What have you got to lose – more hangovers? – Leigh Lavery

So far it has blown me away. The difference it has made to my life.

Like most people, I’d found myself drinking more heavily and regularly during COVID’s impact in 2020. I’d been a big drinker for most of my 20s and 30s and felt that it was just a normal part of being a sports-mad guy in Australia.

As I reached my 38^th birthday on Xmas day 2020, I’d found myself feeling fat, frustrated, fatigued and fearful of the long-term health impacts my drinking was having on me and the ramifications for my family. It dawned on me that a lot of the ‘pressure’ I was feeling in my life, that often made me feel like a drink, was actually being amplified by my drinking.

I had been curious about the idea of quitting the grog for a while, and had seen other people I knew do it and appear to discover major life changing positives.

The turning point

I was nursing quite a large hangover on Boxing Day when I made the quick decision to pay for the full-year OYNB program and sign-up on the spot. Luckily for me, a close mate who I work with had also been considering the program and after a quick phone call he was on board to join me too. 

My main hope was that I’d discover new upsides to a number of important areas of my life, from family through to my career, and also dramatically improve my health.

Since I stopped drinking all ‘hope’ from my life has gone…

I no longer ‘hope’ to;

• Be a better husband
• Be a better dad
• Be a better friend
• Be a better son / brother
• Be better at work
• Save money
• Eat better
• Get fit
• Lose weight

Now, I just do it.

So far it has blown me away at the difference it has made to my life.

How being alcohol-free has benefitted my life

I was already lucky to have a great relationship with my wife and two great kids, but this has just further improved our time together and removed any hazy, tired, hungover weekends.

Physically, I feel great and much younger. I also feel so much better and more on-my-game at work. My social life is a little tamer, but still I am lucky to have a lot of great mates that I can enjoy time together, without the need to get wasted. Our conversations are a bit more coherent and a lot more meaningful.

I strongly recommend anyone considering a year off to go ahead and do it. What have you got to lose – more hangovers?

My experience of the challenge

I found the first 3-4 weeks the most difficult as you are adjusting and changing what feels like an extraordinary large part of your life (quick hint – it’s actually not). The daily emails and exercises really helped, and I’d recommend the program for that alone.

My relationship with alcohol now feels completely different. I don’t see it as the fool-proof elixir to aid all of my ailments as I had done in the past. Instead looking back, it now seemed more like an unnecessary burden to make the simple things in life harder, less fulfilling and less enjoyable that it could or should be.

I’d highly recommend the program to my friends. It has been genuinely life changing for me in the best possible way.

 

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