To ask what's so great about being sober

[sallysaysrelax23]

There's so much talk about how great sobriety is these days, I don't think it's ever been cooler to be sober.

I desperately need to lose weight and I know drinking isn't helping my case. I drink over the weekend (usually wine) and I may have a gin and tonic a few nights during the week. I'm certainly not one for getting sloshed like I did in my twenties but I'm afraid I still really enjoy that relaxed, tipsy feeling I get from one or two drinks at home in the evening.

I don't think it affects my sleep or my mood the next day particularly (I know many will say it does and I just don't realise it) but I know I make poor food choices after a drink and that the calories in wine and gin are pretty significant too. So I'm looking for inspiration to cut down - what do you love about not drinking?

I’ve not lost any weight after stopping, sorry !
But I don’t have a restless sleep when drinking now, and I don’t get that awful afternoon tiredness.

Gin isn't particularly calorific, drink gin instead of wine 😂

Stopped years ago. Didn't lose any weight but got my weekends back! Hangover free

My measures of gin are about quadruple the norm so I'd have to quadruple the cals 🙈

So much cheaper
Clearer mind in the morning
Can do other stuff in the evening eg. go for a walk in this lovely weather
Better sleep quality

You say you don't notice a difference in sleep or mood but is that just based on one or two nights of not drinking? Try 2 weeks and see how much difference that makes?

Constant clear head
Lost a stone and not drinking keeps it off
Don’t make poor decisions
No hangovers
Saves money

No alcohol since November 2020 and I much prefer to relax with a cuppa

I have saved about £1000 by not drinking alcohol so far this year.

I am slimmer, my skin looks amazing.

I have lots more energy, and no hangovers. I still go out, but I just have a different liquid in my glass, it’s no big deal. Turns out, the enjoyment I thought (from being saturated with ads/media) I was getting from booze was just me having a lovely time with my friends.

If anything I have more fun now as I am not dumbed down by alcohol.

You don’t have to plan evenings and events around drinking / not being able to drive
you are properly present for your kids
better sleep
no hangovers or hangziety

I've never ever drank.

I find drunk people highly annoying. Saves money. Good for your health. No hangovers. No morning regrets.

Fortunately? I have always suffered from awful hangovers and as I have got older it takes less and less alcohol to make me feel ill for quite a while so I have a VERY good incentive to not drink much.

I have to stress I'm no longer the type of 'go out and get shitfaced and ruin my life' kind of drinker. I did this a lot in my twenties and the embarrassment and beer fear/hangxiety the next day was enough to put me off. Plus having kids means that those kind of hangovers are no longer acceptable.

However I do still enjoy a few glasses of wine in the evening especially at the weekend when it feels like a bit of a treat. I don't think I'll ever be totally tee total but I do need to cut back if I want to make changes to my calorie intake. It's just empty calories.

Reduced risk of breast cancer? Even moderate drinking (like a glass of wine a day) increases your risk compared to sobriety

I stopped drinking some years ago. I’d say ‘quit’ but that implies a conscious decision and effort, but tbh I just went off it when I started taking sertraline. Also, the hangovers were no longer worth it (I’m early 40s). I didn’t lose any weight and my skin did not get any clearer. I do not miss the hangovers tho - they were leaving me close to suicidal (not an exaggeration).

I pretty much stopped drinking some time before Xmas. When I’ve tried a glass of Prosecco since, I find it tastes vile. Same with lager. I’d love to enjoy a cold lager in this weather, but it just doesn’t taste like I expect it to. So I’ll go without.

I’ve done dry January’s, sober octobers, not drank on diets, and obviously not drank alcohol in pregnancy x3.5 times.
it makes no difference to anything that it’s supposed to with me.
I don’t get hangovers from moderate drinking, only if I got paralytic. It makes no difference to my weight, my sleep, or my skin. How does having a few glasses of wine mean you’re not present for your kids?

what on Earth is hangziety?

When you get anxiety the day after drinking when you're hanging - hangxiety.

I used to suffer badly with this, always waking in a cold sweat wondering what I'd said or done, who I'd offended, what shit I'd posted on social media etc. It's actually quite awful but as I said I don't get that these days, I just enjoy drinking at home with dh when the kids are in bed.

reduced risk of breast cancer, yy
I got to the point where 3 drinks made me vomit the next day. I found it hard to stop after 2 though. So the last couple of times I went out I had heineken zero. It was ok. Not like the real thing, but ok so ..... I felt normal the next day.

I like drinking. I don't get hangovers, I don't get anxiety. I don't get any of the negatives others talk about. I do a dry january, I might not drink for ages and then I might drink several times. I don't have a problem if someone chooses not to drink. It seems that return respect isn't reciprocated.

I'm 53 and I think the biggest menopause symptom for me was a total inability to drink. I'd always loved a few g&ts, or a few glasses of wine, or beer in the sun (not all together) but now, the amount that I can drink without getting sick, I don't understand how it can take so little to make me sick.

I like being able to say to people ‘unlike you I don’t have to drive to have fun’, it makes me a lot of new friends

drink obviously

Not drinking myself to death mainly

If you are drinking a few glasses of wine every evening, you are probably heading into problem territory. One of the best things about drinking rarely is that on the odd occasions you do have a drink, you can feel it after one glass of wine. And you lose weight. But you have to choose not to drink for your own reasons, not because Mumsnet tells you.

I cut out almost all booze when I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes. I didn’t drink a lot before - perhaps a bottle of wine a week. Now I probably have about a couple of glasses a month. I’m £30 better off each month and I lost well over a quarter of my pre-diagnosis weight.

Much much better sleep (I now sleep quite badly when I drink even moderate amounts of alcohol)
Able to exercise much better (I run 4 times a week and its much harder if I've had alcohol the previous day).
Have lost weight.
Drinking increasingly bad for my mental health as I've got older: I no longer have the vague apocalyptic feelings when I wake up after a session.
Much much more effective at work and better motivation for things in general
Get ill far less often: used to get colds every couple of months, can count on one hand the number I've had in the past two years.

I'm not teetotal, probably drink a couple of units a week, but up until my late 30s was drinking comfortably over the recommended weekly intake.

I am perimenopausal and I think the onset of peri makes a big difference to the way you feel about booze. My body could just about shrug off reasonably moderate amounts until then so I didn't really feel any massive pressure to cut down and I've never felt I had a problematic relationship with it. Now even small amounts make me feel shit and it just isn't worth it most of the time. If my partner didn't drink (moderately) I would probably stop altogether.

Stable moods and less embarrassing moments