DRY JANUARY 2022! Been overindulging? Drinking crept up? Want to begin a healthy new you? 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 fifth 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 most years. It has broken my habit, banished much of the craving and reset my relationship with booze. I imagine it's added years to my life.

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

Throw your hat in the ring, pull up a chair and let's do this together. 🙂☕️🧃

The DJ2022 Wagon creaks to a start in just 5 days, but always stops for latecomers 🙂

Morning everyone, 2 full days done really pleased, I’m going to check out some of the tv recommendations here, enjoying catching up with the thread, it’s good to know I’m not alone.

Already feeling better so am up nice and early to try to get house ship shape before returning to WFH tomorrow.

@space21 and @Impatientwino and @Crunchymum - I echo the posters above about losing a parent. Take care

Checking in for day 3. So far so good. I had a really restless sleep last night but didn't have any periods of insomnia which for me is a win.

Have a good day all.

Morning all, can't say im sleeping well and jumping out of bed but that usually takes a couple of weeks to kick in 😀.

Off for a nature walk, round a deer park with DD. Then lunch at a cafe. Then home to get ready for return to WFH tomorrow.

@space21 and @Impatientwino and @Crunchymum so sorry for your loss.
Dh and I take our usual break from Dry Jan today for an important annual celebration - today I'm wondering why we need or want alcohol to celebrate (given the recent revelations about our secret drinking relative and how badly affected they are) but we always do and we always jump back on it again for the 4th Jan.
We hoping to use our sobriety to spring clean/declutter the house - we worked hard and drank hard during the lockdowns when judging by the queue for the dump - the rest of the world seemed to be doing their decluttering - it's time we caught up!
Good luck with today everyone.

for those who have lost loved ones this last year or two. One of my very good friends lost her DM and it has been so very hard, she was a wonderful, inspiring woman.

I couldn’t get to sleep last night for ages, so I’m shattered this morning. Hope I sleep better tonight!

I found some Radnor raspberry and black cherry sparkling water in the back of the cupboard and had one of them in my favourite wine glass with lots of ice and some frozen strawberries. Was pretty nice.

Slept better last night but a little but tetchy this morning. keeping out of DHs way in case I growl at him.

Raspberry and black cherry sounds delicious @NCnotmyusualone

@footcushion - we seemed to forget to declutter during lockdown too It's my top mission for this year.

Just seen this, and it made me chuckle

Hello all. Day 1 for me today. Knew I would find it too hard over this weekend and we had things planned. Around wine!

But am committed from today. To DH’s disappointed there is no open bottle of wine in the house. In the past if there is an open bottle I usually give in and say we might as well finish it. But I made sure last night we finished up the wine we were drinking with dinner and didn’t open another.

My weak time is when we start cooking and pottering in the kitchen around 5.30/6. I have alcohol free gin and some other nice soft drinks so I’ll try them. After dinner I’m planning water and herbal teas or decaf tea. And planning a nice sweet treat to have. Nothing big but something. We will gradually work through the Xmas chocolate stash.

Am about to download the Try Dry app too.

Weighed myself this morning which was as depressing as I expected! Won’t weigh again for four weeks.

Morning all. Day 2 completed. Managed a Sunday with no red wine so feeling hopeful. Also started on The Tourist, very different and gripping. We can do this. Have a good day everyone.

Morning all! Hope you all had a good, dry evening last night and managed to sleep well. Welcome also to our newcomers.

I watched ‘Don’t Look Up’ (great) and some more Chernobyl (great) whilst munching a homemade vegan pizza (great) and drinking Nozecco (less great… had to count my teeth afterwards!); managed not to be tempted.

An email from Try Dry this morning informs me that by now, all alcohol should be out of our systems (assuming a 1st Jan start). That’s good to know, isn’t it? Of course the withdrawal and adjustment - both mental and physical - take somewhat longer and are a little more challenging. Nonetheless we can all do this.

So, as from 10 am this morning, we are 7.8% of the way through. Yay!

Do hop on and let us know how you’re all doing, be it good or bad. Don’t be the little penguin on the outside that freezes to death. If you decided you were going to do this, then do I!

@TheWeeDonkey I’m not finding that booze makes me headachy necessarily, but that I like the thought and taste of it much less now that I’m coming into menopause. One good thing about the menopause, I suppose!

@FanGirlX and @hivemindneeded let me know how you’re finding The Tourist… it’s on my list!

*then do it

Can I join too?

Did Dry Jan last year and felt so much better for it, kept pretty moderate until around September when my drinking crept back up. It's been pretty awful throughout the festive. Got very drunk on NYE so the first two days of DJ have been easy, even the thought of alcohol makes me nauseous still. Sleep was dreadful last night but I'm going for a big walk this morning, not been doing any exercise recently which doesn't help.

Feeling hopeful that I can do the full month and even carry on for 100 days but I'm concentrating on January first.

I'm watching 'The Tourist' enjoying it so far.

My holiday is off because my friend has the dreaded lurgy ☹️So I have decided not to wait until the 10th (haven’t drunk anything this year so far, may as well carry on).

I’m off work until the 10th. Feels a bit depressing having a week of sobriety and healthy eating whilst on holiday 😂but I know I need to.

Will catch up with the tourist now you’ve all recommended it. For my suggestion, I’m loving Yellowjackets on Sky.

Morning all checking in just had banana on toast as craving sugar I've moved all the chocs out of sight as spent yesterday working my way through a tub of heroes 😱 good luck fellow penguins x

Morning all, checking in, we have actually got some offspring free time today, for a miracle, and we're at a loose end! We could go out for lunch - just the two of us! This does present a challenge - to stay booze free while out for lunch. Hmmm. I reckon I can do it. . .

Checking in - Day 4 done but my sleep is all over the place. I stayed up til 3.30am and have only just got up - No work today and I live alone so it is easy to get into bad habits. I am back at work next week so hopefully that will reset my sleep patterns

Day 3 here. Last night DH had red wine, couldn’t believe it, he never normally drinks on a Sunday! His justification, it was a bank holiday weekend! Rude! So I unexpectedly had to watch him polish of the bottle for the second day in a row
I was so tempted to join but silly as it sounds, as I already had Saturday night under my belt I didn’t want to ruin it.
Another awful nights sleep here. Took me hours to nod off. Woke up feeling tired and grouchy. But not hungover!
Onwards and upwards!

Day 2 here for me, finally got to sleep at 3am, urgh

I didded it! Lunch out, sans alcohol, had a 0% beer instead. Enjoyed my food much more as a result.

@mbosnz 👏👍

Hi, popping in on Day 3.
Thank you for the information from the DJ app @HPLikecraft I somehow forgot to subscribe to the emails when I downloaded the app on Friday so updated to do so so now but it is emailing me today as if I have just started?!

Sleep has been horrendous which is odd as its never been like this on other nights where I've just not been drinking as have work the next day etc. But hopefully it will pass.
Been finding the information and 7pm live videos from Sober Dave over on Insta really interesting too, if anyone else is following that?

Day 2 here. Did my food shop, and managed to stay clear of the booze aisle.

Have you all been buying up the nice squashes and fizzy drinks in my local Tesco? There were none left when I went in earlier 😂. I'll do an M&S run one night this week and hope you all haven't got in there first...

I have got fizzy water, limes and some nice herbal teas for now. As long as I have some ginger beer elderflower squash by Friday, I'll be happy.

@HPLikecraft

The Tourist is good, I'm on E3. It's definitely got a Coen brothers touch to it.