Dry January

Dry January has given me the clarity that my life is actually boring…

Haha, I said the same thing. But in a “I’m really enjoying having no plans and staying home” way. Zero alcohol or edibles/THC drinks in January for me. Probably the longest I’ve ever gone and it’s felt good.

This will be the first full Dry January I’ve done. The last few years, I’ve made it a few weeks and then had some “excuse” to end it early (work trip, social gathering, etc). I had three 3-4 client dinners, a happy hour, and two work trips this January. For the work dinners and the happy hour, found some NA beers that filled the void nicely. The only real situation where I really wanted a drink was an airport beer before flying back home from a work trip.

I’ve not been a big weekday drinker outside of a random event because I hate the feeling of not being 100% at work but a big social drinker on weekends. My goal is to leverage Dry January to reduce my alcohol consumption but not eliminate it. We’ll see how that goes…
 
Well it wasn't a complete success, but I mostly got what I wanted out of it. Ended up having drinks on 6 days. Three of those were at dinner and I was happy that I just had 1 or 2 at dinner while out to eat with others then cut it off. Most of the time I would have had at least 1 or 2 more when getting back home.

Two of them were a work trip where I'm expected to network/socialize and there was a completely open bar for 3 nights. I'll admit, I needed to pop an ibuprofen one morning. Should have done better that time. The final time was at a party at my wife's co-workers house. Only had 2 beers there, but did have a couple of whiskeys when I got home to watch a movie.

It would have been cool to make it all the way through, but I do like that I didn't completely throw in the towel after I gave in. The long-term goal wasn't to quit drinking all together, just to get a reset to be healthier with it.
 
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Well it wasn't a complete success, but I mostly got what I wanted out of it. Ended up having drinks on 6 days. Three of those were at dinner and I was happy that I just had 1 or 2 at dinner while out to eat with others then cut it off. Most of the time I would have had at least 1 or 2 more when getting back home.

Two of them were a work trip where I'm expected to network/socialize and there was a completely open bar for 3 nights. I'll admit, I needed to pop an ibuprofen one morning. Should have done better that time. The final time was at a party at my wife's co-workers house. Only had 2 beers there, but did have a couple of whiskeys when I got home to watch a movie.

It would have been cool to make it all the way through, but I do like that I didn't completely throw in the towel after I gave in. The long-term goal wasn't to quit drinking all together, just to get a reset to be healthier with it.
Well done!

I believe I only drank 3 days in January, which for me, is HUGE.

Truthfully, this thread and seeing all the updates helped me substantially, so thank you to all of you that motivated me without you even knowing
 
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My Dry January is coming to an end, feel pretty darn good. All of the health metrics on my Apple Watch improved significantly, my resting heart rate graph being the biggest eye-opener of changes from no alcohol or caffeine for 30 days. It plummeted for January.

View attachment 142253
I quit drinking over a year ago and the health benefits have been remarkable.
 
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My resting is high 40s. When I was doing Ironman distance events at night it got creepy low(like hibernating). Dr was aware and ok w it.

I donate plasma and if your heart rate is in the 40's you get flagged and have to see the resident nurse. Since I do bike about 5 days a week, she tagged me with "athletic heart rate".
 
My resting is high 40s. When I was doing Ironman distance events at night it got creepy low(like hibernating). Dr was aware and ok w it.

I range from 48-58 as a daily average, I've seen the overnights where it shows me dipping into the thirties in deep sleep. 61 right now because I'm sick. When I was on my 2nd? 3rd? epidural during labor with my first the doctor asked if I were a runner because during this my RHR was 50. They weren't sure if it was me or the meds. I said not recently because, you know, nine months and four days pregnant. I asked if 50 was bad and he said "only if you stop breathing" which still cracks me up for some reason. Just casually joking about death with a woman in active labor.
 
I range from 48-58 as a daily average, I've seen the overnights where it shows me dipping into the thirties in deep sleep. 61 right now because I'm sick. When I was on my 2nd? 3rd? epidural during labor with my first the doctor asked if I were a runner because during this my RHR was 50. They weren't sure if it was me or the meds. I said not recently because, you know, nine months and four days pregnant. I asked if 50 was bad and he said "only if you stop breathing" which still cracks me up for some reason. Just casually joking about death with a woman in active labor.
When my wife gave birth to our first born, we told the nurse that I don't do well with blood or really anything... bodily like that. When she started pushing the nurse turned to me and said "that chair, you, sit, now". Once baby was born she was like "sorry I was rude, I just didn't want to deal with you passing out on top of everything else going on"... Still makes me laugh.
 
I range from 48-58 as a daily average, I've seen the overnights where it shows me dipping into the thirties in deep sleep. 61 right now because I'm sick. When I was on my 2nd? 3rd? epidural during labor with my first the doctor asked if I were a runner because during this my RHR was 50. They weren't sure if it was me or the meds. I said not recently because, you know, nine months and four days pregnant. I asked if 50 was bad and he said "only if you stop breathing" which still cracks me up for some reason. Just casually joking about death with a woman in active labor.

Doctors and medical professionals have a weird comfort with death.

My doctor cousin is very casual with it. "When do you perform CPR?" "First I wait for you to die" type of stuff.

Another doc says "when you get prostate cancer". WTF? Don't ******* throw out the C word like you're super sizing your fry order.

Death is kind of a big deal to most of us. Read the room a little
 
I range from 48-58 as a daily average, I've seen the overnights where it shows me dipping into the thirties in deep sleep. 61 right now because I'm sick. When I was on my 2nd? 3rd? epidural during labor with my first the doctor asked if I were a runner because during this my RHR was 50. They weren't sure if it was me or the meds. I said not recently because, you know, nine months and four days pregnant. I asked if 50 was bad and he said "only if you stop breathing" which still cracks me up for some reason. Just casually joking about death with a woman in active labor.
Respiratory depression in the hospital is a super easy fix so not really talking about death but either way unless you know the patient well always good idea to avoid throwing that out to a person in active labor lol. Might have gotten that heart rate to jump up a bit though with that comment.

Also kudos on the low rhr
 
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This was my first dry January, although I started on Jan. 6th. My only cheats were to have one celebratory scotch with my dad for each Iowa State win (I'm not superstitious, but I am a little 'stitious.). Those were the only drinks I've had. Lots of NA beer and THC seltzers, though. I can't say I feel a ton different or anything, but I'm sure my body (and especially my liver) appreciate the effort. I'm officially going off the wagon today. I'll probably try and do this again next year, though. It wasn't so bad.
 
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I think this is my 4th or 5th consecutive dry January. I am planning to end it this evening, so a few hours before Feb 1st....but close enough. It's not bad at all and it just feels like a nice reset to start the year.