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?

Far not fat

@whateverthisis I went back to watch it. wow it's a bit scary isn't it. 35 units a week for a lot of people (me included for a long time in my 20s) is easily drank during a week. Very easily in fact, I used to drink wine with the girls while getting ready, then out and onto G&Ts, cocktails, shots. Then a few nights during the week having 2/3 glasses of wine. And I was honestly considered normal.

Being peri ruined drinking for me! I’ve never been a massive drinker but I was feeling increasingly rough after a glass of wine and I cba with it after a while. I’ve never metabolised alcohol well, getting that flush especially with wine.
I actually haven’t drunk for nearly a year due to medical issues - if I go back to it it’ll be a once in a blue moon occurrence.

@pontipinemum yes terrifying! I am of the 90s binge drinking generation and like you say, totally normal to drink like that.

I sleep better and feel better. I've never been a great drinker though. Even after just one or two glasses I'm mentally slow the next day.

All those glasses add up calorie wise and tummy wise....

I used to drink similar to you. A couple of drinks Friday and Saturday and one on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Not much really. Stopped drinking entirely to lose a bit of weight in April. It made no difference to my sleep, mood, energy level BUT those pesky last few lbs just melted off at a point where my weight loss had been stalling.

So highly recommend it for weight loss.

Saving money
Clear head
Loosing weight
Not saying twattish things to embarass my kids

I’ve never been an at home drinker because I grew up in an alcoholic home (which up un til my teens just meant a gin and tonic for after work) and I would never want to get used to that happy relaxed feeling from something so bad and addictive as alcohol.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/may/24/the-truth-about-booze-how-alcohol-really-affects-your-body-from-first-flush-of-happiness-to-hangover-hell

This article is interesting. In short, there is no safe level of alcohol consumption, but any benefits to mental health etc come from the first drink only! You know - that happy buzz and feeling of relaxation? Subsequent drinks don't replicate it, so one drink (only) is the answer, apparently.

No I don't have a couple of these every night, that isn't what I said at all. I have ONE of these (so two double gins if you like) one or two nights per week. Then at the weekend I'll have a bottle of wine. Admittedly still quite a lot and probably a bit over the recommended weekly amount but not 8 gins every night of the week!!! I'm grateful for all the comments but I wish posters would actually read things before jumping on the 'you're a problematic drinker' wagon. I want to cut down to lose weight and yes maybe have a bit more energy to exercise and be healthier, not because I think I have an addiction.

I agree with the pp who said it makes social situations sparkle, it's a great way to put it. I'm not saying they'd be shit without alcohol but I do feel being just a bit relaxed/tipsy adds to the atmosphere and sense of occasion. Maybe I've tried to replicate that at home - a wine buzz gives a sense of occasion to a Saturday night for example.

That said I'm going to go for a nice walk tonight instead. It's a lovely evening here and it'll keep me otherwise busy and that prime drinking time.

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

And in your first post you say you enjoy the tipsy feeling of having one or two drinks in the evening.

So yeah, BY YOUR OWN ADMISSION in your first 2 posts, you're not just having a little G&T, you're minimising that you could be drinking the equivalent of 8 gins a night. A pub measure of gin is around 50 calories, so 400 plus however much tonic.

Until and unless you change your mindset around drinking, it will remain a problem. In more ways than one.

I'm really not sure why your trying to educate me on the amount I drink when I am the one who actually knows what I drink 😂

Yes if I pour a gin it is a lot more than a pub measure. I don't have multiple quadruple gins per night though. I have one. The phrase 'one or two drinks' isn't literal. If I had 2 x quadruple gins I would feel rubbish the next day. If I wanted to spread it out into two drinks I'd make smaller measures.

At the weekends I drink wine so I do have one or two glasses then.

Hope that clears it up. Fwiw I am not concerned about my drinking in terms of it being 'problem drinking' and I'm not sure why any thread surrounding alcohol and cutting back from alcohol always has to go down this route. I enjoy drinking the same as I enjoy eating crisps and chocolate but I know that all of these things aren't especially good for me and that I need to make an effort to cut back for my weight and my general health. Not because Im addicted to any of them.

So, a single quadruple gin every night and 'a bit more' wine at the weekend.

You may 'know' how much you drink but you don't realise the overall impact drinking 30+ units per week is having on your health - it's not just weight gain...

Good grief. I don't have a quadruple gin every night. I have one maybe a couple of nights during the week, then a bottle of wine over the weekend. Not ideal but I am not drinking every day!!!! I get the point you're making but read back over my posts before quoting my weekly alcohol intake to me.

But why does it need to be a quadruple? As I said in my earlier post if you were quadrupling serving sizes of anything else you'd think it was a problem so why isn't the gin?

If your child fancied chocolate, would you let them eat 4 bars? Or would you tell them one is enough?
Would you eat 4 hamburgers rather than one for a meal?
Drinking 4 pints of beer with dinner instead of one?

You fancy a gin a couple of nights a week no problem - but you're not drinking 'one gin', you're drinking 4 by making it a quadruple. Thats like kidding yourself you only ate one bar of chocolate but it was a big family sized bar instead of an individual.

A gin a couple of nights a week isn't a big deal, thats what you should start drinking as a first step. Get yourself a 25mL measure.

The only thing I found about giving up drinking was that I saved money (now completely offset by the fact everything else is so expensive-but I suppose if I was drinking I would be spending even more)
I didn’t lose weight, my mood didn’t improve and I don’t think I look any better.

@HowcanIhelp123 yeah you're right about that to be honest. I don't deliberately measure out a quadruple, I just put a good slug in and when I actually bothered to look at it properly it was a very large measure. I wouldn't knowingly eat a family bar of chocolate so you make a good point with that.

I have never drunk and never been tempted. I am pretty good company socially, without alcohol.

Alcohol is a toxin which is implicated in several cancers and makes you age so much more post 50. No thanks.

Alcohol is indeed a toxin. People need to know that.

It is
You only need to see how your body reacts to it when it’s trying to get rid of it.
I am not anti drink at all but it does seem to be an acceptable “drug”
I think part of the problem is the attitude to alcohol we have in The UK, being drunk is seen as funny and almost necessary to enjoy yourself.
I was talking about this with a Spanish woman and she said that accusing someone of being drunk is certainly not a compliment there - in fact they only have 1 word for drunk and it’s an insult.