DRY JANUARY 2021! This way please... all welcome

[HPLikecraft]

It’s that time of year again... the late Christmas present to our livers!

You may be thinking of doing Dry January to:

*detox a little after seasonal overindulgence, or
*help you cut down a bit generally, or
*help you start to get out of a harmful alcohol habit, or
*just be a bit healthier for a month...

It’s good for all of those things!

I find the MN DJ threads excellent for support, encouragement, sharing info,‘we’re in this together’ camaraderie, suggestions for grown up drinks, aversion techniques and just fun.

This is my fourth year of DJ and I swear it has made all the difference to me; it was so hard first time, but having succeeded I did dry June and October after that, and do so every year. It has broken my habit, banished the craving and reset my relationship with booze.

I won’t be finding DJ too difficult this year, but some will. Hopefully this thread will help.

Come climb aboard the wagon! 🙂☕️🧃

My dd who is 5 gas been extremely clingy exhaustive and having tantrums like a 2yo its enough to drive me to but dh and i have both resisted. He is doing bathtime i am having a tea...

I do fancy AF beer for friday... I was considering the AF Gin but thought I might just get some elderflower coridal instead.

Back at work tomorrow feeling very motivated for the year ahead.

To pp saying they feel DH giving them the rage...yes I feel you... cooking a lovely pork casserole and hes under my feet trying to sort his homemade soup for tomorrow...

Also need the wine to numb the bad feelings. And i too had the sweats again last night @BrassicaBabe and bad dreams.

I'm very much an all-or-nothing person. Had to quit alcohol completely last lockdown otherwise I know I would have sunk very deep into the wine. Which would not have been good.

Resisted so far this evening so think I'll be OK. Digging deep takes up so much damn energy though.

Day 3 and still OK although I did have an AF beer with dinner - is that bad?

I decided to do a lovely dinner for New Year's Eve - lamb and gratin dauphinois with plenty of veggies and gravy and a nice bottle of red. 😋 After dinner I had the last slurp of Amaretto that was in the bottle and that was it.

Normally DH and I carry on until mid February (half term) but this year we're going to do the whole of February too. This is year 6 and I actually find myself looking forward to it now.

Good luck everyone!

@RaisinsRuinEverything well done for your 3rd Dry Jan
And well done for doing 69 in the past that's great! My most has been 10 months no nothing and felt great but its such a stop start so taking 1 month at the time! So good to see all the motivation on threads like this!
Here is to a happy healthy Jan!
@Hepzibar I literally wrote the same thing earlier about husband and rage and grumpiness hahaha

Oh - hadn't even put grumpy down as a DryJan thing. Makes sense.

Yes, I do feel grumpy today too! The first week or so is the worst but it gets easier. I've always thought that it was because I was going back to work after Christmas.

I'm going to download the Try Dry app now, thanks everyone who mentioned it.

DH said at 5pm 'wouldn't it be nice to have a beer?' But we remain strong and we will do this!

Definitely feeling tempted today... it's so good reading about other people also feeling grumpy. I also need to find something to do with my hands, so tomorrow I'm going to resurrect a long-forgotten crochet project to keep me busy in the long, dark, boring evenings!

End of Day 3 for me, too. I cannot remember the last time I went 3 consecutive nights without alcohol but it's definitely several years. I've bought loads of Fevertree mixers and have discovered Rochester Ginger Cordial with fizzy water is really good, too. Not sweet and you can make it as strong as you like!
Agree with PP who said she had a " witching hour". If I can get past 8pm without reaching for the wine, I've won for another day.

@vintagesewingmachine - I have a terrible thing where I get through a whole evening and then when everyone has gone to bed a little thought pops into my head - why not have a nice night cap now the house is all quiet. Very bad.

Even more bad is the fact that it kind of wakes me up and then I don't go to sleep.

Nothing of that sort going to go on here today

End Day 3 for me and I feel good. DH really grumpy though, I hope it doesn't last too long!

Day 3 done - good point about the 0% beer, I'll bear that in mind.

3 days dry here. Haven't done that since, I think, I was pregnant with my now toddler. Had AF Kopparberg cider today which was nice. I'm OK with having AF things, I've decided, as a change from tonic water. Weirdly, noticed I'm not biting my nails or snacking either, both bad evening habits....

Day 3 done, I usually manage 3 AF days a week tbh but mon to weds rather than the weekend. Well done everyone else off to a good start, that’s a tenth of the month done!

Got my 3 day streak badge. And I'm a bit less grumpy now too. Back to work tomorrow, looking forward to waking up reasonably fresh.

Hello please could I join? I've never done DJ before, only ever managed about 10 days... I've always drunk too much wine but during the first lockdown it got out of hand... Starting earlier and earlier and a couple of glasses became a bottle. All my triggers have been removed by lockdown as no meals out, no seeing friends apart from briefly outside in the cold etc etc.

Am on day 3 am drinking lots of herbal teas, lemon and ginger etc... However can't stop eating and made Jamaican ginger bread loaf tonight! I am slim anyway but hoping to lose my cellulity booze belly plus feel happier and less anxious. One big reason is vanity my skin is awful after years of looking younger than my age and having good skin! It's red, lined, puffy and saggy. I'm hoping after a couple of weeks this will improve. I've treated myself to loads of REN products as an incentive.

My tempting times are from 5pm onwards so am booking myself into early evening zoom yoga each night before making tea. Restless sleep and vivid strange dreams do far plus night sweats. Hope this resolves soon!

Hope you’re all doing well and staying strong tonight. Hope you can keep it together if you’re struggling. You’ll be pleased you did.

At midnight, end of day three, we’ll be 9.6% of the way through! That’s pretty good, a reasonable sized chunk.

Has anyone started to get vivid dreams yet? Those are sometimes an interesting side effect of alcohol free times!

Doing well thanks op and staying strong 💪. No weird dreams that I can recall, but I only started yesterday... Will see how tonight goes!

@nuitdesetoiles nice to have you along.

Good day for me today, stayed dry and ate well too. Felt really groggy this morning, as ifci had a hangover which was weird as I haven't drunk alcohol since NYE, and I also don't often get hangovers when I do drink . I think my body is in shock!

Stayed dry and haven't felt tempted. Are healthily most of the day but caved into cheese and crackers at 10pm! Aagghh!

hello i am joining late ! Good luck to all. This will be my 3rd or 4th dry jan. A kick start to a healthy .

Hello everyone ✨ end of day 2 for me, no real problems to report just yet!!
I’m doing IF and a little bit of walking too and ticked those boxes.... and now I have to get to bed as that’s my other bugbear... staying up wayyy too late
GL tomorrow everyone

Happy New Year everyone, just an update I have had no painkillers since 27th Dec and no booze since New Years Eve where again I had only 1. I even turned down an offer from OH to go out to the shop to get me a bottle I promptly declined. However I have started my health kick I am now walking every day (12,000 steps or more in the last 2 days), It is hard as I am waking up with a raging headache every morning but I am sleeping in bed all night (I used to be wide awake after a few hours sleep) so I am already seeing the benefits :) I hope everyone is ok and staying safe.

Hmmmm so I've had a weird night. Hot and cold sweats. Vivid dreams. I'm serially a bit anxious as I didn't think I would feel this bad.