Damp Feb! For DJ survivors and Feb drink moderation fans!

[Fordian]

Hi Everyone who might be interested, a thread for anyone who wants an accountability check-in for their moderate Feb drinking!

Thanks @Fordian , yes that's it - Chris and Xand Van Tullekin.

For anyone interested in a female perspective, there was a long running study involving American nurses - all female, which is referenced a lot in Tony Edwards' last book, which I highly recommend. That research supports regular light-to-moderate drinking.

I do take issue with the government advice. Saying there is no safe limit of drinking alcohol is, in my view, a bit ridiculous. There's no absolutely safe level of doing many things in life, but if we take care and act responsibly, the odds are on our side.

@Sammy900 , we're all different of course, so no one can say for sure that a bottle in one go every fortnight would do you any harm (I suspect it wouldn't in most cases but you couldn't rule out that a large amount in a short session might trigger some acute condition). The longer term risk would rise if that started to creep up to a bottle every night, or if you got drunk and had an accident.

I think we all know what works best for us and how to balance risk in our lives. Personally I know that I can't drink too much in one go, and I hate hangovers to the degree that it's never worth it. But I'm not going to give up a glass or two on most nights, as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Is the less % alcohol wine less units than wine of say, 12%? I usually have one large glass of rose at 10% then about 3-4 cans of lager which are 3.8%. Trying to limit this to only 2 evenings a week

@Cattery , yes. If you multiply the amount in ml by the percentage, then divide by 1000 you get the number of units, so, for example:

(750 x 12)/1000 = 9
(750 x 11)/1000 = 8.25
(750 x 13)/1000 = 9.75

The number of units is usually stated on the bottle.

By the glass, a large (250ml) glass contains 3.75 units for a 13% wine, 3.0 units for a 12% wine, and 2.75% for an 11% wine, so over the course of an evening or a week, it can make a significant difference. There are wines at about 8-9% that are obviously even lower, and not totally awful either!

Aaah that’s great thank you. I think the wine I like is 9 or 10%

D’you know I’ve never known how to work units out. Thank you @Neptunium93

Yes thanks for this!

I have decided I need to make one bottle of wine do me for Friday and Sunday. And on Saturday, either dry or like I did yesterday, a couple of beers and a whisky. That might work for me.

You're welcome 😊. Just to note that my post should read "2.75 units for an 11% wine", in case that wasn't clear.

To answer my own question from yesterday, in case anyone else is interested... I had wondered whether keeping a wine for a year might have increased the alcohol content above what's on the label. Apparently not - the amount of alcohol does not change when you age a wine, although the flavours can evolve, which may make it taste different. I think that's what must have happened. Also it was a 13% red wine, whereas I generally drink 12% whites.

A dry night for me tonight having swapped days round. Haven't decided whether it will be AF beer or a 0% spirit yet. Currently still on the tea!

Opened the red last night - first alcohol since 5th January!
Made 125 mls last 2 hours while watching telly. It was a strong red at 13% and I could really taste the alcohol in it!
I may have another tonight but that's it until next Saturday.

I regret to say I drank a lot yesterday. I was due out to dinner with two friends and a couple of their friends that I didn't know, and I knew there'd be wine, but hopefully not too much of it, as they aren't heavy drinkers. However, I felt a bit nervous about going (not very socially confident) so had a stiff gin before I went to relax me, and then when I came back had to have another drink to wind down... So, back to two of my old and not good habits in one evening, dammit. Back to not drinking this evening without any trouble, though, so there's that.

hello everyone, good to see you all and thanks for some really interesting and honest posts. I've had a bit of a week of it - crocked foot meaning v strong painkillers so tbh that made damp Feb quite easy as I knew I couldn't drink wine or I'd really feel it. And one of my tests was the weekend just gone with heavy drinking old friends. So I prepared by making them aware that I was on strong drugs so couldn't drink.....and it went absolutely fine! They & DH drank as usual so I will admit I dipped out slightly earlier to bed than I would have done otherwise.

I did have a small glass and a half last night as I'd stopped the drugs by then, and made that last about 4 hours. So that felt like behaving 'differently' around wine, if that makes sense. I could feel the temptation to top up again but said no, which was a big thing for me tbh. Normally I have no will power and/or am always urging another round/glass etc etc And my goal is to be able to keep that level of control rather than swill it down as if Prohibition is coming back into force the next day.

And yes, another thanks from me for the 'how to calculate units on wine' info - really useful!

I didn't stick to my plan to just have one glass yesterday. I had one large and three medium, fairly spaced out. My sleep was massively interrupted and I feel groggy. Also can't be bothered to get up this morning!

Had planned to share a bottle of white when out with mil for her birthday and noticed that we were both struggling to finish the bottle. I the past a bottle has slipped down easily plus a further glass each. Hmm. Not drinking now until Saturday when we celebrate Valentines a day late as we're out on Friday.

Drank half a bottle of champagne and half a bottle on wine on Saturday. Annoyingly that put my weekly units last week to 14.3. That’ll be me dry now until valentines night out on Friday.

Well I’ve done it. Had a dry weekend! Go me!

Weekends are hard aren’t they -,reading all your update posts - not just because of more socialising, but because it’s baked into the routine (well it is into mine!)

Finding this hard. I don't want to go back to pre DJ levels and feeling bloated and groggy, but have lost the bounce I had while abstaining in January. Everything just seems rather dull and flat now. I know alcohol is not the answer,but am very tempted to do it anyway.

@Hedjwitch , I wonder if part of the reason everyone felt good during January is that people seemed to be making efforts to change their routines - exercising more, early bath & bed, planning stuff to do in the mornings at weekends and so on. But now we're 'allowed' to drink, we've perhaps gone back to our old routines and are missing some of the other treats? (A spell of cold / wet / dull weather probably doesn't help, either!).

Perhaps cultivating a new hobby might help? I've started to learn to play the piano. It's really hard and I'm not very good at it (and probably won't ever be!), but it really absorbs my attention and I don't even think about drinking until I finish my evening practice.

One thing I've noticed... whereas before I could enjoy almost any dry white wine, at the moment I can really tell the difference between one I like, and one that isn't that interesting, and that determines whether I feel good about my decision to drink. I'm going to focus on buying better wines and see how that goes.

I think there's a lot of truth in that, @Neptunium93 and sorry everything feels so flat, @Hedjwitch. It does feel to me a bit like overhauling unhealthy eating habits. It's fine when you're losing loads of weight on whatever restricted diet you're following, but then when you stop and go back to previous habits, it all piles back on. So what I've realised about DJ was that I needed to stop making alcohol such an integral part of how I enjoy life, and find other things to do other than drink of an evening. A new hobby is a good idea, especially as the evenings get lighter. Things I do in the winter are fart around on t'Internet, genealogy, cryptic crosswords, or stitching, all of which have the double whammy of keeping my hands occupied and needing focus. In the warmer weather I garden of an evening (ditto). But I could def go a glass or two of white wine this evening!

I'm itching to get into the garden,and growing my herbs. I agree this horrible weather isn't helping. Just feeling irritable and grumpy

I hear you! I'm intending on planting up some mini pots of beans and peas tomorrow just to get a head start. I can do that inside and it'll make me feel as though the new growing season is nearly here. I can't stand the grey weather either. It's so meh.

I feel like February has been so much more glum than January. The weather has been worse and I'm just fed up now. I'm annoyed by my Sunday red wine blip.

I had birthdays and have had wine (one glass) Sun Mon Tue.... feel tired, miserable and pissed off with myself for not just saying I'd have lemonade or something instead of fizz

I agree with everyone, February is feeling like a real slog. I feel like I’ve not seen aby blue sky for weeks and weeks. It’s so dull. Meh.

Well, I fell off the wagon last night!

I meant to just add some wine to a risotto but I ended up drinking three glasses! Not entirely sure why! But I don't have any more in so I plan on not drinking til Friday evening now.

I had a small glass of red last night and feel a bit grotty this morning, which may or may not be not be connected (I have a bit of a temperature and stomach ache), so will see how I feel tomorrow after a dry night.

I have half a bottle of red left, which won't keep much longer. Will follow @Fordian 's example and use it for cooking. I've ordered a box of Merlot, as I'm almost always going to prefer white over red and it will keep for ages.

I had two G&Ts last night, because I needed to switch my brain off. Life is so bloody hectic at the moment, I'm desperate for a few minutes where I'm not dashing around trying to get things done. I wish I had time for my old hobbies, never mind a new one! I slept fine and woke up ok this morning, no ill effects, but I will stay dry tonight and hopefully get to bed early.