I'm Embarrassed To Say

I went out on Thursday night. To a Christmas party. 

I went out on Thursday night at 7:30pm. And left the party at 10:15pm.

Why?

Because I was seriously sozzled. I don't know what happened, one minute I was drinking champagne and dancing merrily on the dance floor (that I carved out). The next I was in a cab, and not in a happy state. 

Seriously. Bad. Business. Lexi. 

So bad I kept apologising to the cab driver the whole ride home. Poor cabbie.

I texted Matt somewhere between the party and home - saying 'Cyril me.'

Shortly after I sent him another - this time to try and avoid autocorrect, oh and I did, but it said 'Helpb'. 

I am an idiot. 

Seriously. I cringe every time I see anything to do with this party. What kind of fool am I?

One that keeps getting their glass topped up, who comes home and sits in the shower and insists I am sleeping in the shower for the night. Yup. Ouch.

The next morning I was sick as a dog. Even sicker than a dog. (Why are dog's sick anyway??). Every time I got vertical  -- --- -- I vomited. 

Matt texted me during the day asking me how I was and I told him I wanted to die. The pain was excruciating - and I had one person to blame. ME. 

I couldn't even hold down a drink of water. 

This is not like me. Sure I like the occasional drink, but to go out and get completely hammered and ugly. Oh aye aye aye!! Not me. 

I am not exaggerating when I say - it took me three days to get over this hangover. Three freaking days of feeling like rat poo, of feeling bad for Matt and the kids, and feeling pretty annoyed at myself. 

Friends told me I was chugging down the cocktails like there was no tomorrow. No wonder when I checked out IG a couple of days later I felt nauseous at the mere glimpse of a cocktail in a photo. 

So I've signed up to Hello Sunday Morning for three months. No alcohol for three months. 

I almost heard an audible gasp from my friends on Instagram saying that I chose a bad time to do it. Well in my book - I chose a really, really good time to do it. I don't need alcohol, and it's not like I said - hey guys, I am quitting oxygen for three months. Nope. 

I'm going to give it my best shot, and report in every now and then to tell you how it's going. We're in the thick of Christmas parties, but you know, all the health benefits are pretty appealing - and on average a HSMer loses 6kgs! And saves loads of cash. 

Just consider me your designated driver. And the next morning, I'll be the one sans hangover. 

Before the downfall 

Punctuating Your Life With Alcohol

I've been thinking about this for a long time. About the culture of alcohol, and how prevalent and loud the need to document and broadcast drinking booze has become - and what does this mean for us - and what does it mean for our kids? 

Every day I see someone Instagramming their glass of wine, or Facebooking that they're updating their status with a short and stumpy glass of gin and tonic with a caption "Hey it's wine o'clock!" - or some such inane comment.

Not saying that my posts are any more interesting - but I'm not into sharing my every-beverage. 

What is our obsession with alcohol? Why is it the highlight of the day? And how did we become so infatuated with dulling life with alcohol. Because if you're punctuating your every day with bevvies, then I'm a little concerned. Alcohol is a drug - and 

A few months ago, after some particularly stressful days at work, I'd come home and drink most of a bottle of wine to myself. Then I'd wake up all dusty, and cranky and not feeling fabulous - and then I'd do it again. After a few days of this (and my body does not tolerate alcohol very well) I realised this was not a healthy, productive way to cope with stress. 

So I started exercising. 

What I'm saying is, by sharing images of alcohol, by talking about it all the time, aren't we setting ourselves up to normalise it - and in turn, isn't there a loss of control with this blase attitude? We're drinking alcohol like it's water - or at least, that's how it feels on the social media stage. And who else is seeing that firsthand? 

Alcohol in Australia is attributed to:

• 30% of road accidents
• 44% of fire injuries; 34% of falls and drownings
• exacerbating depression

In young people, it's attributed to:

•  a key factor in the three leading causes of death among adolescents; unintentional injury, homicide and suicide
• Over one in five (22%) of all hospitalisations of young people aged 15-24 years old are alcohol related
• Of all those hospitalised, 30% of young men and 23% of young women are hospitalised because of an alcohol related assault

Like my friend Kate pointed out - FebFast is all well and good - but since when was it a mean feat to go 28 days sans alcohol? 

Another friend, Courtney told me about Hello Sunday Morning - changing the world's relationship with alcohol. I've signed up.

Can you change your habits? Can you stop broadcasting your boozing? I'm not telling you to give up drinking forever, but I am thinking often about how alcohol affects our lives - and what it says to our children. 


I used the following sources for current Australian statistics: NSW Police, SA Government

image via Style Me Pretty