How to Trick Yourself Into Not Drinking Alcohol

It wasn’t my objective to quit drinking, but somehow that’s what happened

Last night my family headed out to the wonderful Mexican restaurant on the corner. Ours is a Spanish-speaking family, my wife is originally from Peru, so we like going to that restaurant where we can chat with the waiters.

Normally, I would have a margarita, but last night I had a Pepsi instead. I didn’t deny myself a margarita. I didn’t sit there and say, “No, you can’t have one.”

Instead, I started with the “reward” of a Pepsi. You see, I do normally prohibit myself from drinking soda. In my mind, soda is against the rules even as alcohol remains my choice. In cases where I’m really tempted to have an alcoholic drink, I bribe myself by offering the soda first.

So, last night I said to myself, “Well, maybe you can have a margarita later, but start with a Pepsi.” That made it easy to order the Pepsi. By the time I got done drinking the Pepsi, I found I’d run out of time to order the margarita.

I think we often fail in life because we don’t set reasonable objectives for ourselves. I’ve been reflecting a lot on drinking lately. There are still times when I think how nice it would be to sit back, relax, and have a drink. Most of the time I avoid drinking by finding substitutes.

The real miracle here is that I’m actually beginning to believe the substitutes provide a better result.

You don’t want an alcoholic drink, you just want a drink

In the evenings, I usually manage to get an hour or so with my wife after the kids have gone to bed. I used to like to prepare cheese and crackers and drink a beer.

Even now, my first impulse is to go and get a beer. But I’ve realized it doesn’t have to be a beer. What I crave is the sensory experience of holding and drinking something. It doesn’t have to be alcohol.

These days I’ve substituted ginger tea. I slice up bits of ginger and boil them with a lemon and half a grapefruit. I turn off the heat, fish out the ginger slices, squeeze the lemon and the grapefruit in a lemon press, add honey, and serve.

This is the recipe my wife’s family uses in Peru. She claims it keeps you healthier. It’s delicious.

It’s important to mention that I don’t stop wanting a beer when I serve myself a ginger tea. It’s just that by the time I’m done drinking the tea, there’s no time left over for the beer.

Diet soda, and coconut water

In my time as a marathon runner, I learned that our bodies aren’t very good at telling us that we’re thirsty. Most of the time when we think we’re hungry, we’re actually thirsty. Therefore, you can control your appetite and lose weight by walking around with a bottle of water.

In college, I used to think it was annoying how all the other students walked around with bottles of water all the time. It was like they were bragging about how hungover they were.

Today, I’m the one carrying around a bottle of water.

I also have other non-alcoholic beverages in the house. I don’t think that diet soda is the best thing in the world for you, but I assume it has to be better than alcohol. I also like my coconut water.

When I’m thirsty, I deliberately reach for something non-alcoholic.

The more you drink water, diet soda, and coconut water, the less time you have left over to drink alcohol.

Alcohol is a depressant

I’ve heard experts say that alcohol is a depressant, but it never seemed that way to me. I’m one of those people who tends to overthink things. I get kind of an intense focus. When something starts to bother me, I have a hard time getting it out of my head.

That’s part of the reason I do marathons.

I even do marathons in sub-freezing conditions on cross-country skis.

I like to go out there and test my body for four or five hours. When you cross the finish line, you get a wondrous sensation of relief and clarity. Exhaustion turns down the volume of life.

When I don’t have four or five hours to participate in a grueling sporting event, alcohol, too, seems like it can turn down the volume on my incessant thoughts.

But I’m starting to understand that it really doesn’t work.

Instead, what you get is a brief surge followed by a crash that is worse than what you were experiencing before. Yeah, you feel better for a short amount of time, then you end up having to crawl out of a hole that is deeper than the one you wanted to escape from in the first place.

I don’t have time for crawling out of holes.

I’ve never thought of myself as a heavy drinker

I don’t think of myself as a heavy drinker, but I’m from Wisconsin. Wisconsin is a state with a reputation for binge drinking. What’s considered a “light” drinker in Wisconsin is a problem drinker in most other places.

There was a time when I’d finish off every night with a screwdriver. It got to be a pretty long pour of Vodka.

I didn’t get blackout drunk and I’ve never gotten a DUI, but that doesn’t mean that drinking hasn’t been a tax on my life. I’m coming to believe that I sleep better and I’m happier overall when I don’t drink.

That can be easy to forget when you’re having a frustrating day and you just want to get out of your head for a minute.

Dance with your wife instead, by the time you’re done dancing, there’s no time left over for drinking.

Don’t deny yourself alcohol, just train yourself to pick up a substitute first

There was a time that whenever I went out to eat I ordered a beer. The trick is to stop habitual drinking. Sometimes when I don’t pay attention, I end up driving home without even thinking about it. Sometimes when I get home, I end up sitting in front of the television with a beer in my hand without even thinking about it.

You have to make your drinking deliberate. Once it’s deliberate, you can deliberately choose to do something else.

For the last ten years or so, I’ve been abstaining from drinking for the months leading up to marathons. As I get older, the dedicated training periods are getting longer. I’m discovering that if I want to continue to do the things I most love to do, there’s no time left over for drinking.

For me, the mental trick that works is not saying that I’ve quit.

I haven’t “quit” drinking.

I’m doing something else.

There’s no time for drinking right now, and I’m fine with that.

Subscribe to my emails here. Sign up to Medium via my referral link here, and THANK YOU!