Even more helpful in maintaining motivation over time, though, has been my “benefits of not drinking” list. This list grows longer and more detailed every week, and the process of revising and adding to the list has helped me experience life without wine as liberating and empowering rather than as punishing and self-abnegating. A key question: Who do I get to be without alcohol? ~ Elspeth

It’s easy to justify, to argue internally
this one won’t matter,
I’ll get right back on program.
Just this time it won’t matter.
Maybe it won’t. More likely it will!
So, how can you hold onto abstinence,
move past the rationalizations?
Use the tools…go to a meeting,
call a friend, visit with your sponsor,
read program literature, write about it,
use a food plan, an action plan, give service,
honor anonymity. And if these don’t work?
Look at the writing you did. Was it on point?
Try a list of “Abstinence Benefits.”
How would yours start? Mine?
No sugar high to work through.
No trash to stash before anyone sees.
No need to repeat the debauchery tomorrow.
No reason to lie, no need to wonder
if re-establishment is required.
No guilt, no self-flagellation,
the ultimate goal of a healthy body weight
that much closer to fact.
So, what’s on your Abstinence Benefits list?