The benefits of giving up alcohol

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31 contributors in last 30 days
Mar 2019
7:12am, 18 Mar 2019
27,110 posts
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DocMoye
GG try Bees Knees. It's available from ocado/Waitrose. Much cheaper than prossecoe
Mar 2019
7:51am, 18 Mar 2019
30,764 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
I have never found a non-alcoholic wine or fizz that was anything other than disgusting! However, there are lots of lovely fruit juices and infusions that taste probably almost exactly the same but because I'm not thinking of them as just "wine, but wrong" they are lovely! That's clearly my conditioning then!

Erdinger Non Alko is yum GG, isn't it. Was £2 a bottle in my local but I'm finding it cheaper in some stores now. :-)
Mar 2019
8:40am, 18 Mar 2019
8,736 posts
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geordiegirl
What is bees knees Doc? I’ll look it out next time I’m in Waitrose.

I got the erdinger in Morrisons for £1.30 more than happy at that price.
Mar 2019
8:58am, 18 Mar 2019
30,765 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Yeah, 1.30 is good and it's 500ml, so not bad value.

So how was everyone's weekend? I see DT is making great progress health wise. Great to read mate.

I had a work dinner out on Fri night that was great fun actually. They all went to the pub at 4.30pm, for early finish Friday, and I turned up about 7pm, with the dinner at a nearby restaurant at 8pm. I didn't fancy the 2 hours of speaking b*llocks, though I was happy to join in for food. So I did an 8.5 mile run at 5pm through the city, which is fab fun! Met them in pub (all scooping back their beers as I had a coke) then to the meal.

A Kurdish restaurant - delicious naan bread and great for a veggie. It was BYOB, so lots of horror of paying £20 a bottle at the next door pub because they'd forgotten to get any from supermarket! So effectively cancelled out any benefit of BYOB!

Anyway, benefit for me, was that they'd paid for their wine separately, so the bill for food was £100 less to divide up! Cheap night out! Back on a late train - carnage. Hilarious. People sitting on floor, drinking from bottles, girls crying, it was like a school disco. Anyway, headphones in, read a book, 10 mins drive from station and home and cosy, relaxed by 11pm and ready for my weekend. Which was also fab! :-) G
Mar 2019
9:10am, 18 Mar 2019
14,182 posts
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Bazoaxe
HG - I find that kind of night out quite challenging when not drinking and tend to avoid them if I can. If I had known you were running I would have met up as I ran home around that time, think I did about 6 miles.

I am up to 76 days now and combined with the training I have lost a lot of the excess weight/flab I was carrying. In fact I may be as light as I have ever been since I was 18 and first started to drink alcohol !

I don't get the alcohol free drinks. Ive only ever had one and that was a beer handed out at the end of the Palma Marathon and it was disgusting and so I poured it away and drank the water and energy drink instead.

I have found recently that the improved sleeping has regressed and I am still having interrupted sleep on a regular basis. I have never been a great sleeper, but alcohol does make it worse. On the plus side I slept like a log last night and feel ace today.
Mar 2019
9:14am, 18 Mar 2019
29,965 posts
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Derby Tup
Very well done Bazo!

I’ve always been a rubbish sleeper too. Not drinking doesn’t seem to improve it much, but drinking used to make it far worse
Mar 2019
9:19am, 18 Mar 2019
273 posts
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CamBear
Another alcohol free weekend for me. Daughter phoned at 9pm on Saturday asking to be picked up from boyfriends as she wasn't feeling well. Previously I would usually be well into a bottle of wine by that time, so it felt good to be able to drive to get her.

On the subject of low alcohol lager, I have a case of Becks Blue but find myself instead drinking Orange presse drinks. I know it's really just and expensive

version of fresh orange and sparkling water, but it's feels like a little treat.
Mar 2019
9:40am, 18 Mar 2019
35,158 posts
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Diogenes
All of my birthday gifts were drink. I'm going to have to give up birthdays.
Mar 2019
2:15pm, 19 Mar 2019
8,740 posts
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geordiegirl
I will help you out Dio 😃 or saves you buying gifts for others for a while.

Found erdinger in local Tesco last night so I’m well sorted now.
Mar 2019
7:11am, 20 Mar 2019
8,741 posts
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geordiegirl
Have my dad the erdinger last night he also loved it. He said same couldn’t believe it was alcohol free.

Discoerevdd bees knees is available in Morrisons so going to see if my local store have it in thanks for the recommend.

About This Thread

Maintained by HappyG(rrr)
Looks as though this thread has become popular again, here in 2010 (it's now 2023, and it started in 2008, so I think "ever popular" might be more apt! :-) G ) :-) Good Luck everyone.

A recent plea for those struggling to "reach out" as they say in US of A!

"Anyone not feeling strong and confident, please shout out. Or fmail. Or any other comms that works. Don't drink alcohol when you don't want to, for lack of someone to talk to. Pick up the phone, not the bottle."

Some acronyms, in case people use them:
JFT - Just for today
ODAAT - One day at a time
KIS - Keep it simple
TBOGUA - The Benefits Of Giving Up Alcohol (the title of this thread!)

New feature: article/blog of the month (period may change randomly!) Swittle's wonderful 14,611 days blog: (see links below)

Linking Joopsy's 17 year blog too, cos it's awesome!

There is a GREAT article summarising some of the benefits, to save you having to trawl through the thread (includes links to helpful apps and other resources).

And a great list of Alternative Drinks started by the lovely LindsD:

Please add to these articles and make them as valuable as possible! Thanks! :-) G

And one from way back when...
Dirt Monkey's brilliant blog on TBOGUA too - go try this...

Rebel has recommended a couple of good books:
The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
by Catherine Gray

The Alcohol Experiment: 30 Days to Take Control, Cut Down or Give Up For Good
by Annie Grace

A great response from a health professional in Ireland responding to a question from a Guardian reader about why the warnings on alcoholic drinks that are coming in:

theguardian.com

"Alcohol is responsible for at least 1,000 cancer cases every year in Ireland, with one in eight breast cancer cases arising from alcohol use. Even one to two drinks per day increases the risk of developing cancer, and that risk is the same whether those drinks are wine, spirits or beer. Unfortunately, there is a very low level of public awareness that alcohol has been classed as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning it is carcinogenic to humans. That is why Ireland has passed legislation that provides for health information labels on alcohol products, including warnings about cancer, liver disease and the danger of drinking in pregnancy. It is unsurprising that the alcohol industry, which promotes its products with carefully crafted myths of good times for all, is objecting to the mandatory provision of facts (Anger brews in Italy over Ireland’s plans for alcohol health warnings, 12 January).
Dr Sheila Gilheany
CEO, Alcohol Action Ireland
"

And the all important fabulous services:
Alcoholics Anonymous
National Helpline (FREE) 0800 9177 650
help@aamail.org

Al Anon
020 7403 0888

medal medal Contact TBOGUA medal medal

We're adding in our own Fetch offer of one to one contact too, for anyone who doesn't want to post in the thread for whatever reason. Please feel free to fmail ANY of the names listed below.

- - - -
HappyG(rrr)
Oscar the grouch
mrs shanksi
Derby Tup
iaincr
Love Lettuce
DocM
LindsD
GeneHunt59
GregP star
Joopsy star

Note: we're none of us experts, but we're happy to listen, to answer any questions and to offer support if you think it would help you. Except star marked above. Who are experts! :-)

(Note II: at Christmas some names may change a bit, but I'm sure you can still find us to fmail!)

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FE accepts no responsibility for external links. Or anything, really.

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