I'm in. To be honest I worry about going through withdrawals. Any advice on steps I can take to taper prior to 1.1?

Would everyone stop acknolwedging anything Dave / H20Fun posts, anywhere......please?

Having just now read every single post on this thread........ Jesus, I could use (would like to have) a Canadian Breakfast Stout beer to settle down. I may have one today, or maybe tomorrow, maybe so. Or, maybe not. Either way, count me IN on the January 3.0 challenge. I was successful at the January 2.0 challenge, so sign me up again come January 1st.

---

Team Zoot-Texas, and Pickle Juice

I’m going to jumble this up a little bit, but it’s hilarious to me how Dave was being called out by slowman ealier for not being aware of some of the major stories this year and having no clue and Kylie and his wind tunnel experiment. Save chimed back something to the sort of ....I don’t read threads that don’t concern me.
But yet he reads and comments numerous times on an alcohol thread where he says he doesn’t drink!
Classic Dave

Congrats. I think part of the mentality that allows us to succeed in this sport is part of the mentality that also can take us the other way. In my case I was fully "in" on the military drinking culture, until I sat down with myself and took an inventory of the things I wanted to be good at and if all that military peer pressure alcohol consumption was adding to or hurting my academic, sport and also my military leadership abilities overall.

It became pretty clear that the upside of the 'acceptance' of binging with the boys was not worth all the downsides elsewhere, so it made the decision easy. Fortunately, I don't think I was ever hooked to the point that I craved it. I think it was mainly a crutch in the frequent party culture and there was pretty well zero moderation. More like all in every nite we were at the pub or officer's mess, so minimally, Thu, Fri, Sat nite. That's pretty well half the week being in low performance mode outside of the pub. That's half of life having performance reduction. Fortunately like most of the people on this forum, I was driven to be good/competitive at many aspects of life and being good at pounding back a lot of alcohol and holding it seemed to be a really low value competition to try to be awesome at. If I look back at that time, especially 3rd and 4th year of my undergrad, and the 3 years after that in the working world, I kind of under performed because I was tired from all the drinking and partying.

I'm in! I did 2 months alcohol free in August/September this year and it was surprisingly nice. I definitely felt better overall and more motivated to do all my scheduled workouts. Hoping I can drop a few pounds in conjunction with the challenge.

I'm going to try this (except for January 7th). I moved from mainly beer to mainly cocktails a few years ago and thought 2 a day max, maybe 3 or 4 on special occasions would still keep me at a safe quantity. I realized the 3 or 4 was happening more than on special occasions; maybe routinely on weekends. And most of the cocktails I mixed were more than the standard 1 shot of alcohol; maybe 2 or 3 shots. At maximum levels, instead of 2 shots a day I could be up to 12. I would drink these over many hours so I never got drunk or even close. But damn, that's way more than I thought I was drinking.
And I now realize the company I've been keeping are hard drinkers. If I hang with them, I inevitably drink more. And I don't like where they're going. They're fun, professional, functional men and women, but man they drink alot.

As mentioned on last years thread, I'm now 6 days away from going booze free for 2017. The whole goal was to go 1 year, but I've enjoyed it so much I'm going to re-up and go booze free for 2018.

Most likely the level of your alcohol consumption does not measure up to undergoing withdrawl, seizures, that kind of thing. Why not do a little research, maybe on the Mayo Clinic web site or AA and see if you "measure up." Doubtful. But if you do, then this is a matter between you and your family physician. Do it, and then join us when you can. Good luck.

On other fronts, we are looking great on participation and I thank all for it. I'm doing it too so we'll sink or swim together.

5 Days!

John

---

John H. Post, III, MD
Orthopedic Surgeon
Charlottesville, VA

You really are a dildo of epic proportions. I have seen so much of your inane bullshit on here but to troll a post like this is impressive. The fact that you were doing it midday on Christmas says so much about your lonely and pathetic existence.

good on you Dr. John.. best of luck everyone..

I do my forty days no alcohol starting Feb 19..

as Sam Vimes says, one drink is too many, two isn't enough..

--
“I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.”
Edgar Allan Poe, Letters

"Sometimes I feel small. And sometimes I feel larger than life. Sometimes I feel crushed. And sometimes I feel like a king. Sometimes I feel slow. And sometimes I feel like a wit. But most of the time I feel just like me. So I drink."
Hold Me! An Entertainment, Jules Feiffer.

1. OK - I'm in too! I never had too much of a problem with drinking before (ie a few drinks on the weekend) - but the last year or so has been super stressful (difficult job, 2 young kids, crazy wife, just finished building a house, etc...) and i definitely notice that its something I need/crave/whatever almost every night. I'm going to try to start tomorrow since all the parties are basically done for now and New Years with 2 young kids is basically a non event. Plus I just finished an amazing bottle of Scotch that was still left in the cupboard - so it wont be calling my name any more.

2. All the stuff above with Dave is hilarious. Like I was actually laughing out-loud. As someone said - he's either an amazing troll, or I feel kinda sad for him

3. Life is way to short to not have an occasional glass of Red with dinner or a bit of scotch every now and then. The people that think it adds nothing to life are silly.

We have a special family occasion on 5th January, so I'm shifting my dry month to run from 6th Jan to 6th Feb (as luck would have it, 7th Feb is also my wife's birthday). Thanks for the thread, I generally aim for moderation throughout the year rather than going completely dry, but for various reasons this is a good year for me to do a full dry month (even if I'm not quite doing it on the right dates!).

Can we add it to the training log?!

or a drunken orgy! Pure life value right there! Lol

Dave, you are the one who by your own admission white knuckle brakes every descent so badly you think you need a bike with disc brakes. The snowflake is in the mirror.

If this was a democratic forum you would probably be voted out by 90 percent of the Forumites. Have you ever had a mentor or someone in your life coach you on how you come across to others? I am not trying to be cruel but you really should value other peoples feedback and reflect on this. You exhibit a constant behavior that is so offputting. I personally have ignored your constant insertions about yourself in so many threads for so long, but 3 years of seeing the same behavior and this thread takes the cake. What starts off as a noble effort gets derailed by your tone deaf posts.

Going to give this a try also. Have noticed feeling way better recently and do think it corresponds to a reduction of beer consumption.
Still drink occasionally and body is sluggish the next day. What replaces your alcoholic drinks at social/ dinner outings??

But isn't the point of the thread to abstain from Jan 1st for 1 month? Being able to resist alcohol in such situations as family occasions?

For replacement, I've found several non-alcoholic beers. O'Doull's (for me) is the best although there's a St. Pauli Girl and Beck's to name a couple. As far as wine without alcohol I think there are even more options. Go to Amazon and check out their selection. Also, your local wine shop may have an even better personal touch to aid you in a product specific to your tastes. I haven't looked for non-alcoholic tequilla or scotch but who knows, they might exist.

John

---

John H. Post, III, MD
Orthopedic Surgeon
Charlottesville, VA

I'm in. My issue isn't daily drinking. It's Friday and Sat nights (esp. Friday). I usually down about 6-8 beers on Friday and another 4-6 on Saturday. Never drink during the work week - including Sundays.

I've gone drink-free for a month or two in the past but it's been a few years. Looking forward to this!

Best of luck to everyone and enjoy the weekend mornings!

Frank

Good luck everyone.

I'm finishing this year having consumed alcohol on only 5 occasions. Rather than abstain completely, I decided (as a challenge) to give myself 5 events in which I could drink throughout the year. These came in useful at a few weddings/stag dos!

It was a surprisingly enjoyable challenge.

I'm in for January.

I have too many friends and family in AA to not make this a good effort.

I also gave up dairy last month as a diet experiment, and had about 10 pounds just fall off me through what turned out to be significant but easy diet and food prep choices. January might just be the next piece of the dietary puzzle to help get to a great race weight for 2018.

Thanks for doing this, John. As a gastroenterologist, I've spent a good deal of my life treating a myriad of alcohol related diseases including cirrhosis, pancreatitis, etc. I watched my uncle die bleeding out from esophageal varices while I was in medical school. I understood why my father didn't have his first drink until age 50 as he had watched his dad and several of his brothers succumb in one way or another to alcohol related disease. He was pretty much a tee totaler all his life.
I was a moderate drinker in college and med school. Over time, I became an occasional drinker as my exercise time was limited by work and family and I couldn't afford the extra calories. I still enjoyed an occasional microbrew in the summer or wine with dinner.
This December marks the third year that my little brother passed away from complications of alcoholic cirrhosis. I couldn't drink for a year after his passing, just didn't feel right about it. Then at the encouragement of my wife and family, I would have an occasional drink but inevitably, it didn't taste right and I would stare at the glass wonder: would he still be alive if he had stopped? What was different about my DNA that allowed me to stop--or was this the first of many drinks that would take me down the path that led to his death?
I got to the point where there was so much deep thought involved, I neither enjoyed the drink nor the particular situation I was in at the time. So, I stopped. I don't miss it at all and I certainly don't miss agonizing over whether or not I should take a drink. I still miss my brother...he would have been 47 this year.

Good luck everyone. I very rarely drink, maybe once a year if that. My dad had issues and I never wanted to really try it. I got lucky that even in college playing hockey, my team understood that and no one bugged me about it. Besides to be a taxi driver for them haha.

I never understood the desire to get drunk, and drinking doesn’t do much for me anyways. But if this helps others out, I’m glad you’ve started this up again.

Clearly.

This past summer I got a text from a Uni friend. One of our crew passed on from cirrhosis. About 43 years old. Leaving Uni in 3rd year she was pregnant. Had a second. Lived 2 hours from me. Single mom. I saw her once 2 years before passing and at that time had pause that her “look” was one of alcohol disease. Then that text. Definitely gave me pause and deep reflection.

My best to your family.

---

@rhyspencer