My Alcohol Experiment: Day 20

Day 20 of The Alcohol Experiment: rebelling against our “headline society”…… wherein Annie Grace drops the mic on alcohol advertising and the misleading media. BOOM!In our current culture of “fake news” and actual fake news, Annie reminds us that we are likely being subconsciously duped by the alcohol industry in their advertising and by the click-hungry media. All of this, of course, is driven by money. The ads, the sponsored studies, the pro-booze headlines. As a consequence, we feel enabled and justified in our choice to drink.Even though I don’t share a lot of articles online, and I think I am a fairly conscious consumer of headlines and news, I will be the first to admit that I completely fell for the prevalent message that red wine is heart-healthy and full of antioxidants. I tried switching from white wine to red on multiple occasions, thinking that I was making a healthy choice - not only was red wine good for me, but I liked it less than white so I would drink less of it. A win-win! Not.I will also admit that cheeky memes and sayings about drinking totally enabled my habits. I have “liked” dozens of funny Instagram posts about drinking. I have a house sprinkled with signs, towels, napkins, t-shirts, magnets, and other tchotchkes with funny drinking sayings on them. “It’s ok to wine a little.” “Keep calm and have a cocktail.” “My favorite salad is wine.” That one’s on a pair of socks! SOCKS!I’m not giving myself a hard time about this. If anything, I marvel at how deeply ingrained these pro-booze messages are in our society and in my life. I am an intelligent person, and I bought into a lot of it. I routinely used this messaging to justify my drinking habits.Yeah, I’m going to try not to do that anymore. I am also going to try not to preach to my mom friends and family members about this. (Which is hard with this issue and many things we are learning through The Alcohol Experiment. So many revelations that so many people don’t want to hear!) Because those Instas, those memes, are starting to seem a little sad to me. And a lot less funny.We are each on our own journey. And as ever I am just so grateful to have found Weight Watchers, Annie Grace, and The Alcohol Experiment.[The Alcohol Experiment is a free, interactive 30-day program designed by Annie Grace, author of ThisNakedMind. For more information: www.alcoholexperiment.com.]