HOW DRY JANUARY SUDDENLY BECAME MEDIUM DRY JANUARY

Good. So. Silence. So we decided to do a Dry January . A month without alcohol.

Of course I can do that. After all, I managed just fine for the first sixteen years of my life without Sambuca, Chardonnay, and gin and tonic, and during three long pregnancies, I didn't drink a drop either.

But now it had to be voluntary. From Monday to Friday, it was fine. Boring but fine. But then came Friday. I still had to return some clothes at Pauw in Heemstede and immediately dove into Gall & Gall for non-alcoholic options. I bought lime juice that I would drink without the vodka (that morning I heard myself say that I would drink vodka lime without the lime, that was quite Freudian) and I bought Big Tom, which is spicy tomato juice used for making Bloody Marys. I would keep it to Bloody and leave Mary at home.

I bought lime juice that I would drink without the vodka…

What I didn't like was that I was quite preoccupied with it. Otherwise, I would never have rushed into Gall & Gall (there's plenty of wine in my cozy little house) and I also noticed that I had a strong craving for sweets. This went wrong. Because let's be honest: a pretty important reason to not drink for a month was to see if it's really true that you gain weight from alcohol. I actually find it quite manageable, but who knows, maybe a few kilos would suddenly drop off. Well, no. I suddenly saw myself eating chocolate cake and I wanted desserts and so on.

Anyway, I noticed a slight compulsion and I'm just so happy that years of eating and drinking have led me to a pattern where I have both a stable weight and enjoy drinking without any issues. Anyway. I made myself another cup of ginger tea.

Then someone from our team texted me whose name I won't reveal, but she just moved.

Then someone from our team texted me whose name I won't reveal, but she just moved. “May, I'm skipping. I'm starting Monday and going longer. This move is so much work, I'm painting until three in the morning. If I can't have a glass of wine now, I'm going crazy.’

“I totally understand,” I texted back. “You don't really need a month like that.” Meanwhile, I was rummaging through my wine collection looking for a bottle of non-alcoholic wine that I still had left from my last pregnancy. There wasn't any.

Oops. The wine was in the glass. I took a glass. Then it was over…

Then let's check the fridge. Maybe someone accidentally put it in the fridge. Nothing. Just a perfectly chilled bottle of Chardonnay. With a screw cap. That was the kicker. For whom was I doing this anyway? And soon I would get an obsession because I imposed a ban on myself. Oops. The wine was in the glass. I took a glass. Then it was over. And Saturday too. And Sunday not again.

On Facebook, I saw a dear colleague who is normally always alcohol-free in January writing something raucous about drinks. “Hey, you're doing dry January, right?” I asked her. “Medium dry, May. Medium dry.”

That sounded like my new lifestyle. Dry during the week and on Friday and Saturday one (but then really one) glass. Dry January is so 2015, medium dry people, that's the way to go.