DRY JANUARY 2023! 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 sixth year of DJ and I swear it may have saved my life; 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. Everyone welcome 🙂☕️🧃

The DJ2022 Wagon creaks to a start in just 4 days, but always stops for latecomers 🙂

Hi @Mushroo, interesting you mention heart rate. Santa brought me a Garmin fitness tracker, and for the week after Christmas it was warning me about high resting heart rate. But since 1st Jan the chart on the app shows this has fallen significantly. Nice to see a real tangible benefit that can be measured.

Interesting. Mine had gone down a lot after taking up exercise 3 months ago - and has dropped more this week. At 50 bpm I'm practically dead!

Well done everyone, keep going, nearly a week gone now. 😃

I’m really starting to feel much better. The biggest benefit I’ve found so far is that not drinking so much means we don’t stay up late watching crap on telly and are more relaxed when we do go to bed which means we sleep better and getting up in the morning is much easier.

Thursday is usually our worst boozy night as me and dh have a bit lot to drink and stay up to watch Question Time and shout at the telly, but dh made us some camomile tea instead and we were in bed for 9.30!

Friday night is usually easy for me as I have an exercise class early on Saturday morning and don’t want to be hungover in any way, but Saturday nights are my usual chill out night so I’ll have to find something to distract me.

Day 6 and I’m feeling pretty good. A huge reduction in my general anxiety levels, although my sleep is still dreadful. I’ve just bought some Starpower herbal supplements which have great reviews and I hope will help me get a more restful sleep.

I have one more hour of work, then it’s time for a ginger ale and an early night. Rock n Roll!

I want a wine. DC1 is being so difficult and aggressive to his sibling. He has ASD and ADHD and is exhausting to live with. He needs to go back to school now and routine as he has spent 2 weeks mostly inside and needs to go out. We have taken him to the trampoline park a couple of times but he will not go out to see his friends. If I force him he will meltdown. I am burnt out dealing with him today. The younger 2 are fairly easy but affected by his behaviour quite negatively at times. I honestly see me opening a wine tonight as I feel I need a Fri night treat though have work tomorrow thankfully so get a day away from him

I really want a prosecco

Hi have been lurking but want to join properly- day 6 for me as well. Been slipping into daily drinking for the last few months before Xmas- have a lot on retraining as a teacher, dad is in care home with dementia etc etc - hoping to reset things a bit and find other ways to deal with stress!

Oh @thenightsky and @Fundays12 you've both done so so well this week! stick with it! Just a few hours to go and you'll be in bed - and you'll feel amazing tomorrow morning!

Am feeling it rather as weekend evening normal time for me and dh to have a drink

I’ve been logging my drink free days on the NHS app. I’m not motivated by anything other than breaking an unhealthy habit, but it tells you how much money you’ve saved and how many calories you’ve saved. Very eye opening!

I'm feeling a little flat tonight - I'm a bit stressed with work and some other personal stuff and would love to open a bottle of red to take my mind off things for a few hours. What's keeping me going is that if we get to tomorrow morning, we'll be over 20% of the way there. Stay strong everybody.

My resting heart rate has also dropped a little. Usually between 56-65 but this week has been 53-55.

How is everyone doing? I am sitting in Sainsbury's car park having just bought shit loads of AF drinks. Must look a bit mad! Need to steel myself for tonight and remind myself it is just another night. Plus it will be lovely to wake up on Saturday morning with no sign of a hangover.

Plus it will be lovely to wake up on Saturday morning with no sign of a hangover.

On the extremely few occasions that has happened to me in recent years, it has been nice to be clear headed and enjoy the weekend, rather than feeling like crap and wasting time not doing much because you're so hungover.

Had an AF beer with dinner and just digesting before usual routine of bath and early bed.Going to my first yoga class tomorrow so hopefully I'll be bright eyed.....if apprehensive.

Wow I've checked and my resting heart rate has dropped slightly this week too!

In previous dry Januaries I have shocked myself by getting up early and cleaning at the weekend... amazing how much more energy and motivation I have

That’s so good to hear about all the resting heart rates! I find it very motivating as it’s so tangible.

Would have loved a glass of something tonight, but I’ve eaten dinner and not cracked yet!

I'm feeling strangely strong tonight, well with regards to drinking anyway. Physically not so much as I was on my feet all day.

Sleep is still shite for me, not feeling as chipper as I expected to feel. I'm sure tomorrow morning I'll be feeling great 🤞🏻

I haven't bought any AF drinks because they're kind of spendy, I was hoping this DJ would save me a few bob!

Have enjoyed a rhubarb and ginger 0% gin!

What's the view on 0.5% products 'counting' as alcohol free? And I really want to try Smidgin but it's 50% ABV albeit super concentrated so a 200ml bottle contains 80 servings.

DH and I walked to the butchers earlier and stopped at the pub on the way back for a coffee. We sometimes do have a coffee there but normally a beer.

Instead we had an AF beer (at almost £10 for two bottles we won't be falling for that one again) and chatted to friends who we met in there. Now back home watching Downton Abbey, drinking tea and feeling very virtuous.

Evening all and well done everyone for resisting Friday night temptation. I've just got back from long drive to DC uni and am looking forward to a quick Happy Valley catch up & bed.

Usually I really struggle with sleep but this year I have been soooo tired & am desperate to go to bed. I'm really enjoying listening to an old favourite audio book.

I'm not finding it too difficult at the moment which is surprising and quite pleasing as I had a few goes at dry months last year and failed miserably. Long may it last.

@Spirini they are expensive! I'm mainly drinking decaff tea and tonic water. I'm fine. Dd2 has a bottle of rose on the go - she has one medium sized glass every evening. Sometimes she leaves some and I haven't even been tempted to swig it 😂

I've put on almost 10 lbs over Christmas. That has to go, but I'm eating more than normal and finding it hard not to.

I found this:

"To be marketed as "alcohol-free" beer, the product needs to contain less than 0.5% alcohol. This means that it'd take about 10 bottles of non-alcoholic beer to equal 1 normal beer."

Having gone from 70-90 units per week to 0, I don't think I could get through this without a few AF beers to be honest. I only have one or two cans every couple of nights and feel stone cold sober after drinking them, so I don't feel I'm cheating.

Also,

Weight lost so far just from stopping drinking: 3lb

Money saved (assuming I get through tonight): £96!