give up alcohol for several months every year. I certainly don’t have a drinking problem but I feel much better in general without any alcohol at all in my system and I’ve written about my alcohol abstinence several times. I’ve had a few emails from people who have been wanting to have a mini-cleanse or a month without alcohol but they just don’t seem to have a spot in their calendar where that fits. I totally understand this. There would be some tough nut dieticians out there that would tell you to harden up and just do it but I get that some people enjoy drinking and want to find a way to do it in a more healthy and sustainable way. Nothing wrong with that, so here are a few tricks I use when I’m trying to have an alcohol cleanse but there are just too many events/holidays/weddings to make a month long cleanse feasible; here’s how to give up alcohol without actually giving it up.
Have a pre-booked rule
If I want to have a break from alcohol but I have two weddings, a weekend away and three friends birthdays coming up, it’ll be a rough month to stick to it. I tend to ‘pre-book’ during these months. Which means that if you’re going to cleanse in April, you’re only allowed to drink on days that have been pre-booked before the month starts. That way you can drink at weddings, important birthdays or while on holiday but you’ll cut back on all those casual after work beers and Friday night drinks. Basically you can’t drink unless you booked it in before the month started.
Pre-choose your AFDs
You should aim to have as many Alcohol Free Days as you can manage in a week but at the very least, if you’re trying to cut down on daily drinking, you should have a minimum of 3 AFDs. The trick is to pre-choose them. So for example if you choose Monday, Tuesday and Thursday just stick to them as your non-negotiable AFDs every week and plan your boozy dinners and catch ups on other days. Easy.
Have an unbreakable drink limit
I’m a massive lover of red wine and I choose to very strongly believe in all the hyped-up ‘healthy benefits’ of a glass of red. However once I’ve had four glasses of red wine the health benefits tend to drop away, along with my ability to use my inside voice. Give yourself a drink limit. A mate of mine once did One Glass October. She could have a glass of wine every day but it could only be one. She did it for a month, was hangover free the whole time and even lost a couple of kgs. She was still able to have her glass of wine with dinner but she still reaped all the benefits of cutting back.
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What are your drinking habits like? Do you need to cut down?
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P.S If you’re a blogger and you can get to Melbourne on the 21st March you should come to the Little Blog Big Workshop I’m running with Hair Romance and Sesame Ellis. Get in quick kids, they’re almost all gone!
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