Just ignore this advice if it’s not wanted or not for you, it’s not meant to be inflammatory, just I have the experience of quitting a few years back for health reasons, these points may or may not help.
You won’t see the actual benefits of quitting alcohol for well over a month. I’ve noticed many annoyed that their skin hasn’t suddenly improved, their depression or fog hasn’t lifted or their sleep is still terrible or worse. If you want these improvements a month probably won’t do it, the changes happen longer term, but they do happen.
With low/no alcohol drinks, stop thinking of them as a replacement. You can’t drink them like you did alcoholic drinks because basically you are not getting the same reward which is the buzz, drunkenness, the bit that’s really pleasurable to many. They are best for one off drinks when your in the mood, end of day or if your sitting socialising, they can’t be binged as you just need the toilet a lot.
If your just clambering for that date at the end of the month that you will be able to drink again and just torturing yourself and merely existing and suffering dry January until that drink then just stop. You don’t have to do this to prove a point, you need to say to yourself that yes il have a drink again one day, but not necessarily at the end of the month, but some point, if your desperate to get to February to drink again you have a problem.
Dont do it because you need a ‘reset’ of your drinking habits, you know it will end up with the same volume of alcohol consumption again, so you need to look at the bigger picture. A reset should be an overall evaluation of your drinking habits, not denial for a month then back to square one, even if that’s a build up back to square one.
Alcohol is not your friend, all its effects are because it’s poisoning your body each time you drink it. Whether it’s blamed on menopause, age or any other of life’s changes you’re not finding hangovers harder for any other reason than you are poisoning yourself. If you react to that statement in a defensive way, then think why.
Alcohol is here to stay, we know that, I may even let it back into my life one day, though no plans to yet, but you have to be in control of it, not it if you. If alcohol is just at your February finishing line, waiting with a full glass for you and all your doing is desperately running towards it, then stop and start running a different route, one where there is no finishing line, but you decide when and in what circumstances you’d like a drink.
Dry January is a bit of a fad, like dieting, as soon as you deny yourself you set up for failure, of course continue, but the changes need to go beyond a one month stint, think about why you feel the need to do this.
Also good luck, the changes from not drinking are amazing honestly.