I like to view alcoholism and recovery as an issue of mind, body and spirit.
Mind- The alcoholic has a mental obsession that he has to deal with. The first thing that comes to his mind in any situation is "drink, drink, drink",. It simply takes time for this compulsion to go away. Some people say it is around a year before the mental obsession really takes the back seat.
Body- Drinking takes a toll on the body. A person in recovery must allow their body to return to its normal, healthy state- called "homeostasis" in medicine. This can take time also. The actually detox off of alcohol may only take a week, but to return to health after all of the damage done to the body may take quite a while. It is important to consult a doctor to get an idea of what kind of damage you may have done to your body. Physical fitness is the answer here!
Spirit- This is a more subtle change, but it means everything in 12-step recovery. Spirituality means something different for everybody ("a God of your understanding"), but in every case it means a 'psychcic change' and a 'spiritual awakening'. This is what Carl jung says about alcoholics and spiritual awakenings in the Big Book "Here and there Alcoholics have had what are valled vital spiritual experiences. To me these occurences are phenomena. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements. Ideas, emotions and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them."