On The Wagon... then in 'ere!

dlockers · 6 Jan 2022 at 08:50

NickK said:
go veggie for jan.

FWIW there was a great post on here about how veganuary/veggie in January is super annoying in the UK as it is totally the wrong season for us to have a running start.

Congrats on the limited intake. I thought I had limited in take but you've done a stella(r) job.

Dyson · 6 Jan 2022 at 08:58

Just broken the 6 months mark, and had my first alcohol free Christmas since I was about 17 (45 now).

I blame the lack of alcohol for my not doing as good a Christmas dinner as I normally would have

haaammit · 6 Jan 2022 at 09:08

Dyson said:
Just broken the 6 months mark, and had my first alcohol free Christmas since I was about 17 (45 now).

I blame the lack of alcohol for my not doing as good a Christmas dinner as I normally would have

Brilliant stuff - well done

Had my first alcohol free Xmas in about the same time scale

dlockers · 6 Jan 2022 at 11:37

Dyson said:
Just broken the 6 months mark, and had my first alcohol free Christmas since I was about 17 (45 now).

I blame the lack of alcohol for my not doing as good a Christmas dinner as I normally would have

Cooking is like playing darts in that way then.

Dyson · 6 Jan 2022 at 12:02

dLockers said:
Cooking is like playing darts in that way then.

Definitely

PapaLazaru · 7 Jan 2022 at 18:14

4 days and counting. Plan is to get to Burns Night as least. Just trying to find a decent non-alco beer. Heineken tastes like sick. The Aldi stuff is pretty decent for 40p a bottle. Erdinger is better. Lucky Saint is the best so far, but also have Infinite Session Pale to try.

haaammit · 7 Jan 2022 at 21:06

PapaLazaru said:
4 days and counting. Plan is to get to Burns Night as least. Just trying to find a decent non-alco beer. Heineken tastes like sick. The Aldi stuff is pretty decent for 40p a bottle. Erdinger is better. Lucky Saint is the best so far, but also have Infinite Session Pale to try.

We sell San Miguel Zero at the bar I run and that seems pretty popular. Worth a try maybe?

Ninco! · 7 Jan 2022 at 22:04

haaammit said:
We sell San Miguel Zero at the bar I run and that seems pretty popular. Worth a try maybe?

I was thinking about the best zero beer, I was drinking Heineken Zero at Christmas and wondered if there was any better.

Definitely during the pandemic, I have a noticeable alcohol creep and drinking far more nights than I used to; as no driving or commute. Waking up in the morning with a muggy head too often.

On a concerted effort to limit myself to weekend (Friday and Saturday) nights only.

PapaLazaru · 11 Jan 2022 at 20:58

Ninco! said:
I was thinking about the best zero beer, I was drinking Heineken Zero at Christmas and wondered if there was any better.

In order of preference (of that I have since tried)

Lucky Saint
Infinite Session Pale Ale
Erdinger Alkoholfrei
Brooklyn Special Effects
Aldi stuff
Heineken (rubbish)

I am more of a cider drinker myself, but bizarrely have no inclination to try the non-alco stuff.

Ninco! · 14 Jan 2022 at 20:45

Thanks @PapaLazaru for sharing.

Pleasantly surprised there are better choices than the Heineken.

Malevolence · 14 Jan 2022 at 23:48

Five years for me today.

Was my Father's cremation yesterday, and today we were going through some of his things and there are a couple of really nice bottles of Bowmore. Curse this no-drinking malarkey. :mad:

dlockers · 16 Jan 2022 at 22:20

PapaLazaru said:
In order of preference (of that I have since tried)

Lucky Saint
Infinite Session Pale Ale
Erdinger Alkoholfrei
Brooklyn Special Effects
Aldi stuff
Heineken (rubbish)

I am more of a cider drinker myself, but bizarrely have no inclination to try the non-alco stuff.

Lucky Saint is seriously nice. I went to a very middle class music festival when I wasn't drinking and I was totally quids in as all lucky Saint was FREE

I have a sub to them but it's 80 quid for 48 bottles which is mega bucks really ...

Heineken definitely isn't undrinkable but I also manage Budweiser and Beck's quite easily...

The new Guinness stuff is good too.

Jimbeam3678 · 17 Jan 2022 at 08:23

Be careful with Infinite Session Pale Ale. The green can one is really nice, the blue and gold cans are horrid especially the gold one it tastes like cream soda!

Lucky Saint and Heineken zero for me. Both very drinkable

Martynt74 · 17 Jan 2022 at 09:34

I've heard good stuff about Athletic Brewing N/A beer, i'm sure i heard they'd patented their own method for removing the alcohol on some podcast, but don't remember it well enough for details.

Brooklyn Special Effects is probably the best i've had, but i always find they have a weird chemically taste which is pretty offputting and so definitely not something i'd want to just sit and relax with at home.

Freakbro · 1 Feb 2022 at 14:48

Freakbro said:
I've set myself to have a dry January, made easier as we have no social events this month like gigs or meals out with friends.

Red wine is my tipple and I do like to have it with an evening meal, it's only 4 days in but it's fine so far, not even missed it yet! Whereas at other times I've tried to do a dry month I'd usually fail quite quickly - think I've only managed it for a full month once before while trying.

Well, I did the month. Had a big wobble around the weekend of the 15th but didn't succumb to the temptation.

Now I've set myself the open ended goal to just keep going, which will only last until the 11th at the latest tbf as I've got the w/e away with some heavy drinkers for a birthday party, but this way it feels more of an achievement not drinking when I can rather than just making it to a specific date, like the end of Jan.

Orangeade · 16 Mar 2022 at 01:01

Drink pretty heavily as a very work hard play hard job in exotic finance role etc.

Quite normal to drink everyday. I have a pretty huge tolerance which doesn't help and lucky enough to be tall enough that I still look okay at 100kg+.

Given up alcohol for a month now. Been disappointing how little I've noticed. Weight wise it's only a short period of time so who cares. But in terms of feeling better, energy etc etc it's all the same.

Shame really if it had helped I would have stayed off longer. As it is I'll stay off for another month or so and then resume duties!

It 10000% makes life a lot lot more boring though. I'm quite happy to socialise sober but a few beers and whiskey makes life a lot better...

Orangeade · 16 Mar 2022 at 01:02

Edit: saving 25 chf a cocktail is nice though, a proceeds to charity

dlockers · 16 Mar 2022 at 18:22

How tall are you? How much do you sleep? You may need to complete the puzzle to get the gains you were anticipating.

dlockers · 16 Mar 2022 at 18:22

Jimbeam3678 said:
Be careful with Infinite Session Pale Ale. The green can one is really nice, the blue and gold cans are horrid especially the gold one it tastes like cream soda!

Lucky Saint and Heineken zero for me. Both very drinkable

Bavaria is the same; revolting cream soda taste.

Martynt74 · 17 Mar 2022 at 17:08

Orangeade said:
Drink pretty heavily as a very work hard play hard job in exotic finance role etc.

Quite normal to drink everyday. I have a pretty huge tolerance which doesn't help and lucky enough to be tall enough that I still look okay at 100kg+.

Given up alcohol for a month now. Been disappointing how little I've noticed. Weight wise it's only a short period of time so who cares. But in terms of feeling better, energy etc etc it's all the same.

Shame really if it had helped I would have stayed off longer. As it is I'll stay off for another month or so and then resume duties!

It 10000% makes life a lot lot more boring though. I'm quite happy to socialise sober but a few beers and whiskey makes life a lot better...

I've always found that when having a month off i end up feeling lousy and never really any different. I once had ~12 months with no booze, and again felt very little impact.

The main thing i notice is during exercise. The knock on effect is large and so is the main motivating factor to drink less. When i'm doing nothing though its pointless not drinking!