Weekly Wellbeing - Dry July chat and support thread
This July is Dry July, where people give up alcohol for a month, and raise money for cancer related charities. There’s also options this year to do a “dryish” version for 14 or 21 days instead.
Even if you’re not planning on giving Dry July a go this year, it can be a good time to take stock of your relationship with alcohol, and if you’ve picked up any bad habits that you want to break.
Maybe you want to have a few alcohol free nights every week, or make sure you’re drinking more water, or start making some mocktails - Dry July can be a good chance to hit the re-set button a bit if you feel like you need to.
After all of the stresses of Covid-19, some studies have found that people do seem to be drinking more than normal - especially if they’re struggling a bit with their mental health, or are working less, and it can be easy to get into different habits when your normal routine has been disrupted.
Current guidelines say that adults should drink a maximum of 10 standard drinks a week, and no more than 4 drinks on any day. Standard drinks can look really different depending on what you’re drinking:
ReachOut have a bunch of great articles on drinking if you want to find out a bit more about drinking, or look at changing your habits, you can check them out here:
How to drink but not get drunk
5 reasons you might be binge drinking
What binge drinking does to your body
If you’re worried about your drinking, you can always have a chat to your GP or check out these services for some specialised help.
Are you doing Dry July this year? If you are, we’d love to hear about how you’re going here! Please feel free to keep us posted on how you’re getting on.
Or do you have any healthier habits you’d like to try and get into this July?
Do you think Covid-19 has changed your drinking habits at all?
Comments
This is an awesome thread!
We don't realise how socially drinking is so ingrained into our lives that when we have to/want to stop we're faced with with a surprising number of hurdles!
For anyone who is thinking of doing Dry July or just wants to lessen/stop alcohol consumption its also important to look after your mental + physical health.
Physically I would recommend investing in some probiotics and vitamins as alcohol use can often damage or weaken our guts and immune systems. Water is definitely so important so the apps which have been recommended are awesome! Also nutrition is something to keep an eye on. Usually when we drink we fill ourselves with lol of liquid so food isn't always a priority which could lead to a lack of a balanced diet. Please try to incorporate fruits, veggies, nuts, protein etc into everyday meals to keep you health and wellbeing up. Having adequate nutrition would also positively impact mental health and mood!
Sometimes if we are used to having alcohol or other substances, the sudden stop can be quite overwhelming and frustrating. Checking in with friends and family about how you're feeling could be helpful or even with a professional.
Hope everyone is well! x
Recently I've been trying to be more active and do occasional stretches by watching youtube since I've been sitting down a lot more during these past few months. I definitely think these healthier habits will guide more towards a stronger mental state!
I don't drink but I think this is a great thread! 🙂 I hope everyone who is doing Dry July reaches their goals.
This July, I will try to drink more water. My urologist wanted me to drink two litres a day but I've never been able to do that. I've downloaded an app to track my water intake.
My nephrologist also wants me to repeat a test this month that will tell us more about how I am going with the diet recommendations I've been given to prevent kidney stones.
I've also got more into doing mindfulness and meditations. I've learned a lot of new ones over the past few days that I haven't thought of before, such as mindful walking and another one where I had to imagine sending out roses to everyone I was worried about.
I don't think COVID-19 has changed my drinking habits but I know that I have to avoid drinks that are high in oxalates such as black tea and beer. It's a bit hard to explain to people why I can't have them though.
I love those ideas @WheresMySquishy ! I'm also trying to drink more water at the moment, I'm always amazed at what a huge difference it makes to how I'm feeling. 2L is a lot though, I can understand how that would be challenging! I know people who've found setting alarms through the day to be helpful in reminding them to drink more water.
I really like mindful walking, bushwalking is one of my happy places and practicing mindfulness while I'm walking is really helpful for me, but it's something that I have to remind myself to do! Do you use guided meditations at all?
@Janine-RO I think setting an alarm would help me reach that goal better. I'm currently using an app that kind of gamifies drinking water to encourage me to drink more. I think it could be useful for people who are trying to replace their intake of caffeine and alcohol with more water too.
I've heard some people get told to drink three litres a day! 
I don't know how they manage. I think it can be hard to reach the target when you're constantly doing work or are out and about.
I also got a water bottle with an infuser built into it to put fruits in. I thought I could put some lemons in it from our lemon tree as my urologist wanted me to have more citrus and it could make drinking water a bit more fun too. My nephrologist disagreed with him though and said my citrus intake is not that low. It's all a bit confusing! I'll just have to wait until my latest results come back and the nephrologist interprets them.
I've been using guided meditations, but I also find it really helpful to just listen to nature sounds or ambient sounds. Some guided meditations tell you to pay attention to the sounds around you, so they're pretty good for walking too! 🙂
Hey @WheresMySquishy! What's the name of the app you use to gamify drinking more water? That sounds like it would be super helpful for me 🙂
Hi @klasna13! I'm currently using Plant Nanny 2. It's pretty fun!
Here are some other similar apps but I haven't tried them.
