Why I Quit Drinking....And Other 2023 Happenings

Happy New Year my friends! xo

About this time in 2022, I realized I had a bit of problem. I lacked discipline. I’m not sure I always did. In fact, I think for most of my life I was extremely disciplined, but in my heartbroken state, I let a lot of things slide. To be fair, I was trying to figure out who this new Amy was, with no Evy’s Tree, no husband, two kids to raise and no idea how I was going to do it all. I was utterly and completely devastated by where I found myself. My body was overwrought with stress and was in a traumatic state. I was in survival mode.

I was drinking a lot and I couldn’t even afford to buy wine. I wasn’t exercising consistently and I was eating whatever I wanted. I was watching a lot of movies at night and I was not sleeping well because of the lack of discipline and constant movie watching. I was ignoring my laundry…so much so that our spare bedroom was basically a pile of clean laundry I would just keep adding to. I never folded anything; the kids and I would dumpster dive for our clean clothes every morning. My body hurt. Like every day hurt. It hurt to get out of bed and it hurt to go to bed.

It was pathetic.

I realized things needed to change. The first week of January 2023 I weighed myself and found I had hit the highest weight I have ever been. In fact, the number was more than what I weighed when I gave birth to Jacob sixteen years prior. Enough was enough.

Me, the first week of January 2023. The kids and I were out to dinner and waiting for a table in the rain. I had a glass of wine while waiting.

My body was telling me it needed me to pay attention. I knew, if I wanted to become inwardly healthy, which I so desperately did, I needed to make some pretty drastic changes physically. I truly wanted to become a healed person, but how did I think I could do that if my body was so broken?

It has taken me all year to reset myself. But as of today I have officially lost 20 pounds, I have changed my daily habits considerably, and I am inwardly at peace. I’m not sure if anyone else is in a place where I was this time last year, but if you are, and you are looking for direction, I’m happy to share my journey. Or mayve you’re just nosey…. ;)

Here are the changes I made this year: