Dry January: Did You Know?

Most of us have heard of Dry January, that annual event where people around the world set aside their booze for thirty-one days. Yeah, it’s a worldwide official thing. There’s a website and an app and everything. It started in 2013 with a non-profit organization called Alcohol Change UK. The woman who had the original idea, Emily Robinson, abstained from alcohol while training for her first half-marathon in January of 2011 and felt great. And people were curious. She then joined the non-profit a year later, and again abstained from alcohol in January. And this led to even more people curious and wanting to talk about it.

So, an idea that is now part of our lexicon was born out of one woman wanting to help herself. Today those 4000 people in the UK are now 130,000 official participants, Dry January is a trademarked named, and here in the US, it’s estimated that almost 20% of the population now participates. Yes, you read that right 20% of our country lays of the booze in January.

Should we feel good about that or scared?

There’s no question that alcohol is ingrained in our social structure, and I’m certainly found of my wine. But I don’t know if this number is a sign that too many of us are worried about our relationship with alcohol or if I should feel encouraged that so many of us are thinking about our health. Let’s hope for the later. Either way, no one loses if we reflect on what and how and why we drink.