Three months into the very real numbers of what I drink and I am finding a pattern and comfort in my ability to use the data I am generating to have conversations with myself and the people I trust to help me navigate this life I lead. Honesty and openness has long been my benchmark and while I won't sugar-coat anything, I do feel like this is helping me get a better understanding and perhaps even a plan of action as I move forward. The raw and emotional response some have to what I do with my life does not go unnoticed and while I appreciate the concern so many have shown, I am doing much better in terms of mental health and self worth as the year has progressed. There is something soothing and sobering about confronting the numbers as they occur and that is part of what I had hoped to achieve. Not knowing what the next months will bring, I endeavour to continue to shine the light on myself and hope it does more than just help me understand my own motivations, that perhaps other people will look at their own consumption with a more honest eye.
Onward to looking back on the month that was March, 2021.
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| The month of vacation was a good one |
The entire month boils down to three real distinct parts as this month includes our annual vacation, albeit the stay-at-home version (times 2) of my beloved Polkapolooza tour of Ontario. As with last year, we did not travel the province, visiting upwards of 50 different breweries as it was not advisable to do so during the pandemic, we made a couple of close to home stops at local breweries and contented ourselves with a staycation at Casa de Polk. The early part of March found me a little more focused on getting to that vacation and I was really cutting back on the pints at night mainly due to working a whole lot. The first 11 days (we started vacay on the 12th) saw only 30 beers consumed or 2.72 per day, a serious drop and more in line with where I'd like to be as we move on in this year. Even better, 20 of those were unique check-ins and that meant that the "beer for just drinkin" beers were way down as a percentage of what I poured in my glass. A 28% drop from the first 11 days of February and a whopping 47% drop from the same time frame in January. I was much more aware of every beer I was drinking and I think it had a deep impact on whether or not I grabbed a go-to beer or not most nights.
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| More of this going forward |
The vacation beers were another story, but to be honest, it isn't a big deal a to me overall because I enjoyed my time off and cutting loose a little during a pandemic might be an okay salve on this wounded year that saw me celebrating my second locked down birthday at home, away from friends and family. There was no real surprise then that in the 9 days we were off and relaxing' my beer total was a little higher than normal. All in, I was at 52 total beers for the time off, although 34 were unique, a rate of 68% and that's a 20% difference from the ratio the rest of the month. We picked up or had delivered a whole lot of different breweries, so there were many options and I took advantage of that to enjoy them all. A daily average of 5.77 is about 43% higher than my normal average for the rest of the days in March and 24% higher than the overall average for the year. I had a good time, we enjoyed some fine beers at home and then went back to work with an eye to continue what we had begun earlier in the month.
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| It's good to relax on vacation |
The last eleven days of March were a little more the first 11. A sandwich of moderate consumption surrounding a 9 day stretch of a little more indulgence skewed the progress made this month and I feel like the stretch after vacation reflects that I am still a work in progress. Despite increased stress at work and the world feeling a little more pandemically challenged around me, the numbers came in with a drop of 26% from the holiday stretch with 47 beers for an average of 4.27 per day. Looking to bring that down below three as we move into April and better weather will be the next challenge but as we ended the month down 5% from January and even with February, I am encouraged by my progress using this approach to really dig deep into the why's of my not so subtle beer drinking.
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| The last third of the month was a little bit of a struggle |
The biggest challenge remains those evenings where there is no work the next day, primarily Saturdays and Wednesday, where I had 43% of all my beers. I wasn't really intending to end the month with a bang, but that negative Covid test gave me a reason to celebrate and here we are with that little 7 beer party skewing things a little bit, in my humble opinion. I am trying to find a way to enjoy writing about beer while simultaneously cutting back to just the single new beers without giving up a few nights of enjoying some old and go-to faves just because. It's a work in progress and I'd be lying if I said it would be much easier to just drink the beers and not bother documenting it all, but I want to know, I want to learn and I want to change.
Thanks again for indulging my numbers and my thought process as I navigate this year and my own relationship with myself and beer. I am working on being a better person in a lot of ways and this is just the most visible one. I encourage anyone who comes to the realization that they need help to get it and while I may make a lot of jokes about getting real hammered on Twitter, I am more than the memes I use to try and lighten the mood in a dark world.
Stay safe, see you again in May.
Polk
Now for the raw numbers, nerd Polk approved...
Beers by the day
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