DRY JANUARY 2024! 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!

DJ threads are 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 7th year of DJ and I swear it has made all the difference to me. It was so hard first time, but it has definitely 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 DJ2024 Wagon creaks to a start in just 5 days! Join us!

Morning all.

For those having disrupted/poor sleep - Sleep takes a while to settle down, I remember last being astonished as I thought I'd sleep like a baby once off the booze.
Somebody pointed out that I'd been poisoning my body for years so it will take time to get back to normal.

I need to join you! It’s actually reassuring to read your posts and realise I’m not alone in having grown an unhealthy relationship with alcohol which I really want to reset.

yesterday was removing the remaining temptations ( the last of the NYE champagne and the one remaining glass of wine in the bottle). No white wine left in the house now.

I didn’t sleep well- DH is appalling at bed time, coughing, listening to music on headphones but the phone screen keeps me awake, then rolling over and pulling the covers off me. I think I’m normally too drunk to notice these annoyances ( or else I’m still up and go to bed later).

But hey, no hangover this morning!

one of my favourite AF drinks is cold herbal tea- make up a big mug of nettle, lemon and ginger, or similar, and let it chill on the fridge. I find fizzy soft drinks too sweet.

Well I ended the day with a cranberry and fizzy water. I had a crap nights sleep but hopefully that will get better. Well done everyone!

I slept surprisingly well, usually struggle for the first few nights AF, but I took some melatonin and magnesium which always helps. Not back in work until tomorrow, so day of getting organised today. Need to do food shop, looking forward to a cheaper shop without alcohol!

Morning!

Been up since 6am this morning but no hangover, which is a plus. Trying to make an effort to take my Sertraline more regularly but I find myself so groggy on waking. Struggling to keep my eyes open!

Back at work this morning. Joy. Happily I work remotely and I've a sneaky feeling I'm the only one in so I can probably get away with a slow day.

Well done everyone on a great start to the year so far.

I was (naively) also suprised to have a crap nights sleep. Took me longer to fall asleep and I woke up 1-2 times in the night.
Of course it makes sense now, as my body has been so used to alcohol in the system for sleep - but it was still a bit of a revelation.

Does anyone know on average how many crappy nights you have before your body resets? (I know it's not the same for everyone but would love to hear your experiences and knowledge).

Work starts tomorrow for me - so using today to relax, do a few chores and get organised.
Food shop is arriving tomorrow.

Well done to everyone who completed Day One 👏🏻

I'm starting today as planned, taking the kids to the cinema this afternoon so plan to get something nice to drink with dinner tonight while I'm out. I'm back to work tomorrow after 3 weeks off so it would be all too easy to persuade myself that a glass of wine would be a good idea!

Morning. I'm starting today. Finished the last of the wine last night so none left in the house. My husband has man-flu, so he isn't drinking at the moment either, however he doesn't want to do dry January, but I am going to try to make him do it too as he needs it more than I do. Would be much easier to do it together, when there is no temptation in the fridge it doesn't bother me to not have a drink, but when it is there.... However, I am feeling positive and I really need to reset bad habits.

Morning all, a crap night's sleep here too - but offset with relief that I'm not yet climbing the walls here or coming down with the shakes...

Day 2#'s blog post offering here - a bit of a reflective one today, but will try to lighten up a bit as time goes on!

https://wellitywellness.com/2024/01/02/dry-january-2-i-am-not-my-ex/

Morning all!
Hope you had a good day 1 and managed to have a decent night's sleep.

I was wondering if we veteran DJers should have given a clearer warning about sleep. If you're a habitual drinker your sleep may be disrupted for a little while as you adjust to AF.
But know this: your sleep is NOT better with booze.
From DrinkAware.co uk:

Regular drinking can affect the quality of your sleep making you feel tired and sluggish. This is because drinking disrupts your sleep cycle. Some people may find alcohol helps them get to sleep initially, but this is outweighed by the negative effect on sleep quality through the night.
The alcohol in your system will mean you spend less time in the important Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep, with the end result that you wake up feeling less refreshed. Even just a couple of drinks will have an effect.

Then you have to factor in the hangovers, headaches and anxiety that alcohol induced sleep brings. Oh, and the stress and irritability. Long term poor sleep can have a detrimental effect on your health.

After you've detoxed a little, your sleep will become much better.

Well this is Day 2, and we can do this! 💪

Don't forget to check in to let us know how you're doing.

I also had a terrible night’s sleep - went to bed around 10, then woke at 12 and had broken, restless sleep until about 6. I’m a bit tired but if I had a hangover I’d be feeling far worse! I’ve also just restarted sertraline, which might have something to do with it (I took it on and off last year but am determined to take it daily this year, as my anxiety was terrible when I was off it over Christmas).

I’m liking the Try Dry app - at first when I tried to input how much I drink, the options (e.g. 175-250ml glass of wine) seemed a bit vague, which was annoying. But I’ve since discovered you can add the exact amount of units and money spent, which is great and satisfying to watch the numbers going up.

It’s so so good to feel a bit more in control of the drink again, even if we are only 1 day in. Here’s to day 2!

First day done, plus I managed to eat dinner and get to bed earlier, which is a real achievement as I'm very much a night owl. Thinking about it, being a night owl has probably contributed to my drinking more than I should... Sleep was fine, but I took half a Hydroxyzine and some magnesium just to make sure. Will try with just the magnesium tonight.

@Happyface120 , where do you get your melatonin supplements? I had thought they weren't allowed in the UK.

Begining day two feeling good. Had a lovely long sleep, but dropped off later- I know this will be an issue when I'm back at work!

To combat it I'm going to aim for reading in bed with a night time drink and a lavender candle at about 9.30

@HPLikecraft agree with the sleep warning. It took about 6 weeks for me to get a decent sleep but I had been drinking a bottle of wine every night for years.
One thing that did stop immediately was the nightly heart palpitations/heart racing.

I also woke up with a headache every morning- that didn't last and could have something to do with my woeful lack of water intake. (Another one of my NY resolutions).

Skin clears pretty quickly and the puffiness improves

@HollyGolightly4 reading in bed and remembering what you actually read the next night is another plus!

@ClematisBlue49 I buy the natrol gummies from Iherb. I find them really helpful when I'm struggling.

Morning all, I had a good night’s sleep which I’m happy about as I’m a very poor sleeper usually.

I think not drinking today should be easy for me. Later in the week could be more tricky to navigate.

And I’ve got my birthday this month so I’m already having a dilemma about that. The one time I did DJ before, I decided at the start that I’d disapply it on my birthday but this year I don’t know what to do about that.

And apologies if that’s derailing the one day at a time ethos but it’s the issue that’s playing on my mind the most.

@ClematisBlue49 I did add a link to where I get mine from, but it has flagged up as spam and been hidden 😖 I get the gummies from iherb, or get people to bring them back from the US for me 😂

Fair enough @DJ24 . Could it be that you're nervous because you want to do it, but you're worried about others' reactions?

I say find as many non alcoholic treats as possible! Maybe a spa day or somewhere you wouldn't feel tempted to drink!

Morning- I'm going to join in as well if you don't mind.
2023 although overall a great year I've definitely indulged in too much alcohol, more than I've ever had since being a student (in 40's).

Feeling like I need to reign in it for a whole host of reasons. One day down although easy as I was hungover from NYE.

Crap night's sleep, but that was down to other things.

It's a new year and I've already been let down by two friends. The person I was supposed to be seeing for a date later this week has neither reacted nor in any way responded to my new year's wishes, while a friend I am meant to be seeing tomorrow has suddenly stopped responding, too (since just before Christmas, but, again, ignored the new year's wishes, too, and has yet to confirm that tomorrow is still on). Enough to hurt an already fragile ego, and stoking my anxiety issues, which alcohol normally calms down to a level, but obviously I didn't drink last night.

Add to that the fact my youngest woke up twice (they're normally a good sleeper) and what could have been a decent night was ruined.

So I've started the day feeling down and lacking motivation to do anything much, really. I know I should get out, but it's heavy rain all day, and I can't clean properly with the little one around. It's all a bit bleak.

Any ideas on how to get myself out of this?

@Michiru Go out anyway. Put the wellies on you and the littlie and have a walk, in a forest if you can. Then home for hot chocolate to warm up. Maybe a bit of silly telly afterwards.
Just try to go something

Thanks @Happyface120 , the link did work for me, but my reply has been hidden for some reason.

160 posts since I last checked in 😆 Haven’t caught up on them all but I’m here. I slept well last night. This morning I forced myself to do some admin I’ve been putting off for a while. It didn’t take as long as I expected and wasn’t as bad. Such is always the way! I had an early lunch and I’m heading out for a walk soon. Won’t be long but will definitely be refreshing!