Not dry january. But less booze in general. Anyone else?

[Frouby]

I am posting this thread because I really want to reduce the amount of alcohol I drink.

I was going to do dry January but think that is too much for me. And when I do drink again I will revert back to bad habits.

On a normal week I would have 1 or 2 g and ts mon to thurs. Bottle of wine on a friday. Then either a couple of beers or a couple of g and ts on a Saturday night. Nothing on sunday.

Over Christmas (which started for us mid December as we had a holiday) I have drank every day. Never been drunk drunk but 4 or 5 drinks every day.

I feel fat, bloated and lethargic. I want to cut my drinking down to a couple of nights a week. Friday and Saturday. Or thursday and friday. DP also drinks most days (more than me too) and we both need to address our relationship with alcohol.

I didn't drink last night and won't tonight either. And I feel 100% better already. We get married in May and I want to lose weight and improve my health.

Does anyone else want to join this thread for support? I know there is the dry January thread but I will be drinking (probably) 2 days a week so dont want to post on there and knock any penguins off the ice.

Currently drinking ginger ale with loads of ice and contemplating a shower and a cupp of tea later with the last of the Christmas cake (diet starts tomorrow) 😁

Weeing like the waltons I mean! When are MN going to install and edit button 😩

Interesting thread. I'm not concerned about my own drinking but DH is, I fear, close to having a bit of an issue. Lots to think about.

Me too please. Love the idea of damp January. Was just saying to DH this evening that I write fancied a drink but maybe I should have one night (not acwork night) not drinking!

Well I had a couple of g and ts this afternoon in the end. Mainly because I had started thinking if I don't have a drink today I can have 1 tomorrow instead because I have a spare day to carry over to next week.

Silly really. But it's the mid week drinking I want to stop. And I think starting the week dry makes it easier to get to Fri dry. Plus I do like a drink while I cook.

Only had 2 tho. Measured ones as well not massive big ones. Am done now while friday.

Feel quite pleased with myself. 1 bottle of fizzy wine and 2 g and ts all week. Over Christmas I could have done that every day. And even before Christmas would have drank more on friday.

Glad I started this thread. It's really helping me focus on what I want to achieve.

And I am not just talking to myself which is lovely. Will be joining the cuppa tea brigade shortly 😁

Already wishing I was having wine instead of ginger ale... and I dont even open the bottle until 9pm usually! 9 o'clock is wine o'clock in this house. It's a lot of mind over matter stuff isn't it...

Thespian: I love "weeing like the Waltons"...!! And, yes, mind over matter. We all seem to have our particularly dangerous times. Mine is 6-8 ish, though I'd dearly love a small gin now. However, I do know how much I drank last night, and it would be a massive mistake to do it two nights running (if I have one tiny gin, it will turn into much more). Might have to brush my teeth instead.

Frouby: that all makes sense. I think part of the way in which this thread is so helpful is that it's enabling us to understand - partly by describing to others - what our own aims/triggers are. None of us is the same, other than that we want to reduce our consumption. However, I know I would be finding it a million times harder if I were just sitting at home, staring into space. Thanks again for starting it.

Sympathies Frouby I ended up drinking the wine.... Not the idea on a school night. Need to make a bottle last Fri and sat, or switch to g and t Fri nights.... Hmmm

There is a big bit of me yelling, "Do what you want, life is short, no one is getting out of here alive anyway...have your wine!" How do I tell that bit of me to fuck off?!

Thespian: I have a similarly big bit. It says: "Oh FFS, it tastes good, it cheers you up, you might be run over by a bus tomorrow..." However, I do sort of know, really, that while the 'tastes good' bit is true, the 'cheers you up' bit is only true up to a point - and I go well beyond that point into the maudlin and tearful (and also wake up with towering anxiety at 3 AM), so need to avoid it as much as I can...

Colouring: don't worry. The main thing is that we're all here to try. We're not aiming for perfection, just improvement.

AthenaAshton I think my get out is always that I don't drink that much anyway so where's the harm....type thing. I don't even drink to get drunk. I drink out of habit and so it feels less harmful. I am also a very jolly drinker so there is less incentive to stop it I guess. I am glad I have though, for this evening at least. It proves to myself that I can do it if I want to! Big up us all We are doing great :-)

I think the secret for us is to tell ourselves we can have a drink if want to, otherwise telling ourselves no inevitability leads to excessive consumption. Well done to everyone I think because it sounds like changes are happening, even if only small. The important part is we are conscious of our habits creeping out of control.

I had 2 glasses of wine Friday night then the last 1 and a half glasses of the bottle Saturday. Today I struggled because I was craving a g and t.. then I found a small bottle of fever tree tonic in the fridge door and had 2 g and ts with it. That was about 5pm but I didn't have anything else. It does feel like a small triumph though because that consumption is considerably less than what I usually have! Normally it would have been a bottle of wine Friday, possibly another Saturday or several g and ts, then too many g and ts Sunday. So all in all my alcohol consumption has been very little.

My aim is to go 4 dry days now which I hope I can achieve. I feel lighter and not bloated which is spurring me on.

No wine yesterday and bloody exhausted today. took ages to nod off. Does this improve?!

thespian it does get better I promise.

Well done aintnoother. I am also going for 4 dry days in a row. Feel pleased with last week and I don't want to get complacent. Am a long way mentally from where I want to be. And Monday is always a difficult day as it's chaos o'clock from 4.30pm, plus dp will no doubt walk through the door and open a can.

Had an awful nights sleep last night. Was up and down peeing all bloody night again. I think it will have been water retention from the bottle of wine friday.

Got a billion and 1 things to do and.places to be this week. And my house is a bloody disgrace so intend to use some of the evening time I would normally be merry in to organise the business paperwork and send out wedding invitations.

Aiming for four dry nights (!) too.... Have fizzy water and lime on hand.

Felt rubbish this morning after wine, which led to a vodka and a Lot of jaffa cakes. No drinking on a school night!!!

I have had wine this eve as I met my best friend to exchange our Xmas presents (too busy over Christmas...) It was lovely - had two glasses of red and now at home sipping bitter lemon....Will go dry tomorrow as my plan was to drink when I am socialising or at weekends if I fancy it.

I am tucked up in bed after finishing my ginger cordial. Need to pick some more up tomorrow.

Was hard at mad o'clock to resist the call of the gin. But not as difficult as last week.

I will also be weighing myself in the morning and don't want water retention to spoil any weight loss I might have had.

January is lots of fun. Not much drinking and a diet. Sigh. Onwards and upwards tho.

My liver and my thighs will be happy anyway.

Evening, all.

Glad to have updates.

Frouby: hope you sleep better tonight!

Colouring: I think four dry days in a row sounds like a reasonable target. I might aim for that, or something similar. I'm definitely going to start thinking properly about units. Also agree with Thespian about trying to save it for socialising/weekends.

I had a small glass of low alcohol (7%) wine with my sister at lunch time, so Day 2 wasn't strictly dry. However, I went to my book club this evening, and drove there so as not to be able to drink before, during or after. This is a massive improvement on past form (I have mostly turned up slightly, um, merry - and have sometimes failed to get there altogether, courtesy of gin at home ). I just said that I was giving my liver a chance to recover after Christmas; a couple of other women said they should probably do the same. Obviously, I'm now thinking that I must have been pretty obviously the worse for wear on previous occasions, though of course I thought at the time that I was acting so sober that nobody would notice.

Overall, over the past seven nights, I have had an aperitif (probably 2 units, though I wasn't measuring exactly), half a bottle of 13% wine (5 units), and a small glass of 7% wine (possibly 2 units, though probably fewer). So that would make my total 9 units.

Now that I'm thinking about this instead of going to bed, I've just measured how much fits into one of my shot glasses (namely 50ml). I was having four of those per night, sometimes with other stuff on top (because, obviously, rum and whiskey aren't gin, and therefore they're not alcohol ) There are 1.1 units in 25 ml of 43% gin. So I was drinking an average of around 8.8 units per night. That being the case, 9 per week is something of an improvement.

All that said, I'll be fidgeting and fretting at 6 PM tomorrow...

Athena. That’s an incredible inprovement!!!! Bloody well done girl 🎉

Thank you Thespian. The problem will be maintaining this, and trying to remember the good things about not drinking...

Athena well done! That's a massive improvement! When you say it in units like that it does give food for thought doesn't it. How many units of alcohol do they recommend being the limit a week again...?

I went dry last night but as frouby said, I'm way off being where I want to be mentally. I have to think this a permanent change rather than there being a time limit then I can resume to "normal" like people doing dry January for instance. In February they will go back to drinking again like they used to where as I want a permanent change.

I miss the way my mind used to think about alcohol. I used to not even think about having a drink except on the weekend (and a lot of the time I didn't even drink at weekends) or when I went out. Now my mindset is set on alcohol and it being perfectly normal to pour a glass or 3 of something. Maybe we are more influenced than we think we are when we see "gin/wine o'clock plastered all over Facebook with funny "jokes" and sayings making it very normal to drink gin on a Tuesday night at home. No one bats an eyelid if you buy wine and spirits on s Wednesday night in the supermarket. It's all become very acceptable and normal.

Maybe that's why when I have tried to tell friends in real life that I'm concerned about my alcohol intake and said it's every night, they think I'm exaggerating or think it's one glass after work etc. I think 20 years ago if you said to a friend you were drinking gin/wine/cider every night they would be concerned and think something was wrong. Now they don't bat an eyelid.

Had a fabulous kip last night! Feel loads better for it.

Athena I remember 20 years ago when I was young,free and single. My mate used to come round to mine for tea and we would share a bottle of wine. I used to feel a bit funny buying it on my way home from work so used to pick it up with my weekly shop on a saturday. It's funny how times change.

The constant social media references do normalise drinking. We only ever used to drink when out. But now we rarely go out as it's so bloody expensive and we struggle for babysitters. So we drink at home. And because you are home every night a couple of drinks becomes the new normal. And everyone else is doing it so why not!

I have 4 sisters. Of us 1 never drinks at home. 1 drinks at a weekend. And 3 ofnus regularly drink wine/gin/vodka at home mid week. So it's very acceptable these days. Which makes it difficult to give up as we feel we arent doing anything wrong.

It's become a social norm.

But the good news is I have lost 2.5lbs since 9th jan without particularly dieting as such. Just cut out the booze. Normal tea and lunch. Winning!

Hello all,
Well, I am an Epic Fail. Shitty day at work, plus DP's failure to ring me when he said he would. So I have now had two of my measures of gin (2.2 units, according to last night's calculation) and am feeling even more miserable than I was before. Have already bought crap online that I would not have done if sober. I think I have to write off tonight, and think that tomorrow is another day.
I realise how much I really need this thread, Frouby.

oh well.

Athena don't worry about it. It's never gonna be easy this alcohol free lark , we are trying to change a habit so slip ups are bound to happen. Just think of all the good progress so far and tomorrow's a new day.

AintnoOther - thank you. Dark days, here. Knew there would be a crap evening, but sort of didn't expect it now. Think I am now up to 4.4. units this evening. But I should have known.