If you're born-in you probably won't understand the subject question. Maybe you will if you've taken up any bad habits since leaving the Watchtower, if you've left at all. But if you were a convert (or near-convert, like I was) did you have to change your lifestyle in order to conform to the expectations of the Society?
I did. I was 22 and in university. It was the mid 70's and, yes, I did wear button-fly, bellbottom blue jeans and my hair was to my shoulders. I was into transendential meditation, beer and cannabis, all of which I was told was forbidden to a true Christian. I quit it all about 8 months into my bible study, in mid 1975. At the time it was explained to me to be wrong on the basis of pharmakeia having been condemned in the bible. The word interestingly enough translates out as "sorcery" from the Greek. So sorcery (aka being in direct league with Satan the Deceiver) and drug use are equivalent terms. One is as one thinks, so saith Prov. 23:7 and there's no doubt that weed makes you think differently. Similarly, transendental meditation was classified as sorcery. The beer was ok - so this religion can't be all bad, eh? Drink til you fall down, but just be discrete about it and you'll be ok. I actually didn't mind giving it up. Using cannabis made me paranoid, particularly because possession of even a small amount at that time could send you to jail, and all that meditation stuff hurt my knees. The fact that I escaped the Watchtower the following year did not make me want to return to my old vices, even if now I see nothing essentially wrong with them.
My BIL was an inveterate, heavy drug user. Cannabis, meth, mescaline, opium and acid I knew about for sure. Not sure what else. He was basically unemployable, despite having earned a university degree, so was always in need of money. He got caught cheating on some sort of government dole and was thrown in jail for a week. He was constantly in search of the next thrill. He left his wife and young son to go on a many months long party with his best friend and the two of them appeared to be very close. When he became a Jehovah's Witness I was astonished by the transformation, and that is what prompted me to investigate it. My BIL is still a Jehovah's Witness and we absolutely do not see eye to eye on many, many things. It's all a crock, of course, but I'm still convinced the Watchtower saved my BIL's life.
What did you give up?