Intro to the Positive Damage Sober October Guide
Award-winning bartender and wellness coach, Derek Brown, offers tips and trick for those who want to try the Sober October challenge.
I don’t remember exactly when I started Dry January, the original sober challenge month. Though it was likely the year after it began as a campaign from Alcohol Change UK in 2013. But I do remember at the time I was drinking alcohol for a living as one of the top bartenders and bar owners in the country and a well-reasoned pause from drinking made sense, even as that one month was hardly a way to make up for eleven months of hard drinking.
Nevertheless, it became a tradition. I did it year after year from roughly 2014 to the present.
Why I started Sober October was much more clear to me. After Dry January, I would return right back to where I started from in just a few short weeks. Sometimes by the first week of February. As much as I enjoyed the break, I had a well-worn groove that was easy to slip back into. By the time eight months had passed, I was more than ready for another break.
Sober October became a second well-reasoned pause, but it also became a way to stop along the trail and survey the path ahead. Late November through the end of the year was too often a race for me to see how many friends and family I could see, how much food I could eat, and how many drinks I could drink. Even unintentionally, the holidays became a month and a half of sensory overload, gluttony, and binge drinking. Don’t get me wrong, it had its moments, but it was ultimately too much of a good thing.
How do you keep the good part of being out and enjoying delicious drinks but drop the ever-present fog of drinking too much? There are ways, but the most obvious is by reducing or eliminating drinking alcohol. We can certainly do without alcohol, but we don’t want to lose the social element, the connection we feel, which is a key component of our health. That’s where the real value of Sober October comes from.
The value is in making Sober October a gauge. Using it to remove navigational barriers to drinking mindfully during the holidays. By taking the month before the holidays to reset, you can have a clearer view of what’s coming and test strategies that work for you. In other words, it’s not a religion. It’s a tool. There’s no need to approach it as an absolutist or purist. In fact, all-or-nothing thinking (also called dichotomous thinking) is a cognitive distortion, something that can trap us into thinking that only one idealized state matters: sober or drunk. Nothing in between. With that in mind, I’m writing the manual for that tool, my Sober October guide.
In the next four posts, I intend to delve deeper into what is Sober October, some strategies that may help, especially from my RATE acronym (Replace, Avoid, Temper, and Elicit Help), and what to drink instead of alcohol, including some delicious recipes. My goal is to give you the best shot at achieving your goals. And, rest assured, they’re your goals. Whether you want to give up alcohol completely, drink some alcohol (Sober-ish October), or just lurk for information and advice you might use in the future.
Here’s what to expect:
Sober October Guide Part 1: What is Sober October? 9/28
Sober October Guide Part 2: My Strategy for Sober October 10/5
Sober October Guide Part 3: The Best NA Beers, Wines, & RTDs 10/12
Sober October Guide Part 4: How to Make Non-alcoholic Cocktails 10/19
I also have a Sober October calendar “31 Days of Delicious Non-alcoholic Drinks” available for anyone who refers my newsletter to at least three friends.
I’ll be unveiling each delicious non-alcoholic drink on my Instagram with a short reel daily. But referring my free newsletter to your friends will get you the entire calendar with links on day one, October 1st. Think of it as an advent calendar for Sober October.
There will be other rewards, too.
There will be a 30-minute check-in on 10/19 via Zoom for anyone who refers more than 10 people to my newsletter and a free non-alcoholic holiday cocktail class via Zoom, with the date to be set in November, for those who refer over 30 people to my newsletter. But, first, you have to sign up for my free newsletter.
I don’t know about you, but I’m excited about the challenge. Both the challenge of Sober October and the challenge of getting out four newsletters in a row on time. I’m grateful to my partners in the Sober October Guide: Sunnyside, a science-backed mindful drinking app that can help you during the challenge (sign up for free), and Boisson, an online retailer of curated non-alcoholic drinks that ships nationwide (get 10% off with the discount code: DEREK10). Please check them both out and use their valuable resources.
Derek Brown is an author, award-winning bartender, NASM-certified wellness coach, and founder of Positive Damage, Inc.
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Derek, I'd love to see more n/a drinks that don't rely heavily on sugar and syrups. Replacing alcohol with an overdose of sugar isn't a healthy option for me, or most people really.