I’ve drank like a b%$tard for a lot of 2018, going to do my first complete dry January as of tomorrow. Join me?

[Exisonfire]

As it says in the title.

2018 hasn’t been kind to me, and the drink has been relied upon far too much.

I’m fed up of moping, and want to kick start a better year with my first ever complete dry January tomorrow.

Who’s in?

Having said that I’m determined to stick it out! Actually going dry through till a family party in Feb

Morning all, hope everyone is feeling good for the weekend.

I had another early night, so I'm feeling refreshed, which is a new experience for me at the weekends.

My biggest reason for dry January is the damage I was doing to my health, I look older than my years, my insides were hurting and I had a scare over Christmas about my heart. (It started beating arrhythmically).

Since stopping the biggest benefit is not one I can feel or see, but I wear a fitbit and my resting heart rate has gone from 78 to 58 in 18 days and continues to fall.

It might be enough to keep me off drink.

Morning all.

Scream since stopping drinking I’ve not had that early hours pounding chest and my heart rate is sitting happily on 60 bpm. I’m putting it down to dehydration that all the booze caused.

I really really want to stay sober and stop wasting a couple of hours a night on a bottle of wine, that’s all it is in my house, 5-7 pm while I’m cooking , my dh is teetotal so there’s no pressure to open a bottle at all. I love a fresh sober head on a Saturday morning too

I bought Seedlip Spice last night , it’s not too bad for a refreshing gin like drink.

Dh had a Seedlip spice and tonic last night in a pub and really enjoyed it. And we had a Big Drop Stout which was really good. I'm really enjoying Heineken zero - was a lovely Friday night treat.
Not finding my sleep improving much at all, I never have struggled to get to sleep, it's staying asleep that I struggle with - I still wake at 3am and often frequently after that - dh wears a Fitbit and his sleep is pretty awful too - the only difference is not having the guilts about drinking when I wake - but that's not much to be thankful for!

Despite having a really shite day yesterday, it was easier to not think about drink last night than it was last Friday night.
I'm definitely breaking some of the habits and associations involving wine.
Just had water, coffee or camomile for the last few days, no fizzy or sweet drinks.
Reading a book with a cup of camomile is my new favourite treat. Sounds dull but it actually feels like a luxury to me. I'm having a very shit time at the moment & I'm glad that instead of having wine as a reward for putting up with a crap day I'm really able to relax and enjoy my evenings without it. I hope this lasts!
No tummy aches & less bloating. I don't have a Fitbit so no idea of heart rate & I feel generally calmer. Skin feels less dry & fragile but I have also been remembering more often to do the skin care routine before bed.

Total fail. Hit the Pinot last night. The annoying thing is that, despite a horrendous day in work which had me in tears, I wasn’t even bothered about having a drink, but DH really wanted a few and I wasn’t going to sit there and watch him drink then listen to him snoring all night.

@Bringbackthestripes don't beat yourself up over it - it won't change the past, hope you had fun though!
Sitting here supping on a Seedlip and Fevertree tonic, it's quite refreshing but I think my favourite is still the Heineken 0.0% beer - it still messes with my head drinking beer and then standing up and not feeling even remotely heady.
Anyone tried Nosecco? Dh ordered some from Ocado on the back of a review in the Independent. You can see where all our energy is going - we're still drink (and food) obsessed!

Have a great Saturday night everyone!

Still here, how is everyone else doing? The last few evenings have been much easier - no real craving for a drink and the urge to compulsively eat sweet stuff has gone too, thank goodness! Hoping this is the light at the end of th tunnel...

Another 8 hours plus last night. My new bedtime is 10pm, I can't stay awake beyond that at the moment. Unfortunately DH is a bit of a night owl so stays up 'til gone 12 most nights.

Feeling good and the scales are still heading in the right direction. If I can get a full half stone off by the end of January I'll be happy.

Hope everyone else is feeling good, if not, then post for support.

I had a fail last night. DH and I decided to have some white wine with our dinner. Conscious decision. I enjoyed the bottle we shared. What we didn't need was the second bottle which I didn't even enjoy. And I slept so badly. Back on the wagon again.

You live and learn Apollo, I'd be exactly the same, which is what's putting me off even having a glass. At some point I'm going to try to have some without going too far, that's when I'll know if I've reset my relationship with alcohol.

Still here! Had Sunday lunch at BIL & SIL's today and avoided wine. Had a couple of Nanny State's which was nice.

Well done weebarra alcohol free beer is making it so much easier!

Dh and I took a walk to the pub with the mutt and had a couple of Heineken 0% - walk home was pretty cold though. DD made a lovely dinner and now I'm sitting by the fire drinking a mug of hot lemon and ginger tea. It's been a good day!

Still going strong! Surprised at how quickly the month is going.

Great going wee, DH mates have been on nanny state and really rated it.

According to the dry January app I have saved over 20,000 calories, surely I should have lost more weight (although I am eating more sweet stuff), I hope it just keeps coming off steadily for the next two weeks.

Keeping at it, at least until the end of Jan, DH is being a great support. It is getting harder as the thrill of the challenge is reducing.

Only one more weekend left to do!

leave I had some Nosecco on Saturday night, it was really good! Definitely the best AF wine I've had.

I'm still in, with renewed enthusiasm for some reason! Weirdly, I found Mon - Thurs of last week really hard, even though I wouldn't normally be drinking on those nights anyway, but this weekend, when I would, has been really easy.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread I've been off the sauce for 16 years now (I was a bottle of whisky a day man). I forgot to mention that one of the things that got me through the first few months (and then later and now at social gatherings where people would look at you oddly if you didn't have a drink in your hand) was the growing number of 0.0% beers on the market. Becks blue is good but Heineiken and Budweiser also do good canned faux beers.

If your last experience with alcohol free beers was the &*(^%ing awful Kaliber think again. There are some goodish substitutes out there these days. (To be fair it's years since I have drunk Kaliber they may well have improved it the face of growing competition). Many supermarkets (I know Tescos do) helpfully group them all together with the alcohol free wines and low % beers. And at the end of the aisle too! so you don't get tempted by having to walk past the "Real Stuff".

Watch out though. Read the small print. Some beers described as "Alcohol Free" will contain 0.5% alcohol. I know that doesn't sound a lot but I can tell the difference. 0.5 is too much for me to be happy with.

I put Heineken 0% through the self checkout in a supermarket on Saturday and I had to obtain approval for a controlled product.

I thought when they studied the effects of 0.5% alcohol beers on ABV it had negligible effects - no matter how much you drunk - your liver processed it too quickly to get a hit. I've had both and I'm relaxed about drinking beers under 0.5% but I can see how various groups of non-drinkers would not be happy with it.
Nirvana Stout sampled last night - good body and a deep chocolatey flavour - worth seeking out.
Thanks for the feedback on Nosecco FetchezLaVache, glad you're still hanging in there - Mon-Thur is hard because it's boring(I need to start studying something), the weekends are hard because of habit and conditioning that the weekend needs to be marked and celebrated.
Dh has now lost 3kg and all his clothes fit properly again - isn't it annoying how bloody quickly men lose weight!
We signed up for the alcohol free days app - with all the associated nagging in preparation for Feb - at least while we do Dry Jan we will be getting in its good books!

The Nosecco is 0.5% - I did wonder if that was cheating! However, I had a whole bottle and I couldn't tell the difference between that and, say, Zeropointzero.

I really wish I liked beer, it sounds like the AF beers are excellent!

FetchezLaVache do you like gin? The seedlip spice is good - tastes like a grown up drink - it's a bit gin like - enough to keep you interested.

leave I love gin - thanks for the tip! I've being eyeing up the Seedlip in M&S, where it's on offer for £22 atm, but I wasn't sure I wanted to spend that much! I think I'll get some on your recommendation - if it just about hits the spot, it might be good for post-DJ drinking less booze purposes.

Re Kaliber - I'd forgotten about this, but many years ago I spent a day as an extra on a beer commercial. (My Girlfriend and I were a couple of those out of focus blobs in the background partying like crazy while the actors have laddish banter in the foreground). All the extras - and maybe the lads too - were given pint glasses filled with Kaliber (which looked like the stuff they were really trying to flog) and we were told to pretend to be enjoying it. After a while our glasses lost that photogenic head that all beers have in commercials. There was a guy on set whose sole job, that I could see, was walking round the extras topping up their glasses between takes with dollops of whisked egg white to give them an instant frothy head.

It actually improved the taste too.

Sandman - that's so funny, particularly that it made it taste better!

@sandman

Just checking in to say hello and update! I got my units down to 35 last week, which is five less than the week before and half of what I was drinking weekly last year. I was aiming for 30 and didn’t quite manage it, but hey - tomorrow’s a new day and all that!

Keep at it everyone - you’re doing great!