Extra long break

And so we are suddenly in March and I have not had a drop of alcohol for 2 months. Some readers will remember me from my Dry January blogs, where I mainly played around with my passion for Chardonnay and with my newly purchased scales. After that successful month, in which I beat myself and the scale just mentioned, I continued with IkPas. After Dry January followed KortDroog (dry February) and I also successfully completed this month. Then why am I sticking it for a few more weeks, you ask? Well, because I like it very much. I still sleep well, I feel very fit, I have lost 10 kilos and am full of energy. In addition, not drinking is so much easier for me that it is actually self-evident to continue. But now that the weather is no longer gray and gray, the sun shines more often and it seems that we can go and have some terraces again, I think it will be a little more difficult for me in the coming time to neatly drink a 0.0 or a soft drink to order. Nice weather, sun, terrace, beach and sea = Chardonnay with ice!!! As I type these words, I immediately feel like it. Have a nice lunch, dinner and drinks at a cozy beach bar, preferably on Texel!! I've been out for dinner twice in the past few months and both times have ordered a soft drink without a doubt, even though I was really looking forward to that glass of wine with my pizza the other day. Anyway, all in all, I'm not going to drop a drop for the next 40 days! definitely complete the challenge. I want it, so I can do it!! I also really like ice tea green with ice or an Affligem 0.0 Blond. They probably taste even better on a terrace by the water, between the dunes or by the sea.

My daughter has been living at home for a month and a half now. It took some getting used to. After all, I've been alone for half a year and I really liked that. It's great not to find someone else's junk. No full wine bottles in the fridge because friends come to have a drink and no empty wine bottles on the counter the next morning. Not finding crumbs on my counter and a dirty knife in the sink. No half-unpacked school bag on the table after a long day at work and a coat on one of the dining room chairs (sigh, there really is a coat rack on the wall in the hallway) No instant full laundry basket if you have asked if the bedroom can be cleaned up ( where on earth do all those clothes suddenly come from) and no coming home at night and thus waking up to rumbling on the stairs. Do not take the things that have been put on the stairs and that are of course not taken up with you, because you have already asked 3 times and it is still there. Oh, and not finding an empty fridge if you haven't emptied it yourself (recognizable…? Probably!!) But on the other hand, no nightly conversations about life with cookies and tissues, and no hug because you've listened. No kisses when you say goodnight and no food on the table when you come home after a busy day at work (so I can do that every day, because my daughter can cook ridiculously well… but yes, no hair on her head). No good morning mom…… did you sleep well and no 'I love you mom…. †
And so every disadvantage has its advantage and vice versa. I'm glad she's back. She brings cosiness and love into the house and I really missed that.

So for the next six weeks you can enjoy my blogs for the 40 days challenge again. Six weeks of writing about the ups and downs of continuing my healthy lifestyle, ie about 'not drinking alcohol' and my friendship with the scale. Despite the fact that I really have to make an effort to watch what I eat every day and the saying "every pound .... I enjoy the little things every day and that makes everything easier. For example, I recently got a new camera (did I say small?) and that's why I ended up in a kind of study about how-to-use an SLR. So there is plenty to experience with and to tell about yet another new device in my life. A device that is absolutely not a basic necessity of life for most people, but which makes me very happy. I've saved up really hard for it and now that I have it, I have to find out how it works. Sigh, really something for me…….doing something that requires a lot of patience. NOT! Something has to work for me, POINT!! But of course it doesn't work that way in photography. I've already discovered that a bit of messing around and fiddling around isn't going to bring me what I want, so I'll have to watch a tutorial and/or ask my son for help. He has the same camera. Can he explain to his old mother how the device works? Although I do know that I just have to sign up for a photography course. I really still have a lot to learn….

This is Tessa in short:

I am Tessa, 47 years old and I have a weakness for white wine with ice. For the third month in a row I will continue not to drink alcohol. In January I started Dry January and I like it so much that, after having also participated in KortDroog, I will continue with the 40 days Challenge. By not drinking I have lost 8 kilos since 1 January and I feel fitter, I sleep better, I exercise more and I have more energy. Over the next 6 weeks I will take you along in my weekly battle against Chardonnay (which is permanent!!), my sense of snitch and my, sometimes not so, loving relationship with the scales.