Giving Up

My boss at LIFT Fitness decided, for no particular reason, that February should be prohibition month for us and our clients. Until March 1st, we are not to consume a single alcoholic beverage. He's done this so that people can see just how much one chink in the armor of a sound diet and exercise program can hamstring your progress. Since many of our clients are very busy adults who deal with large amounts of stress on a daily basis, he suspected (and knew from personal observation) that alcohol could be a prime culprit for the lack of results some people are seeing.

I decided to participate, just as a show of good faith. Most weeks I only have one beer in the evening and maybe a few drinks Saturday night, and I don't think it's nearly enough to affect my own progress. However, I wanted to wait until after the Superbowl, because drinking beer during the Superbowl is as American as turkey at Thanksgiving.

You know who didn't drink beer during the Superbowl? Hitler. 

After giving that decision some more thought, I think I have a better understanding of why some people feel the need to put off their diet for a few more weeks.

I hesitated to do the challenge because I knew that, being a 22-year-old male in Kentucky, I am expected to drink at social occasions held by people my age, which makes me sound like an alien sent to study you Earthlings and your habits. If I didn't drink during our Superbowl party, or really any get-together on the weekends, my friends would make fun of me and give me that look. You know that look. They act like they're joking, but they aren't. That look betrays their real feelings. It says: What, you think you're better than me? You think I'm weak because I want to have a good time? Screw you, this is America, and if you're not a Nazi sympathizer you will pass me that funnel and shut up about it. 

If you can't give something up for a month, you're addicted to it. It might be alcohol, or video games, or sugary snacks, or cat memes, but if you can't drop it cold turkey for a month then you have some sort of dependency. It's a cliche at this point, but just about every addict will give some variation of "I can quit any time I want, I just don't want to." Well why not?

Alcoholism runs in my family. I know for a fact I have an addictive personality, and I do better when I cut out something completely rather than limit my consumption via sheer willpower. I used to buy cereal for when I was in a hurry and didn't have time for oatmeal in the mornings, but I found myself staying in bed longer knowing that I had that fallback option. So I cut it out, and now I always have time to fix a bowl of oatmeal. I also know that alcohol is empty calories, decreases protein synthesis in the muscle, and reduces testosterone in the body, all of which are detrimental to building muscle, which is what I'm trying to do now. And yet, I still felt the need to drink quite a few beers yesterday, simply because that was the thing to do.

I'm starting my Prohibition February a few days late, but hopefully the effect will be the same. The timing also coincides well with finishing my "2 Tickets to the Gun Show" program/contest, so I believe I will have willpower in ample supply to finish out the month. I might even make a habit out of it; every month, I'll cut out something that may be bad for me and see if I feel different.

...Or maybe we'll just stick with this for now. Daddy needs his cat memes.

Justin is a trainer at LIFT Fitness and Wellness in Lexington, Ky. He also writes the blog for liftfitnessandwellness.blogspot.com