Drinking is out, being sober is in

Already the twentieth day of January. So three weeks if you drank every day, but also three weekends if you only drank on the weekend. In all cases well done everyone!!

Would you have thought it tougher to smoke or drink in the past, to be honest it feels a lot tougher now not to do it. It even seems a bit fashionable not to drink. Look at all those campaigns such as IkPas and Dry January, but also at the newly introduced 'dranquilo'! And besides you, your friends, your family and I, there are also plenty of famous people who don't drink alcohol, such as Jim Carrey, Jennifer Lopez, Eminem, Ali B and Najib Amhali.

But not easy, because certainly, as Jacqueline van Lieshout points out, we associate the use of alcohol with everything. In joy, in sorrow, in celebration, in life, in death…

Unfortunately, I was once again present at a cremation during this period. I was even a bit afraid beforehand that I would take a white wine after the service out of a kind of automaticity. How much I liked that. It was a nice service, they had nice snacks after and the orange juice tasted fine to me.

Speaking of orange juice, how many choices of non-alcoholic drinks there are! The delicious fresh orange juice, the delicious fresh cola, the warm cup of tea, the 'what were we up to' cup of coffee and the super sweet chocolate milk with whipped cream, they are all alcohol-free!!

But despite all the tips, tricks, alternatives and benefits, I also regularly crave a glass of white wine. Such a desire, appetite, hunger is also called craving. When you get that, do something else, drink something else, have something to eat, or do nothing at all. It really is, comes the pull, realize, it's going away again!

Finally, I would like to say something about sleeping without alcohol. They say you sleep much better. That certainly doesn't apply to me. I haven't been drinking since September 26, but I really don't feel like I've been sleeping better.

Anyway, Saturday nights don't last until three o'clock and when I lie awake in the night, I just think: but I didn't drink!