The "reduce drink but not quitting" thread

[JumboBeef]

I take my hat off to those of you who have quit drinking forever. However, I enjoy it too much to do that

5+ years ago, I drank too much. Not stupid amounts, just every night. I cut right down, and lost 3 stone.

1 stone has crept back on, and I want to loose this and ideally another stone too.

I enjoy drink. A nice glass of wine with a meal, a pint with friends. What's not to like?

Everything in moderation.

So, here's my plan. Firstly, have more nights off than on (so, at least four nights per week without drink). When I do drink, I try to stick to wine rather than pints, and I water it down too (sounds yuk, but actually it's OK).

I'm currently getting though a maximum of 2 bottles of wine/per week. Some weeks it is less.

And I still enjoy an blow out on the pints every now and then (just not every night).

Seems to be working for me

[AllTorque]

I like drinking immensely (one of life's pleasures), but agree in principle with your 'reducing' plan. There's absolutely NO WAY on earth however that I'm watering down my rioja - sacrilege!

[AllTorque]

By the way, if you want to lose weight and potentially repair your bod, have a look at this - I've done it a few months now and a stone has just dropped off

linky

[anonymous-user]

I'm doing this at the moment, probably drank everyday for a couple of months due to a holiday, then relatives visiting and then Christmas. At the moment I'm stopping drinking completely for 2 weeks to break the habit of grabbing a beer in the evening, then I'm going to introduce it again for social occasions only. I would have liked to have gone for a month, but i've got a weekend away and my 40th in the next 3 weeks so that isn't going to happen!!

[Changedmyname]

OP I know where your comming from I did the same though out the summer, I drunk nearly every night , but now have cut down to four cans at the weekend only and the trousers are not so tight , which inturn has given me more insentive to crack down to just one night a week.
I only drink lager and cider mixed so the cider will have to go..... which is a shame as I still have my christmas stach to drink.
Good luck to us both on losing more of that belly fat EH?

[Hoofy]

I only drink 1-2 units a week. No way I'm cutting out. If you enjoy your drink and don't have any addiction issues then I don't see why you have to cut out. If you have a compulsion then seek help and go dry.

[_bryan_]

I'm also looking to do this, mainly to cut costs but if it improves my health too then it'll just be a bonus.

Currently drink around 2 glasses of wine most nights of the week. Planning to cut it down to one night, and Sunday, I can't have a roast without a decent wine to accompany it.

[goldblum]

Even a little bit of alcohol can be quite damaging..What's not mentioned on this list is the more people drink the more shyte they talk..which is OK if you enjoy the company of other drinkers most of the time, but is really boring for everyone else.

http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/Pages/alcohol-health...

[Hoofy]

Curious - I thought a drink a day was good for you. I read somewhere that those who drank very moderately were better off than those who remained teetotal. Can't remember where, though.

Not that it bothers me; as I say, I might do a glass of wine a week!

[jas xjr]

I had to cut my drinking down for health reasons . In the end I have just given up .
I kept saying I would have a drink over Christmas and new year . In the end I did not bother .
The weird thing is whilst I have lost the urge to drink , I do not feel any better

[Hoofy]

jas xjr said:

I had to cut my drinking down for health reasons . In the end I have just given up .
I kept saying I would have a drink over Christmas and new year . In the end I did not bother .
The weird thing is whilst I have lost the urge to drink , I do not feel any better

Well done!

I wonder if the health benefits take time to become known. Give it a few months and see how you feel then.

[JumboBeef]

goldblum said:

Even a little bit of alcohol can be quite damaging..What's not mentioned on this list is the more people drink the more shyte they talk..which is OK if you enjoy the company of other drinkers most of the time, but is really boring for everyone else.

http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/Pages/alcohol-health...

From your link:

link said:

Regularly drinking over the lower risk guidelines increases the chances of suffering more serious health harms.

The whole point of this thread is to reduce drink to below the risk threshold. Too much drink is bad, no one is going to deny that. However, a little bit of what you fancy does you good

[Johnnytheboy]

For a year or two I've operated a system whereby I have a day off at least for every day I drink. If I have several days drinking anything on the trot, I owe the system several days abstinence.

A realistic target that works very well for me.

[croyde]

Surely instead of watering down the wine just drink it straight and then drink some water before you have your next glass.

I must try this when I start drinking again as currently I'm doing the Dryathlon and actually started 4 days early so as of today I am on day 9.

Immediate result is that I appear to be more chilled and not so quick to anger.

Not sure I'll be able to keep this up past January though as I'm only succeeding by not going out.

Looks like I'll be checking into this thread come Feb then

Good luck all.

[goldblum]

JumboBeef said:

The whole point of this thread is to reduce drink to below the risk threshold. Too much drink is bad, no one is going to deny that.However, a little bit of what you fancy does you good

I'm surprised you'd say that for a number of reasons..you're a paramedic aren't you?

I'm sure you realise even the possible good effects of a little alcohol don't outweigh the dangers that one drink may lead to more..

The human body does not require any alcohol to function at 100%. If you have to have a drink to relax/feel good then you have a problem. Repeating a mantra in order to justify taking any drug is the most basic kind of guilt avoidance.If you can curtail your intake to below the weekly units allowed then that's great, but you're fooling only yourself with the "little bit of what you fancy" comment.

[h0b0]

Hoofy said:

Well done!

I wonder if the health benefits take time to become known. Give it a few months and see how you feel then.

I stopped drinking for 18 months and was disappointed to not feel any better. I had the same when I quit smoking though.

[_bryan_]

goldblum said:

I'm surprised you'd say that for a number of reasons..you're a paramedic aren't you?

I'm sure you realise even the possible good effects of a little alcohol don't outweigh the dangers that one drink may lead to more..

The human body does not require any alcohol to function at 100%. If you have to have a drink to relax/feel good then you have a problem. Repeating a mantra in order to justify taking any drug is the most basic kind of guilt avoidance.If you can curtail your intake to below the weekly units allowed then that's great, but you're fooling only yourself with the "little bit of what you fancy" comment.

I think you've looked into his statement way too deeply.

Funnily enough one of the reasons I drink is because I like the taste of a good wine, the alcohol is just a by product. I don't drink because I need alcohol to relax, it's the enjoyment of the taste that makes me relax.

And I agree, the body does not need alcohol to function. But in a similar sense a car doesn't need petrol to function 100%, electric cars work fine in this day and age. It all about the enjoyment something brings, it's not always about the physical effects something has on you.

[otolith]

There is more to living a good life than optimising the health of the body.

[SunDiver]

This is very interesting, if you're that way inclined. Gives hazard ratios for things like all-cause mortality for various levels of drinking.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC314019...

In short, drinking *lightly* can be good for you, under certain circumstances. Drinking a lot certainly isn't. And lightly really is just that - it's not very much at all.

I stopped drinking because I could never drink lightly, much as I'd like to. A bottle of wine, once opened, would get drunk, rather than last a number of days.

[goldblum]

_bryan_ said:

I think you've looked into his statement way too deeply.

Funnily enough one of the reasons I drink is because I like the taste of a good wine, the alcohol is just a by product. I don't drink because I need alcohol to relax, it's the enjoyment of the taste that makes me relax.

And I agree, the body does not need alcohol to function. But in a similar sense a car doesn't need petrol to function 100%, electric cars work fine in this day and age. It all about the enjoyment something brings, it's not always about the physical effects something has on you.

Right. A car doesn't willfully take a drug it knows to be harmful to itself then try to justify taking the drug. Only humans are that fked up.