How I quit drinking for a year like it was a basketball game

It's been three years since I decided to quit drinking for a year — and instead of white-knuckling it, I turned the whole thing into a metaphorical basketball game. Four quarters. A game clock. The whole deal.

Back then, ordering a club soda on the rocks got me a few raised eyebrows at the bar. These days it's basically its own menu category.

First Quarter - The Mind

I knew I needed to feed my social battery, so locking myself in the condo for a year was never going to work. I found an alternative instead: club soda on the rocks with a splash of ginger beer. A few of my closer friends started calling it The Sorino.

When I ordered it, my regular bartenders would have to do a double take. "Wait, no Jamo tonight?" A few nights later: "You're still doing that thing? Good for you." That's basically the pattern every time: a little confusion, then respect. Nobody ever tried to drag me back to my old order. And I kept tipping like I was still drinking, because staying welcome at the bar has a price, and it's worth paying.

A few days in, I couldn't ignore the financial upside of the switch. So I started tracking it, depositing what every skipped drink would've cost me into my Jamo Fund.

Second Quarter - The Body

Three months in, while the only goal had been eliminating alcohol, no workouts, no meal plan, whatever I wanted to eat, I noticed something: my eyes didn't look tired anymore. I was thinking more clearly. The gains were almost stupidly noticeable at first, and then, like any curve, they started to flatten out around week six or eight.

That's the cue for Quarter Two: the body.

I hadn't worked out in fifteen years. Found a trainer, showed up three times a week for three months, then took the plan solo from there. I also picked a fight with pushups — literally rolling out of bed straight into a set before my feet hit the floor, because the Sandman convinced me that's how a habit actually sticks. Ten became fifteen became twenty-five, two sets, every morning.

Sleep took longer to fix. Turned out I was checking my phone in bed, drinking coffee on no schedule, and had zero idea what sunlight was doing to my body clock. Fixing those three things did more for how I felt than the workouts did.

Third Quarter - The Hobby

Some "experts" say it takes 21 days to build a habit. Better experts say once you've done 21, do another 21. I like the quarterly version better — it's more sustainable, and if you stack four solid habits a year, imagine where you are a decade from now.

I was still hanging out at bars a lot, but just for an hour or two instead of a whole evening. To fill the rest of that newfound time, I gave myself a Hobby Hour. Mine was Legos, something I loved as a kid and hadn't touched in twenty years. It re-taught me how to enjoy my own company while keeping my mind occupied, and sharp.

If you've got a hobby from your kid years gathering dust somewhere, this is your sign to dig it back out.

Fourth Quarter - Realizing that this is a LIFEstyle

As the year and what I'd been calling "the game" the whole time wound down, people started asking what was next. That's when it hit me: this was never a single game. It's a life series. A lifestyle that's sticking around whether I keep score or not.

Which quarter are you in right now? Or you haven’t even started? Either way, would love to hear your feedback. Reach out anytime by hitting reply.

Stay sparkling,

Sorin

produced by Scott Nixon

Kevin Cunningham just celebrated 10 years in the Club Soda Club. In this episode, he talks about knowing from his very first drink that alcohol would be a thing for him, how "I don't drink every day" became the justification that kept it going, and the complete flip that happened once he stopped. His bar order these days? A Coke Zero.

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