Wednesday marked the first day of Dry/Damp January, but Steamboat Springs resident Rebecca Cohen said the idea of cutting back on alcohol was a choice she made back in November.
"I'm typically a person that beelines for Friday night happy hour, and I really look forward to it," Cohen said. "My husband and I set a goal after Thanksgiving of starting the cutback on our alcohol and not going out to an alcohol-focused event every Friday night. I've been going to Harmony (Yoga's) Healthy Happy Hour. I've been going every Friday in December, and now I look really look forward to that."
The idea of Dry January, which is promoted by the British-based charity Alcohol Change UK, has been around since 2013, and asks people to challenge themselves to abstain from alcohol for the entire month of January. Others have adopted Damp January, where participants reduce their consumption of alcohol for the entire month.
Cohen and her husband decided to cut back on their use of alcohol to pursue a healthier lifestyle and break away from the routine that had become too big a part of their lifestyle. She was thrilled to find Healthy Hour, which is offered to members of Harmony Yoga and Wellness, and would love to see more businesses in Steamboat Springs offer these types of events.
"I'm looking for more events like Healthy Hour," Cohen said. "I would love to find more places that are just kind of open to the public and it's a dry event and just an opportunity to get to meet people in town."
Nikki Sjoden, owner of Harmony, said Healthy Happy Hour, which starts at 5:30 p.m. on Fridays, grew out of the "Stretch and Share" program, which she offered through a partnership with The Health Partnership Serving Northwest Colorado on Wednesdays. Sjoden willl move the "Stretch and Share" from the evening to 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. on Wednesdays starting Jan. 8. She started Healthy Happy Hour, a class that offers an alternative to the traditional happy hour for Harmony's members, back in December.
"The idea is that it feels very habitual for us to get off of work on a Friday and just start indulging straight away," Sjoden said of Healthy Happy Hour, which began offering classes in December. "Obviously no judgment, but we just thought it would be so cool to have this moment where people could go to yoga first and then decide from there what they would like to do with their evening instead of just habitually going straight into drinking into the evening, which starts their weekend off on a very different vibration."
Cohen, who is not in recovery, said the idea of limiting alcohol was a conscious choice aimed at improving her overall health and happiness. She said this week she wished that there were more opportunities like the one she found at Harmony.
Dean Taylor, peer recovery specialist with The Heath Partnership Serving Northwest Colorado, said his nonprofit organization promotes several alcohol-free events for those in recovery, but said the programs are also for the "sober curious."
Taylor is the recovery specialist for Routt County and works with Nele Cashmore, peer recovery coordinator for Moffat County. They offer personalized coaching to meet participants in the recovery community with resources that are applicable to their needs, and host Recovery, Insight, Support and Empowerment (RISE) events weekly and monthly in Routt and Moffat counties.
"We have events weekly and monthly that are free to the recovery community, but also for sober curious people," Dean said.
Dean said at 6 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9, RISE will host its annual Super Bowl Party at Queer Futures at 480 Rollingstone Dr.
Open to residents of both Routt and Moffat counties, the Super Bowl Party will be a potluck with the main dish provided, but guests are asked to bring a side, appetizer or dessert.
The Partnership also plans to partner with CrossFit Steamboat's Phoenix program to host the Cross Out The Pub and Write in Fun Crawl that will take place around St. Patrick's Day this year. In addition, The Health Partnership will continue to offer RISE "Recovery Coffee and Conversations" from 9-11 a.m. at Dusky Grouse. Those events will take place on Wednesdays Jan.15, Feb. 5 and March 5. Taylor said Health Partnership events are listed and updates can be found on the organization's recovery Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/cleanandsobersteamboat/.
"The holidays are tough," Taylor said. "Especially in a rural area with isolation and different things like that. They say the opposite of addiction is community, so we offer a safe place, and also promoting it for sober curious people or people that just don't want to be around the bar. We welcome anyone that wants to come to these events, and they are free."