No thank you but I am an athlete

I do not drink alcoholic beverages and have not for many years. 

But I use to – beer and wine as a teenager, then mixed drinks later. In my world that was what everyone did and I was no different.

I remember as a teenager in the early 1970s, Coors was the beer of choice among friends at $1.69 for a six-pack of 12-ounce cans. After much practice, drinking seemed so natural in the world in which I lived.

I got better at it while in the U.S. Army, and even better later as a young man during the disco-era nightclub scenes. But that was then and this is now.

I no longer have any desire to drink so I do not with one exception. 

Every New Years’ Day, my karate dojo trains early in the morning, then afterwards we all join in for a ritual of downing a shot glass of bourbon or something similar, a salute to our good health and fortune in the coming year. Afterwards we all go out to eat breakfast.

It use to be difficult not being a drinker when among my middle-age brothers and sisters. I would get offered a beer or a glass of wine at a social event, and I would say no thank you but I don’t drink. 

This was oftentimes not an acceptable answer so in response to my decline would come an insistence that I have at least one. They were persistant but so was I and always got my way.

Then I discovered a new reply – “No thank you but I am an athlete.” Guess what? It worked really well and I have been using it ever since.

I pass no judgment on anyone who enjoys a bottle of beer or a glass of wine but, at this point in my life, if it doesn’t make me run faster, jump higher, react sooner or perform better during a gym workout or athletic event, I am not interested.

If you offer me a beer or a glass of wine, I'll politely reply with: “No thank you but I am an athlete”.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum