DRY HARD 2: DRY HARDER! Dry January 2024, Thread#2 🧃🧋

[HPLikecraft]

Thread#2...

Let's keep going!

Congrats to your DD @Wilkolampshade and happy 60th @pangolinfan !

Last AF weekend for me. Planning to stay AF until 2nd Feb, when I'm getting together with friends, and from then onwards will try to implement the moderation plan aka dry weeks and only slightly damp weekends.

Nice to see the sun shining today too. Happy weekend everyone

Thank @FlyingPandas. Just met her for lunch and for the first time, she bought it! A real moment. X

Hello all just checking in after my planned "pass" night last night. Great evening and had a few wines but didn't sleep enough and really felt it today. Firmly back on the wagon today 😊

I also plan to carry on into feb. Well done to everyone on here 👏👏👏

First really difficult Friday. Bud zero and chocolate getting me through. Still AF

DH email hacked today. He's mainly self employed, lots of contacts built up over 30yrs....phones been ringing all day with puzzled clients. Awful! Sorted now thank God, and NO BOOZE drunk.

Almost caved here, too. DH wanted to chill after work, we had a vet trip with a poorly cat, and it's Friday, but we survived a takeaway and are still on the good ole H2O 💦
Well done wobblers 😍🥰

I bought the goodrays drink pp have recommended. I don't know if it worked 🙈 I think I might prefer trip, although they tasted nice.

Well done alcohol resistance!

Hi everyone, another day done - getting close now!

@wellitywellness thank you for this. Some of the best words of wisdom I’ve read, makes so much sense. Does anyone find that the more things like this they read the more ridiculous drinking alcohol feels? Keep it coming! Well done everyone, don’t let the weekend be your weak end and all that 😉

Still here. I have a theatre trip this afternoon and then going out for a curry. I won't drink at either. I'll get my friend wine at the theatre as she will def drink and we'll get one round each. I find theatre wine so expensive so will be glad I'm only paying for her wine and a soft drink (which is expensive enough given the theatre ticket too!).

Looking forward to an AF beer with my curry.

Sampled another two AF beers.
M&S IPA Adnams - this is possibly the worst AF beer I have tasted - watery fizzy and pointless save your money and get some liquid from the tap!
Beavertown - they do a mighty fine job with Neck oil and I had high hopes for this one - it was drinkable but lacked body, so on the watery side - I'd put it in the middle of the pack.
Sleep has not improved much but I am no longer getting anxiety-induced restlessness, so when I can't sleep at least I don't feel tormented.

Listening to Adrian Chiles book The Good Drinker, his honesty appeals - he doesn't shy away from discussing the joys of alcohol, which I generally share, the other quit-litters trying to convince me that I wasn't really enjoying drinking feels senseless, even annoying and a bit infantilising - sure there are downsides (my health) but it's the upsides (everything else) that I keep going back to - I may drink a little too much but I'm not an idiot. I've said it before - I gave up smoking, I didn't stop enjoying smoking - I loved it in fact, but I could see the future coming, it which was enormously social when I started but I could see it was going to become increasingly unsociable and expensive...I hate to say it but the health implications didn't bother me too much, I was too young to care. I don't have to hate something to stop doing it, I just need to decide something else is more important.

Day 27. I thought last night would be a breeze, staying in a souless hotel on an industrial park with teen DD and definitely had a moment where a glass of wine from the bar would have made the experience seem a little less bleak, a treat for spending 6 hours in traffic ahead of a relatively dull weekend of DD's sports event. DJ saved me and I'm really pleased. It's that kind of pointless drinking that I want to stop. It wasn't a celebration or a social occasion, the bar was a bit shit and the wine would have been sub-par. I don't want to "use up" my units like that.

The hardest part of the climb is before you reach the summit.

One thing I have noticed - whites of my eyes are brighter. Small wins 😁

The ON Beer really hit the spot last night, so no cravings and great sleep.

I've made a bit of a discovery about beer (and feel like an idiot TBH!). I've never particularly liked beer - could take or leave it, but it never occurred to me that I was nearly always drinking lagers, not really understanding that there is a difference between types. ON is an IPA, which I now discover means that it has a much more complex, hoppy* flavour. It seems that the whole craft brewing thing completely passed me by! So my next task will be to experiment with other AF IPA's (or at least those with the lowest sugar content). If anyone has any recommendations, please do share.

*Also interestingly, there has been some research indicating that regular hoppy beers (ie with alcohol) may do less damage to the liver, so may be worth considering for beer fans beyond DJ.

Happy AF weekends all. Not long to go for those ending their abstinence at the end of January. Anyone extending into February - we can do this! 😊

The Lucky Saint IPA is quite pleasant @Neptunium93 . DS and I both quite like it. Yesterday's AF beer was the AF Estrella FreeDamm. Okay but not thrilling.

Another few days to go...

Thanks @Papyrophile , I've just ordered some UNLTD from Amazon. Will add Lucky Saint to the list. I think you can get that in a lot of pubs, which is handy.

Deleted because you were asking for AF. My bad.

Going to the pub today and I so. want. wine!!

@asleepattheshop I'm with you on some of the quit lit and prefer the Adrian Chiles approach. I only drink wine - and then only certain types of white and rose - but I really, really enjoy those wines, and whilst I want to cut right back on the amount I was drinking at the back end of last year I can't imagine wanting to cut it out completely...

It's day 27! I will be honest and say that this is the weekend where I have typically ended my past DJ efforts - mainly because it's DC3's birthday and the thought of managing a boisterous pack of primary aged party attendees without the promise of wine at the end of it was just too much But last year I kept going with DJ into February, so managed a 'dry' kids party and survived, so no reason why this year can't be different! I plan to eat a significant amount of cake, though.

Enjoy your weekend everyone...it's the last AF Saturday of January 2024! Let's do this

Also interestingly, there has been some research indicating that regular hoppy beers (ie with alcohol) may do less damage to the liver, so may be worth considering for beer fans beyond DJ

My beer of choice is London Pride (bottles not tins, which are too, well, tinny). Also Greene King. Actually drink beer in preference to wine these days (not that I don't drink wine, of course).

My offering for today!

https://wellitywellness.com/2024/01/27/dry-january-27-tim-spector-weighs-in/

Thanks @wellitywellness . What a sensible chap. I really am going to have to train my digestive system to tolerate red wine. Not sure why, but it just doesn't seem to agree with me. I wonder what he thinks of stout? I've been reading that it has equivalent levels of polyphenols.

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain , there is mention online of a 0% London Pride in the works. You're quite right about bottles vs tins. I find I like to swig beer from the bottle too for maximum enjoyment.

I am still clinging on and didn't cave! Alcohol free strawberry and lime rekordilig (note to self, can't really tell the difference, buy these in summer when it's sunny and you're in a beer garden.) Also bought a bottle of alcohol free pinot grigio which is currently chilling in the freezer - let's see what I think!!

@HollyGolightly4 remember that it's alcohol that lowers the freezing point of wine so don't leave it too long or you'll have a block of ice

Hi all, haven't been updating very often but I'm here and still dry. Went out out for a meal, pub and cocktail bar last night. Even did some dancing but then I have always had the knack for sober dancing.

I am carrying on as planned until the end of March. For those of you doing at least some or all of February are you staying on this thread? I might be better at keeping up with it once it's quieter. I must say the longer deadline has really helped this year. It's like my mind hasn't even allowed itself to start counting down the days yet so I'm not pining after anything which is good.