Tips on cutting down after your Sober March
By Go Sober Team on
Carry on your good work from March through to April and beyond. Here are some practical tips if you want to try to cut down on the amount of alcohol you’re drinking.
Quench your thirst!
Before you start drinking, quench your thirst with a non-alcoholic drink.
Drink slowly
Have a drink of water with your alcoholic drink.
Make every second drink non-alcoholic
Alternate between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. This will help space out your drinks.
Eat when you drink
Eat food when you’re drinking, but avoid salty foods – these make you thirstier.
Dilute your alcoholic drinks
For example, a shandy (beer with lemonade) or a wine spritzer (wine with mineral water).
Treat yourself
Alcohol isn’t the only thing you can indulge in. Why not try a...
Top Skincare Tips from Boots Macmillan Beauty Advisor Aliyah Mughal
By Boots Macmillan Beauty Advisor Aliyah Mughal on
There are so many benefits to looking after your skin, and a big benefit of going booze-free for the month is that your skin will thank you for it.
Aliyah Mughal has been a Boots Macmillan Beauty Advisor since 2016. Boots Macmillan Beauty Advisors are No7 Advisors trained by Macmillan and Boots to give face to face advice to help people cope with visible side effects of cancer. From defining sparse brows and lashes to caring for nails that are suddenly more brittle, they offer lots of tips to help people feel, and look, more like themselves again.
Suddenly the colder weather is upon us, so having dryness and getting dreaded spots is very common right now. Let’s get stuck in with Aliyah’s top tips for healthier skin:
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Always cleanse every...
Top tips by Drinkaware
By Drinkaware on
When you decide to give up alcohol it’s good to have a plan. Here are some tips from charity, Drinkaware, to help you have a successful Sober month.
Discover the benefits
As well as reducing the risk of long-term health harms, reducing the amount you drink can have a lot of short-term benefits too. Your sleep will improve, you’ll have more energy, you might feel less anxious and you could even lose weight. Understanding the short term benefits of cutting back and noting the changes as they happen can be a good way to help keep you motivated through the month.
Tell people about your plan
Telling family and friends about your plan to stop drinking can help keep you on track. This way, you can share your successes with them, and they’ll...
Kate Bee’s Tips For A Successful Month
By Kate Bee on
1. Make a firm decision, not a flimsy one
Treat your break from drinking in the same way you’d approach cleaning your teeth. You don’t try and clean your teeth, you just make it happen. Even if you’ve had a busy day, you still find time to brush your teeth! It’s non-negotiable. However difficult, try and treat your Sober challenge the same way.
2. Mother yourself for the month
Think of it this way: if your child was grumpy, restless and irritated, you wouldn’t reach for the wine bottle to soothe them, right? Instead, you’d troubleshoot the problem and try to make things better. You’d mother them. Are they tired? Hungry? Thirsty? Bored? Do they need a cuddle? Connection? As adults, our needs are basically the same. So, when that alcohol...
Boost your wellbeing this October with the National Garden Scheme’s top tips
By The National Garden Scheme on
Why not develop those green fingers of yours as part of your booze-free October? Gardening is not only rewarding but it gets you exercising in the fresh air, positively impacting your wellbeing. While you’re keeping your mind and body healthy through Sober October, these tips will help keep your garden healthy too.
So, whatever the weather, venture outside and get stuck in with the National Garden Scheme’s top tips for October in your garden:
1. Get Tidying
This is the time of year when a small amount of work with the right tools can bring you satisfying results in the garden. Trim branches, sweep up fallen leaves, clear brambles, and carry out path repairs, or to lay new ones – there’s lots to do. Start creating compost!
2. Plant Trees...
A short guide to non-alcoholic beer – plus five of the best
By Tom Hallett on
Whether it's a couple of cans of beer in front of the TV or a few pints down the pub with friends on a weekend, it's the rituals associated with booze many moderate drinkers miss the most when they reduce their alcohol intake.
And while many pubs, bars and restaurants have been slow to take advantage of the non-alcoholic beer revolution (the market grew 39% in 2018 alone), your choices are no longer limited to a dusty bottle that's been lingering for years on the back shelf behind the bar.
The situation away from pubs, bars and restaurants is even more rosy. Supermarkets and off-licences have upped their non-alcoholic beer game significantly, while there are dozens of online stores that specialise in non-alcoholic drinks.
Why...
I gave up alcohol ten months ago and here’s what’s happened since
By Scott Pearson on
I used to wake up with a feeling of dread. You know, that feeling that you’ve said or done the wrong thing in a drunken stupor? Sometimes I’d have to do my best Poirot and piece the night together from stories others told me of my behaviour, along with Uber email receipts and transactions on my banking apps. After too many years of making the same mistakes, and realising I only had myself to blame for my rising anxiety, poor fitness, and debt levels to challenge those of a small country, I knew something had to give.
In October 2018 I woke up one morning with the worst hangover of my life, and from that point on I knew my relationship with alcohol was over. The important thing to mention is, that even when I was drinking, my life wasn’t...
7 Tips For Getting Through a Wedding Sober
By Millie Gooch on
Despite the fact that weddings are supposed to be the happiest day of some people’s lives, if it’s a) not yours and b) you have to do it sober, you can begin to think that, in fact, quite the opposite is true.
There are two main reasons why weddings are notoriously difficult to navigate without a drink. The first is that nuptials are a kind of an ‘all in’ package deal. With a lot of social events, you can simply leave if you’re feeling horrifically bored or out of sorts, it’s simply much harder to stand up during your second course or in the middle of the Best Man speech and declare that you’ve actually just had enough. There’s a certain level of expectation as a wedding guest that you’re more or less locked in for the duration and that...
A Sober Night's Sleep
By Clare Pooley on
It's Saturday morning, and I've bounced out of bed, leaving the children still slumbering away happily. One of the very best things about being sober, the one I never tire of (please excuse the pun!), is sleep.
For at least a decade, I was a terrible sleeper. I would look at the rest of my family, who'd be happily out for the count for hours, and think how do you DO that? I would get to sleep easily enough, but then I'd wake up at around 3am tossing and turning and unable to drop off again until about ten minutes before my alarm went off.
I blamed my insomnia on the inevitable stresses and strains of modern life. I tried everything to cure my lack of sleep – relaxation and meditation, exercise, aromatherapy pillows and various...
