• I tracked how much I drank every day for a year.
• Moderate drinking is one drink a day for women, not exceeding 7 a week.
• I exceeded that amount half the time, drinking more during the summer and holidays.

In my head, I was great at drinking less in 2024. I rarely had more than two drinks per occasion, ordering more mocktails and N/A beers.

My journal tells a different story.

Back in 2023, I started writing down how many standard drinks I had per day in addition to my daily entries. I knew alcohol could impact my physical and mental health, so I wanted to factor it in to see how it altered my mood.

After the US Surgeon General announced alcohol's link to cancer last week, I decided to crack the numbers over the whole year. While there's no safe amount of alcohol to consume, the National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention has guidelines for moderate drinking. Women shouldn't have more than one drink a day and seven total a week.

For 26 out of 52 weeks, I went above that limit.

Looking back, I saw patterns around when I'd drink and how I felt before and after. Going into 2025, it's convinced me to become "dry by default" and create tighter rules around drinking.

I didn't feel like I was drinking a lot

I have never blacked out. I also never drink alone and rarely in my home, unless we have guests over.

Still, I got a 50% moderate drinking grade for 2024 — a big F. Because there were times I had three drinks throughout the whole day, I had only one memory of actually being drunk — one I excused in my mind because it was at a wedding.

The times I had four drinks in a day, no matter how spaced out they were or how sober I felt, qualified as heavy drinking for women, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Part of the issue was my own knowledge of what qualified as healthy. I didn't know that I should cap myself at one drink a day — I always aimed for two max, which is the healthy limit for men.

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My drinking ramped up as I socialized more

The periods I drank the most were early summer and the holidays when I had the most plans. I also got married this year and had a few small events to celebrate, which led to more drinking.

There are social benefits to drinking in moderation. The problem is when I'm having a good time after one glass of wine, I often want to maximize that feeling by ordering one more. Even when I limited myself to two drinks per occasion, those cocktails added up when I went out four times a week.

I drank less when I had a big goal

My healthiest drinking periods coincided with training for my first marathon. I often had only a few drinks the whole week because I was getting up early to run four times a week, and I abstained from drinking the week before the race. As an added bonus, I looked less puffy in my wedding photos.

Giving up alcohol is the hardest for me when it feels like a punishment, like I'm removing some pleasure from my life for the nebulous goal of being healthier. It was much easier to order that Phony Negroni when I had a higher purpose or goal. It made me feel dedicated and confident. I was someone who could hang with my friends and still make it to that morning run.

Now, I'm doing Dry January and plan to continue when the month is up. The biggest shock from tracking my data isn't that I drank more than I thought; it's how much happier and more fulfilled I was when I didn't at all.

• The US Surgeon General's advisory calls for a warning label on alcohol products.
• The CEO of Free Spirits told BI he thinks the statement will further push a change in drinking culture.
• Non-alcoholic brands like Free Spirits are expanding as mindful drinking gains popularity.

Milan Martin, the CEO of non-alcohol spirit brand Free Spirits, said American drinking culture has evolved over the last decade — and the US Surgeon General's statement on alcohol will further push that change.

In an advisory published Friday, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said alcohol consumption was the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the US, after tobacco and obesity. He also said he wants to see cancer warnings on wine, beer, and spirits.

In an interview with Business Insider, Martin said regardless of whether a change to the warning label would win political approval, he thinks the statement will impact consumers.

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"What we've seen with the surgeon general is that there's enough research now that says alcohol does not play a positive role in your life and, specifically, it has ties to cancer," Martin said.

Martin said the advisory will be another "nugget" that reinforces similar messages about drinking based on data points, positive stories from friends who have stopped drinking, or guidelines from other governments. All of those insights sit in consumers' minds and lead them to make more informed decisions, Martin said.

"It's not that the alcohol industry is going away," Martin said. "It's just that people are now just drinking more mindfully and more with an eye to moderation because they have the data."

Martin said the current non-alcoholic drinking landscape looks different than it did even a year ago.

"Even a year ago, when I would see a zero-proof cocktail menu on a restaurant's menu, I'd be like, 'great,'" Martin said, adding that, "the expectation is that most restaurants have them now."

Despite running a non-alcoholic spirits company, Martin said neither he nor his employees classify as "traditionally sober." Martin said he still enjoys cocktails, but he drinks a lot less than he used to. Similar to most non-alcoholic consumers, Martin said he enjoys both options.

Before founding Free Spirits, Martin said he spent 20 years in the advertising industry and embraced the "work hard, drink harder" mentality of the business. Oftentimes, he said he overindulged — but not because he necessarily wanted to.

"It was just that phenomenon of you're having a great time, you're out with friends in some great cocktail bar. The energy is high," Martin said. "Your glass is empty, you order another."

Brands like Free Spirits, which is now distributed across around 8,000 locations in the US, including at stores like Total Wine & More and Wegmans, offer consumers the "bite and burn" of alcohol in a non-alcoholic drink. The drinks also integrate Vitamins B12, B6, and B3. Other popular non-alcoholic options infuse THC or psychedelics.

Instead of drinking orange juice or soda in a social setting, consumers now have the opportunity to experience a margarita or martini without the effects of alcohol.

Martin said Free Spirits' prices have come down by about 15% to 20% since the company's start. As Free Spirits continues to scale and find efficiencies in its supply chain, the company plans to pass those savings onto its partners and to consumers to broaden the availability of the category and the brand, the company said.