSES!!!

So, after a rough day mentally, we went to the gym tonight and had an AMAZING workout.  I rode the bike as hard as I could for the full distance that will be in the race, 12.5 miles, just to see how fast I could do it.  Here's the results!!  Not bad I figured, considering I still have right at 4 months until race day.

After an intense workout, Carri and I came home and cooked dinner together.  A good mix of salad greens with chicken and home made bacon bits (gotta splurge a little while I can), yellow, red, and orange bell peppers, cucumber, carrots, onion, and tomato. I could eat like that every day.  More than likely, as the race gets closer and closer, it will be a good mix between that and pastas for carbohydrates.

Days like today are going to happen.  99% of us aren't able to set a goal and every single day attack them head on.  We have struggles in life, things happen, we get discouraged.  There's always going to be something; a bike that you can't afford, family coming to town, work getting in the way, etc... Whatever it is, there is a way to overcome it!  If you truly want to achieve a goal, the only thing that can stop you is you.  I am slowly learning that this triathlon is just as much, if not more, mental as it is physical.  At the end of the day, it comes down to asking ourselves, "How much do I want it?"  For me, there's no more excuses to fail in this improbable madness.