The First Year Down

 About a month ago, I passed my one year sober mark. I meant to write something about it then, but life has been hectic. Incredibly hectic. Anyways, let's look at that first year in review...

The Good - I've been told by multiple people at work that I've been doing an amazing job. Which is weird to me, cause I feel like I do the same quality work, I just don't whine about how much I hate it nearly as much. But apparently quite a few people have noticed a difference and it's been such a good difference I even got a small promotion a few months back. It was more of a positional promotion than anything and my bank account isn't noticeable growing from it, but it is a step forward and will hopefully help me in securing bigger and better promotions in the future. But more importantly, it affirmation that I've been doing things right - something that wasn't happening while I was drinking.

The Bad - I have not lost a ton of weight like a lot of people say happens for them when they stop drinking. Probably because I have not had any consistency in going to the gym and the sugar that's in alcohol has been replaced by the sugar in candy. Seriously, I'm probably giving whoever makes Dove chocolate a record year this year. But I'm OK with that, it's still better than what I was doing to my body.

The Ugly - I'm going to drink again. Hopefully not any time soon or even any time not so soon. But there's a part of me that still craves it like nothing else. And I have found, at least these days, the easiest way to calm that craving is to tell it to wait until the time is right. So assuming I don't die prematurely and the world doesn't have an apocalypse, I will very likely one day be found sitting at a local brewery telling myself it's not alcoholism if I'm being a snob about it. But again, I'm aiming for that day to be very far away (ideally after retirement).

The Future - I'm hoping my second year sober is one about physical health. It's been a slow start to making that my reality, but (fingers crossed), I think I've finally got the ball moving. I miss jiu jitsu and while I never thought I'd say it, I miss jogging. And I REALLY, REALLY miss hiking, which I haven't done in years. So my primary goal for this year of sobriety is to be physically active. Of course there's other goals and what-not (mostly professional), but I know the best me isn't just sober me, it's sober and active me. (And hopefully I don't get injured as well).