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! 🙂☕️🧃

I have no intention of breaking DJ just because we're back in lockdown - let's face it, we were always going to end up back here. Besides, I need to focus on my DDs - DD2 worried about exams, DD1 desperate to go back to Uni but can't (or at least it depends on the details of the rules).

Was sent these after the announcement from Boris! 😳🤪

Day 4 done phew.

Going to bed to read - never accomplished that with a bottle of wine down my neck! Couldn't even remember going to bed done (most) nights

I popped out to buy a bottle of wine just before Boris at 8.

I have had one mulled wine whilst he waffled. It was already open from Christmas.

I just knew I would feel like throwing it in with the lockdown news.

I have to work throughout though at home. I'm letting myself have some tonight but this thread is totally helping my desire to have dry time.

@SuperPixie247 I'm a single mum.
I think the booze is our companion to help us talk to ourselves with a more interesting conversation 😆 than it would be otherwise.

Upwards

I'm turning in now. Still dry, but my 16:8 is shot to pieces (damn you, cheese!)

Well done if you've managed to get through the day; if not, try again tomorrow.

The end of day 4 (midnight) means we are 12.9% of the way through! And of course, it'll be more in the morning.

Stay strong and good night everyone.

After Boris's news conference (just read the BBC headlines, would have sworn at the TV), I am VERY grateful we finished the red wine at Christmas.

Aside fro
Pouring it down the sink, can anyone think of a recipe to use up 1/2 a bottle of mulled wine? Could I stew some fruit in it?
Would it go in a moussaka?

Still on track here. I'm NHS so no changes really from tonight's news.

I actually think, shamefully, this is the longest I've been sober in over a year

@HPlikecraft, thanks for the percentages , they really help! Day 4 done, another tea cup on the app despite boris's best efforts to make me reach for the wine. Thank god nurseries are staying open. If they'd closed too, I think dry January would have been over by 8.30pm. As it is, we're onwards to day 5 now, feeling very proud, I can't remember the last time I went this long without a drink other than pregnancy.

CrystalIE Thanks for the support! 👍 Drinking was so much easier when the kids went to bed at 7pm! I suppose that’s when the bad habits set in though. I just don’t want the teens to see me tiddly and I don’t want to be hypocritical and tell them not to drink. And I can’t bring myself to do the “continental” thing of giving them wine with dinner as we never do that normally. Not sure how to handle it to be honest! 🤷‍♀️

I won't lie and say tonight's news hasn't upset me in so many ways. I succumbed to an AF beer when I really fancy a bottle of wine.

I need to remind myself that if I drink, I'll fall asleep only to wake around 1am and be up until 5.30am... and that's a I vicious cycle I don't want to be in again.

Night all. Day 4 done - I'm feeling surprisingly chipper about it at the moment. I keep thinking (morbidly I know) that every day dry is a contribution to my body being better able to fight off covid if I get it! Not that I have seen anything about drinking increasing risk factors, but any health benefit has to help, right?

@LarryUnderwood this is a vitally valid point worthy of our wellness.

@HPLikecraft the % are interestingly very motivating. How strange but please keep posting and thank you

@LarryUnderwood

Night all. Day 4 done - I'm feeling surprisingly chipper about it at the moment. I keep thinking (morbidly I know) that every day dry is a contribution to my body being better able to fight off covid if I get it! Not that I have seen anything about drinking increasing risk factors, but any health benefit has to help, right?

I saw a video by an immunoligist, during lockdown 1. She was on the Sober Girl Society IG talking about how alcohol affects your immune system. There were so many good points on there about how alcohol makes you more likely to get sick. I'll see if I can find it for you, but it was a long time ago.

I know that covid is meant to be bad for your heart and BP. So is alcohol! So, yes, I do think that not drinking should improve your odds of fighting it off with relative ease.

Disclaimer: I am not a HCP, so I may be talking bollocks!

thanks i have got Try Dry and its looking useful.

@LarryUnderwood

m.facebook.com/sobergirlsociety/videos/232892897805440/

Day 3 ✅
So far so good...
See you tomorrow ladies

@AlbertaAlberta and @LarryUnderwood, i think there is a Michael Mosely programme on Wednesday about alcohol / immune system / microbiome / covid which might be worth watching.

I have felt occasionally today as though I have been over the head with a shovel, and I’m also feeling very tired. On the plus side, I had a really good night’s sleep yesterday and am hoping for same tonight. 4th teacup in the bag!

Still wide awake. Can't switch off. And don't have alcohol as my go-to . But on the plus side, Day 4 done.

Well done everyone else achieving another day

Well done buzzofthebumblebee! I hope you get some good sleep tonight.

I am also wide awake after day 4. Definitely feel less anxious than I have been recently but a bit surprised how quickly that's happened.
DH not quite so grumpy today!
Well done everyone, it's not been an easy day

Thanks for the app suggestion!Have been giving up, ok weaning off booze since 1st and polishing off leftovers. Last night there was an inch of red left.land it made me feel awful very quickly. I actually remembered this tonight, yay! So I get My First Teacup !

@RaisinsRuinEverything - my teens are quite old teens now. One is teetotal, the other did a bit of experimenting at parties/ raiding parents drinks cupboard etc with a couple of disastrous results but seems to have got a more mature attitude to it now.

Despite the fact that, we drink we always held the line that you shouldn't drink until you are older - bad for the teenage brain etc. We never gave them drink to take to parties and never offered them drink at home until they were over 18. You can't stop them experimenting but you can make sure they know what you expect.

I don't think it's hypocritical - I hardly drank at all until I left home and only really started thinking I should cut back during the long years of looking after kids when you can't afford to do much and having some drinks at home seems to be the cheapest treat on offer.

Anyway - day 4 done. All good here

Wide awake here too. Long day at work, mind racing with the new lockdown. Going to keep going with dry January for as long as I can. I don’t think a massive hangover is going to help my mood at all. It makes lockdown worse as I have no energy. At least if I’m sober I can motivate myself to get off the couch and do something else.

I’m a couple of days late, but finally on the dry Jan wagon, I’ll just add three days to the end? No wine left in the house, no I just have to have the will power not to buy anything. A reset is badly needed.

Well we are in Lockdown again, it is going to be difficult for everyone to stay focused, BUT you are all doing so well be it 3 days in or 3 months in Stay Strong everyone the group is here if you need support :)