Dryuary

[GravitySucks]

Anyone else do Dry-uary?
I enjoy alcohol and too often to excess. The period from Thanksgiving to New Year's is full of drinking opportunities, and though I didn't over do it this year I'm hoping an alcohol free month will give the liver a well deserved break.

Health benefits of Dry-uary article:
https://health.usnews.com/health-ne...hings-that-happen-to-your-body-during-dryuary

 

[MRG]

Too soon. No Nut November just ended.

Actually I haven't had any alcohol for 5 months. One thing I'll guarentee is quality of sleep is so much better without alcohol. I wake up once at night and it's a "soft fuzzy sleep" I awake from and quickly return to.

 

[JoeWras]

I never heard of this until a few hours ago. My exercise partner mentioned he is doing dryuary, and he fully expected to fall down tonight. He had to explain it all to me.

 

[GravitySucks]

That's one I'm not voluntarily going to sign up for.

Too soon. No Nut November just ended.
.

 

[erkevin]

I am dry this month (maybe next also). I always try for one or two months dry each year.

 

[Chuckanut]

Thankfully, I am not a big drinker. I attribute this to my culture (drinking is OK, drunkenness is shameful) and my genes. When I consume more than a few drinks, I start to nod off and become as interesting as a watching paint dry.

I have about as much need to stop drinking for a month or two as Jeff Bezos has to pick up a quarter on a muddy street. No credit goes to me, it's my elders and my genes.

 

[ratface]

participating this year also

I just heard about it this year and decided it would do me some good. I actually awoke today feeling better than I have in months and have already gained one belt hole space. We were out tonight at Cafe BABA RE BA and I passed on the Sangria although I did take a sip of DW's and thought it was too sweet anyway. As far as movements go this isn't a bad one with the exception that I am sitting here typing rather than sleeping which seemed easier to attain with my Cabernet.

 

[dcoy]

Anyone else do Dry-uary?
I enjoy alcohol and too often to excess. The period from Thanksgiving to New Year's is full of drinking opportunities, and though I didn't over do it this year I'm hoping an alcohol free month will give the liver a well deserved break.

Health benefits of Dry-uary article:
https://health.usnews.com/health-ne...hings-that-happen-to-your-body-during-dryuary

Yes, big in the U.K. but catching on globally. There is an excellent Facebook group, very supportive folks.

 

[Just_Steve]

Alcohol isn't that much a part of my life that I have to have a dry month.

 

[W2R]

Alcohol isn't that much a part of my life that I have to have a dry month.

+1
I don't drink at all and haven't for decades. Why? Because I don't want to.

 

[ckelly78z]

Alcohol isn't that much a part of my life that I have to have a dry month.

I had 2 cold beers in a frosted mug last night with pizza. That brings me to about a 6 pack so far this year. We have friends who can't wait to get home from work so they can start mixing concoctions (I just don't get that). No need to dry myself out, and I sleep just fine, with little anxiety.

 

[marko]

Ever heard of the people who stop one vice or another and die soon after?

I just can't take that chance, sorry.

 

[bmcgonig]

Seriously, the only friends that I knew that would take a month off drinking were all functional alcoholics. So if you feel you need to take a month off...[emoji16]

 

[COcheesehead]

All things in balance. I am actually at my lightest in years because I just didn’t eat or drink a lot over the holidays.
I would rather just say no a little at a time than go on what amounts to a binge in the opposite direction.

 

[RunningBum]

Seriously, the only friends that I knew that would take a month off drinking were all functional alcoholics. So if you feel you need to take a month off...[emoji16]

Seriously, did you read the article in the OP?

 

[H2ODude]

I'm much better without it so gave it up. I detest the alcoholic label for all the images and assumptions it brings with it. I believe the medical community has adopted alcohol use disorder or some such. That seems to recognize that while there are those of us that have difficulty limiting use, we don't sleep in gutters with brown paper bags and MD 2020. No one in my family falls into that description but several of us drink too much when we do. Hence I don't, my blood pressure thanks me, my weight is less, and I feel a whole lot better. Never have I woken up and thought, "Gee, I wish I drank last night." As always, your mileage may vary.

 

[jollystomper]

Not need for us. We drink so little that the bottle of rum and the bottle of wine we received as Christmas presents will last us through June.

 

[ncbill]

A large part of me leaving Megacorp was a department head who was one of the 10-15% of people who should have never taken that first drink...

 

[Pellice]

I had a bad cold the first 10 days of January and drinking alcohol didn't appeal to me. Now I'm feeling a bit better but my stomach is still unsettled, and I haven't felt like drinking any kind of alcohol. But now I'm kind of considering that I'm on a roll without the calories in alcohol (beer is my preferred drink, and only 1 in a day), and I'm going to Puerto Rico in March (though not a beach trip), and I think to myself, "Hey, maybe this would be an easy way to drop 3 or 4 lbs."

I'm actually ok with my current weight, but, like so many, I think dropping that last 5 lbs would make a striking difference. Probably not true. I'm taking it day by day and telling myself that if I feel like drinking a beer, to go ahead. I'm also open to all those experiences others claim for an abstention period - "feeling lighter," "feeling less sluggish," "feeling more alert." So far I haven't noticed any of that. And I haven't lost any weight, but it's only been 2 weeks.

 

[Big_Hitter]

we used to do it until we completely quit drinking

I have a few friends that are doing it now

 

[Bir48die]

Have on friend that dries out this month. The rest of us keep on truckin’.

 

[GravitySucks]

Again, this is not an alcoholism cure. For that I'd recomended to quit drinking for the day, not a month.
A third of the way through and my waist is about an inch smaller. As my favorite beers are close to 250 calories each I was expecting to lose weight, but this is more a reduction in bloat. Weight has dropped to the pre holidays level.
I have not had better sleep. That could be due to the head cold that I caught on the third though.
Some have said I should expect my skin to look healthier, but I haven't noticed a difference.
Still dropping by the local bars to see my friends and weekly trivia contest, keeping my social life on keel.

 

[JoeWras]

Kind of humorous that a wine thread and a dry thread are competing this morning.

 

[mountainsoft]

Anyone else do Dry-uary?

I've never heard of it, but we aren't heavy drinkers anyway. We typically only have a couple glasses of wine on Friday and Saturday nights, but rarely drink during the week.

That said, by the end of 2019, our weekend treat was starting to expand into week days also. We find that when we drink we tend to snack more, so we end up gaining weight. Alcohol is also relatively expensive, so that was starting to add up also. I recently started trying different box wines to save money. Unfortunately, the convenience of having a box of wine with a spout ready to pour meant we ended up drinking more, and spent just as much if not more.

So while we're not abstaining for the month, we have been trying to cut back on how much we drink. Mostly just to spend less and hopefully lose a little weight. We just had a beer when we went out for dinner last night, so it's not complete avoidance. But we haven't had anything to drink at home the last couple weeks.

 

[Winemaker]

At 61, I can count on one hand how many times I had too much to drink and got drunk. They were all before I started making beer and wine, 11 years ago.