My God, this past week was one giant existential crisis.  I wonder if the crises come when creating new habits in general of if it’s just specific to not drinking.  Monday through Friday it seemed like I did nothing but work, walk my dog, and wait for it to be an appropriate time to fall asleep.  I’ve been in my head a lot too: Is this week boring because everyone has COVID?  Is it because everyone is back and work and drowning in “catching up” and “circling back?” Is it because all my social activities involve drinking and if I’m not drinking, I’m not social?  Is this week boring because I’M boring? IS THIS WHY PEOPLE HAVE CHILDREN?  

It’s easy to spiral, so I turned to an old comfort of mine to quiet the brain: trash TV.  But as I watched the Bachelor without a glass of wine, I realized how insufferable it is (at least the first couple of episodes; I’ll report back on others later).  The guys always say the same line, and dude, *of course* you’ve never dated this many women at once; if you had, it would be considered a mental illness, but since we film it for ABC, we’ll call it The Bachelor.  This is why I always watched it with a glass of wine.

Let me be clear, I haven’t been doing mental battle with myself all day every day.  I wake up every day feeling absolutely refreshed waking up without the tiniest hangover.  I used to work out later in the day as sort of a preamble to my “end of day” glass of wine, which essentially a reward for making it through the day and a tough workout. That glass of wine might turn into a half or even a whole bottle depending on the evening’s social schedule. However, this month I’ve been waking up early and creating a morning routine which consists of a 10-minute meditation, at least 10 minutes of reading, and then a workout. 

Once a week (typically Wednesdays), I drive out to Pacific Palisades really early in the morning and do a 5.5 mile hike, which really makes me feel like I can take on the rest of the week with relative ease.  For this Wednesday’s hike, I brought my water and a bottle of Strawberry Lavender VYBES with me.  People always ask me when the appropriate time to drink a VYBES would be, and honestly I think the answer is “whenever the heck you want.”  If you’re primed and ready for bed, it can calm your brain and set you up for good sleep.  If you’re on a hike and charging up a mountain, it makes the experience even enjoyable by letting you focus on what’s right in front of you instead of letting your mind wandering to how many emails have come in since you’ve been on the trail.  Try it sometime when you’re exercising outside and thank me later. 

This was essentially my first weekend of Dry January since last weekend was the tail end of the holiday, and you could have told me Sunday was Tuesday and I wouldn’t have had any idea.  This week, my sole social activity was a brunch in Malibu and of course I made it BYOV (Bring Your Own VYBES) with my go-to mimosa replacement Pineapple Ginger.  My date wasn’t drinking either (what a gem), but of course I asked the waitress for a champagne glass so I could feel like I was brunching instead of just breakfasting. 

This coming week will be a real test for me because I do have a couple of events in the queue: College Football National Championship (cheering for my alma mater: Go Dawgs. OMG WE WON!), dinner at a friend’s house, dinner out with a friend who is moving, and a “happy hour” with another friend (he doesn’t know I’m not drinking; I think I’ll just spring it on him so he doesn’t try to cancel).  And wow, by typing all of this out, I think I may have just helped write myself out of the aforementioned existential crisis.  I guess I’m not actually that boring, last week *was* nuts, people still like me, and I don’t need a kid.  Cheers!      

-SARA