Winston Churchill was famous for saying that alcohol is a great slave but a poor master. If you’ve struggled to reduce your alcohol consumption during ‘Dry January’ then it might be time to consider if alcohol is becoming your master rather than your slave.
Here are some simple tips for reducing alcohol consumption more permanently:
1) Know How Much You Drink
Keep a record across a two week period of how much alcohol you are drinking – when you drink, what you drink and how much you drink. Remember that measures poured at home for things like shots of glasses of wine are often larger than ‘official measures’ in pubs and restaurants. Use a unit calculator to work out your average daily units. How do they compare with recommendations of 2-3 for women and 3-4 for men?
2) Balance Your Drinks
When you’re at home, try not to start your evening with a drink. Instead, is there another special drink you can have instead to help towards reducing alcohol consumption – for example premixed ‘mocktails’. See if you can save alcohol for drinking with dinner only.
When you’re out, try to buy rounds of either one soft drink for yourself, or rounds of two drinks where one is alcoholic and the other soft. This means that you’re never buying just alcoholic drinks and slow consumption down during the evening.
3) Know What You’re Buying
When you’re shopping keep in mind ‘if I buy it I will drink it.’ This means only putting things in your basket that you are happy to drink that week. Simple changes like buying mini bottles of wine or individual bottles of beer mean that larger bottles aren’t wasted, or worse, are completely finished.
4) Find Replacements For De-Stressing
Do you use alcohol to reduce stress? If so, think about what other ways you could reduce stress at the times you would be likely to drink. For example if you open a bottle when you get home from work, why not do something pleasurable on your way home instead? That way you won’t need a stress reliever when you do get back.
5) Talk With A Partner
Often we match the same levels of alcohol consumption as those around us. Is this the case in your life? If so, why not have a conversation with your nearest and dearest about how they view their drinking and whether they would like to reduce their alcohol consumption too. Having the same goals will help both of you achieve them.
If you are struggling to use these tips then it might be time to seek help. Open support programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous can be a useful place to get more information or free support – however if you would like more personalised or professional help then why not speak with one of Our Team?
