Dry January

[hellymedic]

Doing fine but I hardly drink anyway.
Feel for those for whom it's a challenge.

[clarion]

Judging by your avatar, shyumu, it's doing wonders for you!

[shyumu]

Judging by your avatar, shyumu, it's doing wonders for you!

Hmm.  That might be misleading; it isn't the most recent photo.

[LindaG]

Would've loved a glass of cold dry white last night.

[crowriver]

Still dry since New Year. Occasionally get a yearning for a glass of something, but I find keeping well stocked with sparkling mineral water is a good idea. Perfect substitute when I get that evening thirst (for me).

[clarion]

Would've loved a glass of cold dry white last night.

But you didn't have, and you managed.  Well done

[nightrider]

I feel as though I've turned a corner.The first week was a real struggle,but apart from the odd craving now and again,I am feeling a lot more positive and have even done a few short bike rides.I think with me it's just a habit that I've got into. Nearly halfway now.

[Psychler]

I'm finding it surprisingly easy so far

[Andrew Br]

And we have a winner; Beck's Blue (thanks Tedric  ) with ~25% Fentimans Ginger Beer. It tastes marvellous, almost as good as Ginger Marble. Now if only I can persuade Bar to get the Beck's in, I'll be happy drinking that all night.

I hadn't been finding it too hard until last night: I've got a heavy cold and some sort of single malt (I have three in the cupboard) would have just hit the spot. But I resisted.

Apart from the Beck's, I've been drinking Purdey's with a bit of water at home and I've had to make the switch to decaf coffee when I have one in the pub. I've also got some for home. My caffeine intake had probably gone up 3x.

I'm keeping the low alcohol Erdinger in reserve in case I do run out of drinks to have if I'm in the pub for more than a couple. I don't like the Erdinger but it might be OK with the Fentimans.

Cold aside, I don't feel any different; I'm not bouncing out of bed with loads of energy, I don't look any younger and I don't appear to be any more attractive to the opposite sex. Or the same sex come to that.

The only noticeable benefit (and it's a big one) is that I'm going to the cash machine less frequently.

[akin]

I gave up drinking a year ago on New Years Day due to taking medication and it not mixing well. Barring two occasions last summer following long multi-day Audax's I have not drunk alcohol. Probably on those occasions it was due to fatigue and not maintaining the motivation to abstain or explain it to someone.

I find it incredibly difficult, initially I socialised much less. To the extent that I have lost touch with some people. I still feel very uncomfortable going to the the pub. Most likely as I yearn for it and feel that it I have been denied a pleasure others can enjoy. There is not any drink that I have found which can mach the complexity and enjoyment of alcohol.

It makes you realise how much social activity is centred on it. Still being in my twenties I think it is even more difficult to manage as most of my friendships were probably built around music, going out and drinking. The notion of giving up for a month or period of time for reason X I have found is accepted. But the idea that you do not drink at all is difficult for other people and even family members try to persuade you otherwise, like they want you to be complicit. It is very much part of all the relationships I have and reshaping those is a challenge, and I think one that eventually puts people off and makes you drink again.

On balance I spend less money, most likely ride my bike more but on the whole the effort it takes, the social awkwardness I have to endure (or at extremes avoid) means life was probably more enjoyable with it. Perhaps with negatives will change, but its been a fair while so far and I still have to actively force myself not to order a pint of ale.

Hope others abstinence will bring them some benefit, and not just greater pleasure when they resume drinking.

[Ashaman42]

Well I didn't have anything to drink tonight despite being round the MiL's for a roast dinner and MiL and girlfriend both enjoying their red wine, they were quite happy to drink my portion for me

Of course part of the reason I wasn't drinking was due to the hangover from last night but hey ho, my plan always was to cut back to one or two nights a week rather than stop completely so still on target 

[Chris S]

Two weeks today since my last drink. Going well, feeling great  .

[LindaG]

Two weeks today since my last drink. Going well, feeling great  .

I find the mornings are the biggest payback. Feeling human at the start of the day . It's nice.

[Chris S]

Two weeks today since my last drink. Going well, feeling great  .

I find the mornings are the biggest payback. Feeling human at the start of the day . It's nice.

Definitely! I'm much clearer headed now. It's not 100% clear that this is down to the lack of booze, as I've also radically changed my diet (<50g carbs a day); after a muddle-headed few days ("keto-flu") I'm feeling much sharper now, so part of it could be that I'm coming out of the High Carb insulin-induced fug.

[clarion]

Good stuff

[CrinklyLion]

I realised t'other day that I appear to have accidentally joined you in this, sort of.  I sort of lost the habit of drinking when I became a parent - pregnancy, followed by three years of breastfeeding then a 2 year gap that included a PGCE before another pregnancy and more breastfeeding which all added up to 7 or 8 years of only very occasional and light drinking.  But without really thinking about it it has gone up a fair bit in the last couple of years - it's been fairly unusual for me to not have a couple at some point in the week, and not uncommon to have a few drinks two night in a row.  That's partly because I do a fair bit more socialising these days than I did for a long time.  About 6 months ago I made a conscious decision that I wouldn't drink if I was on my own or feeling a bit miserable - just to a bit more aware of and mindful about it, really.

But a bit of Christmas and so on socialising led to me having a few drinks several nights in a row, then went out for a meal on NYD with friends whilst away on jollydays and had a couple of glasses of wine.  But on the 2nd as we got up at half six to blag a lift to Milton Keynes to catch a train to Cumbria I rediscovered, as LG says, that not-really-human morning feeling that drinking even relatively small quantities in my case can cause.  Not an actual hangover, more what we always used to call being a bit leftover.  As in feeling leftover from the night before... Which didn't really help when after an hour in the car later the SmallestCub finally gave in to his occasional car sickness, luckily about 2 minutes after we'd got out of the vehicle.  With one thing and another I haven't drunk alcohol since.  Think I'll stick with it a while - and joining you all in a dry January (apart from 1.1.13) seems like a plan!

[LindaG]

Having a January birthday is a bit of an own goal, like 

[crowriver]

It makes you realise how much social activity is centred on it. Still being in my twenties I think it is even more difficult to manage as most of my friendships were probably built around music, going out and drinking. The notion of giving up for a month or period of time for reason X I have found is accepted. But the idea that you do not drink at all is difficult for other people

It's a bit easier when you're in your forties with young children. The evenings spent socialising are much reduced anyway I find. Friends have moved away, or settled down with kids of their own. Friends that are still single or childless don't have much in common with me any more, so we've mostly lost touch. Social occasions with alcohol are rarer than they were twenty years ago, which helps. Not sure I would have survived my twenties without drinking. Then again, I was a smoker in those days too: I gave that up 13 years ago and haven't looked back. It's fundamentally a question of will power, and not worrying about being different from others.

I sometimes get that reaction you describe from people, and to be fair I have had similar thoughts about teetotals in the past (though never vocalised it). It's still an oddity not to drink. I haven't completely given up though: plan to have a wee tipple on Valentine's day and on my bithday in March. Well that's basically giving up, with just a few symbolic drinks peppered throughout the year.

I have to say I'm feeling a lot better off the booze, so I'm going to stick with it.

[Butterfly]

I think it's easier not to drink as you get older - partly because you have the confidence to to do what you want to do, but also because other people have the confidence not to feel threatened by your actions. When I was in my 20s, my friends were much pushier than they are now if I don't drink.

[hellymedic]

Agreed, Butterfly. None of my friends is remotely bothered by what's in my glass.
We had our CTC 'Christmas' lunch yesterday; our drink choices were like our menu choices: order what you fancy and nobody will care what you have.
A crowd will include slimmers, vegetarians, diabetics, teetotallers, drivers and people recovering from a lurgy. Get what you fancy.
That is all.

[Kim]

I think it's easier not to drink as you get older

Massively so, and it's nothing to do with confidence.  It's simply more socially acceptable to indulge in recreational activities other than getting pissed once you're out of your early 20s.  For someone who was never going to drink anyway, that comes out as far less time and emotional energy wasted on explaining yourself.

My experience, though it may not be true for everyone, is that as you get older you get better friends.  Proper friends don't care what you're drinking.

[marcusjb]

My experience, though it may not be true for everyone, is that as you get older you get better friends.  Proper friends don't care what you're drinking.

I would say that is true for sure. I gave up 13 or 14 years ago now (intended short period of abstinence, found I liked waking up in the morning with a clear head and a full(er) wallet!). I also found that some people I considered friends were in fact complete knobs who only made sense when I was drinking and grew apart from some of them.

Nowadays, with friends, it isn't a big deal at all - many of them have calmed down the excesses of youth with age, responsibilities, children etc.

[matthew]

I went to Uni as a Teetotaler, never liked the taste of what I had tried. Fortunately by joining a Brass Band outside of Uni and the CU I avoided night clubs.

Probably the hardest was the Bridge club which met in the room next to a student bar in the Guild, but there were enough people of various minority bents that not drinking was easily accepted. Particularly by ones partner at teh end of the night when your play was still clear headed and your opponents weren't.

Now I have the occassional single Malt, or contreau (sp), about once or twice a month.

[Kim]

I found extracurricular stuff at uni was okay, simply by nature of the things I was in to: Drama, LGBT soc, anime, computing society, rocket team - all activities where you'd be doing something that wasn't conducive to simultaneous drinking of more than an odd pint, and while there would inevitably be after-show parties and LGBT club nights and the like, they were a minority of the socialisation and nobody really noticed if you only turned up for half an hour.

Where it seems to get a lot more difficult is the sports clubs, many of which have a culture where you're either doing sport or you're getting pissed, and the societies that end up meeting in pubs and clubs by default.

Much more difficult were housemates.  Especially in the first year, where they're inherently random 18 year olds.

I remember Freshers' week well.  I was asked why I wasn't drinking nearly twice as much as I was asked what A-levels I did.  Which is a lot.

[LindaG]

This is from the 'dry January' website, it's the 'encouraging message' from yesterday.

Hopefully you’re starting to feel a little brighter, lighter and cheery. Riding high on your energy, head out for a walk somewhere nice, countryside or city. You may even break in to a skip!? And keep going – you’re nearly two weekends down.

Is it only me who boggled for ages at that one, thinking that breaking into a skip is something you'd only do at the end of a specially heavy night? 

Oh dear.