When you are under the influence of alcohol, a relaxed moment lasts only for a moment, and as time goes by, depending on the amount of alcohol you take of course, you come to feel tired and sleepy, and can nod off before you know it. When you wake up again, hours have already passed, and after you wake up, it's hard to get immediately active because your system is tired from breaking down the alcohol from the previous night. As a result your active time gets shortened. This sucks.
On the other hand, when you have no alcohol in your system, your mind is sharp and your body active.
Now ever since I became an owner of a large motorcycle, I have been taking every opportunity to ride the vehicle, and because I want to spend as much time on it as possible, I try not to drink on weekends since they are the only time I can go for a long ride.
Last night, for example, as I had dinner after coming home from work, I had no beer which used to be a regular companion of my weekend dinner. To my surprise there is little crave for it since the prospect of a fun and refreshing midnight ride around town is much more attractive.
Because I do not drink on Saturday nights, I wake up Sunday mornings, feeling very refreshed and full of energy. I am active right from the start, watering my backyard and taking care of the veggies that I'm growing there.
Because my system is not forced to do the extra work of breaking down alcohol on the previous night, it's fully restored and ready to do a challenging workout like this.
Then comes the most refreshing part of the day: traveling from point A to point B on the bike. Time ticks away very slowly when I'm doing what I love doing, undisturbed by anyone. I even let overtake me by pulling over to the side those nearing from behind because I want travel at my comfortable speed, which is usually very, very slow, like 40 to 45 km/h. (Maybe a bit of a disgrace to the monstrously powerful engine of the Vulcan S?)
It's 6:20 p.m. now. And as I'm writing this at a lounge in the AEON mall in Yuukarigaoka, I feel like it is the end of a two-day holiday, because I feel like I have already spend so much time doing so many of my favorite things. But it's not. It's still the middle of the first day of a three-day holiday. I still have two full day-offs to myself. Unbelievable! What a wonderful windfall of an alcohol-free Saturday!
But of course, I'm not saying that I'm going to be a teetotaler. I'm not. I still enjoy drinking socially so long as it is moderate. Chatting with my runner friends over glasses of beer after running races is so much fun. It will continue to be a pleasant part of my life until the day my body's stock of enzyme to break down acetaldehyde is completely depleted.
But still, benefits of alcohol-free weekends seem enormous. I am beginning to suspect that health benefits stand out among others. The quality of sleep, for instance, seems to have improved. My eyes also seem to be less easily tired. My skin generally feels moister and smoother when I do not drink on weekends even though I am inevitably subject to ruthless bashing by aging.
I will continue to take riding over drinking, because it's more fun, and is likely to keep me younger not only at heart but also physically.
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