Alcohol abstinence for non-addicts — if it’s a trend, then I like it.

I don’t know if it is a trend, but someone called it that in their comments to one of my stories on how I stopped drinking.

So maybe I’m doing something trendy. I don’t care much about trends, and in fact, I often like going the opposite direction when I feel that something is overhyped, but I’ll take it as a compliment in this case.

Let me provide some background. Before I stopped drinking, which was about three months ago, I was already fitter than 99% of the population. Of course, you can never guarantee you’re 100% healthy, but I was fit. I’ve been running 60 miles weekly for three years. My recent blood work results were perfect. My resting heart rate is 40. I can run a sub-3-hour marathon any day of the year without any preparation. Even before dramatically increasing my running in recent years, I’d say I was healthy overall. I was slightly overweight, but I tried to run or swim a couple of times a week.

But I drank meaningful amounts of alcohol — for years. Decades, actually.

This is how it would go. If I run in the afternoon or evening, I’d down a cold beer right away. I like IPAs so often; it’d be a tall can. Unless it’s very hot, I don’t like drinking too much beer, so I’d switch to wine once I start eating my dinner. My wife likes wine, though she prefers it after her dinner, not during it. By the time we go to bed, we will have finished a bottle of wine and, most often, opened a second one.