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!

Just to add that I didn't say anything rude or inappropriate in my last reply, in case that's what it looks like; I was just thanking @Happyface120 . I'm mystified as to why it would be hidden. I think maybe I'm a bit over-sensitive today as it has really upset me - must be the lack of wine-induced confidence!

I will probably hold off from further posts for a while, but will continue to take part and watch the thread.

GLTA and thanks again to @HPLikecraft for starting the thread and keeping us all going.

Hi Clematis. If you quote-replied to Happy’s post yours will have been automatically hidden, the same as Happy’s was. It’s posts with certain types of link that get automatically hidden. Nothing to do with what you said in your post. I’m sorry that site feature has upset you. I agree that it is quite jarring when you see “post hidden” in a thread, especially if you don’t know about the automatic function the site has.

edited for typos.

I just stepped on the scales for the first time in months, and pleased to see it wasn't as bad as I had feared.

Starting the year a stone lighter than 2023 so pleased with that! Hoping the next few dry months will help too.

I'm quite poorly with a lung infection at the moment so staying off the booze a coddle for now as feel so crap.

Hi all, another one in the crap sleep club. Partly due to having ds7 in my bed for most of the night. At 3am I'd been tossing and turning for so long I eventually couldn't take it anymore and carried him into his bed. He's HUGE so I'm feeling worn out this morning.

@DJ24 , I don't think it is that because I can still see the original posts from Happyface, but thank you.

Thanks for asking what the reason is Holly. Your question has prompted me to reflect on that, which is helpful.

I think the reason is that what I’d really enjoy on my birthday is going out with friends and having two cocktails because I like the taste of them and don’t do that very often so it would be a treat.

What I don’t want to do on my birthday is stay in the house and drink wine or go out and drink wine as that wouldn’t be a treat. It would be me staying stuck in this rut that I’ve got myself into.

My worry about having a “birthday pass” is that i) it would trigger me to drink the following weekend and ii) I’d still be in the ‘can’t even do a month AF’ zone. I’ve also got a longer term worry that my previous attempts to go AF have been short lived and that last year my drinking got worse after an AF period not better.

When I tried AF before, it wasn’t with the support network of a thread like this. I can see already that this thread will be help me to learn about what works / doesn’t work for me. I feel reassured that whatever decision I make about a birthday pass, I’ll learn something from that either way.

Really grateful to HP for starting the thread.

Righty ho. Day 1 today. Both me and DH, as we know, we drink too much as a rule. 4 bottles of red pw minimum. Rarely drink Mon/Tues/Thurs but at least a bottle each on the other 4 nights.
We did DJ a few years ago and were massively disappointed at any obvious benefits, but IT IS better for us.
We are very bad at moderation, so this works for us.

Day 3 for me as I didn't drink NYE. Had a brilliant night sleep last night. Back to work today and feeling like I'm able to concentrate for a change 😂

Took an early morning selfie too (ew). Be interesting to compare at the end of Jan being booze free (hoping that I get there!)

DJ24 might a night out with friends and mocktails instead of cocktails achieve the social connection without breaking your AF dry January?
My mocktail go tos are a Nogroni or a Nojito.

Never done Dry Jan. desperate to try this new year 2 days in so far. Glad I haven't got an action packed month otherwise I struggle

No issues with Day 1 as I wouldn't normally drink on a work night. It's Friday that will be the killer.

Hi All….just checking in as it really helps! Didn’t drink yesterday either so doing ok so far and not had massive cravings yet tho aware this might change when the novelty is wearing off. A danger zone?! Distraction helps and realising that maybe for me reaching for the wine is just a very bad habit & that I can change the wine habit for something else….a book, a nice drink, phone a friend, tea, a podcast, an early night, a bath…..anything else! BTW the AF Martini I recommended is available in Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose tho pot luck as to whether or not there’s a bottle on the shelf! Here’s to a better night’s sleep tonight for us all….

Great to hear from you all checking in! 🙂

Thanks for that suggestion. I’ve thought about ‘the social connection’ versus alcohol as the attraction for me, and concluded that it might actually be the alcohol that’s the attraction. I’ve decided I need to arrange to do something that involves me driving, to remove alcohol as an option completely. I’ve got a dear friend who lives a certain distance away and usually does the travel when we meet. I’ve started looking for things to do in her area. There isn’t much due to the time of year and the thing that appealed to me (a craft activity) is sold out. I’ll keep looking though.

I’m finding these questions and challenging my own thinking really helpful.

Hi, joining. I’m gonna set myself little targets with little rewards, day 10, day 20 etc. day 10 is a dress that I have my eye on because I think first 10 days will be harder than the later ones. Could buy it now but using it as an incentive could also test if I really want the dress, so win win.
(I’m really not the drunken shopaholic this implies 😂)

Hello everyone - so great to have found you!

This will be my second dry January - my first was only last year and I'm still grateful to @HPLikecraft and all the support of last year's thread because it definitely helped me reset my relationship with alcohol longer term - although I did start sliding back into bad habits in the autumn, so I've been looking forward to the clean slate of Jan 24 and having another go.

Day 2 and I have a cold and starting a new job tomorrow so I don't feel like drinking... Fine so far : )

Urgh, feeling The Itch about now. Going to do some meal prep and then have an AF GnT.

@gingercat02

Can I ask what benefits were you expecting that didn't arise?

I'm hoping to lose weight and gain energy 🤞🤞

@CantFindTheBeat
Ha, yes, all of that stuff.

Didn't lose any weight at all (don't think we replaced booze with crap or sugary drinks)
Didn't sleep better or wake up full of beans and certainly wasn't glowing.
I honestly thought a full month AF would make a noticeable difference, but as I said, I'm sure my liver was thankful

Hey, can I join too please? Tried DJ last year for the first time and made it til about the 23rd I think, still annoyed at myself so determined to do it this year. Will be ok today/ tom but after work Thurs is the start of my weekend so thats the first hurdle here

Starting to feel the pull again now- this time of day is always the danger zone! Just got DS into the bath, DH about to go out to running club. Will get DC fed and then into bath myself to kill a bit of time. Would usually use DH running nights for a quiet glass of wine by fire!

I'm back to work tomorrow and feeling a little glum and passive.
Have not achieved much today.

I think where I'll struggle the most is that sometimes I use an evening wine to numb myself from work and its chronic stress and with DJ, I'll need to face it a little more head on.

Back to work tomorrow for me too so grimly drinking an AF beer and fighting the urge to open the wine.