I Quit Drinking for 100 Days — And My Entire Life Changed
By: Untangled Blonde
Tags: Self, Self Improvement, Addiction, Mental Health

I always knew quitting drinking would shake things up, but I had no idea just how dramatically (or quickly) every aspect of my life was about to transform.

Photo Credit: Canva

From the physical to the mental and emotional, here are some of the most remarkable changes I experienced in my first 100 days without alcohol.

Full Disclosure: I was drinking a lot before I embarked on this “journey.” (Daily and heavily for almost a year straight.)

Weight Loss from Quitting Alcohol + (other vanity benefits!)

On the vanity front, I feel charmed. I look effortlessly fabulous. My skin is flawless (especially compared to the drab disaster it was three months ago), and my body looks phenomenal. There is a certain je ne sais quoi in my reflection — a reminder of the natural charm and joy I used to radiate abundantly but had long since stifled somewhere along my decade-long path of self-destruction.

For reference, I am 5’7 and weighed a bloated and puffy 145 when I quit drinking. I now weigh 131 consistently. That is a massive weight loss and evidence of how bad my drinking had gotten to warrant 14 pounds of excess fat. Yikes.

My clothes fit perfectly now. I love my reflection and even enjoy seeing candid photos of myself. This is new.

I can run with ease and endurance now that I have shed the weight of an entire (albeit extra-small) human. So yes, praise the Lord for showering me in the gift of glow and health! It is undeniable that I am getting better and better looking with each passing day, a humble brag worth sharing because it’s the type of materialistic and shallow tidbit I desperately needed to hear back when I was working up the courage to take the sober plunge.

Spoiler alert: This was probably the only huge change that didn’t require me to do any real work. (Don’t worry, I more than make up for it in other departments!)

It has been a treacherous battle, but at least I’m looking mighty fine fighting it!

Emotions and the “New Me”

Do you ever feel so out of control of your emotions that it is as if the sane and peaceful “you” is watching crazy “you” flip out? There were so many times — especially towards the end of my drinking career — where I would have these surreal out-of-body experiences that made me seriously question my sanity.

At times I wondered if maybe this was a sign that I was close to death…like maybe the spirit world was hijacking my brain or something. Come to find out, these flickering moments of “being present” were actually the few times I was truly alive.

That zen and mature “spirit” in my head was actually me. Go figure.

The moment I quit drinking, the “real me” replaced the crazy bitch living in my body, and 100 days later, I think it’s safe to say that the nut job is not coming back.

Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t turn into the Dali Llama or anything overnight, but at least all systems are now operating on the same wave-length. I don’t act like a mental patient anymore when things don’t go my way. I allow myself to feel the sad feelings and acknowledge my disappointments, but my emotions are no longer running the show.

There isn’t this weird divide of denial and depression separating the “me” in my head from the “me” in my body. It is so refreshing.

The Weird and Unexpected Side of Quitting Drinking

Some of the earliest changes I noticed when I first got sober also happened to be some of the strangest.

Emojis

Before I quit drinking, the “frequently used Emoji” section of my iPhone was as messy as my life. The hopeless guy throwing a hissy fit was my go-to, followed by the exasperated girl slamming her palm against her forehead. The smug dude and the “dead” face were also part of my daily rotation, making me seriously question why anyone wanted even to text me at all.

Despite my bleak outlook on life, I was also a big fan of “poppin’ bottles” — or rather, pretending to pop bottles. (Apple doesn’t make a depressed woman cracking open her 10th can of Michelob Ultra.)

The point being, both me and my Emojis were hot messes. Within two weeks, all the angry/sad/throw-up men were repaced with a smattering of hearts and joy. I used to hate people who had the time and energy to select the perfect heart for their messages, but here I am.

Internet Love

From likes on Facebook to upvotes on Reddit, I am making up for years of lost time spreading internet love! I like every post like my life depends on it, going so far as to scroll back to make sure I gave credit where credit was due. I even found myself reviewing purchases on Amazon for the first time in my life. Who have I become?

No More Secrets

One of the most significant (and most surprising!) benefits of sobriety is that I no longer have secrets to hide — at least not on a day-to-day basis as I did before.

And I’m talking SECRETS. A recycling bin stuffed to the gills with glass bottles (and cans when I was feeling self-conscious.) Random empty containers in my car. Humiliating mail, weird messes, bizarre routines, suspicious behavior. This list goes on and on. I was shady AF.

100 days later, it’s hard to believe that erratic lunatic was me. (Cue my other ex-favorite emoji: 🙈)

Not having to keep a million secrets anymore is one of those weird changes that is both one of the biggest — yet also the one I’ve most taken for granted. It isn’t until I’m hit with a situation where I could have been “discovered” that I find myself momentary freezing in panic before breathing a sigh of relief once I realize that I’m not really hiding much anymore.

Take the other day, for example, when I was asked to give my boss a ride in my car with only 2 seconds’ notice. I can’t even begin to list the reasons why this would have caused “old me” to lose my shit. I would have burst into tears and caused a theatrical, elaborate scene — basically everything short of throwing myself into oncoming traffic to avoid letting him see how I “really” lived.

But now, I don’t have to worry about my boss suffocating on stale cigarette smoke and clouds of perfume — or getting smothered in half a foot of mail and gum wrappers.

The Treacherous Ascent Out of Rock Bottom

One of the overarching themes of the past 100 days has been confronting the truth. Facing “hard” things and dealing with them head-on. This shift has been one of the most challenging yet rewarding accomplishments that I’ve experienced so far.

I had shit piles up the wazoo when I finally quit drinking. Enormous scary things as well as a laundry list of minor to-dos that I had let grow into bigger issues. Everything was too much for me to handle in the end, so I didn’t.

I had a closet full of mail that I had stopped opening altogether about six months prior to quitting drinking. Mail had become the primary source for my bad news, and I wasn’t having any of it.

Side note: You’re probably sick of hearing about all of my ridiculous mail problems, so I’ll make this last one quick — I also had to make amends with the USPS this past month. (Yes, me and the post office had beef.)

As you and see, my net of problems was cast far and wide, and even my poor postman wasn’t safe from the consequences of my shitty actions.

I wasn’t even hanging by a thread in the end. I was long gone.

Taking Care of Business!

Fast-forward 100 days, and I’m making great progress working through this backlog of crap I had been too anxious or too inebriated to handle until now. And when I say backlog, this is no exaggeration. I had pressing financial issues and life negligences for days, papers, bills, and mail scattered (and hidden) in every nook and cranny of my house. I truly had not the slightest clue what was going on in my own life.

Three months into this, and I’m proud to report that I have finally tackled the bulk of the beast. Dozens of daunting phone calls, tons of bills, and a slew of other urgent random issues that only someone who has mentally checked out of life for the better part of a year would understand.

I’m turning into a person who “does hard things.” When I get a notification on my phone that a bill is due, I pay it. This is a novel and new behavior. In the past, I would have been too scared even to look.

Ok, I may be using the term “hard things” a bit loosely, but you’ve got to cut me some slack here. 3 months ago, I was too fragile to even LOOK at my electricity bill, let alone pay the damn thing. So as trivial and mundane as a phone payment may seem now, I was in such a dark place a few months ago that these baby steps are actually pretty enormous wins.

Onwards and Upwards

I can safely say that the worst is finally behind me. With each passing day, I feel more and more grateful for this opportunity to be an active participant in my own life.

On the first day of this journey, I was in deep shit. So the fact that I can look back now and see just how far I’ve come over the past three months is what gives me the straight and courage to carry on.

And for the first time in a long time, I am so freaking proud of myself.