No booze January

[LinvilleGorge]

11 hours ago, Inimicus said:

Im pretty jealous.

 

Been drinking too much for too long and would love to go a few days much less a few weeks or months without it

Do it.

This is what got me to do it. Kind of being right where you are. The catalyst for me was the desire to get back into shape. I needed to shed about 20 quarantine pounds. I did the math and over the course of a week I was consuming a little over 2000 calories in craft beer. Just empty calories. Well, there's step one. Eliminate those. After I hit my goals, I decided to have some beers over the holidays and basically discovered that I really just don't care for it anymore - neither the taste nor the effects. Tell me of September that would be the case and I would've called you fuging nuts.

[Ja Rhule]

2 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Do it.

This is what got me to do it. Kind of being right where you are. The catalyst for me was the desire to get back into shape. I needed to shed about 20 quarantine pounds. I did the math and over the course of a week I was consuming a little over 2000 calories in craft beer. Just empty calories. Well, there's step one. Eliminate those. After I hit my goals, I decided to have some beers over the holidays and basically discovered that I really just don't care for it anymore - neither the taste nor the effects. Tell me of September that would be the case and I would've called you fuging nuts.

I lost 40lbs from January to May after starting with No Booze January.  Went from 220lbs to 180lbs and I’m 6’1.

[LinvilleGorge]

1 minute ago, Ja Rhule said:

I lost 40lbs from January to May after starting with No Booze January.  Went from 220lbs to 180lbs and I’m 6’1.

That's what blew my mind. After doing the math, it's like damn... I can lose a pound a week just by eliminating beer. Not touching diet at all. Eliminating beer while cleaning up my diet was basically like double dieting almost. I think most people would be surprised by how much food you can eat if you're eating healthy and not guzzling down empty carbs in the form of beverages, be it booze, soda, Starbuck frappa-whatthefugever, etc. 2000 calories worth of lean meats, veggies, etc. is a bunch of damn food.

[cardiackat88.]

Quit cold turkey in June 2018.

Never felt better.

[Khyber53]

Gave up drinking 20 years ago. Changed my life for the better through and through.

Sheesh, just thinking of the money saved alone...

[LinvilleGorge]

2 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

Gave up drinking 20 years ago. Changed my life for the better through and through.

Sheesh, just thinking of the money saved alone...

Yeah, I probably save about $30 a week give or take. That's not huge savings, but that adds up. I mean, that's over $1500 a year.

[Khyber53]

Just now, LinvilleGorge said:

Yeah, I probably save about $30 a week give or take. That's not huge savings, but that adds up. I mean, that's over $1500 a year.

Yeah, and quitting smoking seven years ago was a big savings, too. It was like $50 a week for smokes when I quit and I bet my old pack and a half a day habit would be much, much worse now.

Sheesh, we get addicted to stuff sooo easily.

[Hotsauce]

I stopped Jan 1, so it’s been exactly 2 weeks for me. I honestly can’t say that I have felt any different tbh.  I have a history of alcoholism in my family.  I really miss drinking, literally every day I want a cocktail for happy hour. My wife is only drinking on the weekends this month.  We are big wine drinkers, and pretty much have been drinking every day in 2020 (which I know is horrible and wasn’t typical for us).  I also just built a huge bar at my house to display a massive wine and whiskey collection. 

My biggest reservation about completely quitting is the social aspect. We drink wine and whiskey with our close friends on the weekends, and I do a monthly happy house with wings and beer with buddies. I just can’t seem to figure out how to give that up or completely get away from that. This weekend will be a big test for me as we are hosting 2 dinners both Friday and Saturday nights with our friends. I am confident that I am going to be fine not drinking, but how long will that last (past January?). A lot of questions for me. 
 

Also, in my job I work with a lot of people who are dying or will die from horrible illnesses, so I typically use alcohol to numb some of the pain I see during the day at night. I am entertain my clients which alcohol is always a part of.  
 

My best guess for how I will come out of dry January is I will go back to only drinking during the weekends. But I would absolutely love being able to give it up completely. 

[Ja Rhule]

I have been alcohol free for 2 weeks now.  I definitely got a bit more energy.  Basically liver is the only major organ that regenerates itself.  If you are not a hardcore alcoholic the liver will fully regenerate itself within 2-4 weeks (even if moderately drinking daily).  If severe alcoholic than it will take 4-12 weeks of regeneration. I’m a huge wine lover and drink scotch on some Friday’s so my liver deserves some rest.

[cardiackat88.]

1 hour ago, Hotsauce said:

I stopped Jan 1, so it’s been exactly 2 weeks for me. I honestly can’t say that I have felt any different tbh.  I have a history of alcoholism in my family.  I really miss drinking, literally every day I want a cocktail for happy hour. My wife is only drinking on the weekends this month.  We are big wine drinkers, and pretty much have been drinking every day in 2020 (which I know is horrible and wasn’t typical for us).  I also just built a huge bar at my house to display a massive wine and whiskey collection. 

My biggest reservation about completely quitting is the social aspect. We drink wine and whiskey with our close friends on the weekends, and I do a monthly happy house with wings and beer with buddies. I just can’t seem to figure out how to give that up or completely get away from that. This weekend will be a big test for me as we are hosting 2 dinners both Friday and Saturday nights with our friends. I am confident that I am going to be fine not drinking, but how long will that last (past January?). A lot of questions for me. 
 

Also, in my job I work with a lot of people who are dying or will die from horrible illnesses, so I typically use alcohol to numb some of the pain I see during the day at night. I am entertain my clients which alcohol is always a part of.  
 

My best guess for how I will come out of dry January is I will go back to only drinking during the weekends. But I would absolutely love being able to give it up completely. 

Best advice, drink some alcohol free beers.

It really hit me that drinking was pointless after I drank one in Germany.

I realized there was absolutely no reason for me to drink another "Alkoholfrei", as it did nothing at all. It may me think about why I would insist on having another one, if indeed it had alcohol in it.

Socially, it does make things a little awkward sometimes, as everything seems to revolve around alcohol whenever you have any type of get together at all.

Last point, and this is a MAJOR point for me, self-medicating with alcohol is a cruel punishment to one's self. It may help a bit at the moment, but any depression you feel will slam onto you at least 5x more when you wake up the next morning. Some of the worst depression I have ever had in my life was after a night of drinking.

[PurityControl]

3 hours ago, cardiackat88. said:

Last point, and this is a MAJOR point for me, self-medicating with alcohol is a cruel punishment to one's self. It may help a bit at the moment, but any depression you feel will slam onto you at least 5x more when you wake up the next morning. Some of the worst depression I have ever had in my life was after a night of drinking.

100% 

Once I quit drinking, all the depression, sadness, & anxiety completely gone. Like Fu*king magic.  

 

5 hours ago, Hotsauce said:

I stopped Jan 1, so it’s been exactly 2 weeks for me. I honestly can’t say that I have felt any different tbh.  I have a history of alcoholism in my family.  I really miss drinking, literally every day I want a cocktail for happy hour. My wife is only drinking on the weekends this month.  We are big wine drinkers, and pretty much have been drinking every day in 2020 (which I know is horrible and wasn’t typical for us).  I also just built a huge bar at my house to display a massive wine and whiskey collection. 

My biggest reservation about completely quitting is the social aspect. We drink wine and whiskey with our close friends on the weekends, and I do a monthly happy house with wings and beer with buddies. I just can’t seem to figure out how to give that up or completely get away from that. This weekend will be a big test for me as we are hosting 2 dinners both Friday and Saturday nights with our friends. I am confident that I am going to be fine not drinking, but how long will that last (past January?). A lot of questions for me. 
 

Also, in my job I work with a lot of people who are dying or will die from horrible illnesses, so I typically use alcohol to numb some of the pain I see during the day at night. I am entertain my clients which alcohol is always a part of.  
 

My best guess for how I will come out of dry January is I will go back to only drinking during the weekends. But I would absolutely love being able to give it up completely. 

Sounds like its intertwined deeply into your social and work life. Maybe just start to scale back a bit, if its not really negatively impacting your life, give yourself 6mo or 1yr to slowly wean yourself off. Each week or weekend drink a little less a little less maybe nurse one/two drinks the whole night so you are still partaking/socializing just not slamming them down try that until alcohol is gone completely.

 

 

[Davidson Deac II]

I drank fairly heavily in my late teens/twenties, and into my early 30's.  I slowly lost interest in it, and now rarely drink.  Hasn't helped much regarding weight loss, but I do feel better, and tend to have fewer medical problems than my friends that still drink.  

I might have a drink or a beer once every 3-4 months or so now.