$65 Bar Deal? Navigating Sober Curious Lifestyle
I have dabbled in the “Sober Curious” content here and there. (I do plan to make a whole post about what I’ve read and learned). Hopefully, I don’t sound too preachy here.
Let me say… as someone who enjoyed the college bar scene and lived in a big city in their twenties, I can’t say I’ve never drunk too much. But now the last thing my doctors would want is for me to walk in and say “Hey, I consumed a week's worth of alcohol for a grown man in the span of a three-hour bar deal this weekend.”
I knew going into this weekend that I was not going to be drinking a lot. I took a two-week span of just drinking mocktails and taking it easy. My boyfriend and I hoped that I would be able to get into this club without having to pay the $65 bar deal. Naturally, we had to turn around and find the nearest ATM once we weren’t able to get in.
This was almost a social experience for me, knowing I have the privilege of choosing not to drink alcohol and still experimenting with the idea of limiting consumption.
These were some of my takeaways:
It is so easy to order a virgin margarita. I previously went into the whole preface of “I’m not really drinking today, can I get a…” But here, I just ran with it, and the bartenders knew exactly what they were doing. No shade from both I ordered from.
I told a couple of people that I wasn’t really drinking, and they offered little to no questions. (These were my boyfriend’s friends, so I also did not feel the need to go into why I was cutting out alcohol.) They were actually supportive and admired it if anything. Also emphasizing, “Do you, I ain’t judging” was definitely helpful.
I ended up ordering a drink that some girl had that looked really good. She told me it was a tequila pineapple with a splash of cranberry. It was tasty… but I didn’t even finish it and ended up just ordering water with a ton of lemons after. I found that having more free reign on consumption almost naturally made me want to drink it less after a week off. I even had my boyfriend get me a prosecco, which I used to love… took two sips and pushed it off to the side.
Seeing yourself be able to be just as funny or the conversationalist that you are when your drinking is affirming. It almost gives you a confidence boost of “I don’t need alcohol to enhance my extroversion.” If anything, not drinking really helped me carry out conversations and ask questions that allowed for better connections.
I woke up feeling great, inspired to write this post, and proud of not pressuring myself to do something I was not sure of. It was inspiring to look back on how my night went.
Over 2 1/2 hours…
I found that I drank less than two drinks… maybe even one in total. (Mocktails, though, are a different story). Did I get my money’s worth? Considering finances… probably not- but I enjoyed the time spent with people and that was enough for me!
Again, this is no shade for anyone who drinks! It is my own personal preference and I do have other health going on that I find would be 10x worse if I drank like I used to. Things change!
