I too do Dry January, and as someone who has been a habitual Sat - Sun, glass of wine + a beer drinker at home for over 3 decades, I always finding it very difficult come the weekend. Just before Christmas, I started taking 5mg of Glutamine for gut related issues. I have found doing Dry January this year a complete breeze. I have not craved booze or even alcohol free beer at all. So when I did some research, I was rather amazed at the number of posts regarding Glutamine’s ability to curb alcohol cravings. Maybe it doesn’t work for everyone, but what is even more interesting, is that my Daughter who also likes a drink has been on Glutamine too and she said “That’s really interesting, I haven’t craved a G&T at all since Christmas”
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Two weeks in and no issues with cravings - I had one 6er of Athletic Brewing Run Wild which is fine. Weight is down, HRV has bounced back after about a week off the sauce. It was really bad during the holidays. Energy and sleep is good, workouts are great, recovery is really good.
For those that want to try other NA beers - I’ve had luck at Total Wine- they have a very good selection. My favorites for taste are Athletic’s Oktoberfest, Cerveza Athletica and I enjoyed Brew Dog’s variety packs - good flavor and very low calories. Also, the Stella Liberte’ 0.0 was surprisingly good.
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A the 3 week mark. Have not been “perfect” this week, but that hasn’t been the goal. Re-considering the role of alcohol in my diet HAS been the goal, and I would say this project has been a success so far. Its been surprisingly easy to skip the beers in the week. Sleep is much better: HR during sleep has dropped a bit, more deep sleep, fewer “awake” periods and its easier to get back to sleep, My body seems less achy in the AM. Probably a placebo effect, but its seemed better. Training is going well. Haven’t weighed myself, but i feel less puffy (again, probably just a perception). However, i seem to be eating more sweets/candy at night. Maybe need to address that in week 4 and in Feb.
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So far so good for me. Resisting temptation at home has been fine, resisting out at some work/social events when you’re the only one not drinking has been much harder. As many others say, being able to have a NA beer helps tremendously.
Weight and body comp have improved but I’ve also been logging all food and working towards adherence to macro goals during the same period so it’s not all attributable to not drinking. Biggest alcohol related benefit has been avoiding binging on junk food while buzzed due to reduced willpower.
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In the home stretch. What’s everyone thinking for Feb? Keep the streak alive or back to normal?
The health benefits of not drinking seem clear enough to me that I want to mostly stick with it, but do plan to let myself have a drink on special occasions. I’m thinking 1 a week tops. Will stick to Athletic the rest of the time, looking forward to their Belgian white in my next subscription delivery.
My “Damp” january got pretty wet this weekend.
But! Its clear the way forward is with a lot less alcohol. This month has reminded me just how much better i feel without it due to all the obvious stuff: sleep, weight, recovery, workouts, etc.
Will work on keeping it going in Feb, as i now take on a more mindful approach to eliminating the chips and desserts from the food rotation.
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Still no magic powers. It wasn’t that hard either, only “sinned” last Saturday. But I did lose some weight and I think I will continue staying mostly dry for the weight until la marmotte in July
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This is my plan. I’ve noticed enough of a trend in numbers and how I feel that at the very least I want to keep alcohol consumption much lower than it has been. I’ll probably have a couple drinks on thursdays and sundays…days before my off day training.
I’ve gotten into a nice routine of either an herbal tea or NA beer late at night before I head to bed. I’ve found I’m actually as happy with that than I am with a real beer
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I will definitely keep it going but I’ll allow myself a beer or two depending on the occasion. I haven’t had any cravings this past month and I’m still chipping away at my holiday weight gainz - so there’s motivation in that.
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Dry January recap, and I’d love to see other people do the same.
TLDR - I lost weight, general moods and stress weren’t noticeably impacted and my sleep is still a problem, not that alcohol is the cause of my sleep problems (my sleep issues seem to be multifactorial and part of my mental health diagnosis).
My sleep is basically still not ideal even with not drinking and trying to go to bed earlier, stupid brain keeps waking me up ~6hrs after I go to sleep no matter what. I’ve tried skipping workouts and sleeping in but it doesn’t seem to make a ton of difference to my “sleep data” from both Garmin and Whoop.
It still seems like I have little to no control over what my sleep score is going to be, and couldn’t guess the result when I wake up to save my life. It’s probably both bad data and other factors that are less simple to control, like it’s a lot easier to wear blue light glasses than it is to not be stressed about money or work.
It seems that even when I try to do all the things - avoiding screens, not eating late, reading (non-screen) etc - I’m still seeing a lot of “stress” from my devices and feeling a lot of stress personally. If anything not drinking has made it clear that I should go back to talking to someone and there probably isn’t something simple I can do to make everything better.
One example, yesterday I had a moderate workout in the morning, worked from home, then last night I ate dinner at 7pm and was in bed two hours later. No TV at all, just a quiet evening and then…
It would be maddening if I wasn’t so used to it.
Now the one thing that did work well - I lost 11lbs and didn’t feel like I was restricting. I went from upper 190s to mid 180s. I’m actually eating more and instead of regularly skipping breakfast I’m eating overnight oats (~500kcal) almost every morning and am no longer starving after dinner, crazy I know (sarcasm).
So what’s next? I’m going back to drinking but am resolving to drink nicer things less often. I’ve looked up the sales at my local state-run liquor store and have my eye on a couple of whiskeys I’d like to try and plan to only have 1-2 drinks 2-3 days a week. We will see what happens.
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A recap of dry January in which I only drank once (last weekend because January was nearly over anyway) :
-Weight 75-73kg (-2kg) ftp estimate (according to hrv4training)
-279-275W (-4W) but 0.05W/kg increase
-vo2max estimate 54.9->54.6 ml/kg/min (-0.3) although the decreases could have been caused by a slight illness mid month
-no subjective and no “objective” (according to my smartwatch) improvement of sleep
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I love this thread. I reached my 7 year Soberversary this January, and what started out as a bet turned into the best decision I ever made. My drinking was an issue for me, and I encourage anyone to consider cutting it out completely if they think they have a problem.
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I agree. For me cutting down was just so stressful, and the guilt I felt when I had wine on a non drinking day made it worse.
Then I’d drink more on my drinking days and feel more guilty.
Giving up was the best decision I’ve made in years.
No more stress.
Can drive home after a night out.
No more bad breath and dry mouth.
I eat better now I’m not filling up with empty calories.
Don’t miss it at all
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Cheers to all that succeeded, or gave it an effort. I’ve been sober since September of 2022 and haven’t looked back. It’s an incredible way to live.
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Small update. I started drinking again, weight stayed the same more or less but FTP according to hrv4training up to 294W and vo2max up to 55.1 ml/kg/min
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I resemble that remark. I’m vegan, a lycra-wearing cyclist, & a non-drinker. Something for everyone to hate. 
Seriously though, congrats to everyone who had a go at this! It’s difficult to turn away from something that the brain receptors and social convention say is a good thing.
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It can’t be the alcohol….what do you think made the difference?
Joe
I really didn’t change anything else🫣
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Getting outside to ride more or just being more active in general as the weather improves?
We just had two really nice days after a lot of rain and cold recently and I suddenly feel amazing. I am definitely not improving my metrics right now but my motivation and simple desire to ride my bike have sky rocketed.
I’ve basically just stuck to my program but might have gone a bit longer and harder than intended for my z2/3 rides (but yeah last Saturday I felt amazing my previous longest ride was 4h @138W average and Saturday I did a few minutes short of 5.5h @ 200W average or 74% of FTP and an IF of 0.8)
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