so the other day I got an email from one of our friends asking me how much alcohol I drank well it really got me thinking about my journey with alcohol and my relationship with it from the days of binge drinking and blacking out to my current consumption level so I have always really enjoyed drinking growing up I started drinking I'd say probably when I'm NUMBER_TOKEN with my buddies and throughout college I was a binge drinker I drank on weekends sometimes nightly and after college I still drank in excess and I never ever thought that I had a problem I never thought that it was something that I couldn't quit but I never saw myself quitting drinking because it was so engrained in my social behavior and just the way that I live but I actually quit drinking six years ago by accident when I saved by accident I don't know I would you just also the way that it worked is I used to chew tobacco dip snuff and I did two cans a day for about NUMBER_TOKEN years and I was crazy addicted and it was the one thing that I was so incredibly ashamed of myself six years ago on January NUMBER_TOKENnd of NUMBER_TOKEN I made the decision all right this is it I'm done and so I stopped chewing tobacco it was the last time I actually put it in my mouth I knew that if I was going to succeed quitting tobacco that I needed to quit a hundred percent alcohol in my life because it was too much of a trigger as soon as I would take that first sip of beer I was craving the tobacco so I quit drinking by accident in order to quit chewing tobacco and give up nicotine I quit alcohol because it was a trigger so I went from drinking probably before I quit NUMBER_TOKEN drinks a week to now I do drink but it's probably NUMBER_TOKEN drinks a year I love bourbon and have bourbon is nice every once in a while if I'm doing something special a glass of wine or Italian food is incredible but I haven't been drunk in a really long time and things are awesome this is a no way shape or form a public service announcement to get you to stop drinking not at all I just want to share with you ten things that I have found have changed in my life and in me as a result of not drinking the first thing that I noticed when I stopped drinking is that I stopped doing really stupid things I have made some really bad decisions in my life and I've done some really bad things but there's usually a correlation between bad decision and alcohol when you cut out alcohol the bad decisions you still make them but it's on a different level the second thing that happened is I felt awesome every day when I woke up you know the drill you go out on a Friday night Saturday half the day is wasted because you feel so terrible I felt incredible i hopped up out of bed and it was like oh my god I feel great it's a Saturday and I'm not hungover what I'm gonna go be productive third thing that I noticed was that my mind was so much clearer and it's like my senses were heightened I I perceive things differently I was ultra aware it was like it was almost like I was on drugs but it was just this this incredible sense of well-being and clarity they think the number four is I was more creative because I wasn't clouded by a hangover or just not feeling good or alcohol because here's the deal I don't know I'm sure
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