Confessions and Lessons Learned

Oh my, I am embarrassed to admit that I totally disregarded my own advice on drinking responsibly this weekend! I feel I should be honest about it because sometimes life just happens and your best intentions seem to wander away. (Just so you know, I typically do follow the happy hour scenario suggestions, and feel much better than I did this weekend!)

On Friday I had plans to meet for drinks around 10, so I was just planning on having a glass of wine or two. But then another friend asked if I wanted to get drinks after work. I wanted to catch up so we went to one of our favorite wine/tapas bars, KashKaval. I stuck to one glass of wine and we shared a small tapas plate or hummus, roasted beets, roasted cauliflower, and eggplant caponata with pita bread. I love eating tapas style and this greek/italian mix is my favorite. We also split a salad. I requested dressing on the side, but it came already dressed. The waitress said it was lightly dressed, but there was definitely a huge pool of dressing in the bottom of the bowl. Oh well, at least it was olive oil based!

Round two: We started out a lounge, I had water since I didn't want beer and didn't trust the wine. Then we went to Pure Food and Wine for drinks. Here is where I get into trouble, everything seems so healthy! So my friend G and I love the rioja and we each got a glass--this glass was twice as big as the one from the wine bar! Then we decided to order some desserts, we split those--although we left most of the sundae because it was so rich! I also had a few sips of the cocktails my friends ordered.

Our final stop was Bar Jamon. I managed to refrain from another drink because I knew I didn't need it! But when I got home I definitely had a large handful of crackers to settle my stomach.

So two drinks turned into closer to 4!

Pubcrawl: This one I knew would be a big night. The run down 3 1/2 beers and one shot. Lots of fun.

What I realized from this weekend is that while drinking too much is definitely not great, it's how I feel the day after that really sucks!

Saturday and Sunday I really had no energy to workout, save one great yoga class at Om (more later). I was not too productive with my school work either. I like going through my days full force and alive with energy, buzzing busily from task to task, not dragging around. Of course it can be fun to loosen up with a drink or two, but for me two is the definite time to cap it, after that the price I pay in the days after out weighs the fun. It's kind of like dessert, the first few bites are the best, but after a huge slice of cheesecake, the bloated, sluggish feeling is almost not worth it.

Staying out until 4 in the morning two days in a row was part of the reason I really didn't get much done this weekend was because I have had trouble sleeping. I haven't been able to sleep for more than 4-5 hours in over a week, so that definitely played a part too. All week I felt fine with only a few hours a night, but everything caught up with me yesterday.

But damn is it hard! Looking at my schedule for the week, I could potentially relive this weekend on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but I am going to do my body a favor and pick one night to have a couple drinks. The other days, I will just enjoy my seltzer and lime! In a final revelation, I decided to give up beer for good, why drink something I don't even like. Although, I am not sure what I will do at the Astoria Beer Garden this summer!

xo!