[Closed] Giving up alcohol..

Depends how much you drink really. It's rare I drink more than 2-3 pints a week. And we brew out own too! I don't see any reason I should give up at all, at my rate of consumption. 🙂

Nothing wrong with alcohol, it's alcoholism that is a problem!

[quote=muddydwarf ]..ish. 12th Jan so its been 12 days without booze for me, i suspect thats the longest time ive gone without alcohol for 30yrs
Its no biggie, just decided to give it a miss for a while as i drank a lot over Xmas & i find it affects my sleep.
Just dawned on me that even with only drinking fri/sat nights i never go more than 5 days without alcohol. Pretty sad really.
I think it can be a bit scary to find out that drinking alcohol has somehow become a regular pasttime. At least you've spotted this. A couple of drinks a week isn't going to harm you though (in fact it may be beneficial). It's those that either drink every day or have to have a complete skinful at the weekends that really need to be a bit careful.

I don't think i drink [i]that[/i] much, normally a bottle of wine over a weekend (we share a bottle each night) if staying in with the occasional whisky as well. Drank a lot over Xmas though, we had a friend round and drank 5L of red wine! 😳

Thing is, even half a bottle of red wine causes me to have broken sleep and insomnia so have given it a break for a while.

EDIT: If we go out it will often be 5 pints of real ale, so not exactly a light drinker either.

Nice large Jura at the moment and a couple of bottles of wine over last week too. Wouldn't want to give up but its good to have weeknights without and be sensible at weekends. Agree that reduces quality of sleep with age.

I've knocked it on the head for a bit too, more for weight loss assistance than actual issues with the ale, I think.

I'll have a drink in a month or so, on my birthday.

12 days here too, found it very hard on Friday evening but not missing it since
Maybe we need a support thread to get us all through this.....

Ill manage a month easy

I bought a case of 20 tins of lager for Christmas - there's 19 still left! I by no means class myself as teetotal, but I've just gradually drifted away from drinking as I've given my riding more significance.

Regular drinker here, probably 6 nights a week

Took jan and February off last year, must confess felt great, really made me think, probably take 3 months off this year. Funny, despite drinking for 20years, can stop fine, even in the pub last night wasn't tempted

I have a funeral on Tuesday, that might be difficult to avoid alcohol. Apart from that i've not missed it really. Got 4 bottles of various Jura whiskies here and not felt the urge to open one - the STW 500 miles in a month challenge may have something to do with that though.

I was i the pub the other day drinking tomatojuice as you do while everyone around me was supping ale and wine etc. It has no lure to me when i take a break from it.

Then someone opened a packet of salt and vinegar mccoys, I was a gibbering wreck and watched every salt laden slice of crinkly joy dissapear.

My name is Josh and I am a crispaholic.

............is like giving up cycling. never!!

I have just knocked it on the head during the week. Just have a few pints on the Sat.

Baby[s]cham[/s] steps and all that...

I've recently quit drinking as part of losing weight. Don't really miss it as much as I thought I would.

I usually don't drink at all for most of thr time then make a fool of myself when I go out every 3 months or so when my mates are back home. Haven't had one since about a week [i]before[/i] Xmas...

Far too much sobriety on this thread I reckon 🙂

I also seem not to have had a drink for 12 days, although this wasn't planned. Will see how it goes over the next couple of weeks. Now need to see if I can reduce the amount of chocolate I eat.

Now come on, alcohol is fine but giving up chocolate????

Mind you i have just ridden 76 miles/6000ft ascent this weekend 🙂

I did 12 weeks off it before Christmas.
I sleep alot better when not drinking.
Gave up giving up for Christmas and my birthday, just finishing off some rioja then back on the wagon tomorrow.

Enforced sobriety for me. I am loving the full unbroken nights sleep and the energy I have the next day. I was always tired before.

Drank a lot over Xmas though, we had a friend round and drank 5L of red wine!

3 of you drank 5Ltrs? Yeah not sure that's a lot.

On a serious note sounds like you believe it's causing you problems and are now trying to do something about it which is good.

Wife's birthday is the 4th and mine is the 8th, stood giving up in January.

I'm far from a heavy drinker these days though, had 2 small bottles today.

If you think you have a problem, you don't. You know when you have a problem. Whether you admit that to yourself or not is a different matter.

For far to long I did have a drink problem, in the pub as soon as it opened 4-5 bottles of beer then 4 cans to take home, it was almost every day, things were crap my relationship with my GF, work just about every aspect of my life, hated my job the list could go on & on, but stupidly I never blamed the drink, even when I fell in a river pisssed and nearly drowed, any way that was last spring woke up one morning feeling rough as usual and had a serious chat with my self in the mirror and knocked it on the head for 3 months which I found extremely hard because I had to totally change my thinking, plus the with drawel wasn't good, up shot was I lost 2.5 stone and I never felt better, then I started to drift back in to my old habits, started of with a couple. Of beers a night and you can guess the rest, any way having been through it once I could see what was happening so nipped it in the bud, it's not easy for me but the benifits are just so much better being of it than on it, but I just can have a couple of beers, it's drink till I'm pissed, so now I don't have any, for me 1 is to many and 10 is not enough, when your in with a crowd of people that. Drink it's seems quite normal to drink like I did it's only when you get out of that circle of people you see it for what it is

I'm just glad I did what I did and got out of it and change my life before it got really bad, because it was going that way

One other thing

If you think you have a drink problem, ask your self this question,

Is booze costing me more than money, if you have a drink problem you will know the answer

If you need help there are lots of ways to try and beat if, you can even chat to me about it

[url= http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2014/01/11/millions-die-of-boredom-as-binge-abstinence-takes-nhs-to-breaking-point/ ]The truth about dry January[/url]

Friend gave up for six months as she was doing the Marmotte. Only effect she noticed was when she started again she was a considerably cheaper date.

ONly a few a weekends as it breaks the sleep up too much, after even just a single ale I'll wake at 3am for about an hour.

I'm teetotal now for some years.
The only negative I can find is if you're in the pub for more than an hour or 2 it's hard to find something pleasant to drink. (1 diet coke is enough)

I used to drink too much. Not alcoholic but it was certainly a bad habit. Probably a bottle of wine per day plus weekend beers.

Since stopping my weight is lower but best of all my memory & speed of mental response is signficantly better. It was only when I stopped drinking I realised how it affected me....

we have knocked out mid week drinking - weekend as well would be too much!

I've got no intention of giving up the booze. I love being in old pubs and love the banter. I steer clear of hard drink and stick to session beer. The more people make about giving up the booze, the less likely it is to happen, I don't see the point of Dry January - why make an event of it, just give up if that is what you want to do.

I drank the first weekend of the month and wont have another drink til the last weekend. Not long but I find it easy to give up especially if I'm working the weekends. If I'm not its all too tempting to go out drinking! I over indulged at xmas though so I'm happy to have some time off. I could do with the spare cash as well.

i cheated yesterday while out for a mates birthday. was in a pub that is also a thai restaurant and they had **** all in the way of soft drinks. £2.50 for a lime and soda (which is a bit steep for a glass of squash) or £3 for a pint of nice local ale. feel crappy today though and cant wait to get back on my detox

Apart from a half bottle of champagne on Christmas day, I've been dry since... last year some time. I think it was April, may, maybe before that.

It's long enough that I can't remember anyway.

To be honest, it's no great loss. I feel a lot better for it.

The only time I've come close to giving up drinking was in 2006 after I signed up for a solo place at the Mayhem. It wasn't a deliberate decision, I just lost the taste or desire for alcohol. Other than that there's usually more days I do drink than I don't but it rarely goes much beyond a beer or a couple of glasses of wine with a meal.
Memories of the hangover I had after my 40th birthday party have been enough to stop me over-indulging for the last 10 years.

hic 🙂

I drink little and often. Probably every other day. I like the taste of the stuff and would far rather have a beer or a glass of wine than a cup of tea, especially in the evening. I very rarely go to the pub.

However, I've found as I get older that I don't actually like the sensation of being drunk and I absolutely detest losing a day or even a morning to a hangover, so I tend to rap it after the odd one or two.

I lead a crashingly dull life with very few vices for the most part, so I'm quite fond of the ones I still allow myself.

One thing I have managed to wean myself on to with some success is 0% alcohol wheat beer. Just the ticket for anyone who wants to scratch the beery itch without actually getting pished. For some reason it seems to survive the de-alcoholification process with its flavour more intact than other types of beer.