I know there used to be a thread on 2p2 for this. Might as well make one here.
I don’t consider myself to have a drinking problem per se but I think I’d be better off cutting it down/removing it completely.
To give more info, I probably drink about 6-10 beers a week? Maybe closer to 6. So the quantity is not huge or anything. I don’t drink anything other than beer. Mostly prefer the beer after work or when gaming/working later at night. usually dont have anymore than 2 a night, maybe 3-4 on a weekend night but not really binging at all these days.
It more so comes down to i think it makes my attitude change easier than it should when i drink even small amounts. I have less patience, quicker to anger, i’m usually laidback and easy going. I have had some issues with depression/anxiety over the last couple years. It doesn’t affect my anxiety which i control through medication now but I can def feel it slide me towards being depressed as well even in small quantities.
Also i have noticed in some family situations over the last few years that i have swung into a bad mood when I’ve been drinking, not heavily but lets say a few beers. Not angry but moreso into the depressed kind of mood referenced above. I’m sure in those situations its a combination of family stuff and the alcohol but not drinking would probably make it much easier to avoid that happening.
Lastly it would probably help me lose some of my belly weight which is not horrendous but could be better and in general make me a bit more healthy.
I dont have any issues that i remember if i go have a drink after work with friends or cowokers or my wife etc so i figured maybe i would just cut it out initially at least at home and those family type situations. Thoughts? Drinks at the bar probably is less than a once a month occurrence these days.
Probably the first thing to do, i’ve got like 3-4 beers in my fridge right now, should i just give them to a friend or something? I was thinking i would just make those the last i drink at home but that seems like a bad way to start off quitting.
Even when I didn’t drink at all in everyday life I still found a few drinks made some family gatherings more bearable. I certainly wish you all the best with giving up alcohol and I have read that alcohol is linked to depression so it may be a good idea to test out how you go without drinking. Good luck.
What helped me kick alcohol is how much I hate feeling the next day. These days, I have almost no alcohol tolerance. I can’t drink more than 2 pints in a night without a hangover. I also recall the times where I got drunk and didn’t remember what happened or felt like an asshole for something I said when blacked out.
I also think age played a role. During my 20s, I drank like crazy. For some reason, that changed once I hit 30. It was like a switch went off. The last time I got blackout drunk was the night Trump got elected POTUS. Been happy avoiding drunkenness since.
Now I take my morning coffee (a bit too) seriously and drink tea at my regular hangouts.
I still drink often (a few times a week) but I used to drink more (1 or 2 drinks per day) and I was gaining weight. So I decided to cut back, and when I did tea was HUGE help. Just, any time I felt like having a beer and putting up my feet to relax I’d have a tea instead. Swapping out after-dinner beer with after-dinner herbal tea is a game changer - better sleep, better health.
I’ve been trying to quit on and off for a few years. I tend to drink when I’m bored or depressed which I know is really bad. I’ve gone to some AA meeting but they just don’t do anything for me. This higher power bullshit just doesn’t connect with me.
I quit caffeine back in March and except for a few cravings here and there, it hasn’t been bad. I used to drink a 2 liter bottle soda in the morning and afternoon and then transition to beer at night. Now I drink non-caffeinated drinks during the day but I still drink beer at night. I want to cut that beer drinking out. I know I drink way too much. I wish there was an easy way to replace drinking like there is with soda. When I quit drinking soda I replaced it with Gatorade. After a few months I quit drinking Gatorade and now I only drink water, unsweetened ice tea, and beer.
That’s funny I have been drinking more soda since quitting beer.
I have quit soda a few times before and def drank more beer at night as a result.
I would like to quit both but need to go one at a time. Gatorade sounds like a good short term replacement though.
I can say that I haven’t had any depressed feelings in the last week or so. So it was probably affecting or causing those moods more than I noticed at the time.
Another good substitute is kombucha. It’s not that hard to find in grocery stores (places like Trader Joe and WF will have it for example). My favorite local beer place even has it on tap, so people who want something non-alcoholic have a cool and sufficiently pretentious alternative.
I found that rather than actually craving the taste of pop, it was the carbonation that was my true weakness. So I’ve been slowly replacing my Coke Zero with LaCroix or whatever brand is available, and it works for me. Flat water, gatorade, or iced tea could never get me to quit pop, but seltzer is definitely working.
As for alcohol, I actually think I’ve developed a mild allergy to it, so it’s pretty easy to avoid. Unless I get full-on buzzed/drunk, drinking one or two beers actually causes my skin to itch and my restless leg syndrome to kick into high gear. So unless I’m able to either crash right away or walk around a lot afterward, having one beer with lunch or dinner isn’t really an option for me anymore.
We have a soda stream, too. Agree on the benefits of having less sweetened drinks. A go to in our house is soda stream carbonated water + a slice of lime.
My main weakness are artifically sweeted drinks where they write zero calories on the bottle. I can drink 1.5l of ice tea in about 1-2hrs. I used to be really into seltzers but I wanted to cut down on my plastic bottle count so I switched mostly to tap water but without rituals I get by drinking far less if there is nothing else in the house. For example after getting up I drink 2 glasses of water to rehydrate the body. At work its mostly tea and coffee in the morning but in the afternoon it usually gets less. Sometimes I go to bed and really ask myself did I even drink anything in the last few hours.
I did have one kinda hard pass earlier this week, someone was in town that works for one of our vendors that i usually go out drinking with and he gets the tab. That was a hard pass, actually passed on it twice.
I’m getting more done around the house after work and on the weekends though. I think even a beer or so was hurting me there as it made me much more drowsy and lazy after work and on the weekend, especially if i had one midday or afternoon on a weekend. I wouldnt do much after that.
I am drinking more mello yello for sure though. I was going to buy some la croix lemon flavored but when i got to the register, one of the cans was leaking, so i said fuck that i wasn’t walking back to the back of the store after i had scanned half my items. I did buy some all natural lemonade flavoring. Basically Mio type stuff but its some all natural brand because i can’t stand that artificial sweetner taste of mio and its probably not great for me. This is lemon flavored all natural with natural sugar and setivia extract or something, tiny amount of sugar though. I’m taking that to work in the morning so i’ll give that a try. I gotta have somethign with flavor in the morning, i can drink water later in the day but can’t stand not having a flavored drink in the morning.
Good job Grinder. I’ve concluded that alcohol is a net negative for mind and body both in the moment, and over the long term. I will have a drink to be social or for a special occasion once in a while. And that’s fine, but day in, day out, I don’t need it or want it. And I feel really good. I hope you do as well.
I’m pounding mello yello though. Nothing crazy but like maybe a liter a day? Way too much.
I tried some natural lemon sweetner stuff for water, i really dont like the taste of artificial sweetner and i feel like its plenty bad for me anyways. The natural stuff sucked though, might as well drink normal water.
I bought some lemon Bubly today which is no artificial sweetner carbonated water, just tried it though a min ago and its shit lol.
I think my best bet may be gatorade in the morning and then water rest of the day, i actually have powder gatorade here from kids soccer and stuff.
I dont have a problem with water after lets say mid morning but i’m addicted to that sugary drink in the morning and the boost from the caffiene. maybe gatorade and caffiene pills then water the rest of the day.
Haven’t updated lately, but have kept pretty much to the original plan. I drank at the company Xmas party, New Years, I had one the night trump was impeached. The biggest thing as I thought is that it needs to be in spaces where I’m in a good mind. I haven’t had any bad experiences so far. I held off when with my side of the family on Christmas Day and at home like I planned.
Still guzzling Mello Yello, working on that but not having much luck so far. I think it’s pretty much water/smoothies for me only or soda. I don’t think I’m going to settle on seltzer’s or something. No middle ground I guess I mean.