Dry January?

I had a couple of drinks on New Year's Eve and a small glass of champagne on New Year's Day to toast a friend's 40th - since then nothing. Normally might have literally 1 or 2 beers during the week if had a bad day in work, and myself and then a couple of glasses of wine and a couple of beers at home on the weekend after myself and wife get the kids down to bed. Decided for the first time to go dry in January to 1) see if I could do it without any difficulty which I didn't think there would be, 2) detox after Christmas.

So far so good, and to be honest I'm not missing it that much although we have a few things coming up over the next couple of weeks which will test me. Do people really start seeing differences in health\energy and how long does it take to get these? I am a runner (albeit not much at the moment with the weather) so I'd be interested to see exactly how much more energy I feel I have after a month off the sauce.

Confucius say wrote: »

Guys at work want to go to Beer festival in Dublin on the 6th February ffs. Some kind of Craft Beer thing. I'm going to try and hold out till then. That'll be a write off but I've nothing else on that month apart from 4 nights in London at the end of Feb catching up with old friends, another write off. So in between those 2 events I'm going to try and be totally sober.

Like i said before, you might have changed how you think about it by the time these 'sessions' come around so no point in worrying about them (or thinking about them) just yet!

I've found that there usually a non-alcoholic craft beer available, and they are usually nicer than the 'Ritz' type. Brew Dog have one called Nanny State, delish!

But again, worry whats in your control and that's today, tomorrow. You're flying it now as we are half way .... HALF WAY. Well done!

I can't believe how much better I feel in only a fortnight . Calmer, less anxious , more content & generally happier & more positive ( I guess because alcohol is a depressant ) I've even found myself thinking that I might go off it for Lent too - but we'll see-
For now I'll just say that 3 weeks ago I couldn't have imagined a weekend without "a few drinks" (and I use that term very loosely & now I'm looking forward to an alcohol free one . I'm amazed !
Have a good 'un everyone :-)

I'm happy out here aswell.

I've given up 'permanently' before, would go a month or two or up to 4.5 months then back on it. Those abstinences were prompted by catastrophe, usually a huge scary blackout, waking up battered and bruised, and the big one of huge self-loathing after losing yet another smartphone.

This time it was reached through rationalisation. I wouldn't quite say drinking was a waste of time. If I could spring out of bed like I did when I was 20 then all would be well. But it takes me 3 days to get over a few hours of 'fun'.

I can say in my mid 30s that hangovers are certainly a waste of time.

Saturday January 2nd was the hardest day for me. At around 10pm I was hungry and the temptation to finish off the half bottle of wine I had in the house with my food was huge.

It really did feel like I had the good angel on one shoulder and the bad angel on the other. After battling myself I went with the good angel and had a soft drink.

The funny thing was, once I finished my food the temptation was gone and the sense of relief and achievement was huge. I just needed to break the association with food on a weekend night.

Since then the temptation hasn't returned.

After around 10 days or so my sleep has finally settled down and I'm getting 8 hours a night and waking up refreshed which is wonderful.

Today, as I posted before, I'm pottering away on a little side project that I would never, ever look at it on a Friday-Sunday morning as I would have a hangover. Not even a major hangover but just a mild one after 'a few glasses of wine'.

Things are great at the moment. I know from giving up before that filling my time is the hard part, for me anyway. This side project I have should turn into a small income stream, even if it doesn't I'm enjoying the journey. Enjoying the satisfaction of being productive with my time.

I think this will keep me busy until early April when I go on holiday for a week. I will cross the bridge of drinking on the holiday when I come to it.

Good luck to all!

As I said I've given up 'permanently' before but this time feels different.

I went back drinking after 4.5 months both times in the past due to being incredibly unhappy, bored and I guess depressed.

I took advice from people here and elsewhere and tried to fill my time with other activities but it didn't work for me. I think I picked the wrong type of activities, at least for me anyway.

If you go to the cinema or take up bowling, or tag rugby, or whatever it occupies your mind while the activity is taking place. 2-3 hours for the cinema, maybe 2 hours for bowling etc but then you need to find something else to do and that's what I found difficult.

This time I have a project, hopefully a new income stream/side business. Something that I can work towards and something that occupies my mind for every waking minute.

I'm not saying it's at the forefront of my mind every waking moment but it is keeping my brain busy. Today while walking to work an idea popped into my head that would make it better.

I couldn't wait to get home and start working on it.

When I gave up drinking before I took up running and eating well, which are great but they are habits not projects. Your brain is not occupied, whirring away about running when you are on the bus for example.

Of course when I was in my old boozeing cycle I managed to keep my mind occupied.

I was thinking about drinking on a Thursday, how hungover will I be Friday? On Friday maybe get some food I'll feel better. Go for a run to help me feel better, buy wine to veg at home on Friday night/Saturday, looking forward to that, what time is the best time to start drinking? 5pm, then cook, then watch some sport, hope I'm ok Sunday. Then on Sunday hope I'm ok Monday. If it's a hectic weekend then Monday/Tuesday my brain is occupied by tiredness, depression, obsessing about what drinking does to me, should I give up, do I have a problem??. Feel ok by Wednesday and off we go again.

I'm sick of the above cycle, it sure did keep me from feeling bored though!

It's still early days here but I hope that having a project to work towards rather than starting new hobbies is breakthrough for me.

In some ways it seems obvious now, but I hope that subtle change will help me this time.

Confucius say wrote: »

How many recovery beers you want.

I was hitting the offy at 10:30 and started with getting 4 cans to take the edge off but when they were gone or I'd be back. Other times it was a bottle of wine. Then a couple of days in I went and got a naggin of vodka and drank that straight, at half ten on a Wednesday morning. Got to know the people in the offy beside me pretty well :pac:

I lived just up the street from it and it was attached to a pub so spent a bit of time in there also but it was mostly drinking on my own.

The filling your time part is very very important to me.Of course I'm not just talking about Dry January but I'll add some input here if people haven';t read the other thread. I play badminton (went back when I got sober). I enjoy it and it's also a social thing which is crucial. I haven't been in a pub since September. The gym doesn't really do it for me as I find it a bit boring but I might head back to it anyway if only for a few hours a week. I also attend AA meetings but not to frequently, one or two a week, should be more but I find that I'm okay with that.

As I said before it's good to take stock and a month off is no harm and fair play for all doing it for whatever reasons. For me it is that one drink that I can't have and it's the hardest one to resist Currently 112 days sober!

I read somewhere online recently that drinking in moderation is sometimes harder than abstaining, i guess that is down to the individual.

I don't drink wine but I do know the battle of , "oh once you open a bottle you might as well finish it" conundrum / temptation. Why not try source a smaller half bottle of wine that you like and keep that in the house. Force yourself to buy 2 or 3 and leave them in the house. That way if you do want a glass, have it, enjoy it but have it as a mental objective to just leave it at the one bottle.

I used to buy a 20 box of bottles of heineken for 20e when they were on special and leave them there and land a few in the fridge but felt it was too easy just to reach in and grab one, with dinner, after training, when i got home. Now i didn't drink them to excess but they were there and I only drank them because they were there. Sure the same applies to biscuits or sweets (im a custard cream demon!). So i cut out buying them just becuase they were on special. I said to myself that i would only buy a case of 6 bottles for 10e when i wanted them or was going to enjoy them watching a match or what not. I actually found i didnt work my way through them half as quick or didn't buy a 6-pack as frequent.
When shopping, buy for what you WILL use not for what you THINK you might use.

Well done to everyone, 22nd January now and definitely on the home stretch. Whether you've lasted this long , had a minor blip or fallen off the bandwagon completely, realise that every evening / day is another day to challenge yourself!

If you did save a few bob, why not now at this stage start thinking about treating yourself to that something nice as a reward? That new phone you are always saying is too expensive, a midweek break getaway special deal off groupon?