Advice for quitting drinking for a month

BoxsterCy

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I quit drinking at full stop about a year and a half ago. Health reasons, wanted to lose weight, etc. it was never a large part of my life to begin with, son it was easy to quit for me. I do get a craving for wine from time to time, but overall it isn’t bad.

The worst part of telling someone you don’t drink is the mental jump they make in assuming that I have or have ever had a drinking problem. I tell someone that I quit drinking and they apologize and get uneasy. Not judging you for drinking, I am just not drinking because it is counterproductive to my immediate health goals.

Best of luck to you!

I think that's becoming a less common reaction. I know several friends and acquaintances that have stopped drinking in the last year. A couple quit because of heart issues and another gal more in line with what @cowgirl836 posted.
 

alarson

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I think that's becoming a less common reaction. I know several friends and acquaintances that have stopped drinking in the last year. A couple quit because of heart issues and another gal more in line with what @cowgirl836 posted.

Especially if you're trying to lose some weight. The calories from drinking add up extremely quickly, and that's before the junk food you tend to end up wanting to eat after a few. I think that reason shuts people down pretty quickly on questions re: drinking.
 

FriendlySpartan

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I think that's becoming a less common reaction. I know several friends and acquaintances that have stopped drinking in the last year. A couple quit because of heart issues and another gal more in line with what @cowgirl836 posted.
Honestly I’ve seen a massive decrease in drinking culture in states where THC is now legal. Will be interesting to see how numbers continue to change as it becomes more acceptable.
 

gocy444

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Honestly I’ve seen a massive decrease in drinking culture in states where THC is now legal. Will be interesting to see how numbers continue to change as it becomes more acceptable.
Especially now that they make drinks that taste delicious. They make them in 2.5 mg cans so you can drink 4-5 while at a party and not be too high. In my 30s I just can’t take the hangover and anxiety with booze anymore. If I have more than 4-5 drinks I’m hungover for the entire next day and my anxiety is through the roof.
 
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carvers4math

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I quit drinking at full stop about a year and a half ago. Health reasons, wanted to lose weight, etc. it was never a large part of my life to begin with, son it was easy to quit for me. I do get a craving for wine from time to time, but overall it isn’t bad.

The worst part of telling someone you don’t drink is the mental jump they make in assuming that I have or have ever had a drinking problem. I tell someone that I quit drinking and they apologize and get uneasy. Not judging you for drinking, I am just not drinking because it is counterproductive to my immediate health goals.

Best of luck to you!
Husband and I quit drinking just because it seemed to zap any energy we have. We found it easier to deal with nosy people by just claiming it was a medication conflict, which people will easily understand with old people even though it isn’t accurate in our case.

He has a relative who we believe is either dying from the cigarettes, the booze, or both. Can’t get him to do anything about it, but his medical status is scary.
 
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Rogue52

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With the digestive issues, you may be at a point of wanting to completely eliminate alcohol, but the recommendations earlier about making small changes which grow to big changes over time is the way to go with any type of diet.

I still drink regularly (almost exclusively beer), but I've begun to greatly reduce the high calorie IPAs, etc. I am doing that mostly because I've noticed my metabolism slow down, so the same diet/workout regimen isn't keeping me in the same shape.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
I am what you would have called a bad roommate in college. I drank heavy. It’s was a rare night when I wasn’t at minimum buzzed. I was good in school and kept up, I had my first 6 roommates flunk out (see the constant with me and my roommates, me). I slowed down at the very end of college and when my first kid came, I didn’t want them growing up in bars like I did as a kid. So I never let them see me drunk and I rarely let them see me drink. There would be times that if we did not go to a wedding reception, or something like that, I would have maybe had 3-4 drinks in a year.

I learned to also hate hangovers. It killed that night and the next day. I saw my in-laws start drinking hard and show up to kids’ 3rd birthday party hungover and just jackwagons. That also helped me quit.

Stay busy enough and you will just not even think about it.
 

carvers4math

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I am what you would have called a bad roommate in college. I drank heavy. It’s was a rare night when I wasn’t at minimum buzzed. I was good in school and kept up, I had my first 6 roommates flunk out (see the constant with me and my roommates, me). I slowed down at the very end of college and when my first kid came, I didn’t want them growing up in bars like I did as a kid. So I never let them see me drunk and I rarely let them see me drink. There would be times that if we did not go to a wedding reception, or something like that, I would have maybe had 3-4 drinks in a year.

I learned to also hate hangovers. It killed that night and the next day. I saw my in-laws start drinking hard and show up to kids’ 3rd birthday party hungover and just jackwagons. That also helped me quit.

Stay busy enough and you will just not even think about it.
We never drank in the presence of our kids until they were all legal age. Dumbass SIL always drinking to stupid in front of her teenagers.
 
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Bipolarcy

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Hello all!
So a little backstory, I drank really heavily when I was in college like 5 days a week and since then I really haven't binge drank except maybe 9 times in over 8 years.

Since my crazy undergrad days, I've had about 2 standard drinks per day, averaging for a total of 14 per week, trying to keep in line with what the previous health studies said about drinking in moderation. Mostly because I was using those 2 drinks as a night cap to fall asleep quicker.
I never had a reason to quit because it wasn't hurting my relationships, my job, and my health. (usually the signs that you need to quit drinking)

Well I'm having a lot of digestive problems and decided I would take a month off booze to see if I could reset everything. (since I haven't really given my body a true break since graduating college.)

Anything to look out for or helpful recommendations for anyone else who has done this? 31 years old btw

Thank you
I was drinking about as much as you when I was your age. When I got my first job in the profession that turned out to be a career, I was partying 4-5 times a week because the job entailed a midweek break that was almost like an extra day of weekend. So I would be drinking Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday at a minimum, and more if the circumstances were right (bar special, special occasion, taco Tuesday). I got married after that and the wife was a partier, so the drinking didn't slow down much. Then we had kids and it slowed down (for me) quite a bit. The wife, not so much. I had an alcoholic father and the one thing I promised myself is that my kids would never see me drunk. To this day, they haven't. Then I got divorced and the drinking ramped up again for me.

Then one day it just stopped. It wasn't any grand plan on my part to stop drinking, I just stopped drinking. It no longer held any interest for me. I guess I grew up ... finally ... or grew tired of the bar scene, or just grew tired of feeling like $hit on the mornings after, I don't know what it was specifically. Maybe a combination of all of them. And you know what? I really don't miss it. Even when I was drinking, I never found it necessary to buy beer every time I went to the grocery store. All my drinking was done outside the house, so it was no trouble to quit with no alcohol in the house, which was how it always was anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy the occasional beer or maybe a bloody Mary, but never more than one and, at this point, I haven't had even one drink in more than two years. The reason being that I'm cooking at home more instead of going out to eat. That's the only time I ever have a drink now is when I go out to eat, but I don't even get a drink every time I do that either. I just don't think about it or remember to do it because it's just not that important for me. For someone who used to think he might be an alcoholic, that's pretty remarkable to me. So my advice is don't sweat it. If you're anything like me, you won't even notice it that much.
 
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MJ29

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thats a great idea. because that's a big part of the reason, I love the taste of beer. I think confluence came out with something called Hop Water too that tastes like a beer

Confluence's Hop Water is pretty good. If you're in DSM, I'd happily give you the two cans in our fridge for you to try.
 

AuH2O

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I went dry for 3 months a few years ago, and have since gone for 1 month stretches in the winters and springs probably 3 or 4 times. As you might imagine, if you're a daily drinker getting through that first week is the toughest, especially that first weekend. One thing I'd do is anytime the craving was getting heavy is find some activity to get myself into... get the leash out and walk the dog, clean the house and vacuum, mow the lawn (even if it didn't absolutely need it), get in a quick workout. After that first week/weekend it definitely smoothed out for me and when I went 3 months I wasn't even really thinking about it after a few weeks.

One thing I'd also suggest is, if you're not already, adding in some kind of exercise/workout regimen. As long as your diet doesn't change, cutting out alcohol will result in you losing some weight. Adding in some regular workouts along with cutting out those empty calories should get you into some solid shape. I lost just short of 30 pounds when I went dry for 3 months, and that was with some exercise but nothing crazy.

Yeah that's not sweetening the deal any...
 

madguy30

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I learned to also hate hangovers. It killed that night and the next day.

I like to have a few while out camping but really need to sync it up to not bring any for this very reason. It's a way better experience to wake up refreshed and take in the surroundings sober.
 
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AuH2O

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Lol, maybe not. I find stuff like that therapeutic but probably not for everyone.
Well, murdering people is therapeutic for serial killers, but I don't think it's a good idea to be handing out that advice.
 

madguy30

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Be proactive and share with friends/family that you're taking a month off. In the past when I've taken breaks, hanging out with friends, going to a barbeque, and stuff like that have been the spots where I've been most likely to have a drink due to peer pressure/fomo.

But I discovered by sharing about the break, they'd support, they'd have non-alcoholic drinks available, and often times one or couple of them would join in. The peer pressure stuff also fell off as we aged haha.

I like this. People in one's life that are good and supportive are going to be just fine with someone taking control of their own situation for betterment.
 

secondname

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Damn near 10 years sober and it began with a similar post to yours.

DM for a more private chat if you want but the reality is if you're asking this you already know what the end goal is here. It's just hard to commit to getting there but you CAN do it. Absolutely.

Best wishes

 
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HOTDON

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Husband and I quit drinking just because it seemed to zap any energy we have. We found it easier to deal with nosy people by just claiming it was a medication conflict, which people will easily understand with old people even though it isn’t accurate in our case.

He has a relative who we believe is either dying from the cigarettes, the booze, or both. Can’t get him to do anything about it, but his medical status is scary.
This brings up an excellent tool. Being accountable to someone else increases your odds for quitting drinking and smoking, for exercising more, etc. AA works by discussing your progress with a group. Fitness classes are built on regular participation. In general people are far less willing to let someone else down than they are to simply let themselves down. Find one person doing the same thing and talk to them about it. Go for it together.
 

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