A Note on New Years Eve Safety

I often talk about fitness as “complete fitness.” Meaning, in order to be completely fit, we must be fit in our bodies and our minds.

The fit body part is pretty self explanatory — exercise, eat healthy, get sleep, yada yada.

The fit mind portion of complete fitness can be a little harder to figure out. Things like stress relief, happiness, and treating yourself with respect all fall under the fit mind category. In honor of New Years Eve, I’d like to highlight an extremely important aspect of having a fit mind: being smart and safe.

New Years Eve can be a fun and exciting night but it can also turn bad real quick. Not to sound like your mom, but be safe tonight. I learned this the hard way.

I’ll give you some background…

I’m not a big drinker by any means. I love a glass of wine with dinner but when I go to a party or a bar with friends, I’ll generally keep it to one drink, if that.

Rewind to New Years Eve 2013, I went to a friend’s party to celebrate – she always had the same party ever year so it was a familiar setting. My other friend Zoë and I had made champagne jell-o shots, which I was pretty excited about but I didn’t have any special plans to get wasted. I don’t even think I pre-gamed.

To be honest, I’m not even sure the order of events that happened that night. I remember taking a few shots, having a jell-o shot or two, but I don’t remember the transition from sober to tipsy to drunk to blackout. But boy, did I blackout.

What I do remember so clearly is regaining consciousness at 5am in a room with some guy.
To make matters worse…I had NO idea who he was. When I realized what was happening, I jumped out of the room and found my friend Niky downstairs. Nobody at the party knew who this guy was. They never saw me with him at all. To this day, I have no idea who he was. It freaks me out now to still think about.

How drunk I got was always sort of baffling for me…maybe I did just drink way too much for my 5ft tiny frame, maybe I didn’t eat enough during the day, maybe someone slipped something in my drink. There’s no way to know because I just can’t recall. Niky and I called New Years Eve 2013 “New Tears 2013.” A joke we made at the time but rings pretty true.

Like I said, I’m not trying to be your mom but New Years Eve (or going out anytime) can end you in a dangerous situation. So if you’re going out tonight, keep yourself safe.

Eat food throughout the day and before you go out. Real food, not a piece of toast.
Drink water throughout the day and while you’re out. Alternate an alcoholic drink with a glass of water. Alcohol dehydrates you.
Watch your drink. If you put it down, don’t pick it back up. Get a new one.
Create a buddy system with a friend and make sure you’re checking on one another throughout the night.