October 15, 2025
Das Experiment
Sober On A Drunk Planet
I didn't drink and was sober for one year !!!
I have done a few alcohol free months before and found them easy, so this time I decided to try a full year.
Last year, I went on a pattern that I was drinking almost every Thursday and sometimes also during the weekend.
A lot of Happy Hour on Thursday with more alcohol than usual and the day after, I was a little bit slower.
I don't drink everyday but this heavy drinking on Thursday has almost become a habit. So I want to break that habit and I did this 1 year sober.
At the beginning, I bought the book above called Sober On A Drunk Planet.
The guy in this book went far beyond me and he brought up good points about health, money, time, ...
Here are some words from his book:
- "The Costs of Hangover"
- "Are you living for the weekend and then spending half the week recovering from the weekend?"
- "And I was hungover most weekends from the age of 15 to 31"
- "It's all about replacing the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) with the Joy of Missing Out (JOMO)"
During that time, I switched to non-alcoholic beer (NA). That's not the same taste but some are more like orange juice than real beers.
Some surprised me, like NA German beers such as Bitburger or Erdinger and they were really good.
The experiment was easy to do. The only time I was thinking of drinking was when I moved to my new apartment and my setup was finished.
I was on my balcony on a sunny day and I was thinking that it would be nice to have a drink to celebrate that!
I learned a lot with this experiment:
- More energy and time since some hangovers will burn your time (e.g. slow Friday -> Saturday, ...)
- If I go over my quota, I will switch from drinks to non-alcoholic beer
- I don't think I will redo this experience at 1 year level, probably some one month off sporadically
Later, I will go grab a drink at a bar which will likely be the cover photo for this blog post!
Thanks for reading,
JS.