Dry Jan ?! Benefits of been alcohol free

[hihixxx]

So I'm going to be starting dry Jan . Iv been waiting to quit / cut down on drinking for a while no but had no / little motivation to do so . I'm feeling very tired throughout the day , my skin is so bad spotty etc . And just generally feel rubbish . Iv put on weight ! Im 24 & I have 2 children age 3 & 5 . I drink probably 6/7 days a week . And it's wine while kiddos are asleep . I feel it's my relax time

Soo I thought be helpful to have a thread of the reasons not to drink ! How did it change your life ?

Benefits etc ? How long till we can notice a change

I'm thinking about dry Jan for the first time, too, so I'm interested in responses.

Absolutely do it. Find someone who is doing a Dry January podcast or something you can listen to. Or lives. There is a guy on instagram called SoberDave who usually does a live every evening in January with a special guest. Basically just find something related that you can plug in to for the month.

Honestly, it was life changing. It started me down the path of giving up alcohol completely. I did it in 2022 and 2023. This past year I didn’t go back to drinking til the 3rd week of February. And I gave up completely in April. Have been alcohol free for 8 months now.

Dry January helped me see there was a whole world out there of people who didn’t drink and loved not drinking. Helped me realise I didn’t miss it as much as I thought I would and that it would improve my physical and mental health. It was a bit of a taster of the sort of life I could have.

I was going to do it but decided yesterday to start it then rather than wait for January.

I don't do anything particular for NYE so figured why wait for the 1st.

Good luck OP

I’m doing it from 2nd. Do it every Jan and October. I never feel any of the benefits that some do - better sleep, clearer skin, weight loss…But I do feel quite virtuous.

I'm starting today! It's been a crappy Christmas - all of us ill with stinking colds, plans cancelled and cabin fever from lying on the sofa every day. I have self-medicated with booze and food and now I just feel poisoned and ill.

The tree and decorations are coming down today and I want to go back to work tomorrow feeling half-way human.

I know I drink too much and need to spend a full month assessing it - in an ideal world I would give up completely but I am so weak. I hope this will give me some space to think about it properly.

Anyone on Tik-Tok - there are loads of inspiring videos for the 'sober curious', which I find very thought-provoking.

I stopped for a month after having got really drunk and making a tit of myself, realising that I've never been good at moderate drinking as I'm socially anxious, and I never went back. I just like myself better sober and I've got used to handling social situations without drink. Knowing that I'm not going to be filled with anxiety or remorse is absolutely brilliant and makes up for missing that first drink ( which is always the best one). Also I lost a stone in weight. Good luck!

Placemarking here for the motivation! January is such a miserable month so the wine is tempting but it does you a world of good to give your liver & whole body &mind a break from what is essentially poison.

I’ve tried a couple of jans but only managed 2-3 weeks. Keen to go full month as been drinking far too much after a couple of crappy years and need to get my mojo back. Lost both parents 2 years ago and had health issues/issues at work. Keen to get out exercising again. I was running 4 years ago but stopped when broke my ankle. I won’t be running but no excuse to going out walking.

I’ve never been much of a drinker anyway , I would have a glass of wine with a meal maybe when out or on a weekend.
I began to feel that it didn’t agree with me .
I got flushed and felt odd with even a half glass of wine so I stopped.
That was years ago .
I guess the benefits of that are clear skin , clear head , more £ .
The cons are that so many social occasions involve alcohol and nobody will think of the non drinkers and have something nice in for them

There aren’t any benefits to drinking. Money, anxiety, crap sleep, tiredness, weight gain, no energy, the fear.
I think when you stop you need to be prepared for relationship dynamics to change. You realise how boring drunk people are 😂

You will feel better, sleep better. When I do a dry period, I have a bath most evenings after dinner. It gives me the same relaxing feeling as a glass of wine.

Alcohol free for around half a year .

Lost weight and just feel better in general. I don't miss drinking at all. There are lots of nice AF versions of things that won't leave you with a sore head the next day.

I’m doing dry January and I’m thinking about alcohol already. I know I need to do it as I’m drinking everyday, my skin is spotty, I’m overweight and alcohol always makes me feel crap the next day. I don’t drink a lot, it’s a glass or two of wine. A lot more over Christmas as expected though which is why I know my body needs a break.
But I’m struggling already and I hate this feeling. Worried that I’m in day 1 and it’s already feeling hard.

31 days of waking up feeling fresh!

I hate waking up with a dry mouth, a dull headache and feeling foggy, followed by the guilt when I see the empty bottle and my glass from the night before.

I completed dry January last year - my first try. It’s not something I ever thought I’d be able to do! So ready for it this year after overindulging in Dec.

@Maybaby12

Yeah me too ! Normally by now I would of gone to the shop and got a bottle 😂 my skin is absolutely awful recently and it's been getting worse so that's what's making me realise what drinking could be doing to my skin , plus with the weight gain im definitely pushing nearly a 14 after been a size 8/10 !

I’m doing dry January and I’m thinking about alcohol already. I know I need to do it as I’m drinking everyday, my skin is spotty, I’m overweight and alcohol always makes me feel crap the next day. I don’t drink a lot, it’s a glass or two of wine. A lot more over Christmas as expected though which is why I know my body needs a break.
But I’m struggling already and I hate this feeling. Worried that I’m in day 1 and it’s already feeling hard.

Feeling motivated though I'm determined to go the full 31 days . And if I can push my self further ! I don't want to completely stop because I do enjoy a drink socially .. but not to the point where I'm thinking about drink or dependent

I’m doing it. I’ve not done Dry January before but I did Sober October two years ago and ended up not drinking for four months. I’ve got lots of nice drinks in - posh herbal teas, alcohol free beers, posh soft drinks etc. I drink a) to relax and b) as a treat. If I have alternative treats, that’s half the battle. I found last time that once I was in the routine of a herbal tea once the kids were in bed instead of a glass of wine, it wasn’t too hard. I like the idea of the bath too to replace the relaxing feel. Good luck everyone!

Thing is if I replace my wine with alcohol free
It still contains around same calories 😩🤦‍♀️

I am doing dry Jan after an early December holiday where I drank most days , then Christmas and feeling delicate after last night
I have done dry Jan before and one year continued through the year
hoping to feel less sluggish and to sleep better

This is exactly why I stopped. The fear after making a absolute show out of myself every time I was drunk. I couldn't keep doing it.

I’m doing dry January for the first time. I’m also trying to change my mindset and give my body a break from it. The last year has been stressful and Iv gone from drinking only on the weekend to drinking approx 5 nights a week. Last night I was so close to getting a bottle of wine but so glad I didn’t. Hoping it helps with sleep as I’m in a pattern of waking at 4am every morning. Good luck everyone!

My parents did not have a good relationship with alcohol, so as a result I barely drank in my teens.

My 20s were however a different story and I was very much addicted.

I however then got into running, which hugely changed my outlook. I didn't want to drink as I'd rather go out for a long run the next morning, which gave me a much bigger high.

It was a gradual shift, but it then got to the point where I'd only drink on big occasions, like weddings or Christmas. I then had DC and although running is not currently present in my life, I went a few years without drinking at all, and now I'm back to drinking a couple of times a year. Last year it was my 40th in Feb, and I had more in 'one go' than I had had for a long time, maybe the equivalent of a bottle of wine over two days. But then I didn't drink again until Christmas day, when I had two glasses of prosecco and one on Boxing day.

The biggest benefit? It is probably that on a day-to-day basis, I do not think about alcohol at all. It does not even register. It was mind-blowing to me when I realised that that is completely normal for people not dependent on it. No cravings, no "I just need to get to Thursday/Friday/Saturday when I can drink", no day dreaming about what food I was going to eat with my wine, no trying to calculate how many units I'd already had that week, no thinking about how I could convince my DH we should have a bottle of wine tonight, no guilt about how much I'd drunk/the empty extra bottles I'd secretly bought, consumed and hid/anything I'd said/done whilst drunk.

I think it may probably take more than Dry January to get to that point. But one month can easily turn into two, then four, then six months and a year.

It is a good strategy to have something to replace alcohol with; it could be exercise, it could be snacks and a box set, it could be a bath and book.

I also found it easier to deal with if I told myself that I wasn't not going to drink EVER, I just wasn't going to drink TODAY. The further on you get, the more you forget any 'positives' (hint, there aren't any) and just remember how crap it makes you feel.