would anyone like to try a dry January with me?

[coppercolouredtop]

i really struggle with not drinking daily.

i have tried before and cheated. my dp hates how much i drink and i would like to try and see if i can do a month without and see if it breaks the habit a bit.

i can easily sink a bottle of wine plus a cocktail and still want more. i go two days without simply because i work nights two days a week.

i am getting fat. i am choosing drink over food. i am reliant on treating myself with alcohol almost daily.

i can give up anything else really easily - smoking? stopped with no help when i decided to stop.
put a box of chocolates in front of me and i can take a couple and leave the rest.
open a bottle of wine and its gone. and i want more and i dont get hangovers so there is no incentive to stop!
ive gained 6lb recently and i know its booze - dp and i used to work same hours and i moderated a bit better when he was around but now im not.
i know he hates what i drink and the annoying bint i become after the third glass.
i have lost motivation to do anything. i dont get up early. i cant be arsed to do much anymore ( i know i am depressed which doesnt help. and i think i depress the people around me)
despite being quite outgoing and bubbly i have no friends and no social life. my kids are grown up and dont see me much. i moved to a village i dont know 4 years ago and know not a soul. i also got pregnant which i was ecstatic about but then found the baby had a disability that would have been life altering for me and her, but i always felt being a mum kept me going and motivated and now my life feels completely empty and hollow. im in a job i hate. with a partner who doesnt like spending much time with me. my kids are gone, i have no friends here and alcohol fills the gaps.

ive decided to try and get to grips with that one problem and bin the booze for a month to see if it makes any difference to anything. (waist line would be good!) i never used to drink like this.. (though i did smoke about 3 cigarettes a day)

does anyone relate? anyone fancy giving this a go and supporting each other? im going to find it extremely difficult but i want to try it.

I fell off the wagon fri/sat but felt bloody awful for it. Only two glasses of wine both nights but wow I woke up feeling rough!! Back in it today 🙌

you don't realise do you how much even a couple of glasses has! Maybe it wasn't so bad long ago when I was young ....

Another benefit of not drinking to add to my list is that I used to have this constant daily dialogue in my head about whether I would drink tonight, or not drink on and on all day and then I'd get home and stare at the wine in the fridge until (inevitably) I'd pour a glass and then feel guilty after drinking it. It's such a relief not to have that constant background noise going on.

@CeciliaMcFlange that's very true I used to have that same mind game going on.. it seems to have disappeared which is kind of a relief. Wine free tonight so my two day blip is behind me. Feel terrible for caving in and wished I'd not done so but it kind of made me realise how shitty it makes me feel the next morning

whynot I think until you give your body a break you don’t realise how awful drinking can make you feel, I felt terrible on Sunday after drinking on Saturday and am now happy to be back on track.

My drink/don’t drink dialogue hasn’t disappeared unfortunately. I’m just reminding myself that they are just thoughts and won’t become reality unless I act on them. Once I get through to 5pm and have a becks blue it stops though so I know I’m ok for the rest of the evening.

Hope everyone has a good day.

Would anybody like to buddy up with me? Just message every day till I gain a bit of momentum?

I'm useless at committing to anything on here orange. I'll send you a message or two though.

I'm low carbing as well Cecilia and it's been the easiest dry month I've had. I'm convinced it's to do with trying to reduce sugar cravings as well as alcohol. Two sides of the same coin, right? And I've lost 10 lbs since the 1st.

orange I’m not on mumsnet much so not sure how messaging works. I’d offer but not sure how much help I’d be as my planned dry January hasn’t been perfect, although I have had more dry days this month then I had in all of 2018!

thanks folks

@orangecushion I'm about everyday so happy to send you a message and see how your getting on! Another wine free night for me, it's becoming quite easy.. dare I say it! I have no thoughts of 'I'll just have the one glass' and now I know how much better I feel the next day compared to the blurred out hazy feeling I felt having a couple of glasses of wine I'm a complete convert. I'm not saying I'll never drink but I most definitely do not want to go back down the same path ever again.

I had some big cravings today :(

Could have murdered a cold Sauv Blanc and a massive bar of choc - I resisted both but it was hard.

MrsTerryPratchett 10lbs is amazing! Well done that's terrific.

Pray for me people - it's going to hit 45 degrees here tomorrow. I may combust.

I think it’s going to take some time before I’m craving free, but starting to get the hang of riding the craving though. Determined not to crack again before the end of the month. That’ll make 23 out of 31 days dry, which isn’t perfect but pretty impressive for me and hopefully a stepping stone to drier months for the rest of the year. Maybe a totally dry October - is that

The only thing is I don’t enjoy not drinking but the couple of times I’ve slipped I haven’t enjoyed drinking either, beyond the initial rush that is. Kind of feels like either way I’ll feel dissatisfied and I’m not sure what to make of that. Maybe I need to find a hobby...

Surprisingly, I've been fine during the week. It's always weekends that are really really difficult for me. And it's up to DH if he has a drink. He does. I'm not worried about that, this is my battle not his!

We are almost there! One more week.
Can't believe I have not had a drink since NYE! Not too bothered any more. Cravings seem to have vanished. Skin looks good but I am really tired.
I was thinking what it would be like to just carry on alcohol free Feb??? Maybe not.

Not long now! I find when I make a change like not drinking, I stop doing things associated with it... like with wine + spending all night on the internet (mumsnet ). I'll be doing dry Feb and beyond tbh. I've got a couple stone to lose and it's easier to do so on low carb/keto. I know we can have spirits and dry wines on that but I overeat when drinking. So hey ho, I'm staying buckled in the wagon. Anyone else?

I'm having a drink on Feb 2nd Saturday if not the Friday, because the Rugby starts on Saturday and there is nothing more pleasurable than watching Rugby with a glass of

Well, my Dry January is over. Not because of cravings or anything else, but because I've just been told I'm being made redundant. So I'm officially ending it a week early - not diving in and getting shitfaced, just back to normal moderate drinking a week early. I'll do it properly in June.

But I'm not drinking tonight even though I got the news today, because I don't drink on Thursdays.

I'm very sorry to hear that Pointy (the redundancy not the end to DJ) that is thoroughly shit. Best of luck for a massive payoff and an immediate new job.

I'm tempted to do Dry Feb too - I feel so much better not drinking that I want to continue. I even managed to go out last night to a restaurant and resist all offers of booze, so feeling a bit more confident about social situations.

Single I'm doing Keto/LCHF too so doing it Alcohol Free is so much easier my powers of restraint when faced with chips is so much better when sober.

It was our hottest day ever here in Aus yesterday, it hit a horrific 46.something degrees, which is basically like standing in front of an open oven door, it was still 37 when I was leaving the restaurant last night at 11pm. Sheeesh.

Hey, so sorry to hear that @pointythings 🙁 better things await you I'm sure. Make sure you get the deserved payout. I'm still wine free since my blip last week. Feeling good and can't believe it's Friday already tomorrow. I'm finding mornings are far more productive now I'm not feeling so rough! I'm doing 5 house chores each day before the school run and finding that very productive. May well continue into Feb at this rate.

My January hasn't been as dry as I'd hoped so I need to carry on into February, with perhaps a couple of days off for birthday celebrations.

Fell of the wagon last night. Drank a bottle of white wine. Then another 3/4 of second bottle. Was watching football. Watched the penalties and went straight to bed. Felt happy and was quietly content.

Feel a tiny bit rough this morning. Why oh why did I go to the outside fridge in our shed and get a second bottle? I have no off switch. I've always known this was a problem. 🤔

Sorry to hear about that Pointy, hope it all works out.

This is my problem Oblomov, I have no restraint whatsoever, if I'm enjoying something I can't stop. I have this inner voice telling me to stop but then the devil on my shoulder tells me I'm having fun so why not...

Oblomov I can’t keep white wine in the house or I’ll drink it. Even the nearest shop selling wine feels too close for comfort at times.

I'm doing a bit better. Irs boring but slowly slowly......

I've just drank tonight - horrible week in work & likely will lose my job (redundancy) so fuck it.

Think I'll not drink again after tomorrow.