One Lent during college, my dad suggested I give up alcohol. Forty days without beer at Marquette University in Milwaukee? Not happening. Now ten years after graduating, I just yesterday completed the formerly Herculean task with ease. When Lent came up, I wanted to give up something meaningful and hard. I’d been defaulting to drinking a bit too much with work stress and felt unhealthy. And Lent seemed like a good time to put a potentially-forming habit to bed before it grew to anything more than that. I spent a total of five minutes considering giving it up for Lent, and then suddenly it was Ash Wednesday. Last minute I decided to take the plunge and not drink until Good Friday.

And it went well! I found it very worthwhile. At first it was sort of difficult because of a few situations where I actually felt odd not drinking. For example, my wife and I hosted our parish priest for diner and, I admit, I did miss having a pre-dinner whiskey and wine during the meal with him. I ran into a few similar situations as Lent began where I felt lame or out-of-touch by not drinking.

I realized this was just me putting pressure on me; As Lent wore on, every time I said, “none for me, I gave it up for Lent,” no one cared at all. In my field there are often informal “interviews” that accompany the formal interview process. Employers often take prospective co-workers out for drinks to make sure a lawyer “fits” the firm from a social perspective. On one of these informal interviews, I was a bit nervous that I would not be drinking, but no one batted an eye when I declined a drink. At the start of Lent I noticed how ingrained drinking can be in culture and worried I would be tempted throughout Lent to drink to make situations less odd. I even carved out a St. Patrick’s day exception to allow myself to drink one night. But as it became more normal not drinking, I grew more confident and the whole thing became less of a conscious effort. I did not even want to drink really. And by the time St. Patrick’s Day came around, I decided not to take advantage of my get-out-of-jail-free-card and instead drove for a few people who wanted to drink.

In this post, I am not really focusing on any religious benefit of giving something up for Lent, but there were concrete takeaways. I felt closer to God in doing this. Giving up something “hard” like alcohol made me feel like I’d submitted to God’s authority. And submission–while not fun–is rewarding and enriches your life. I also spent much more time in prayer this Lent and began to openly discuss my faith more often.

Here are a few non-religious observations I noticed while not drinking during Lent:

• Sleep: my sleep improved in a noticeable, meaningful way. I rarely woke up in the middle of the night unlike when I drink some alcohol. I also noted that I slept much deeper while not drinking. I think sleeping became less about processing alcohol and more about rejuvenating my body for workouts.
• Mental acuity: probably many of these benefits are interrelated (better and more sleeping cures a lot), but I have noted that my mind felt incredibly sharp after about 20 days without alcohol. I had better recall and a better ability to express myself verbally. I was very surprised and encouraged by this.
• It was easy: as I alluded above, this task started out hard and was easy by the end. I almost feel guilty that I get any “credit” for doing this because it really was simple once I got going.
• It was hard: a few times, I really would not have seen the harm in having a beer. But even then, it wasn’t “hard” as in a big temptation. It was just hard because often I felt like, what’s the big deal? A beer right now wouldn’t hurt. But once I was in the groove this ceased.
• St. Patrick’s day party: I went to a big St. Patrick’s Day party, and people were blitzed. I know for a fact one friend drank so much and felt so awful he didn’t leave the party for his house until after noon the next day. On the other hand, I was up and feeling amazing after a fun night out. While I never drink as much as some of my friends did at the party, it was very instructive for me to see my friends’ hard core hangovers and know that I had a really fun time and didn’t feel the slightest bit sick the next day.
• Improved nutrition: By investing less of my daily calories in alcohol, I was able to fill my plate up with real food and not gain weight. Many people lose a lot of weight when they give up drinking for Lent (my wife’s friend’s dad lost 13 pounds in the first 30 days this year) because their appetites remain the same and they cut out a lot of calories by not drinking. In my case, I ended up putting these “new” calories to work. I mainly used the extra calories to fill my plate with carbs and protein. For the first time in my life, I was really close to getting adequate protein. And all the “free” calories allowed me to really hammer down on healthy carbs. This was fun. I actually did lose a few pounds during Lent, but that was not my goal. Losing this weight was also nice because I ate a lot and never went hungry while doing it.

Now that alcohol-free Lent is over, I am happy I accomplished this. On the one hand, it was hard. On the other, it was easy. Doing this will greatly decrease the overall amount of drinking I do going forward. But while I think I will drink less than before, I do know one thing: I am really excited for my first beer and whiskey. So if you’re an investor looking at the economy, don’t short the Minnesota stout, porter, or black ale markets.

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