Old habits DRY hard! It's DRY JANUARY thread #2... newcomers always welcome!

[HPLikecraft]

Here we are, a shiny new thread to help us stay dry.

Thread one has been great and supportive; and thread two will take us through further challenges and milestones. Hop aboard; you're all doing brilliantly!

On Monday morning I'd lost 4lb. Weighed again today and I've put 2lb back on.

@Cherrymix and @freshstart2023 stay strong.
Alcohol is playing mental games with you: it's telling you it's fun, but really it's a fickle lover. Sure, it'll give you a warm embrace, make you relax, and feel confident and witty, but in the morning it will kick you in the head and stomach, slap your face, and leave you with a lingering feeling of dread about what you may have said and done which, you realise, is unlikely to be as clever or witty as you thought it was at the time.
Any warmth and fuzziness is temporary and comes at great mental, physical and financial cost. 🍷= ☠️

@Selfesteem22 hop back aboard. We will overlook the blip. 🙂

OK, a progress report... the end of today will see us at 35.4% of the way through. We're getting there!

@freshstart2023 @Cherrymix sympathies, I've had a shocking day at work today and it would be so easy to open a bottle. Determined to stay strong but some days it's definitely easier than others!

I'm almost embarrassed to work out how much I'll have saved if I get to the end of DJ. The wine I like is anything from £8-11 a bottle (depending on whether or not I can find it on offer) so over Christmas I would easily have been spending £80 a week

@Stickywhitelovepiss
I'm currently on about 3 units a day, so 21 this week (on a cut down plan rather than full dry jan) and definitely the anti depressants are making a notable difference now compared to when I was knocking back 80-90 units a week. So I would say yes there would be benefits to going on them if your aim is 10-20 units a week.

My main argument towards this would be that if your day to day life is easier to cope with then you're less likely to want to drink to excess in the evenings. I was already drinking high amounts when I was put on them in the first place but my experience now is the less you drink the better they work but that isn't to say you can't drink at all on them.

triple not a single pound shifted here either 🙄

Though on reflection, I have been eating my own body weight of an evening so probably not a surprise 😉

Thx for starting new thread. Day 11 - can’t say I’ve saved any money due to having afternoon tea, booking spa days, booking hair cuts and alcohol free wine (cheaper though -£3 a bottle usually). Work not making me reach for the bottle- loving that I’m reading books and remembering them. I’m on amitriptyline for pain and while it’s not for depression- it used to be for depression and sure helps me sleep so I’m sorry to hear some are still having sleepless nights. I’m listening to my calm app at bed and imagining stuff I like to do - like skiing down a hill or imagine I’m having a spa day or that I’ve walked a really long way and feel naturally tired. Actually I did have a walk today which I need to do more of now! Roll on pay day however….!

@Fuwari and @freshstart2023 I'm on them too. I go through phases where I drink more frequently and it definitely impacts my mental health. At the moment I can't say I'm feeling amazing but I'm not in the depths of despair either!

I have started binge watching Casualty which I can do and knit at the same time. Still feeling a bit bored but doing ok with a cup of tea.

Thanks for the encouragement 😀

Thank you @HPLikecraft - I needed to hear that tonight.

The craving I had earlier is feeling less intense now and I'm sipping the Diet Coke.

Belvoir ginger cordial is delicious as a hot drink, too.

Hello I’m joining.

well done to everyone who have participated so far

my last drink was on the 31st, coincidentally. I don’t drink that often but would definitely have a few through the month, so Dry January is a mini challenge 😀

At home and in my work routine I won’t struggle, but I’m going away toward the end of the month and it will be harder, much harder when in holiday mode

Thanks @HPLikecraft - I think it shows my weak point - home has been fine but that was first time I had been out -.definitely getting right back in!

Checking in!

Thank you all. Trotting along ok, haven't even noticed it.

Thanks for the new thread!!
I'm sat here by the fire on a horrible wet evening and would love a glass of wine but I won't! I don't drink lots and a good thing is I'm learning that my relationship with alcohol is generally very OK, but I appreciate the break. I had a mmc in August and it hit me much harder than I thought and the no alcohol has helped me feel better and process those feelings I suppose? Ie I can't just have a glass and sleep. So big positive.

@SqueakyDinosaur thanks for that tip, I'll give it a try

It feels like a test today weirdly. Nothing changed, just kids in bed, film on. I've bought some fizzy water so hoping that kills the urge. Crisps would tip me over I think so will try fruit.

im struggling to catch up with the threads because MN is being a pain and randomly reloading the page and being stupidly slow and glitchy,

I mentioned to ds1(17) it was over 2 weeks since me and his dad have had a drink, he’s cheering us on, and he said he thinks we’ve been arguing less. Tbf we don’t argue much but sometimes have ‘heated debates’ when we’ve had a few drinks.

im definately feeling more awake/alive and realising I think I’ve spent a lot of time in an alcoholic fog even if not hungover.

Wow that’s brilliant @freshstart2023

Also welcome to all the newbies and demurrers 🙂

Hello! Day 11 for me. It's been surprisingly ok, even on Fridays. I think it's helped that I'm trying different non-alcohol drinks. No weight loss though. I'm annoyed as I've also cut out my daily mocha. I'd say that's a good few calories saved.

Anyway, I'm training for a marathon (my 10th!) and I've noticed the freedom of the absence of the 'mental dance' trying to work out when my midweek drink falls and how much I can have at the weekends so that alcohol won't affect training. Oh, and there's no sweating out alcohol! I've been wanting to step away and reflect on my relationship with alcohol, so it's been really useful so far.

Well done all.

In terms of drinks... I definitely think Belvoir ginger cordial, either with sparkling water or tonic, is my favourite. I also like Seedlip Garden fake gin, or Gordon's AF gin, with a light tonic and a few slices of cucumber. That's amazing and feels quite posh.

Day 9 today for me. Although I've generally been sleeping so much better (could be down to the magnesium spray I've been using too) I am struggling to get out of bed. This morning I looked and felt awful, and my eyes were sore. Hope I'm not coming down with anything.

I'm struck by how much of my drinking is a habit (I tend to be a fri to sun drinker - at home , don't get out much 😊). I've been getting some stuff ready for my holiday tonight and I have really craved a glass of wine while doing it - because that's what I usually do!! I've stayed strong and am currently sipping an alcohol free peroni 😇

Also thinking about drinking around children- my DS is now 21 but when he was about 15 I had a super stressful job and used to collapse on the sofa on a Friday night with wine, crisps and chocolate. I remember feeling really annoyed when he had a Friday night activity that I had to pick him up from at 10.15 as it meant I couldn't drink until then. I used to get into a right grump 😳

I was bitterly disappointed and truely hacked off re the scorn I received last week. But I've got another 2.5 weeks to go, just to re-iterate as I stated within the 1st few posts of thread 1, and was told by OP that it was ok: I plan to finish early, for my own 50th party.

Hi all, I'm on day 13 as started just before new year. 1st dry NYE for I guess 20 something years. It was surprisingly fine!

I'm gaining rather than losing weight but that's because work's busy so I'm snacking too much and eating worse than usual. I'm enjoying not feeling low level under the weather at the weekend - I didn't used to drink much anyway but probably ended up being at least 1/2 bottle of wine on a Fri and sat night which isn't great. Like others it was definitely habitual - log off on Fri, crack open the wine. Fizzy water is my friend, and plain tonic in a wine glass.

Work event next week which is usually a boozy thing but I reckon dry January means I won't even get a raised eyebrow.

Gah, I just looked at the dry app and hadn’t realised you needed to manually log days. I started on Sunday but it thinks today is my first dry day (because I just logged it) which is very annoying.