Congratulations! You made it to day 30 and you should be proud! You’ve spent 30 days purging your body of a toxic substance and gaining insight and knowledge about your relationship with alcohol. What have you learned about you? What has surprised you?

So the time has come for you to make a choice. One of several things could describe you as a drinker moving forward. You might be someone who has really struggled throughout this experiment and you continue to feel attached to drinking. Perhaps you’ll take another 30 days and continue alcohol free to see what happens. Maybe you’ll be someone who tries to moderate your drinking. There’s no wrong answer here. There’s no judgment. This is your decision.

If you do plan to go back to drinking, there is something I suggest you do. This is just a suggestion and it is just for those who feel they aren’t ready to give up alcohol. I suggest you get drunk for the sake of science. Plan to do this alone without anyone around and also plan to video record yourself. This will help you be objective in your opinion about how alcohol truly makes you feel. You must, however, be at least 30 days alcohol free to effectively complete this.

If you plan to moderate, be sure you have your guardrails, your non-negotiables, in place and you’re committed to sticking with them. Keep in mind that when you drink in the midst of something that is already fun - you’re teaching your subconscious that it was the drinking that was fun. So although you want to moderate, be sure you enjoy things without drinking as frequently as possible in order to maintain the belief that you can have fun without drinking at the forefront of your mind. If you’ve chosen to lengthen your experiment, great! Just remember to be kind and gracious toward yourself if you do have a mis-step. And if you’ve decided that you’re retiring from drinking, CONGRATULATIONS!

You are all amazing, no matter what you choose! I’m so grateful to have spent these last 30 days together!