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 🙂

For those who have been overindulging, topping up your vitamin b levels in January is a good idea. I've just ordered a 30 day vitamin b complex from Amazon and will start taking them on 2nd. Alcohol depletes b vitamins. Vitamin b complex will also help with mood, a lot of us need a mood boost in January I think 😀.

The first dry January I did (2020) I bought a soda stream and replaced my drinks with sparkling water with chunks of citrus fruits in them. I chopped up and froze oranges, grapefruit, lime and lemon and used them like ice cubes. Very refreshing. I'm going to do this again.

Good tip @Blaziken. We do already have a soda stream.

I’m in and waving a flipper 🐧
100 days sounds like a challenge I might want to take on too.
Finally got my weight under control. Going to take another stab at the booze.
Will start with January and see how that goes.

I am happy to give this a go

I’m in from the 2nd Jan also. I don’t generally drink much but I always seem to overindulge at Christmas and with friends. I have done DJ previously and I don’t tend to lose weight but do feel better in myself. Funnily enough I don’t enjoy soft drinks at all so my af replacements will be tea and water.

Definitely doing Dry Jan and have told DS and DS's friend who lives with us that they have to do it too at home and can only drink outside the house, so I don't lapse.

Had some lovely Dry Jan support chats on MN before. called penguin huddles, where you are shoved into the middle of the huddle if you start to slip off on your own towards the booze.

So here's a huddle to get us going.

@LuaDipa

I’m in from the 2nd Jan also. I don’t generally drink much but I always seem to overindulge at Christmas and with friends. I have done DJ previously and I don’t tend to lose weight but do feel better in myself. Funnily enough I don’t enjoy soft drinks at all so my af replacements will be tea and water.

I never lose weight from DJ either. Always feel a bit cheated by that. But could be the vast quantities of sugar I eat to make up for no booze. This year I'm attempting BIWI's low carb bootcamp at the same time, so might see some progress.

@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 🙂

I'm in! I've honestly had enough of the whole drinking for the sake of it because it's "Christmas"! It will be so great to be able to check in with like minded people. I drink far too much each day once my little ones are in bed. I really need to break the cycle so I'm really looking forward to a month off and hopefully more! Im starting tomorrow NYE so that I wake up fresh on NYD ready for a month of no drinking! I'll be checking in everyday and giving support where I can. Xxx

I'd like to join too. I drink way too much most nights. I then graze on snacks that I would steer clear of when sober. I wake up in the morning groggy after an awful night's sleep, swear I won't do it that night then 7pm comes around, kids are in bed, and I'm off to the fridge to crack open another bottle. No energy to work out and all my work clothes don't fit due to my alcohol belly!
I'm determined to do DJ this year. I like the sound of 100 days too. Now there's a big challenege!
No suggestions to add on AF drinks but I like the sound of the Noughties AF wine and the mock-mojitos. Some great suggestions on here.
I would also like to try and do some pampering of an evening, make an effort with myself, as I never do that when drinking. Might dust off my foot spa.

I bought some sparkling water today and an elderflower and rose cordial. In a nice glass with ice it will replace my wine craving for a while. Although it is a bit too sweet.

I'm in, I've downloaded the trydry app and DP and I have agreed to do it together, we don't live together but spend 2 nights a week together so it'll help us both stay on track, he's started to drink at least 4 cans a night and I drink a bottle of wine without even noticing on a drinking night, I've had a few nights where it's made me really sick, I keep waking up with hangovers and I've put on so much weight, I need to stop.
I'm going to start on Monday the 3rd, but will go right through to Feb, I'd love to manage a whole half term, I'll see how I get on.
I love red wine and I just can't see any alternative to that though. We have however agreed that instead of sitting up chatting and drinking on our nights together we will instead play board games and go to bed early for lots of sex 😂 win win 😂

I’m in.

I had several AF weeks across November/December but have drunk this past couple of weeks.

I’m looking forward to dry January!

I am IN! Need a reset, need to lose weight and need to break some unhelpful habits.

I’m in too!

Top AF drinks for us are:

Mocktails for occasions:

Virgin Mary – V8 or tomato juice with celery salt, tabasco, black pepper, lemon slices and sticks of celery and or carrot with lots of ice.

Cloudy apple juice with a slice of ginger, drop of ginger cordial and loads of sparkling water and ice

Cranberry and raspberry juice, topped up with sparkling water, ice, mint leaves and frozen raspberries

Flavoured tonics with lemon, lime, rosemary, lavender sprigs etc

Sugar free pink Fanta with slices of peach and passion fruit and a splash of sparkling water, topped with ice makes a good instant fruit punch

I like infused waters.
A good kick start the new year one is chilli and lemon!
A refreshing one is cucumber and mint leaves.
A gin-ish one is juniper berries, fresh bay and rosemary. Just add the infusing ingredients to a jug of still or sparkling water first thing in the morning and by midday it tastes good, by evening the taste is strong.

We'll everyone, I've oiled the wheels of the wagon and we all have a seat, ready to embark on our journey into dryness tomorrow. We won't be stopping, but if anyone falls off we'll help them back on!

This is important actually... it's OK to fail. Please come and tell us; we'll help you to continue. There is no judgement on this thread, only support. No need be embarrassed about anything: previous drinking habits, caving in on week one... we're all here for similar reasons.

IMPORTANT Please check in when you can; try to do it every day. If you make this an obligation it will help you stay on track! There are too many of us to do a roll call and/or seek people out we've not heard from, so please stay in touch.

Latecomers to the party are always welcome, too.

Have a good Hogmanay everyone! I'm going to be drinking a little champagne, but hopefully won't enjoy it too much!

I’m now delaying until Monday to start. We’ve rejigged our weekend and are having a nice roast beef on Sunday and I know it will just be too hard to start then. So I’ll start on Monday.

Looking forward to sleeping better. Better skin. Enjoying a nice hot drink with something sweet in the evenings. At least until,the Xmas stash runs out!

Day 1 done. I have sent DS home with the last bottle of Xmas booze to avoid temptation this evening.

Well done @Runninghorse 👏

I really need to do DJ this year. Drinking more than ever this year. I want to give up vaping too and think it will be easier to do both as they both go hand in hand for me.

I'm looking forward to it, I've given up for lent in the past so I know I can do it and went without when I was pregnant no issues. Just need to start!

Starting tomorrow as we are seeing the New Year in with friends and will definitely be sharing a bottle of champagne past midnight. But tomorrow onward is sparkling water, cranberry juice and V8.

I will be putting my glass down at midnight tonight. I have the Try Dry app that I have seen a few people recommend.

As well as stopping drinking, I also need to lose weight. Surely stopping drinking and doing some exercise each day will help.

I started swimming in October.
I have brittle asthma so the most I've managed is 4 lengths of a 25 metre pool, but I figure it's better than no lengths.
I'll be continuing with that.