Dry January: Lessons Learned

My best friend – and fellow craft beer degenerate – has been participating in Dry January for about five years and has been nudging me to join him. I finally relented last month and have come out the other side to tell the tale. Here I share some of my observations. I hope this isn’t too self-absorbed. I thought it might be helpful to other balky board members who have thought about doing it. Bottom line: I’m glad I did it and will try it again next year at some point.

I didn’t lose a lot of weight. I only dropped about 5 pounds. I think I may have compensated for cutting out the alcohol and sugar in wine by sneaking other treats. I have largely eliminated soft drinks and most desserts out of my life, but I did treat myself a bit more this month. One note: I didn’t shed many pounds but I definitely firmed up my stomach and my mini love-handles by dropping the booze.

I did have more energy. My general alertness level and get-up-and-go increased noticeably as the month wore on. I just felt a little sharper in the morning and had a bit more pep – sort of like that buzzed feeling you get after a good workout. I really don’t get major hangovers anymore, but if I’m honest, there are two or so days a month where I drag a bit with a mild headache, sour stomach or foggy brain. I loved waking up like a teetotaler yoga instructor every morning.

I didn’t miss wine as much as I thought I would. Somewhat surprisingly, my cravings were for other forms of alcohol – craft beer and fruity cocktails. I thought the hardest part would be skipping wine with the meals I cook at home, but I got over that – probably because my wife doesn’t drink at home. What hurt the most was going out with friends. My toughest moments of will-power: ordering club soda at my favorite Mexican restaurant while everyone else had scratch margaritas, and attending a two-hour work function inside a hipster craft brewery in downtown L.A.

I did sleep better. I’m not sure why, but I turned into a senior citizen during my hiatus. I felt starved at the end of the day and wanted to eat at 5 pm. (Early-bird special anyone?) I couldn’t keep my eyes open past 10 pm and would arise with dawn’s early light creeping through our bedroom window. Much fewer post-midnight trips to the loo.

I didn’t have to explain myself too much. I tend to overthink and over-explain things. I presumed that it would be awkward in social settings explaining what I was doing and having people judge me (“Gee is he an alcoholic?” or “What a dumb thing to do. Why not just moderate your intake year-round?”). Aside from some mild ribbing from my surf buddies, no one really cared that I was going dry. I guess “Dry January” is a bona fide cultural thing now as well. But my wife did get a bit tired of hearing my machinations/analyses over the course of the month. One Friday night she gently teased me with that old saw: “Oh go on, have a drink already. It will improve your personality!”

I did rethink my “regular” consumption habits. The best part of this experiment has been realizing how many “empty” low-value drinks I consume in a month – two beers while watching a Kings hockey game, a poorly made cocktail at a mixer after work, etc. I didn’t really miss these at all. To set a baseline, I probably have been averaging 3 alcoholic units a night about 4 days out of the week. From this experiment, I hope to be much more thoughtful about defaulting to alcoholic drinks in social settings or idle moments at home. I would like to reduce the units of alcohol I have each month by judiciously cutting out these wasted drinks.
I broke my fast with a 2006 Mugneret-Gibourg Chambolle Feusselottes. Totally buzzed after two sips. Totally in heaven after two glasses! champagne.gif
Mugneret.jpg

Interesting - thanks for the review! We knew ‘dry’ would be too tough, so we’re doing 2 nights a week but for all of Jan-Mar. Already broke the ‘fast’ last week but other than that, we’ve stuck to it.

I, too, noticed that weight doesn’t drop all that much overall but the soft spots firm up a bit more. Another I’d reiterate is the sleeping. I’ve always been a good sleeper, but I notice that I wake more refreshed in general on the days I don’t drink at all - even ONE drink changes sleep, to me. I’ll sleep easily through the night whether I consumed alcohol or not but if I refrain from alcohol it’s a better, more restful and natural sleep.

Saving money - that’s a good one, as we’re remodeling the house, so saving a few hundred dollars a month on alcohol expenditures is going right toward the house :slight_smile: Shockingly this is the first BerserkerDay ever that I didn’t purchase anything - I didn’t think I’d be able to make it, but I did, and it’s only because Jen challenged me to not buy any more wine until April, and I said we’d run out (of the stuff she will drink) OR she will have to expand her palate a bit, as we’ll run out of Cab in short order.

I wish I could do something so simple to make these various improvements. We don’t drink at all during the week, and not a huge amount on weekends, and we will skip weeks sometimes just because of circumstances. Going “dry” would not be a challenge, but wouldn’t lead to shedding 5 pounds either!

You’re better off eating earlier anyway, especially if you are eating full meals.

Also did dry January for the first time and had pretty similar observations: a realisation of how many low value drinks I could drop with ease, much better sleep and not missing it as much as I expected. The one component I did not expect: resuming drinking last weekend was vastly less enjoyable than I thought it would be.

I think the outcome will be that I’ll drink less, but much better. I’m happy with that.

My wife has been getting headaches now EVERY time she drinks - used to be just when she’d be at game night with her girlfriends drinking cheap wine, now it’s the good stuff, too. That will suck for her if she can’t shake it!

You are selling yourself short on this one! (assuming you lost 5 pounds of fat and not in water weight)

  1. 5 pounds is a fantastic reduction in fat in 4 weeks or so considering this was just ONE dietary change, especially if you did not also increase the amount of exercise.
  2. People often underestimate how long and how much effort it takes to lose fat. Without dietary change, imagine how much exercise it takes to burn an extra 17,500 calories (roughly 5 pounds of fat)
  3. Losing 1-2% of your body weight in fat per week is about where you want to be when dieting anyway, to minimize risk of losing lean body mass (muscle).

I only drink on the weekends now. Affects my energy levels during exercise too much if I drink more often.

I agree with Justin. Losing five pounds in a month, with no other apparent lifestyle changes, is significant.

Agree, although probably some is water weight. When we do whole 30 which is dry as well as very healthy with lots of exercise, 2-2.5 lb a week is generally good.

I’ve tried it a couple times, not because I felt the need to do it, because my wife was on some kick to do it. I think I lasted three days. When you’ve been enjoying wine with meals most evenings your adult life, it’s quite a change. The only time I cut it out hard was back in 2003 training for my first Ironman triathlon. That was more out of fear, like what the hell did I just sign up to do. I got crazy lean down to 182 pounds, but I’m pretty sure the majority of that was due to crazy aerobic training. I recently lost 18 pounds cutting out flour, but not wine. It’s a much better trade-off in my book. I like wine more than food anyway.

Just for a point of reference, I probably swung 3-5 pounds during the cycle. So it varied a bit. No idea what “water weight” is …

Also I’m lean 6’6” and weighed in at 215 when I started the month off. So on a % basis, 5 pounds is less dramatic?

Robert, funny you mentioned marathons. This exercise felt like what I imagine a first marathon to be like.

The first few miles/days I felt pretty good. Same the last few miles/days when the finish line was in sight. The middle days/miles are the worst … gone so far, I’m kinda sick of this now, and I still got a ways to go!

I am 20 days in to a 4 week hiatus. My experience so far aligns closely with Matthew’s. Sleeping way better, can’t seem to stay up past 10:30. I am hungrier so that may be offsetting the weight loss. Overall I am enjoying the extra energy and sleep. My reasoning was driven by bloodwork my doctor was not happy about so this was removing a variable to assess impact. Surprisingly easy, even attending a Tastevin event Saturday and a big Super Bowl party last night. Tea has been my friend.

I’ve done this during a cold winter month for a while now. No longer a gym workout guy (the knees keep telling me I’m are getting older), I choose to control calorie intake to minimize any weight gain during the indoor months watching college hoops. I agree with Matt’s points and it always makes for a nice mental reset. As for saving money, there’s not a chance with all the January inventory closeout sales.

Matthew.
Good job.
What a great bottle to break your fast.
I love the sisters.

I see the money savings based on not ordering drinks at restaurants. Adds up.

5 lbs in a month is not bad at all…I tend to dry out when training for distance races as well, mostly half marathons …not so much in order to lose weight but avoid putting weight on. first week tends to be the hardest, after that, not too bad. well done

I did dry January as well and am actually continuing on at least until this upcoming Friday. If I somehow decide to continue to be dry this coming weekend, I will definitely have a couple of drinks apres-ski over Presidents’ Day weekend. This is my second year, last year I went to Presidents’ Day weekend.

My experiences are similar to others in this thread. Down 6# which represents just shy of 3% of my body weight. Definitely feel more energetic, sleep better, dine out cheaper, save $, etc.

It’s definitely been a lot easier than I thought it would be. I’m going the extra week or two because it’s been that easy and I like the results.

I love to ski. Like any sport that involves aerobic activity and endurance, every extra pound makes a difference and I’m enjoying the results on the slopes.

This process does make me think about the wasteful drinks I consume…that glass of wine after I’ve gotten home from dinner where I’ve already had wine, that terrible mixed drink I’ll have at some random work function, etc. I’d like to eliminate those going forward.

I find the comment about “empty” low-value drinks interesting. I don’t do dry January myself and probably never will but what I did do is minimize that casual beer drinking at home and have been very happy with the decision. I too have noticed that having just one beer can affect the quality of my sleep significantly and at this point it is just not worth it. Unfortunately my girlfriend also has lately been getting headaches from alcohol - any alcohol - which means that I am more and more hesitant to open a bottle of wine midweek as I know she is unlikely to take even one full glass. As a result we almost never open more than two bottles a week which I think is fine - we just have to make those two bottles count.

great insights. I find similar conclusions as you, and am dry 2 of every 6 weeks while on call. Especially that I sleep better off alcohol.

Yes - with no alcohol I sleep better, have more energy, and work out harder.

It’s totally not worth it.