Dry January 2020. A new relationship with alcohol. Who’s joining me?

[ParanoidGynodroid]

It’s that time again!
I did my first dry January around 5 years ago, having seen it on here. It was a great thing to do: really helped my get control of my drinking. Since then I’ve done it every year, along with at least one or two other dry months.

DJ may help you:
Lose weight. ...
Get better skin. ...
Make healthier food choices. ...
Save money. ...
Sleep better. ...
Have more energy. ...
Improve your mood. ...
Improve your general health

and make you feel virtuous!

It’s not necessarily easy though, so it’s good to have support; especially if you’re feeling week and like you may give up. We can support each other here.

Join me!

@BookSkark

I was thinking the same- that I had hoped that stopping adding calories would be a miracle cure to my weight loss on its own. But I have to admit to having filled the space with crap snacks.

But I'm on day 17 today and I feel like the focus can shift a little the last few days as I'm not finding the lack of drinking such a focus. So I feel I can switch my attention a little more to my eating. I'm going out for a walk today. And had a healthy late breakfast this morning. I didn't crave sugar quite so much yesterday than I have since Christmas.
So I'm hoping that it can start shifting some of the lbs now.

Those wishing to have a window to their liver - it’s worth looking up the British liver trust roadshows. They go round the country every year with a no obligation, no disclosure type roadshow with a special hida scanner, which tests the fibrosity (stiffness and fattiness) of your liver. It’s the closest thing to a window you will get. They have dates on their website for the first half of the year.

Wahhh day 9 and 1st real test and danger of me falling off the wagon.

Weather is shit, I have got my period and feel like rubbish, house is a tip and just had to go out try and retrieve horses from the field as the it’s gale force winds here and they having none of it so I’m going to have to go back out again once DD gets back from school and thought makes me want to cry!!!

I just want to face plant a cheese board and a bottle of Malbec!! 😭

@BookSkark I've lost 11lbs in 2 weeks. SW of almost 15 stone so lots to lose). A large proportion of that will be water and I expect it to slow down somewhat now but it's a really good kick start for me. I really need to lose the weight for health reasons and DJ is a massive help because if I'm drinking, I'm eating.

I take back what I said earlier about it being easier than I expected. I have had a crap day at work and longing for alcohol

I am sooooo tired! Even though I was in bed by 10.30, and slept soundly till 7 am, I can barely keep eyes open. Was nodding off at my desk.

I haven't had any alcohol for nearly 3 weeks and today I saw a friend who I usually see once every couple of months or so and she immediately said to me that my skin was looking really good, which is something she's never commented on before. And she didn't even know I was off alcohol! I have thought myself that I'm feeling and looking better but really didn't expect anyone else to notice, I was so pleased. Really gave me more motivation to continue.

Happy birthday 🎂 @dementedma

Day 14 Hopefully by now, our livers have begun to rid themselves of fat.

Day 14, bought a six pack of light ginger beer from lidl which I'm now enjoying. I'm finding it easier this time around than the last time I did DJ (so far, and not including saturdays). Feel as though I'm just on auto pilot now until end of jan. Go to work, come home, don't drink. Repeat.

Day 12 for me. Managing the Dry aspect without a problem. Not managing the "controlling what I put in my mouth" aspect at all. I have some tedious food intolerances which mean I'm grain-free and have to avoid some fruits and vegetables already. Taking alcohol out too is making giving up sugar for LCHF feel like a step too far and yesterday I ended up hovering over the chocolate spread jar with a teaspoon . Today I have had a slice of cake and a hot chocolate (but no alcohol).

Dammit. Back to sensible food tomorrow I guess.

Hi late to the party but hope I’m ok to join. Realised I needed a new relationship with alcohol to start January but have had 2 days when I’ve fallen off the wagon already

My name is myhandsareverycold and I've fallen off the dry January wagon in spectacular style.

We have a power cut here. Step daughter being a dick. DH being a dick. Supper ruined.

Felt very sorry for myself and had 3 gins.

Right now I'm not sorry but I suspect i will be tomorrow.

I need new coping strategies for stressful situations.

I'll probably snore tonight and DH will give me a really hard time.

Right now I don't care. I will tomorrow though I suspect.

Bollocks. I was doing so well. Back on it tomorrow. Fatty liver is increasing by the second.

Well done to all who have stuck to it. Bloody annoyed with myself.

And I've got 1% bloody battery!

myhandsareverycold

Aww shite. But never mind. Back up again tomorrow.
Same thing happened me on Sunday.
But you can start again tomorrow.

Anyone who is thinking of breaking don't. 3 small gins (previously could put away 3 times that and feel nothing). I've woken at 3am feeling crap. It's just not worth it.

On the plus side power is back on!

Ah, sorry to hear that myhands. Fresh start today?

I passed a test last night, dinner round at a friends house, and normally you’ve a glass of wine in your hand the moment you’re over the doorstep. I took schloer instead

One friend was doing Dry Jan, but he had a drink last night. He has had a recent health scare, and is having a fatty liver investigated I can’t stop thinking about livers at the moment. Mine, everyone else’s...goodness, I hope he’s ok.

Day 14 and feeling good - no plans to drink any time soon, but I know I need not to get cocky.

Day 15: May the beauty and power of the waterfall remind us that we have the strength and sense of purpose to do this, and also to drink enough water to stay hydrated.

I passed a test last night - when I come in from Scottish dancing I traditionally have a wee dram to relax. Was sorely tempted, but a glass of Celtic Soul did the trick. Also helped by the fact that I'd pushed the bottle of Scotch further back in the cupboard so it would have been a faff to get to.

Well done everyone who resisted. Feeling thoroughly ashamed of myself this morning (and suitably meh too). It's simply not worth it. I'm wondering if I just got used to hangovers. I much prefer the feeling of a full nights sleep and feeling normal.

I won't be repeating last night anytime soon!

How is everyone else doing? Almost halfway there for most.

My brain still has twitches and habit behaviours. Last night on way home from work I caught myself thinking ‘I wonder if I need to pick up some beer’ ‘I’ve got a bottle of cava in the fridge I may have some when cooking’ etc. Thankfully able to put those thoughts to one side for the moment but they spring up quite a bit.

Haven’t lost weight but face/skin is more toned/slimmer. Colleague asked if I had lost weight yesterday. Unbelievable. Just 12 days af for me has done that.

My plan is to keep some big changes going for as long as I can beyond the end of the month - no drinking at home being the big one. And largely af otherwise if not totally for some time. Went out for dinner Friday and had lovely non alcoholic cocktail and water. It’s completely doable and the benefits are huge.
Rest of jan totally af.
Support everyone.

Day 15 for me. My skin is actually looking better, so I’m chuffed with that. Lost 1lb, which is a start but makes losing the 2stone a long process at this rate. Better cut back on the biscuits and cheese. Well done to everyone, those who have abstained completely and those who have temporary breaks. We’re all improving our relationship with alcohol. I’m learning a lot from this thread.

Morning all. It’s day 15. Having completed 14 days, we’re 45% down. Yay!

Well done everyone. I was also tempted last night as a home situation gets more and more difficult, but managed to stay the course.
I did, however cave in and eat crisps, so there goes my uncrunchy January!

This is the third sober Wednesday in a row!! I like that idea, despite the illogical argument that I don’t drink during the week anyway usually (although I could within the blink of an eye and certainly did before 2019). Anyway, day 15 is amazing. Well done all.

I’m really reassessing the end of the month. It would be so easy to go back to drinking a bottle Friday and Saturday and a couple with Sunday lunch, pushing that limit higher than it really should be. I think the first step will be to ditch sundays altogether. Then make the witching hour later. So don’t pour a glass the minute I get in. Plus abstinence for 5 days out of 7 should surely mean that my resistance level is altered and necking 9 units just won’t happen. I’m getting to the stage now where I’m just not thinking about it all the time either and that’s really nice. Apart from anything the internal arguments are so tiring and the thought of being free of them is really very appealing.

I second the thought of being free from internal arguments as very appealing.

I'm amazed at how my resistance has clearly been reset after such a short period of time too and despite my blip epic fail last night am absolutely determined to never return to my previously highly damaging drinking habits.

Well done everyone whatever stage you're at.

@myhandsareverycold
If you switch your thinking round from "feeling bad about myself/did something 'wrong' " to "what did I learn from this?" that might help.
That's what I'm trying to harness generally in life more. Instead of having a go at myself I think 'hmmm, interesting - what did I learn from this?'. It sounds like that having a drink last night taught you how much you don't want to drink. So all in all a useful lesson.

Does anyone else get a crisp hangover? My name is breathmiller and I'm a crisp addict. But I always used to think that as much as the wine made me feel shit the next day so did the mass of crisps too. That's proved by not having any alcohol hangover but still feeling rubbish if I over indulge in crisps.
I like the idea of an uncrunchy month. But it might feel like a step too far right now.

My mum is pretty poorly and I was called back to the hospital yesterday so a long day driving and lots of potential to find bad food choices and/or hit the wine when I got home due to stress. But I managed to avoid both so pretty pleased. And to be honest when I got home late I was too tired to sit up watching tv and the added eating that goes with that.

More water is needed so thanks for the waterfall to fill my bottle up from.

Day 18 here. A busy 4 days of work ahead for me so got to try to keep the healthy eating going through it.

Good luck today everyone. Is noon today the halfway mark of January?

Being a little behind (day 10) wondering when the internal reasonings and twitches lessen....

Bad day yesterday and DH sitting with our pizza and beer and congratulating ourselves in not just diving straight into our old habits after a shitty day and putting the world to rights over a bottle of wine or two but I still totally wanted to and it was a struggle to stay dry

I ended up feeling a little deflated at the thought of winging it through January, which I totally think we will do but with no real shift in mindset, jumping straight back into old habits at the end.

I’d love to get to the point that I’m a bit more meh about if I have a glass of something or not rather than it always being at the forefront of my mind.