[Drinking] Dry January -- anyone continuing?

[Colonel Mustard]

For the first time ever I tried - and succeeded - abstaining from alcohol through January this year. Result? I feel a lot better for it, healthier and more clear headed, so have decided to continue with it through February. After that? Who knows, it could become permanent. Anyone else in this position? Or who tried but failed miserably? Or who did it but was relieved to start boozing again on Feb 1st?

Here are a few random thoughts, and reasons why I think I've managed it well so far --

• For the first time ever, in December I gave a lot of thought to my relationship with alcohol. Like most regular drinkers, I've never considered myself an alcoholic but I've become more aware that I drink out of habit more than anything. I'm a bit of a wine buff and have plenty of decent stuff in storage, so my excuse for years is that it's a hobby as much as a compulsion. This reasoning has started to wear thin though. I've increasingly had to accept that alcohol was delivering diminishing returns.
  
  
• Money wasn't the principal reason for taking a break but it certainly strengthens the case for abstinence. When preparing for Dry January I calculated how much money I was spending on booze, and was surprised. Perhaps a little shocked. Now that it's commonplace to pay for everything with a debit card it becomes easy to see how much you're spending on what. I stuck last year's expenditure in a spreadsheet and categorised everything. Alcohol was costing at least around £100 a week, or £5K a year. That might sound like a lot of booze but it really isn't to an habitual drinker. I was going to the pub a maximum of twice a week and usually having 4 pints each time (£40). About four bottles of wine a week (£35-40). Then the occasional meal out with the cost of a restaurant bottle of wine (£20-40). Plus, there is always a bottle gin in the sideboard which seemed to get replenished at least once or twice a month, especially when we have visitors. It soon adds up.
  
  
• I'm in my mid-sixties which I think has made it easier. As you age you get more health conscious, and are under a bit more pressure to reassess how you treat your body.
  
  
• We've been back in East Sussex for only a couple of years, and we live in a different town to previously. So I don't have a long-established social life that revolves around drinking. If I'd been going to the local pub or social club every weekend for 20 years, it would be a harder habit to break.

What's surprised me the most is how little I've missed it so far. I was expecting to be craving a glass of good red or a G&T but I've barely even thought about it. Life has become much less fraught. I'm a happier person. And I've just renewed my season ticket for 2024-25 (£590) with the money I've saved since January 1st.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Didn't do dry January but am not going to have anything in February at least through to somebody's leaving do on the last day of the month.
Gave up through September last year and felt a lot better for it. Also the money I saved meant I could afford to go to the Marseille game.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Sort of. I last had an alcoholic drink on NYE 2020. In fact, It was one I poured and left on the side I was that unbothered about it.

Didn't really intend on doing a dry January, but it was a realisation that drinking wasn't really for me anymore. I don't miss it in the slightest and I don't feel my life is any worse because of it - despite some people trying to tell me otherwise.

Good luck Colonel

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

We gave up alcohol a year or so ago. In part this was to be as healthy as possible. What’s the point in a healthy diet if you drink. I was never a particularly big drinker and have never been dependent on it so I haven’t missed it at all. Quite frankly if I had ever been dependent on it I would have given up years ago. There are some great non alcoholic drinks about so we go out to eat and drink as much as we used to.

 

[London Irish]

Not really but have started Dry February for the half-marathon at end of month. Am toying with the idea of extending it into March for further weight loss as I noticed the pleasure of Saturday was not diminished at all by lack of sozzling

 

[Paris]

Stopped drinking in November 2022, the day before the World Cup started. Gradually started feeling the benefits over time. Clearer skin etc. Went from 87 kilograms to 80 weight-wise, without doing any exercise or eating differently.

As Nevilles Breakfast mentioned, there are quite a few appealing non-alcohol drink options when you go out for a meal.

You do these things for yourself, but you'll always encounter those who take a disliking to what you are doing. The way of the world unfortunately.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

Stopped drinking in November 2022, the day before the World Cup started. Gradually started feeling the benefits over time. Clearer skin etc. Went from 87 kilograms to 80 weight-wise, without doing any exercise or eating differently.

As Nevilles Breakfast mentioned, there are quite a few appealing non-alcohol drink options when you go out for a meal.

You do these things for yourself, but you'll always encounter those who take a disliking to what you are doing. The way of the world unfortunately.

Good man. I forgot to mention the weight benefits. Like you I've not deliberately cut down on anything but I no longer need to eat cheese and biscuits late at night with my red wine, nor am I eating crisps and peanuts in the pub. Result is that sInce Jan 1st I've lost half a stone without trying. I'm actually trying to think of a good reason for starting to drink again and I can't really come up with anything.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Good man. I forgot to mention the weight benefits. Like you I've not deliberately cut down on anything but I no longer need to eat cheese and biscuits late at night with my red wine, nor am I eating crisps and peanuts in the pub. Result is that sInce Jan 1st I've lost half a stone without trying. I'm actually trying to think of a good reason for starting to drink again and I can't really come up with anything.

Sounds like you are doing really well already, the longer you are off alcohol I doubt you will start again.
I stopped 3 years ago and don’t feel like starting again, originally I was just having a break for a month during the second lockdown, I found it easy as I wasn’t going out. After a month I thought I would try another month and it went on from there.

 

[The Wookiee]

Done January, aim is to go through to end of April when I go on holiday. Packed in the cigarettes too.
Done it a few times before over the years and the money I save more or less pays for my holiday

 

[AlbionBro]

I stopped for January and my ability to give the missus several great moments increased, because i never needed a 2 hour sleep in between my moments.
My problem is she drinks so much that the next day she remembers nothing at all.
Do I revert to drinking again? Because I am missing my sleep.

 

[Questions]

I so wanted to continue dry January into next month but I wet myself again last night

 

[tedebear]

You do these things for yourself, but you'll always encounter those who take a disliking to what you are doing. The way of the world unfortunately.

It’s really strange isn’t it. I could have run a marathon and people would say “yay, that’s amazing”, or climbed a mountain and people would pat me on the back…but I give up drinking (arguably better than both of those) and I had comments like “why would you want to do that“ or “why would you want to torture yourself“. But hey ho, on I go, it actually makes me more determined to be honest.

5 years and a few months here…

 

[HantsSeagull]

I have been a 'functioning alcoholic' for years but was always confident i had the will power to knock it on the head if i wanted to. So tried dry January and did it. Lost quite a bit of weight by also dieting. I had a few on Friday night and on Saturday at the game but I am now back on wagon. AT least until i meet @Chicken Run for a curry later in the month!

 

[Chicken Run]

I have been a 'functioning alcoholic' for years but was always confident i had the will power to knock it on the head if i wanted to. So tried dry January and did it. Lost quite a bit of weight by also dieting. I had a few on Friday night and on Saturday at the game but I am now back on wagon. AT least until i meet @Chicken Run for a curry later in the month!

Well played sir, you never mentioned the weight loss was down to knocking the grog on the head, well played

 

[Bry Nylon]

I packed in drinking sometime mid-2019 after years of habitual drinking. Drinking to mark the end of week; drinking “‘cos it’s the weekend!”; drinking to reward myself for getting through Monday and drinking midweek because, well, why not?

Now, drinking doesn’t even cross my mind and I really enjoy being liberated from even having to think about it. Like most, the upsides have been a tonne of money saved, a clear head every day and a wheelie bin that doesn’t do the ‘clink clink clink of shame’ every time I wheel it down the drive.

Best of all (for me) - thanks to a more disciplined diet and an exercise regime that would be utterly incompatible with boozing every day - I’ve regained the fitness levels and physique that I had about 20 years ago.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

For those who are abstaining, this thread has been running for a while - https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/threads/alcoholic-like-a-beer-or-two-too-much.374011/

 

[Normal Rob]

Did Dry Jan and Feb last year and was going to the same this year but the wife got a good, and well deserved, promotion today so

 

[luge]

I failed dry jan. I had a few celebratory beers early in the month after some good news, and also cracked by having some beer at the wolves game, and then 3 pints at the Palace game (not Jan, I know). However the non drinking days totalled a month off.

I did something similar in 2021 until april and lost 15 kg. Over time and with life and job stress, 11 kg went back on and I was having 2-4 pints probably times a week.

I'm looking forward to Spurs away where we have a big curry booked in with some old spurs supporting mates - but other than that, I don't see an occasion where i would want to drink until middle of march.

I can envisage a world with no booze, and it doesn't particularly bother me - i do feel like a switch has gone in my head where i just don't seek it like I used to. Even the palace game would have seen me get home and get on it, but i managed half a bottle of Harvey's and that was enough.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

Now, drinking doesn’t even cross my mind and I really enjoy being liberated from even having to think about it. Like most, the upsides have been a tonne of money saved, a clear head every day and a wheelie bin that doesn’t do the ‘clink clink clink of shame’ every time I wheel it down the drive.

Brilliant observation. I’d forgotten that this was something that really made me confront the question of how much I was drinking. Just after Christmas I peered into the recycling wheelie bin and saw it crammed full of tins and bottles. Yes I’d had a couple of visitors but still, I was staggered by the quantity of booze-related debris I was accumulating every fortnight. Really brought it home.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

We gave up alcohol a year or so ago. In part this was to be as healthy as possible. What’s the point in a healthy diet if you drink. I was never a particularly big drinker and have never been dependent on it so I haven’t missed it at all. Quite frankly if I had ever been dependent on it I would have given up years ago. There are some great non alcoholic drinks about so we go out to eat and drink as much as we used to.

The *only* downside I've found of not drinking is that Guinness 0.0 (I used to love the odd pint of the original stuff) gives me a banging headache - even just one can!