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 🙂

Day 4 & waves a flipper.
Just checking in. I also slept better last night but woke up after an awful nightmare.
Haven’t done any exercise today so a bit worried that I may have another shocker trying to get to sleep.
Haven’t been tempted to drink though so that’s good. Looking forward to getting through the first week.
Stay strong everyone!

@JaquiRussell it will have cooked off. Fret not
Is anyone else saying (to nobody in particular) that "it's day 4 in the dry January house " in the Big Brother voice? Just me?
I'll get my coat

I’m in! Aldi mint lemonade tonight, sweet but not bad. Seem to have a lot of time on my hands… have cleaned kitchen loaded dishwasher rearranged freezer and done a shop after work. Dog is also exhausted from walking! But all ok, the weekend looms however.

I'm in. My drink of choice is sugar free Kombucha: elderflower and lemon flavour. Currently on offer in Sainsbury's.

Day 3 complete, not remotely tempted

Four stamps on the Dry January app today. I bought some Becks Blue but didnt fancy one tonight. In fact I've had nothing after my dinner today, when on a normal day it would be a glass of red and crisps or nuts. I have been on the scales today to assess the Christmas damage. I am 9st 5lbs which is the heaviest I've been (I'm only 5'3). Although my 'fighting weight' is 8st10, I think aiming for 9st would be realistic currently, and I'm hoping binning the booze and accompanying snacks will be helpful.

I started watching a new show with DH tonight. I'm looking forward to having something to get lost in at the end of a difficult day. Maybe cinema tomorrow, then I have a gym class on Thursday. I'd like to experience how enjoyable my life could be rather than making excuses and self medicating.

I've also completed day 3 of Yoga with Adrienne Move 30 d challenge. So all in all, feeling pretty pleased with myself.

Well done to everyone sticking with it. Is anyone sleeping better yet?

Thank you @polkadotpjs
I will start talking about it now in my house, I mentioned it NYE and have just quietly been getting on with it. Not mentioning it as don't want them saying WTF it's only been 4 days why are you chirping on about it 😂 come back at 24 days etc.
But I will keep on keeping on. Thank you.

Day 3 almost done for me.

Why do I have such a headache? Stopping drinking was supposed to stop them!

Day 4 done. First time I fancied a drink since new year. I was cooking and just wanted to sip a wine after work. Had tropical Fanta mixed with lots of sparkling water and ice then more sparkling water with lemon. And buckets of tea.

@mbosnz

Just watching the Hairy Bikers go North, and they went to Mr Fitzpatricks, of the Temperance Movement - so have just bought a bunch of their cordials to try!

Yay to all of us that have made it through the day - whichever day we're on!

I've got the sour cherry plus lemon, cucumber and mint plus elderflower and bramley apple on order. Can't wait to try them 😁

Hello you lovely lot.
Day 4 for me too. It's been ok, a couple of moments where I thought can't wait for wine time then I remembered! Still not sleeping well, partly because I keep needing to wee - it resonated upthread when another posted mentioned peeing like a racehorse. I suspect that's all the toxins and I have drink nothing but water since 1 January.
Felt more productive today than I have in ages. That was such a bonus and enough to spur me on further.

Hi all, day 2 for me here and went to gym for first time in ages. Then fell deeply asleep but woke up now! Never mind wfh and learning from home for DCs so feeling relaxed about it. Great reading others’ stories. @JaquiRussell (think it was you?!) alcohol burns off completely in cooking so you haven’t had an inadvertent drink. Think someone else said that sorry for repeating!

Morning all, falling asleep before 12 which is good for me. Woke up at 7, just before my alarm. Feeling brighter but not quite diving out of bed 😂

Morning- another day done. Sleeping better but I need to get to bed before midnight

@Runninghorse

Morning- another day done. Sleeping better but I need to get to bed before midnight

I seem to have inadvertently started a good sleep hygiene routine.

Things that are working for me are - no caffeine after 2pm. Peppermint tea or water in the afternoon then switch to chamomile at 8 ish. Make myself a Night Sky Calm (it has valerian in which helps with sleep) when I go up to bed at 10. Lavender spray on my pillow, sleepy temple balm and hand cream at the same time. Dim lamp on while I read / watch tv until I doze off.

I think I'm going to get some ear plugs too, to stop me waking in the night - Fitbit tells me I wake up a lot for very brief periods. I'm also going to try and stop using my phone / iPad when I go to bed at 10.

Morning everyone, still couldn't get to sleep last night so the laced carbonara mustn't have done anything, as you all said. But thank you for your support in my freak out.
Day 5, here we come!!

Hiya! Delurking on my day 6 to say this thread makes me feel at least normal with all the peeing and headaches

I found strykk AF spiced rum in tesco for £12. If you're a fan of dark and stormys then this is a great tasting substitute.
I've started well on tea, and on sparkling water and elderflower cordial, but mixing an AF cocktail was a treat.

I just tried the Dry January app (Try Dry) but it wouldn't let me backdate my days. I can only start it from today.

@Umbongoumbongo999 I just had my first good nights sleep. Didn’t take me hours to fall asleep and slept through until 7.
Woke up feeling like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music!
Long may it continue!

Sleep improving and not missing it despite a relatively stressful evening with a leak. no water and no heating.

Other events are making the decision not to drink a lot easier.
Our relative has taken a turn for the worst. Went on a massive binge - no idea what the trigger was, they had been reducing intake but it seems they attempted to end their lives - their kids had to call for help and relative is currently in hospital - no idea how they got this bad and no idea how they are going to find the courage to recover. One of our other relatives is enabling the whole situation but finding withdrawal from that role very difficult as they are understandably worried about the kids (who won't leave to live with non-resident parent), relative driving whilst drunk, choking on her own vomit etc and all we can do is watch from a distance - we live too far away to intervene. It's all very worrying and the secrecy continues.

@footcushion sorry to read this. It must be awful.
I slept through last night. I'm exhausted still but perhaps playing sleep catch up. Hoping for another early night tonight. Little ribs include loading dishwasher before bed as I'm not lazing on sofa with wine and too blurry to be arsed, kissing kids good night knowing the worst I have is coffee breath.
Anyone else got little wins?

@footcushion so sorry to hear that. So worrying and heartbreaking. Keep going on your own path, you’re doing great.

Day 4 here and I’m feeling better still, sleeping better once asleep but taking longer to drift off.

AF brewdog tastes just like the real thing imo even though DH disagrees. Not cheap but miles nicer than Heineken or becks I think.

Little wins… Not being hung over doing the school run. Actually, that’s a bloody big win.

I'm starting to think I must have drunk more over this Christmas period than any previous year, as I'm finding the detox quite tough. I don't want a drink, I just keep waking up feeling very tired and irritable and hungover. This morning I felt dizzy.

Morning all! You're all looking great, and it's nice to see a few more in the huddle. Welcome!

Seems there was a little wobbling last night... it's fine to wobble, it'll fizzle out and you'll return to your previous (sober) shape. Well done for standing strong, and come closer into the huddle so we can squeeze together and keep you steady!

Started watching The Tourist last night, loved it! It's also nice to be able to concentrate on reading in bed last thing without having to battle through tipsiness or having read a page several times.

So, today at 10am we reached the 14.2% mark; if we stand firm today we will reach 16% by midnight. That's a sizeable chunk of DJ already done

(do penguins have flippers?)🧐