Dry January [split topic]

[hummingofevil]

Irn-Bru big cans in Home Bargains. 50p each. If you like having a big can in your hand.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

BIG CANUARY

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

What is it with alcohol? Why can't people just not drink it and spend a shit ton of money on it?

Vices innit. There's a whole thread on it.

Basically most people feel the need to medicate to maintain a sane existence, some people just choose a way that also tastes nice, instead of say, strapping someone to some railings and raping them.

[Ferris]

Yeah, vices innit. Like I said upthread - non alcoholic beer has always been a bit of a puzzle to me (as Seb Cobb points out, it's like reminding yourself you're not actually drinking) but I thought "I'll never have a valid reason to get stuck into these weird cans I see at the grocery store so let's seize the day" out of interest, especially as it was mentioned here earlier on.

I'm like Louis Theroux, interviewing people who drink 0% lager to try and understand the lifestyle. You have to immerse yourself.



"After reading a few threads, I felt ready to try some non-alcoholic beer on my own".

[Bazooka]

Louis did that doc on drinking the real booze, would a whole hour doc on people drinking Becks blue fly? Louis can make anything work.

[thugler]

Yeah, vices innit. Like I said upthread - non alcoholic beer has always been a bit of a puzzle to me (as Seb Cobb points out, it's like reminding yourself you're not actually drinking) but I thought "I'll never have a valid reason to get stuck into these weird cans I see at the grocery store so let's seize the day" out of interest, especially as it was mentioned here earlier on.

I'm like Louis Theroux, interviewing people who drink 0% lager to try and understand the lifestyle. You have to immerse yourself.



"After reading a few threads, I felt ready to try some non-alcoholic beer on my own".

Is it that difficult to understand? It tastes mostly like beer and is nice to drink.

[Ferris]

3 beers with CaBbers Blodwyn and QDRPHNC. I lasted about 30 seconds in a bar before ordering alcohol.

Nobody's perfect!

[Ian Drunken Smurf]

Late to the thread as ever. Afraid I don't do Dry January. I do "enjoy only quality booze January" - drinking Japanese single malts, great beers (from around the globe). If you have to have a vice, do it well. And be most excellent to each other!

[Beagle 2]

There are certainly things to love about not drinking. I'm staying overnight for a work thing and was invited out for a curry and beers last night with my colleagues. Fuck that, had a good excuse. They're the sort of people who do accept "even if I come I won't be drinking" as an absolute reason to stay the fuck away from their piss up. One or two other tedious social events I've managed to swerve as well. And going to the cinema last Saturday night was brilliant, I looked forward to the film and enjoyed the actual experience instead of having to plan out my booze intake. I don't think most people think like that but with me everything about nights out has always been about drinking to some extent, regardless of what else I'm doing.

"Ah you've only done two weeks, shut up about your tedious middle class non-struggle", you might say. Aye, but I've never gone this long in 20 years, so it is a big deal for me!

Another thing I've been invited to in a couple of months -  a trip to the wrestling in London, an all day piss up starting in the morning. For a few years now I've wanted to avoid that sort of shit like the plague, I'd like to go and do the thing, see the folk, I just don't want to destroy myself, have tedious drunk conversations, lose my wallet, spend a fortune etc. This is slowly giving me the confidence to finally be able to say that.

[wooders1978]

Well my beers with my mate started well (brewdog nanny state & erdinger) - didn't really like either so ended the night with a large glass of Rioja - which I very much enjoyed

[Norton Canes]

There are certainly things to love about not drinking. I'm staying overnight for a work thing and was invited out for a curry and beers last night with my colleagues. Fuck that, had a good excuse. They're the sort of people who do accept "even if I come I won't be drinking" as an absolute reason to stay the fuck away from their piss up. One or two other tedious social events I've managed to swerve as well. And going to the cinema last Saturday night was brilliant, I looked forward to the film and enjoyed the actual experience instead of having to plan out my booze intake. I don't think most people think like that but with me everything about nights out has always been about drinking to some extent, regardless of what else I'm doing.

"Ah you've only done two weeks, shut up about your tedious middle class non-struggle", you might say. Aye, but I've never gone this long in 20 years, so it is a big deal for me!

Another thing I've been invited to in a couple of months -  a trip to the wrestling in London, an all day piss up starting in the morning. For a few years now I've wanted to avoid that sort of shit like the plague, I'd like to go and do the thing, see the folk, I just don't want to destroy myself, have tedious drunk conversations, lose my wallet, spend a fortune etc. This is slowly giving me the confidence to finally be able to say that

This was my experience of coordinating alcohol intake on ostensibly social nights out - planning the whole evening not just around how much I was going to drink but when and where I was going to get each drink, even to the ridiculous extent that I would whether I should have some beers at home in case I drink enough (I use the phrase 'ostensibly social' to differentiate them from nights in one pub where the whole point was just to drink). I have to say though that my response to people asking me to go out on the kind of piss-ups you describe is generally a firm 'GTF' with no alcohol-related excuses necessary. But well done for now doing things on your won terms - that's what kicking any kind of dependency is all about.

[shiftwork2]

I've settled into it nicely this time.  It's week 3 and I'm already starting to consider my booze life in Feb and onwards.  I don't want to give up the wondrous sleep and improved mood, however I also have a hankering for a tremendous skinful.  Moderation strategies?  Do you use 'rules' (hopefully this won't be necessary but I'll take it if it works) based on location, situation, the calendar, the clock, counting units or some other thing?

alright cheers

[Ferris]

Update - slept terribly and I feel tired and shit. Is this what boozing is like?! It's almost as if poisoning yourself doesn't make you feel great or something.

Fuck this, give me sobriety pls.

[Cuellar]

Mmmm, I had some cocktails and wine on Sunday (first booze since NYE) and woke up on Monday feeling all tired and irritable and then I realised it might be a bit of a 'hangover'.

For the first time in my life I had the slight nagging thought of '...I can't be arsed with this, is it worth it?' I mean I've had 'god I'm never drinking again' hangovers of course, but me and I both knew I wasn't serious. This felt different, though.

[Jerzy Bondov]

I bought some of that Prohibition Budweiser. Fucking hell if you thought normal Budweiser was unpleasant have I got a treat for you. Highly recommended to all who fancy drinking some puke out a little can.

[Ferris]

I bought some of that Prohibition Budweiser. Fucking hell if you thought normal Budweiser was unpleasant have I got a treat for you. Highly recommended to all who fancy drinking some puke out a little can.

Grolsch or Heineken is the better 0% lager, from my extensive research.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Well late to the party but also not drinking this month as well as ditching meat and dairy. Felt surprisingly great , sleep well and shifting some weight too.

It's been easier because me and Mrs Skeleton are both doing it so one of us isn't enjoying a month of booze and nice meaty curries while the other looks on helplessly, but the strange thing is it feels fine. I'm not gagging for a drink, I'm quite happy with the veggie meals we're cooking and saving a shit load of money in the process.

If I could make myself do this all year round I would...but I know deep down that's never going to happen and I already feel shit for it.

[QDRPHNC]

Update - slept terribly and I feel tired and shit. Is this what boozing is like?! It's almost as if poisoning yourself doesn't make you feel great or something.

Fuck this, give me sobriety pls.

I woke up with quite the spring in  my step! Maybe it was that sour mash or whatever it was you drank.

[jobotic]

Over half way there, whoever's doing this.

16 days and I don't feel any better. I mean obviously I feel better than I do hungover but not generally.

I'm having a boozy do on Saturday so it's nearly over for me. Today is the first day I've been daydreaming about booze. It's probably Brexit.

[Ferris]

I woke up with quite the spring in  my step! Maybe it was that sour mash or whatever it was you drank.

I blame the curiously incompetent bar staff who tried to give me Blodwyn's curry + Yorkshire puddings (?!), as well as take my empty glass and replace it with a sour red fizzy thing. When I said "I'd like another beer", i presumed it was implicit that I'd like another glass of the beer I'd just had, not just "a beer, any beer, whatever you have back there: surprise me". The speed he disappeared didn't give me a chance to point this out to him.

3 beers in a month, and one of them is a mystery. I'm living on the edge.

God I'm enjoying not being hungover though. I'm going to sleep so well.

[Ferris]

The feeling of being well-rested is great and is still a novelty. I've found I can operate pretty efficiently on 5 hours of sleep, when typically I'd aim to get 9-10 if possible. This means I can stay up til 2am playing video games on a school night with no ill-effects the next day.

(Sorry, I know this thread is me boringly harping on about the same thing over and over, but it gives me something to do in the evenings when I'm not smashing my brains out with booze. I'm not trying to make out how great I am or whatever. Sorry.)

[BlodwynPig]

I've just drunk 750ml of something called 'Expedition ins Bierreich" that comes in a bottle with a paper outer "sleeve" that could be interpreted as representing a 4th reich.

Schlaf gut.

[Ferris]

Natürlich - und du auch!

[shiftwork2]

Fucking disastrous week at work - beer, now.  Looks like I found one of my triggers on my Dry January journey.

Good luck to everyone still on the wagon!

[Nowhere Man]

Anyone know if the non alcoholic version of Kopparberg is much kopp cop? Fancy giving it a go

[Beagle 2]

Isn't that just gonna be Tango though?

[Nowhere Man]

Don't know mate, I don't really drink tango.

[Janie Jones]

Fucking disastrous week at work - beer, now.  Looks like I found one of my triggers on my Dry January journey.

Good luck to everyone still on the wagon!

You're allowed a couple of pass tokens, I believe. My Dry January friends are using theirs for Burns Night (imagine that without whisky) and a birthday or something. So, you know, you can get back on the wagon and continue to enjoy the benefits you've noticed and still call yourself a Dry Januaryer. Meantime, enjoy your beer, sounds like you deserve it.

[Ferris]

Still sticking with this. 2 lapses - the 2nd one an old friend I haven't seen for a while asked me for a drink at short notice and I had 0 hesitation. I got unintentionally blitzed and we had a long conversation with a former defenseman for the Leafs in a bar (I had no idea who he was). It was nice but I felt really fucking tired for 2 days after.

Intending to lapse again tonight as it is my last day at work before I take an extended parental leave (Ferris Jr is due Thursday) so I'm going to have a few beers after work but nothing crazy.

The way I see it - if I'm changing boozing from the occasional exception (instead of the default most days) then that's a good achievement and one I'll stick to (I hope). The goal is to reset my relationship with booze - I don't have to be militant for it to be a success. Just mostly militant.

[SteveDave]

I did dry December (apart from the weekend before my birthday) and have not had a drop of caffeine nor a sniff of pizza in January. Or booze.

What shall I give up forever in February? Bread? Socks? Farting?