A Mocktail on Mother's Day

Last Saturday my mom and I made our annual Mother's Day pilgrimage to NYC for a Broadway double-header with fun meals and shopping in between shows. I had been planning for weeks to break my 60-day alcohol-free streak on Saturday with a frozen pomegranate margarita, one of my favorite drinks. But in the days leading up to #MothersDayonBroadway, I started to feel a little twinge of hesitation in my gut. And by the time Saturday rolled around, there was a strong inner voice telling me, "I don't want it."We arrive at Rosa Mexicano for lunch. The waiter asks for our drink order. "I'll have a virgin pomegranate margarita," I hear myself say. Alas, they are pre-mixed! Crap! The waiter recommends a mango-strawberry mocktail. And before I know it, my streak-breaking moment has passed and it's Day 62.Honestly, I'm shocked. And yet I guess I'm not. It just takes a glance back through what I've written over the past few months, especially my reflections once I hit my 60-day milestone last week, to quash the instinctual shock."I feel lighter, both physically and mentally.""I feel stronger, both physically and mentally.""I feel more energized – and beyond that, I have more endurance – both physically and mentally."Less anxious. Healthier. Empowered. In control (of booze, at least).Why would I want to risk losing any of these feels?And yet, would one drink really make a difference?Do I still care enough about alcohol to find out? Or do I care more about me? (That's a rhetorical question obviously. But maybe it hasn't always been.)On a date night a couple of weeks ago, my husband and I had a very candid chat about our diet goals. He has recently committed to cleaning up his carb-inhaling act; and though his approach is different from mine, we are on the same page in terms of cutting the crap and getting healthier for ourselves and to set a better example for our kids. We agreed on this: that we would like to get to a point where we can go out to dinner, have a drink, eat a burger, splurge on dessert - and have that meal be an isolated indulgence, NOT a shove that sends us back down into the junky spiral that we have been trying to escape basically since becoming parents.My husband has a true take-it-or-leave-it relationship with alcohol. I do not. So to include "have a drink" in the description of an ideal date night is a bigger deal for me than it is for him. I recognize this. I've got my toolbox now. My non-negotiables remain steadfast. I am aware and I am armed and I am determined to never fall back down to where I was.But why do I still feel the need to include "have a drink" at all?Because I am not ready to proclaim myself a non-drinker. But also, I don't want to drink. So.Last #MothersDayonBroadway, my mom and I spent our time between shows having margaritas with dinner and prosecco at a cute Irish pub. This year, because we weren't bar-hopping, we had so much time on our hands we didn't really know what to do with ourselves. We browsed the shops at the Time Warner Center. We found her some cute summer shoes at TJ Maxx. We had dessert at Pinkberry. It was refreshing, if a bit disorienting.I did miss being able to go sit at a bar and have a drink with my mom. I missed feeling giddy and fabulous. But I didn't miss the crash. I didn't miss the void left by a worn-off buzz, the dehydration, having to suppress the yearning for more booze, the anxiety about having to drive home. Yikes. Nope, I did not miss any of that at all.We saw "Mean Girls" that night, and it was hysterical and awesome and I was able to fully absorb both the fantastic show and the amazing audience. I drove us home afterwards, grateful to be sober and not having to calculate how much time had passed since my last drink. I slept well and woke up guilt-free on Sunday.I am really proud of myself, if a little surprised to have made the choice that I did. [I should note that one of my non-negotiables is that I will not drink if I have to drive. My plan had been to have one margarita with lunch at noon which would have worn off completely by the time I was driving home 11 hours later. But the fact that I would have been compromising, if not fully breaking, a non-negotiable did factor into my gut decision to go for a mocktail instead.] I accept that I still have conflicting feelings that will take time to untwine. And I accept that I still don't know what my relationship with alcohol will be.For now, it's back to our weekly routine, which at this point is easily, breezily alcohol-free for me. No date nights or other potential drinking occasions coming up this week. So I am going to try to give myself some head space. I will shift my focus back to simply (because it's so simple - ha!) staying on track. I will stay within my points, achieve my workout and daily water intake goals, and get my butt to bed. Keep it simple. Give myself grace.It's Tuesday, which also happens to be Day 64. But it's also just Tuesday.