sweet, thanks! I'll probably give it a shot.

Been limiting the sugar and alcohol overall this holiday season. Not easy but almost there!
Will have my last can of RUSH beer on New Year’s Eve - probably a glass of red with dinner but that’s it. Dry Jan.
In other words, no hard stop but moderation for sure and seeing big differences in 2022 by watching intake and replacing w/sparkling water.

So thankful that Brewdog took the risk as a brewery to provide so many NA’s to people who love beer but decided to nix alcohol!
Happy New Year my fellow sober and sober-curious friends!

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I’m feeling great. I’ve been to the gym 3 times this week. After today’s 3-mile run I just feel sleepy. I may not make it to midnight

Keep up the good fight, happy new year!

69 days alcohol-free today. Apparently this number has significance to some people on the internet.

nice

It’s one of my favorite numbers and for a lot of people but not for the reason you’d think.

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69!!

69!!!

I relapsed…Lone Star…

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I’m still rocking the Athletic Brewing beers. I’ve tried almost all them now, and Athletic and Grüvi are the only ones I really like.

I’ve been hitting the gym regularly since New Year, and I’m only down 5 pounds. Seems to be a lot harder to lose weight now than when I was younger.

Keep in mind you aren't just losing fat, but also gaining muscle when you workout.

You can’t out work a bad eating habits

I'm in the same boat. Doing cardio up the wazoo - and not making too much ground. Thinking I have to start counting calories or something, but then I think of how heavy I would be with constant beer drinking....no thanks.

Depending on your metabolism, you can. In my late 20's I was in the best shape of my life. Ate like crap, drank like a fish. Haven't had abs since lol. I still eat like crap, and drink more than I should (did take a few months off recently) but haven't been to the gym in almost nine years. I'm still thin and "look" in shape, but I'm far from it. I can take what life throws at me, but I'm probably closer to using a walker than I should be lol.

On another note, thought I was going to go dry until summer, but unfortunately life keeps getting in the way...booze is definitely the easy way to deal with it, just not the right way. I definitely respect those who can keep with it!

I have a beer every once in awhile. Maybe one or two a month. No hard liquor.

To excess? Since November 1994.

I don’t drink no more. But I don’t drink no less.

True, but I’m also eating pretty well too. But I do need to cut way back on carbs. I’m trying that this week and finally seeing some results. I’m back to my 2006 weight.

Keep at it, it’s a marathon not a sprint.

Seems like no matter what I eat or drink, I stay at 186lbs (6'). It's not in the same place it was 15 years ago, some of it has migrated to my midsection, but seeing someone now who has brought her exercise bike over and trying to bring her rowing machine too - recently picked up a weight bench too.

I have maybe 6 beers a month. Rarely drink just for the sake of getting drunk (unlike the first 40 years of my life.)

i suspect i'm going to be in much better shape before long.

This sounds like a story you're looking to tell, so please go ahead

I've also drastically cut back drinking for a variety of reasons, maybe a drink a week, if that, but I think you're just getting older like me ha. One thing my wife always tells me (she's a Clinical Dietitian) is that especially the older you get, people often treat "weight" the same as "health". I started getting serious about alcohol related changes about 6 or 8 months ago. I'm still about the same weight (5' 11", 195lbs), but I FEEL much better. I sleep better, I have less anxiety, I have more energy, and I'm more present and alert. I also skip less workouts because of feeling like shit on a weekday after too many beers the night before and obviously don't consume nearly the amount of empty calories I was when I was drinking heavy. Do I have a 6 pack now that I've gone mostly-sober-ish...no, but am I healthier and do I feel better? You bet your ass...not to mention the adverse effects of alcohol that aren't visible. Keep it up!

I used to require a beer with a game of pinball. For medical reasons i sip on a slightly sweetened tea now. A nice beer & pinball was fun while it lasted. Maybe someday but only if I can enjoy it, which was the reason in the first place.

Same here. I was in a bad spot for many years. The worst part about it? Missing many, and I mean many moments/days due to feeling like shit the day after.

I now love getting up, feeling good and getting that first cup of coffee.

Ok, I've now realised I'm drinking every day - it's too much and it's become a habit. It's been happening for a while, since I started working from home in fact -so I think maybe its due to the monotony, and also because I'm sat at home all day in my pin room/bar and its simply an environment conducive to drinking.

I don't plan on giving up entirely - I do enjoy my beers and my whisky, but I just need to break the daily habit. So as of today I'm going cold turkey and trying a dry March. I figure 4 weeks of not touching the stuff will force me out of it. I'm putting it here because I needed to state it somewhere and really give it a good try.

Any tips on how to keep myself straight would be appreciated. Perhaps finding another place to sit and work might be a good start.

Good luck to you, you can do it! It’ll give your organs a rest, if nothing else. That was my original reason for quitting. Now I just can’t find a reason to start again (today is 4 months).

Good Luck, You can do it!

Probably a great start! I went dry for a month as well to kick things off. Not keeping any alcohol in the house was huge, I found that I was drinking a lot just because it was there and I was “idle” (watching a movie, sitting by the fire, playing pinball, etc.). Not having immediate access and having to “think” about getting something to drink is very helpful. There is also a great selection of NA beer that tastes very similar to real beer and lower in calories. Athletic Brewing, NA Guinness, Brew Dog, heck even the Coors Edge. I drink those often and keep them on hand and they really scratch the itch with none of the side effects.

Making it public helps too. I told friends if we’re hanging out just don’t offer me a beer or buy me one. I’d bring my own stuff to drink and most bars carry an NA option or two or can make a nice mocktail…being able to “go out” and hang with friends but not feel obligated to drink makes it a lot easier.

The awareness of how you feel will be a good motivator as well. Pay attention to how much better you feel in the morning and how much better you sleep.

When I first started making changes I was worried I’d miss drinking and feeling drunk…and I did for about two weeks, a lot. Then the positive changes start to surface. I feel great, my sleep is great, my anxiety is lower, and I don’t feel the “desire” to really drink at all now. I still appreciate a glass of wine with a good meal or a beer here or there, but when I think about how I used to feel vs how I feel now it helps me keep control and good moderation. I can enjoy a glass of wine now and don’t feel like I need to finish the bottle the same night anymore.

This is one of my problems - if I open a bottle of wine it has to be finished, and my wife has already managed to cut way down so she will only have one small glass with dinner. That means I basically drink the whole thing to myself - but I'd much rather do what she's doing.

I think the trigger has been an injury I got a few months back. I'm an avid runner - have done lots of ultramarathons, 24hr runs, mountain runs etc and for the last 10 years I've been a bit on the extreme side of healthy, but i really enjoy it. Since I picked up a recurring hamstring injury a while back I've not been able to run much which means I'm sat around a lot more and not feeling in the best of moods, and what made it worse is I also picked up a pretty painful elbow tendon problem so its hard to do much gym work as well. So.... basically I've been finding that instead of waking up bright and alert at 6am for a run, I wake up feeling sluggish and lethargic and sometimes a bit head-achy and sometimes I know it's down to what I've drank the day before.

Just gotta heave myself out of it before it gets worse I think.

Give the non alcoholic beer and wine a try! It’s been a great “scratch the itch” for when I want a beer “or several” with none of the consequences. Once you get started it gets easier once you get past the initial shock.

Yup I stopped drinking many times. Then I was here. Pathetic.
But I felt drunk as the back wheels of shopping carts swivel also.

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We had to euthanize one of our cats today for lung cancer, it was rough. I don’t see my wife cry that often. I took her to her favorite German restaurant and she had wine, while I had Bitburger 0.0. It was pretty good. I’m going to miss that cat, but we have 3 more. I’ve only really bonded with our orange tabby. It’s going to be a rough day for me when he goes.

I had what I’d categorize as a drinking problem in my 20s, mellowed on that in my 30s and then stone cold quit any and all drinking for nearly 3 years - lost all my ‘friends’ - simply stopped inviting me to things since I was bringing sparkling water to the party. I didn’t really notice any difference, didn’t really lose any weight or feel any different. I guess the main thing was being able to get up and at it in the morning a little quicker. Since then I’ve pretty much landed on drinking somewhere from a glass to a bottle of wine on Friday nights and that’s about it. Problem now is in my 40s - I tend to just fall asleep before I can even finish a bottle - I’ve always tried to eat healthy (haven’t had fast food as a meal in nearly 20 years), and work out regularly - 6 days a week for as long as I can remember. Anyway, I guess my addition to the topic is that I quit, it was fine, and now I drink occasionally, and it’s still fine.

Sorry for your loss - we had 3 and had to put our favorite one to sleep last year after 20 years of fun - kidney failure. Haven't cried that hard in decades.

I have given up drinking in celebration of my terminal liver cancer… felt like the thing to do.

Sounds like you found the right balance - which is what I'm trying to do.

Damn, I’m really sorry to hear that man. I hope I stopped in time.

forget the fake beers. That just seems like you're maintaining your habit. Replace it with something else (healthy) exercise, house repairs.

Also recategorize alcohol. You're drinking a poison for your body. If you say that before every sip, you won't be a drinker for long.

Until you push yourself to having to quit, you're not a real drinker either. Pick a path and commit.
Man up and drink yourself into addiction or illness.

Know your audience

Imagine all the lives that wouldve been saved if this knowledge was available prior to this conversation! I'll start spreading the word thanks!

When I got divorced in the late 90s, i was in my mid-30s. My ex used to drink Christian Brothers brandy, and i went on a binge for about 6 months, mostly out of sheer boredom and my newfound freedom. I would black out for a couple hours on a Tuesday night - wake up for work to find a half eaten pizza in the fridge that I'd picked up, full tank of gas in the car and not remember any of it. Pull over on the side of the expressway to throw up out the car door on the way to work. I remember it was hard to cut back to drinking only on the weekends because I didnt have anything else to do.

After one particularly rough night, I gave it up altogether (brandy, not drinking), and cut back tremendously. At 58, i have a couple beers a month maybe. The only time I touch liquor is a couple screwdrivers at Expo in Chicago once a year.

Never consciously did any of these things, i think it just happened with time.

Super bad ass posting this in this thread dude. Real helpful for people struggling. Jesus.

I’ve been not drinking for 13 days now. Usually was a bottle of Cabernet and about four IPAs a night.
Was diagnosed with fatty liver disease a few months ago, but just couldn’t seem to give it up still.
I’m going to try to quit for at least another month and if I start drinking again, try to limit it to once a week.
I’ve been tracking my progress by crossing days out on a calendar I taped to the refrigerator to keep me motivated.
I started to try playing my guitars again that I haven’t played in two years and am lucky to have a treadmill to walk on for when I’m bored.
I’ve also been drinking a lot more coffee and eating some THC edibles instead of drinking.

I've significantly cut down in the last several months. I'm down to about a 6 pack every 2 weeks.

I had my best friends bachelor party this last weekend. I knew it was going to be an issue to only have a few, so I decided to not drink at all and be the designated driver. I still had a pretty good time, and no one had to worry about driving. It was nice not waking up feeling like utter shit the next day, as I know many of the other guys probably did.

I will say however, strip clubs aren't as fun when you're sober.