So I've decided to give up the booze...

[LucyJones]

And so far my skin has broken out, I feel knackered all the time and grumpy

it's only been since Friday so this is the third day

tell me I'll feel healthily etc etc < eyes up corkscrew>

Frogety - liver damage can be very severe before it shows any symptoms. There is lots of info on the web, but you can ask your doc for a blood test if you are worried. Raised enzyme levels in the blood are the first indication that there might be a problem.

day 4 is here, cant say i feel better or worse yet but am sure i will by the end of the week. have just been shopping and stocked up on lots of fresh fruit and veg, may as well have healthy diet as well.

I have cut down from drinking every day and over 14 units per week, to a max of 2 units per week and have kept this up for 6 months now.

I haven't lost any weight at all although I was expecting too and I definitely have weight to lose!

My skin is much improved and I am generally happier and more positive. I can also do more in the evenings and have started doing more exercise which is building a positive spiral.

Sometimes previously I had to get up in the night for a wee and now I no longer do this. For me the most obvious benefits are to my mood, but I am also happy that I am not storing up alcohol related nasty stuff for the future any more.

I used to take medication for Rheumatoid Arthritis that affected my liver and had to have blood tests every month - I was fine to start with - I was allowed one unit of alcohol a week, but as the weeks went by I increased it until I was back to the binge drinking. I had one liver reading that went through the roof and doctors panicked. They took me off the medication and you know my first thought was - hooray I can drink as much as I like now!! And I have been for the last few years.

I like to think that if I buy an expensive bottle of red wine that it's a luxury I've earnt - but it's just making excuses for sitting on the sofa with a large glass. In the past 2 weeks my Arthritis has returned with a vengeance and I'm sure it's due to a 3 week holiday where I drank every night - also the fact that I have put 2 stone on through a party lifestyle. So I too have made a decision to knock it on the head - I haven't had any alcohol this week and been eating healthily and looking forward to being slimmer and more sparkly (hopefully!). I am dreading the weekend when step daughters come over - I always NEED a drink then!

Well done everyone! Perhaps we should carry on posting what we're doing this weekend to get us through
obviuosly the football is a massive part of our country's drinking culture so it'll be hard not sitting down to watch it with a glass of something!

God I feel like a right alchie, I was drinking a bottle of red a night, it was embarressing putting the recycling out every week! I was really worried before I got pregnant with my DS, I quizzed everyone about how they managed without a drink for 40 weeks but I suddenly went off alcohol, grabbed a pregnancy test and bingo! That was 2 years ago. I went for hypnosis last week to give up smoking, yes I have more than 1 vice, and knew that I would have to give up the booze for a while too in order to stay in control. It's been a week and I really haven't missed it or the fags (no I'm not preggers .... yet!) I'm 4lbs lighter and have boundless energy, no spots yet but there must be a mountain of toxins to remove. What has suprised me is, as a drinker I thought I couldn't give up but now I have I realise that it's not that hard and we still have bottles of wine in the house, I guess the pot of £40 cash sitting on the side is helping to remind me!!!! (that's fags and booze money BTW!)

I'm loving this thread. Well done everyone who's managing to cut back on the bevvy.

I've been (almost) off the booze since 22 May! I was in a cycle of drinking wine heavily at least 3 nights a week. All or nothing with me - I never have a glass, always a bottle (or more).

However, apart from one night when I was out with colleagues, I haven't had a drink since then. The morning after the night out (3 pints of stella and a glass of red wine ) I felt like shite and then realised it was the first time I had felt that way for ages and didn't want to go back to the way things were.

I have spent more time with dd1 dying our hair, watching movies, wii fit etc (age 12). This is instead of her msning and watching crap on telly while I'm sitting on the kitchen step on the phone/with my partner/neighbour, glass of wine in one hand, fag in the other and I've not been too hungover to enjoy my days off work with dd2 (21 months).

I miss the wine feeling of intoxication when you feel elated/funny/bulletproof, but I DO NOT miss the feeling of getting up with a dry mouth/fuzzy head wondering if I need to apologise to anyone, especially my lovely long suffering partner and dd1.

I hope I can maintain it as I have always worried about my relationship with alcohol and was brought up in an alcoholic household. I need to take control of alcohol before history repeats itself, not let alcohol control me.

As alternative non-alcoholic but grown-up drinks can I recommend some of the fancy cordials you can get these days? Bottlegreen and Belvoir are two brands and if you get the ones with titles like 'Ginger and Lemongrass' and use them sparingly in a tall glass of iced sparkling water they make a really nice substitute for a glass of wine with a meal. Tonic water's also a good one. Not horribly sweet and the diet version doesn't pack on the calories either. Dress it up with ice and lime slices and it doesn't need gin to go with it

Bodies are pretty resilient and will detox themselves extremely well once you stop poisining them. Anyone wanting to enhance the detox effect would do well to try fresh juices. If you've got access to a juicer you can whizz up some exciting combinations (my favourite is beetroot, apple, parsley and carrot!) that give your system a big vitamin kick.

I think it is good to dose up on Vit B if you have been drinking a lot of alcohol over a long period

Wow some really inspiring stories on here
it's amazing what a fine lune drinking a couple of glasses a night is to downing a bottle and being dependant
good luck everyone

20:40 on a Friday and I've not had a drink yet... some kind of record for me. Meeting friends later, and will have a couple of glasses of wine but at least I won't be turning up half-cut...

I've decided to next drink when I go out, and no nights out planned atm , can't believe I've done a week and dh has only noticed I'm not drinking tonight
well done lilo and enjoy it tonight

yey, a whole week, well done to you too!!Thanks, will enjoy it!

tho was proudly telling someone today that I had gone 4 whole nights without a drink - and she was quite shocked that I thought this was impressive....

Is there a chart, like the smoking one, as to the health benefits of not drinking? Seem to recall the smoking one lists things on a 48 hour, days, weeks and yearly basis.

I can really relate to most of the postings on this thread. My relationship with alcohol was problematic, if not necessarily dependent, before I got pregnant last year. I wondered how on earth I'd survive 9 months without getting drunk. I had a glass of wine a couple of times a week with food, but no more, and more importantly didn't get intoxicated at all. So I got through a summer holiday, my birthday, Christmas and New Year without getting pissed. Wow, I thought, I can do this, there is no reason to ever get pissed again, I had fun all those times.

Well... DD is 16 weeks and I've been pissed a few times and had a few hangovers (always feeding her EBM). I don't want to go back to the bad old days, but I do still like drinking it turns out!! (Big surprise.)

Still, she's in bed for the night now and the strongest I've had tonight is ginger beer .

I remember Gillian McKeith advising on You Are What You Eat that the liver can repair itself after 10 weeks of no alchohol.

There is a scan called "Fibroscan" that can detect problems with the liver, only available privately, look up "The London Clinic Liver Center" only suitable for people with average or low body mass.

Gillian McKeith talks a lot of shite though. And I wouldn't trust a private scanning company either.

am sipping blackcurrant and soda. I may get my juicer out tomorrow .Dh hasnt noticed my lack of wine this week, not going to draw attention to it in case he hadnt noticed how much i was drinking in the first place.Well done everybody, keep it up

The fibroscan is at the liver clinic which is part of The London Clinic, Dr.Rajiv Jalan is one of the consultants at the clinic he is also Senior Lecturer in Hepatology at the University College Hospital in London, I would trust this hospital, but unfortunately like a lot of new technology it's often only available privately such as the DITI scans for breast cancer detection.

I too have been a week now without any! I was wondering what I was going to do tonight to relax but have been looking through magazines, online and a few nice nibbles. i have had complements today about my skin and I feel much better. Not saying out loud that this is forever now but I really think it needs to be. Just wonder if it can be that straightforward or if I will need some prof help?
I have cut down in the past but get excited on big nights out and lose it- blackouts, vomiting, the lot and enough is enough.Carry on trying, good luck and well done!

For those who are going on a night out or meeting friends etc., I'd suggest you try to keep the no alcohol thing going for those occasions. Reason for saying that is not because I want you to be miserable or anti-social but because I think it's important to demonstrate to yourself that you can enjoy yourself socially without alcohol as well as at home. So often like the 'booze = relaxing in the evening' habit, the one of 'booze = a fun night out' is an equally entrenched habit. Plus, if you've not drunk for a few days, the temptation to binge will be really powerful.

It's a useful experiment

god I really can't see the appeal of sitting ina pub with a soft drink

It's only conditioning that makes you doubt the appeal. And that's why it's a good thing to try out sitting in a pub without alcohol. Total abstinence isn't necessary but, if you can go to a pub, restaurant, friend's house or sit at home in the evening and not feel obliged to drink alcohol every single time then you're in good shape.

Besides which.... spend a night at the pub and not drink and it will open your eyes in terms of other people's (and your own) behaviour. When my ex lost his licence (due to drunk driving) for a year and I was 'designated driver' all that time, it made me see just what a bunch of boring arseholes we actually knocked around with. Toe-curling. LOL