Author Topic: Dry January 2019  (Read 10693 times)

Dry January 2019
« on: 04 January, 2019, 11:02:35 am »
Seems there was no thread last year. It's been about 3 or 4 years since I last had a month off the booze.

Up for it this year as I need to shed the weight before the London Marathon, so mine is a Dry Jan (no exceptions) and also mostly Dry Feb/Mar/Apr with the following exceptions:-
* I've got two ski trips (one family, one friends) so it only applies to the UK (airside at airports is considered outside the UK), no other foreign trips planned
* Special occasions (dinner out with Mrs GB, a few beers after doing the Big Half in March, book club in mid-March some time)
* Possible trip to the in-laws in the run up to Easter (most of the weight should be gone by then ideally)

Jan 4 so far and no booze. In the pub for 5 hours last night watching the Citeh v Libpool match, found it quite easy to avoid temptation. No drinking at home is quite easy, the hard bits are going to be in the pub after playing 5-a-side on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Chris S

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #1 on: 04 January, 2019, 11:25:17 am »
Yeah, I'm in - it's the annual Hepatic Holiday.

This time around has revealed how much I rely on wine to get me to sleep of an evening. Looking at my Fitbit sleep profiles before Christmas and I'm (a) Out like a light, and (b) all the deep sleep happens in the first few hours. Now I'm really struggling to get to sleep (gave up entirely night before last, and did a couple of hours work instead) and deep sleep seems very scarce.
No doubt this will all settle down in due course.

Any weight loss from cutting booze is swamped by the effect of going keto, so goodness knows if not drinking makes any difference to that. My belly loves beer, that's for sure - not so sure about the fattening effects of wine, but a few drinks in the evening usually leads to poor food choices, so I guess there are knock-ons.

I'm aiming for multiple months too, not just January. Late March is my PB.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #2 on: 04 January, 2019, 01:04:05 pm »
Best of luck to everyone (not) partaking!

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #3 on: 04 January, 2019, 01:24:51 pm »
Don't know if I'll participate.
December 2018 was dry. January 2019 might be. I can take or leave alcohol and mostly leave it.

I appreciate this is a struggle for some folk and wish you all well for a successful Dry January.

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #4 on: 04 January, 2019, 05:39:56 pm »
I'm in, have done it in some previous years, found it not easy, but not horribly hard either. I did make an exception for 1st January this year, as a hair of the dog afternoon pub session with friends was required following the NYE party the night before, so I might extend it to 1st Feb (although that is a Friday...) to make up for it.

I'm going on a skiing trip to the alps in early February (which I definitely won't be "dry" for in the evenings), so hopefully it will help a little with weightloss and fitness leading up to that.
Old enough to know better, but young enough to do it anyway

rob

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #5 on: 04 January, 2019, 08:06:30 pm »
Hope you all manage OK and even enjoy it.

I’ve just hit 10 years dry.   I did think of heading to the pub on NYD but only bad things would come of that.

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #6 on: 07 January, 2019, 08:49:22 am »
I can take or leave alcohol so it's not difficult. It would be bloody selfish to drink while Mr Smith is struggling without, though, so I'm in as moral support.

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #7 on: 07 January, 2019, 09:30:02 am »
6 days in, no problems, but I haven't had either of my usual beery nights after 5-a-side footy.

Tuesday will be relatively easy as it's late (in the pub for 10.15pm) but Thursday will be the real test (in the pub for 7.15pm and it's usually a 6 pint evening).

Avoiding the pub isn't an option, it's an important weekly social event for me, and I need to be able to go to the pub and not drink anyway.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

rob

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #8 on: 07 January, 2019, 09:47:39 am »
The thing I had a problem with was finding something to drink that wasn't sweet or caffeinated.   I have cans of ginger beer in now and a mate introduced me to cranberry or lime with soda water.   

The preponderance of 0% beers now really helps.   Beware those that call themselves alcohol free as the definition seems a bit wide.   Nanny State for instance is 0.5% so I won't touch it.

Becks Blue is pretty common and is OK.   I like the Heinekin and Carlsberg zeroes, also Cobra Zero with an Indian.

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #9 on: 07 January, 2019, 10:44:18 am »
I've always drunk lime and soda if not having a beer, but I'll only have a couple of them, the rest of the time I'll just have water or just watch others drink (it takes a while to get out of the "must match people one for one" mentality of pint drinking). That or a decaf coffee (since I got rid of caffeine many years ago) if it's the kind of pub that will do that without being a massive inconvenience.

I find the majority of the 0.0% beers (all of the ones you've mentioned) taste horribly sickly sweet compared to normal lager, I've reminded myself of that with Becks Blue, Heineken 0.0% (draft) and Bavaria Alcohol free (whatever they serve in Pizza Express) in the last week so I won't be touching them again (there's no point).

I've heard that Erdinger's alcohol free lager is ok, will remember to look out for it in the shops but I guess it'll just turn out to be another one that tastes sickly sweet.

I do want to keep off booze (so I'll be avoiding stuff like nanny state) but remember that fresh orange juice that's a few days old could be fermenting its way towards 0.5% (if it has added potassium sorbate that'll help stop any fermentation). I also love Tiramisu and some other desserts that contain booze.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Gus

  • Loosing weight stone by stone
    • We will return
Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #10 on: 07 January, 2019, 10:54:19 am »
Well I can join, but I haven't touched alcohol since May 2018.

Plus I can add Carbonated sugary soft drinks to the list. I stopped drinking them in June 2018

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #11 on: 07 January, 2019, 11:06:48 am »
I've been dry-ish since September, following a wierd mouth infection that seems to get aggravated by citrus, alcohol and a few other things.  I went to the pub with half a dozen people just before Christmas and it went perfectly well having tap water.  I felt great the next morning!

My wife is keen on Erdinger Alkoholfrei Weissbeer, she got through many bottles during pregnancy, but I have just checked and it is 0.5%.

Tiramisu is also loaded with caffeine!

rob

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #12 on: 07 January, 2019, 11:27:52 am »
Yeah the Erdinger stuff is not alcohol free - see my comment about crap advertising.   It might be a Continental thing but I noticed that alcohol free wine in a Calais supermarket is usually 1 or 2 %.   it's a bit like giving a vegetarian wafer thin ham.

I tend to not bother about the odd bit of wine in main courses in restaurants but won't add it at home.   You do have to watch desserts.   My inlaws tried to feed me Christmas Pudding laced with brandy - you could tell immediately.   I believe they just thought I was being a bit awkward.

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #13 on: 07 January, 2019, 11:32:02 am »
Tiramisu is also loaded with caffeine!

Decaf is about 10% of the caffeine of normal coffee so I probably drink somewhere between half and one normal coffee a day. If I push it to more than 2 coffees worth (by having non-decaf) then I'll notice it. So I've still got some sort of tolerance to it so the caffeine in a tiramisu isn't a problem.

Anyway, booze (or lack thereof).
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

ian

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #14 on: 07 January, 2019, 11:42:53 am »
The 0.5% is a sort of get-out-clause, with a fermented product there will be some alcohol left, there's no perfect mechanism to remove it all, so 0.5% is the upper bound for residual alcohol. Even bread will be 0.5–2% alcohol despite its spell in a hot oven. Orange juice about 0.5% out of the carton, malt vinegar and soy sauce similar.

I'm doing wet January, so if you have any spare booze, send it to me at the usual address.

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #15 on: 07 January, 2019, 01:28:31 pm »
I’m in as well (although if I give birth in Jan I may revise that  ;D )

I’m not enjoying the alcohol free stuff, hate all the beers/lagers. ‘Nosecco’ is too sweet, and the no alcohol mulled wine was just basically ribena.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #16 on: 07 January, 2019, 01:35:21 pm »
The thing I had a problem with was finding something to drink that wasn't sweet or caffeinated.   I have cans of ginger beer in now and a mate introduced me to cranberry or lime with soda water.   

The preponderance of 0% beers now really helps.   Beware those that call themselves alcohol free as the definition seems a bit wide.   Nanny State for instance is 0.5% so I won't touch it.

Becks Blue is pretty common and is OK.   I like the Heinekin and Carlsberg zeroes, also Cobra Zero with an Indian.

Pick up a bottle of Fentiman's and you'll find a statement.
"up to 0.5% alcohol"

Very very few "non-alcoholic" drinks are truly devoid of any alcohol and anything with sugar in it could.
In Coca-Cola and Pepsi it's around 0.001% ABV.
Bread also has a very low alcohol content.

Whats acceptable depends on which form you wish your Temporary Temperance pledge to be in.

I had a couple of non-alcohol berry ciders for new year, it didn't take me long to figure I could have just got some soda water to go with my Robinsons.

I managed to find a disagreement on what is Haram on Stack Overflow in relation to alcohol content, because of the 0.001% discovered in coca-cola; with the Bread argument used.

I'm not in because being a non-drinker in the first place makes it irrelevant.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #17 on: 07 January, 2019, 01:39:57 pm »
Drink mock-beer or -wine just makes you want the real thing all the more. When I stopped I switched to Schweppes ginger ale and tonic, but eventually settled on fizzy water.  You still have the pleasure of belching like a beer-drinker.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #18 on: 07 January, 2019, 01:55:07 pm »
Suspect a 'fresh' fruit salad, which is less than totally fresh will contain measurable quantities of ethanol.

Melon balls seem to ferment pretty rapidly.

It must be almost impossible to ingest absolutely no alcohol!

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #19 on: 07 January, 2019, 02:18:53 pm »
I want to avoid fizzy drinks (lime and soda or even fizzy water) because of the effects on teeth. I may try lime cordial and plain water to see if that's ok, otherwise I'll probably have a few halves of lime and soda interspersed with plain old tap water.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

ian

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #20 on: 07 January, 2019, 02:23:59 pm »
Suspect a 'fresh' fruit salad, which is less than totally fresh will contain measurable quantities of ethanol.

Melon balls seem to ferment pretty rapidly.

It must be almost impossible to ingest absolutely no alcohol!

Well, you'll be manufacturing (or your microbiome will) ethanol in your gut anyway. On that basis, even farts aren't alcohol-free.

Anyway, as said, anything fermented will contain some alcohol. Low alcohol beers are typically de-alcoholized, other things like bread and brewed soft-drinks will have a low amount of endogenous alcohol from the fermentation process. Anything with sufficient moisture content and sugar will ferment to a degree, yeasts are ubiquitous. The someone boozy smell of very ripe fruit is generally down to other volatiles unless it's been cut or split and exposed to air.

As anyone who tried to get drunk on Barr's shandy will tell you, there's no physiological effects at such low concentrations so you're not going to get drunk on bread, ethanol at those levels will be dehydrogenated on its first pass through the hepatic system. That's also why the 'but I had a spoon of sherry trifle' arguments against zero limits for breath tests are a bit daft unless you routinely eat it by the truckload.

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #21 on: 07 January, 2019, 02:34:41 pm »
The Erdinger Alkoholfrei is IMO the best of the readily available beer substitutes; decent bitterness, and devoid of the weird sweet maltiness that lots of the non-alcoholic beers have.

fruitcake

  • some kind of fruitcake
Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #22 on: 07 January, 2019, 02:35:25 pm »
I've recently discovered ice tea. It tastes better when it's cold brewed (i.e. tea infused in cold water in the fridge overnight) so it's one for drinking at home. Tea is less bitter when cold brewed, and apparently contains less caffeine. Quite a nice drink. And remarkably different to a cup of tea.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #23 on: 07 January, 2019, 02:46:34 pm »
I want to avoid fizzy drinks (lime and soda or even fizzy water) because of the effects on teeth. I may try lime cordial and plain water to see if that's ok, otherwise I'll probably have a few halves of lime and soda interspersed with plain old tap water.

I don't know the pH of lime juice but suspect it to be a bit low to be tooth-friendly.

Many fruit tissanes ('teas') are fairly acidic.

Re: Dry January 2019
« Reply #24 on: 07 January, 2019, 03:19:31 pm »
I'm in.. New relationship as of September and we'd fallen into the trap of opening a bottle of wine every evening or just going to the pub, so we're both going for it.  So far I don't feel any better, not sleeping any better and havent lost any weight.  Hopefully it's a blip...