Dry-athlon Challenge!!

lostinrates

I always give up drinking alcohol for three months at the beginning of the year.

Very occasionally if valentines falls at a weekend dh and I will have something then, to break the alcohol fast, and I still cook with alcohol, though I think less.

We are not particularly heavy drinkers, but it tends to step up in December or a least over the festive period, and I actually love my 'dry' quarter of the year.

Flat_Eric

lostinrates wrote: »

I always give up drinking alcohol for three months at the beginning of the year.

Very occasionally if valentines falls at a weekend dh and I will have something then, to break the alcohol fast, and I still cook with alcohol, though I think less.

We are not particularly heavy drinkers, but it tends to step up in December or a least over the festive period, and I actually love my 'dry' quarter of the year.

less than 24 hours till I commence the challenge ! (getting nervous now) I do like the sound of giving it up till April though. Something to think about...

nicolula87

Hmmm I will see how January goes before pledging till April!!

I'm ready, and determined to stop at midnight tonight as well, my friend is also joining in who is out with me tonight, so we will hopefully help each other stop! If I manage that bit, hopefully the rest will be OK.

It's just remembering for me, I so often go and grab a beer from the fridge without thinking about it!

snow_ball

There is still the option to drink during January, but I think there is a minimum donation required! :beer:

nicolula87

Suggested donation for a day 'off the wagon' is £15!! Having just worked out that I have 20 a week spare for January I don't think I will be using that option if I can help it!

lostinrates

Flat_Eric wrote: »

less than 24 hours till I commence the challenge ! (getting nervous now) I do like the sound of giving it up till April though. Something to think about...

My feeling has always been that's like alcohol (not in a necking beer kind of way, but in a nice wines occasionally, an aperitif before supper at the weekends etc) but that if I cannot face just 25% percent of my year without it then I would need to seriously consider whether I should be having any at all.

One of my parents is a perfectly functioning heavy drink, and the idea of a month without horrifies that parent, but they would not consider themselves alcoholic. I never want to be in the situation where something like that is silently having an impact on me, so I decided this while I was in my very early twenties, and it's a habit I have stuck to.

It doesn't diminish my pleasure, far from it, though I do find it has reduced my appetite. Ironically, I am considering doing a wine tasting course this year. .

lostinrates

nicolula87 wrote: »

Suggested donation for a day 'off the wagon' is £15!! Having just worked out that I have 20 a week spare for January I don't think I will be using that option if I can help it!

It would seem more fitting to donate what might be a rounded up estimate on what the monthly alcohol bill might have been if not going without. In anycase, it would be worth setting that aside for a treat , maybe of the non alcohol related type, having completed the month.

ca55ie

Happy New Year to you all.
I saw this post last Thursday and have ben mulling it over ever since. My drinking, only at weekends, has gradually spread so that it now covers every evening, especially so since the Christmas holiday period started.
So - big deep breath - I am going to stop drinking alcohol for at least 2 weeks.
Its worrying how scary this thought is :eek:- that tells me its time I did stop.

Good luck to all of you staying dry this month:beer:

Karb

I'm going to give it a go. Not had any alcohol yet this year (I was ill NYE so didn't drink at all), so I'm going to try to keep it going.

Typically I'm a sit down in the evening in front of the tv with a bottle of beer type of bloke. Trouble is that this tends to lead to more than one bottle which in turn gives me the munchies - crackers and cheese, crisps, biscuits that sort of thing. As I desperately need to lose weight as well as save money, I need to cut out the drinking to prevent the snacking.

Which will save pounds in both senses of the word.

nicolula87

Good to see so many people giving it a go! I managed to stop at midnight NYE so a great start and one day alcohol free so far!!

Starting the year with a hangover certainly gave me the extra motivation to not drink for a month....

Good luck everyone and happy new year!