One Hundred Days

So I’m always yammering on about being my best at every age, living limitless, moving my body, eating well, enjoying life, yada, yada. You’ve all heard me. Don’t get me wrong – it’s been my goal for the past 10 years to make the rest of my life the best of my life!! But there’s one dirty, dark little secret that I’m going to reveal to you that has the power to take away all I’ve accomplished!

And it’s not even a real secret. I have not tried to hide it one bit – in fact, it’s been kind of a fun “fact” about me – but not really. I’ve embraced it, laughed about it, shared fun posts and memes, heck, I even have a shirt that shares a joke about it – but it’s time to be open and let you know what I need to take more seriously and to improve about myself.

10 years ago (really, 10?) I found a different kind of program that changed my life. I became more life-conscious. I started really thinking about how many more years I wanted to live, and how I needed to make some changes to be able to do that. I have an amazing family, wonderful friends, a great business, beautiful home, and everything I could imagine. I wanted to travel more, enjoy more, do more things with people I love, spend more time at the lake, enjoy my colleagues more, create more art, read more books, and help more people in this world.

I joined a company that had products that provided immediate results with my quality of sleep, my energy, my strength, my weight, my skin and my health. I enjoyed sharing my results, and reaching my goals. I was more comfortable in my skin. I started moving more – swimming, biking, walking. I embraced my stage in life – letting my hair turn silver, embracing the wonderful fun of this age – a time of more freedom, more options, and even more creativity. I was feeling better than I had in years.

And I still do. But one little, ugly habit has firmly implanted itself in my life. It’s delicious, it’s red, and it comes in a bottle.

I call it “Wine at 9”. There seems to have been a trend that started about 10 years ago – it was women getting together for “girlfriend nights” and learning about and drinking wine. Or maybe they played Bunko, or talked about books (for 10 minutes). Wine was certainly the featured presentation. And that morphed into the “wine mom” – google that if you want a good laugh. And then Covid. Oh, don’t get me started.

So for the past 2+ years, “wine at 9” has been my reward and my salvation. I could be on zooms and calls all day, just as long as after I made dinner, did some laundry or whatever the daily chore was, I could waddle to my couch with my “glass” of wine (a true serving of wine is 5 oz. Whatever.) and chill out with my latest Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime featured presentation. It was safe. I didn’t have to get dressed up, put on makeup or even talk to people. And a glass of wine wasn’t $12, so I was saving money, right?

Fast forward to 2022. Wow – we are finally able to go places, and talk to people. Maybe I should get started on that book I want to write. How about some volunteer work? I could be doing that. Painting my kitchen? Oh my gosh, my energy was coming back. But I still have this habit that started nagging me at 8:45 to put on my jammies, open up a bottle, and chill out with a good movie. I just wonder why the bottle was required. The taste is fine, but I’m not purchasing Chateau Lafite Rothschild 2018 from Bordeaux at $1000/bottle. (Did you know that you get an extra 10% off 4 bottles at target plus your 5% reward?)

Seriously, a beautiful bottle of wine at dinner is delightful. But the $7.99 deals I was buying weren’t all that great. And something salty goes so well at that time. I deserve it. It’s the pandemic – I’m not doing much for fun these days. Did you know there are 6.75 grams of sugar in an average bottle of wine? And I drink the dry, red stuff. Holy, moly – no wonder I packed on my Covid 19!

So, spring has sprung (kind of – I live in Minnesota) and I feel empowered and energized to do some new things. What is this? Yes. I’m paring down the mounds of clutter and papers that have accumulated over the winter on every flat surface. I scraped every last bit of ice and snow off my deck before the last snowfall – I’m being optimistic. And the other day I dusted my baseboards! If that doesn’t scream spring and renewal, I don’t know what does.

So it’s time to overhaul my habits too. We’re eating more fresh produce, fish and chicken, and a couple of Girl Scout cookies as a treat seems to satisfy me as much as that Tres Leches cake I made for the last birthday celebration.

So maybe it’s time to say bye-bye to that last, big, ugly, habit that has hung onto my hips for the past couple of years. Maybe it’s time for something lighter, fresher, and easier on my body. I don’t even want to tell you all the havoc that wine can impart over time. It’s NOT great for my heart – no matter what they say. It does not help you sleep better – in fact, it makes your quality of sleep worse which decreases mental clarity and when you do wake up you feel lethargic and slow. And I think my liver could use the break. Alcohol is especially hard on your liver and other organs.

So bye-bye for now. I’m committing to ONE HUNDRED DAYS with no alcohol. After that, who knows. I hope I feel so much better that I will never go back. Or maybe only for a glass of that Chateau Lafite Rothschild 2018 on my birthday. We’ll see. So this April Fool started yesterday, and my 100th day will be July 9th. I did think about the milestone days during that time and wondered if I would feel left out without drinking – I decided no. I’m stronger than that.

I’m committed. It feels good. And I will feel more authentic working toward “being my best at every age” from now on.

FIND YOUR LIMITLESS.
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