Less Alcohol - JANUARY 2020- One Day at a Time

dawnbgethealthy

Well, my non-alcohol drinks were a big hit at my NYE party in Idaho. We started at 1pm, so I was glad to have so many non-alcohol options or I would never have made it to midnight!
Only a few real drinkers in the crowd, some had 1 beer throughout the whole day, others didn't have any alcohol.

I made cocoa with peppermint extract and candy canes (stevia, so the whole drink was only 20 calories), and a big pot of mulled cider.
I did have champagne at midnight.

Such a lovely party!! I will attach some pics later of my drinks and the surroundings.

Womona

Well, so much for Dry January. Had a glass of wine after rehearsal, even though I started the night saying I was going to have a non alcoholic drink. But, it was just one and I didn’t want any more after that. Way better than my December!

cavatinne

Hi I am joining for Jan. 2020. This is my 2nd year..was fairly successful last year. Hope to do better this time. Looking forward to feeling more energized from taking a break from my nightly white wine

globalhiker

Jan 1- 6
Jan 2- 0- YAY, first one since Nov!

MissMay

Where do our posts go that we create...click on post reply....and never see them? UGH🤐

Well anyhow, can not remember what I wrote yesterday that did not make it to this thread. But at least I know my memory loss is not from drinking. LOL
Organizing, tossing away old stuff no longer getting used and putting away Christmas decorations is what I blame for my forgetfulness.

Day two January~
AF-2

RickYahr

First two day of Dry January in the books, tonight may be a challenge. My wife is doing week days only and has already said she is looking forward to her wine tonight... Stay Strong!

wine_n_weights

I'd love to join - my name is Mary. Two days in so far. I've never done a dry January (or any month) and am looking forward to this.

shorepine

Last night I was tempted to open a bottle of wine. I had plenty of calories left and I had kind of a stressful day, one of my closest friends is going through some trauma and I'm consumed by it. I didn't want to succumb so quick though to wine, so I had a cup of tea. I found this tea with something called Kava in it, it seems to really relax me in the evening almost to the same degree as wine. I had a hot cup before bed and wrote in my journal, didn't need the wine.

So I am 2 days in AF this month. No more drinking for me until at least a week goes by, since I overdid it on NYE.

I will be gentle with myself though. That is a big goal of mine this year. I have a tendency to berate myself when I slip up on my goals. I'm trying to be more forgiving of myself when I slip up.

Does anyone else have a spouse who drinks a lot? And who really has no desire to drink less? My husband is that way. He drinks beer, probably around 3-4 beers a day. Every day. He rarely gets drunk, but he cracks his first beer in the early evening and it takes him the whole evening to drink them, but its like not an option for him to avoid them. I worry about his health sometimes. Whereas with me, while I enjoy alcohol, I can have days when I don't drink and it would not be a huge deal. He has never had a day without his beer that I can remember, except maybe when he is ill.

It makes it hard to drink less when I'm married to someone with that habit.

forestdweller1

Well, @shorepine , I had a husband who drank nightly, not beer, but the hard stuff. Long story short, he died suddenly at 53, leaving a devastated 14 year old daughter.
My ex SIL is a very heavy nightly drinker who "hasn't got a problem". His 15 year old son who lives with him is doing a damn fine job of raising himself. When I lived with them for a couple years, I didn't touch a wine bottle. My motivation was that the then pre teen did not need two out-of-control adults in the house.

Congratulations to you for finding alternative beverages and activities when you were tempted !!!

Not drinking nightly and not even tempted by AF beer. Guess Catpuccino is responsible. He has taken to sleeping on my lap in the evenings, and I hate to dump him off for something as trivial as a drink.

My "word instead of a resolution" ?? Eliminate my habit of procrastination and "JUSTDOIT".

HAPPY DRY MONTH, Y'ALL.

wine_n_weights

I love that @forestdweller1 ! (coming from a sometimes procrastinator )

looneycatblue

Jan 2019: 2/2 AF

globalhiker

@shorepine, I think many of us, myself included, have a spouse that drinks more than the medically recommended amount. I gave up convincing (and nagging ) him to do it along with me, instead I shut my mouth and I did it and he decided to also stop on his own. He told me he was inspired by me doing it and that convinced him he could do it too. I think sometimes we just need to lead the way and show by example. Not simple but yes it can be done

Lilylady3k

DH has joined me to reduce the number of drinks in the evenings.

January accountability ~ 3
No Alcohol: 3 days
Alcohol: 0 days (0 drinks)
Goal: AF days 3 per week / 12 per month

You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. - John C. Maxwell

Including December in my weekly view.
Dec 30 - 2 glasses wine
Dec 31 - AF
Jan 1 - AF
Jan 2 - AF
Jan 3 - AF

MissMay

@shorepine in reference to your "Does anyone else have a spouse who drinks a lot? " I am raising and waving my hand high. Mine drinks beer all day long and then if we go out, he hits the heavy stuff during happy hour(because to him it is cheaper.. But my thought is it would be cheaper to buy an entire bottle and take home. Than to have 10 drinks out at HH in one week at $6.00 a pop...$60.00)
He also can see no problem with daily, habit and non concious drinking. Which means he will not drink any less. It was very difficult at first for me (like 3 years ago) to not want to be his drinking buddy constantly. He would push the idea hard to have another drink or to loosen up with a drink. That is exactly how I got into the mess I did of being a daily and in my mind a HEAVY drinker. Not proud nor bragging. Only glad I got out of that box to improve MY own life, even if my better half refuses to.

MissMay

@forestdweller1 maybe you should farm Catpuccino out to help people that want to drink less alcohol. Like a drink therapy cat. Lol

Like your 2020 word JUSTDOIT (get that basement cleaned)😎

MissMay

Yay @globalhiker first one in the books!

MissMay

@Womona that is why we call it ONE DAY AT A TIME. It is only day two. Add the 31st day onto Feb 1st and call it all good. We won't judge how you call your month. 😉

MissMay

@dawnbgethealthy that sounds like a lovely evening of AF drinking choices you had. We are waiting for your AF drink pics.

MissMay

Welcome everyone new that has posted since I last said howdy to all our new folks!

dawnbgethealthy

A couple of AF concoctions on NYE. Mulled Cider, and Cocoa with peppermint extract and candy canes.

dawnbgethealthy

As usual, I am going to try for 16-20 AF days for the month.
I just made it to 16 for December.

January 01 - 3 drinks
January 02 - 3 drinks
January 03 - AF

Running tally: 1AF day out of 3 days so far.

BuffMom84

Day 3 is done and I didn't feel like drinking at all! I'm mostly a Friday and Saturday night drinker but since I drank on New Year's Eve and felt like crap on Wednesday and yesterday, I wouldn't have felt the need to drink this weekend anyway. Next weekend might be tougher but my sister said she was going to do Dry January too (even though she doesn't drink nearly as much as I do). So it'll be nice that I won't be tempted to drink whenever I go to her house.

MissMay

@dawnbgethealthy the peppermint cocoa looks so darn delicious. Mulled cider looks good too. ☕

MissMay

@BuffMom84 hope your feeling much better from NYE. It is wonderful to have a Sister that will do Dry January with you. It is a great start to 2020.

MissMay

With some people making resolutions for the New Year it is a shock to see who actually follows through and who does not. On my FaceBook friends list a friend of mine posted he was going to commit to the loss of 25 pounds as a resolution. And he challenged others to post their commitments as well under his. There were tons of commitments such as weight loss, healthly eating habits, being kinder, stop smoking, exercise more, not text and drive. A very long list in fact was taking place with those piggy backing onto others already stated resolutions.

THEN..... I posted. ~ "I commit to drinking less" In big bold letters. You would have thought someone opened the door to a tomb, the posts stopped for a while. No one piggy backed mine. In fact, no one even made a small comment either way about what I wrote, it was if they would get cooties if they even acknowledged my comment or that I was there.

Here is my point. There is NO shame as to wanting to drink less. I believe all of the above stated resolutions by people on that FaceBook post could probably be resolved by them having less alcohol in their lives.
Just my thought......

First Saturday of the New Year. Woot woot

whitpauly

6:45 am in Vegas another 24 💖 I have a spouse who was drinking daily yet when I'd stop/start I think he got so irritated by my drink days he decided to quit too, I'm sure he still has a few here and there but not daily anymore so that's a plus, @MissMay I'm surprised nobody echoed your goal of drinkin less! Oh well 🤷 hope everyone has a great day!

cavatinne

@shorepine. Similar situation for me..it does not bother me, but would be nice to do this together for the in person support..for years I was home alone since he was night shift and rarely drank during the week..

looneycatblue

dawnbgethealthy wrote: »

A couple of AF concoctions on NYE. Mulled Cider, and Cocoa with peppermint extract and candy canes.

We need a YUMMY button! Can you post your recipe for the Cocoa drink please. 😁

MissMay

looneycatblue wrote: »

We need a YUMMY button! Can you post your recipe for the Cocoa drink please. 😁

AGREED on a Yummy button.

LoveyChar

Hi everyone, happy weekend! Dry January so far and I'm planning to keep it that way.