I’m in, I’ve been an absolute stress ball lately for no apparent reason. Looking forward to see if this helps.
Haven’t had a drink yet tonight so will see where this goes. Definitely dialing back from the holidays but never stick to programs that are on/off.
I thought I would fail Dry January on day one since we had dinner at my in laws’ house last night. However, it seems all of them were either recovering from colds or were currently on medication so nobody wanted to drink. Looks like I’m on pace so far!
Bumping this for emphasis. I'm a big Huberman fan but was saving this for this month. He patiently walks you through just how awful alcohol is for you at pretty much everything. A nice motivator at the beginning of the month.
Having 2-3 drinks on Friday and Saturday night and not drinking during the week is basically dry, it’s totally fine for your body I don’t care what any white fitness guru tells me otherwise
I do think there is starting to form a consensus across the medical community that there really is no level of alcohol intake that’s neutral/beneficial for your health. The effects tend to scale proportionally. The effect of 6 or 7 a week may be manageable or acceptable for you but they still exist as discussed in the Huberman episode.
I guess you can call him a guru if you want, but he’s a Stanford professor who just seems to try to convey the consensus of the scientific community in his videos and makes sure to point out when he gets into areas that are still debated.
My first worry was that he was like Rogan, but he seems ok...I think? He's not some weird anti vaxxer is he? The pushing of supplements and such gives me pause. I started listening to the alcohol one and it's quite interesting
Lol no he’s a well established scientist. My only knock is it sometimes get too science-y for me, but it’s a well researched podcast.
I get that he's a well established scientist, but I just pause a bit at the supplement stuff... Gives off a bit of a bro wellness vibe I listened to the alcohol one and it was good. I won't derail the thread anymore
Day 3… Today is a day where I would normally stop by my local watering hole after work for a few beers and a few shots of bourbon. Not gonna do it today. Although the work day is young…
Ugh. I got to the point yesterday where I was just drinking just to drink. Poured everything we had out to start today. I won’t go buy anything but my wife is really bad about it. I’ve mentioned it in another thread but every time we try and go for an extended period of not drinking she can make it like 3 days before having to get some wine because she had a bad day at work or something. She said she’s gonna stick to it this time though.
Full disclosure: About two weeks before Christmas my fiancé decided she didn’t want to get married anymore. We are still currently living together but we are splitting up. I’m in a pretty dark place mentally so giving up booze for awhile will hopefully prevent me for doing something stupid.
That’s awful but it’s good that you can recognize that it’s better to not go down the rabbit hole of boozing too much. It’ll just make things worse
The weekdays aren’t too difficult for me, unless I get pulled to go to happy hour with some of my colleagues. Luckily, they’re all drying out after a couple of weeks of holiday binging, so week one shouldn’t be too difficult.
Yeah we’ve been pretty good about not really drinking during the week and just waiting until Saturday when we watch a game. That’ll be the real difficult one with the NC coming up and college hoops in full swing.
Someone else in the thread suggested Rowdy Mermaid kombucha, which I've tried and is a solid "Grab a drink" replacement. Also any sparkling water and just squeeze a lime or something in it has been big for me. I'm the only one in my household doing it, so having something while others drink has been a big help not to feel "Left out".
It really is a game changer. For me, I drink mainly out of habit (Like during sporting events), or when bored so having something else is like replacement therapy.
Gf picked me up some of the Athletic brewing non-alcoholic IPA's and they're actually very good, only 65 calories as well. Highly recommend
I was sober all 2022 after drinking almost daily since college. pros I lost some weight Saved money got a little more motivated able to have/remember genuine conversations (until friends got drunk) better cons Didn't gain back nearly as many brain cells as I was expecting (still dumb) feels a bit awkward not drinking around friends/social events at first. Good luck to everyone in 2023. Hardest part was breaking the habit of having a beer when I got off work. That took a couple weeks of fighting the urge.
I've been going back and forth on these, making mocktails, etc. Part of what I want to do is break this need to have a drink for any social function, and these sorts of things feel like a crutch to me. Probably overthinking it...
I think it could be looked at as a good thing to use non-alcoholic drinks as a "crutch" because it shows you that it is more about having something to hold and sip on socially rather than needing it to be alcohol. If that makes sense.
When I decided to stop drinking during the week, the thing that helped me was having a 32 oz cup of ice water near me in the evenings that I would just sip on until I went to bed. It satisfies the ritual part of drinking and made me less likely to reach for the bourbon.
Holding something makes people feel more comfortable. I remember noticing this when I would walk to class in college. Everyone would hold onto something. Water bottle, phone, books, backpack strap, etc. When you walk around, you rarely see people walking without somethign in one of their hands.
did Dry July last year and haven't drank since, so have made it over six months. easily the best decision I've ever made.
Unless you’re a full blown alcoholic who goes through withdrawals, imo having a nonalcoholic drink does wonders. I couldn’t drink a while back and found that getting seltzer water did the trick for me. It was simply the ritual of “drinking” while I grilled or watched a game that I needed it didn’t matter if it wasn’t booze as long as I sipped on something.
When I went through with drawls a few years ago I drank the non alcoholic beer for awhile afterwards basically to watch sports with. They make some really good craft ones now.