I have noticed the early waking thing with alcohol, but for me that's never really an issue after a drink or two - only at higher consumption levels do I really have that problem (along with the bad dreams/nightmares that many have after drinking).

One other thing I've realized while experimenting with this is that I tend to be sleep better when I'm cooler - so anything that would raise my body temperature has a huge negative impact on sleep quality. This could be large amounts of alcohol, or it could be lots of sugar in the evenings, or a salty/starchy meal late in the day, etc. This seems to be a more important variable than anything else I've observed.

Counter to OP's experience, I've actually found sweets to be more impactful than alcohol. That is to say eating dessert after dinner will impact my sleep more than a drink or two, and the periods where I lost weight have been more closely correlated with the periods where I was eating very few sweets.

Of course with both, the delta between low/moderate consumption and a baseline of zero consumption is low - it's the excessive consumption that causes trouble.

Like OP I found the daily ritual to be pretty easy after a couple weeks, but like OP I also missed the social aspect (and this is why I've sort of settled on the opinion that giving up drinking completely is not worth it, at least for me). If I felt like I was experiencing a step function improvement in life quality I'd keep it up... but for me it just hasn't been the silver bullet it's made out to be.

I'm not really one to label one food ingredient as the cause of all health problems, but if I had to choose one I would choose refined sugar long before alcohol.

I would guess the decline in livable attics in new construction is mostly attributable to changing consumer preference.

A road where traffic moves at 30mph can be poorly designed and lead to lots of accidents, but so long as those accidents are not a vehicle hitting a pedestrian they're unlikely to be fatal.

A road where traffic moves at 70mph is another story.

Stellantis dealers are flush with inventory right now and it's a buyers market if you're interested in any of their products.

Across a number of segments, a 3 yr old used car with 30-50k miles will still bring close to 90% of its original MSRP on the used market.

Gone are the days where a car lost a third of its value when you drove it off the lot (for most segments).

Of course, I've found that after a couple of years the battery life starts to fade fast. Eventually I'm charging it every other day, at which point I usually start shopping for a new one.

(I _also_ only clicked because I'm from Colorado...)

An org of a few hundred people at a big tech company many only have a couple of Individual Contributors making this much money.

Every office space construction project right now is either paused or being driven forward by the sunk cost fallacy.

I browsed Facebook Marketplace for a bit and was able to piece together a set consisting of a power rack, bench, and a couple hundred pounds of free weights for probably $600. We're in a post-pandemic glut of home fitness equipment, so with some patience you can find gently used equipment for a fraction of the new cost.

I run pretty regularly, and used to swim pretty regularly, but since having kids the latter has fallen by the wayside because it's just too difficult to coordinate between the pool's schedule, my work schedule, and my kid's daycare schedule.

While I've done a good job avoiding any parental and pandemic weight gain, I definitely noticed my body composition changing without regularly swimming anymore. It's been great to start reversing that, and I forgot how much I enjoyed the post-weight lifting endorphin rush.

It's been a bit humbling, though - I used to weight lift pretty regularly when I was in high school/college and I'm a lot weaker now than I was then!