patrick.net

Nada. Average 2/3d's a cup of coffee a day, some diet sodas, and maybe two advil a month.

Just because you're asking, I would recommend that you drink nothing for at least a week.

No offense, I've been there certainly, multiple times. I want a beer right now. Maybe just one...

I have a small glass of red wine with lunch and a beer with dinner. On Friday evening I may have three drinks.

I used to drink quite a bit more. I find it easier to drink less now that I don't go out with current or former co-workers. That would frequently result in a bad hangover.

I'm kind of like Patrick, but just beer. I'll have 1-3 daily. Usually the lesser. Fridays, Saturday and yes, Sunday funday can get extreme from time to time. It was actually a Sunday on Labor Day that I fractured my heel. Had more to do with not wearing shoes and jumping playing Kan Jam then landing on concrete.

What I note is that almost everyone lies about their drinking habits. There's also seeing the quantity of beer in a beer cave type setup that gets delivered at least weekly in a town of 2k people. We can do 30 packs of beer here in IL and there's 80 cases of each brand. Just one brand would be 2,400 beers.

We've got a busy state road that runs through town, so of course some of that is outsiders buying. Remember though this is just beer. Most women don't drink it. Now you've got all the seltzer water shit like White Claw. If you abstain from alcohol (which is good) someone else is making up for you that's for sure.

Fun fact... not sure if 100% true but Montana at one point consumed the largest amount of White Claw per capita at one point. Guys dig the claw out there. In IL you're almost certainly gay if caught drinking it. Weird how different parts of the country view drinks. Called my buddies brother a fag because he was drinking it and he was shocked I did.

In my twenties a lot after having kids maybe a dozen over the whole year.

I drink nothing alcoholic in my daily routine.

I’m sometimes invited to my friend’s house and I know she and her daughter love champagne, so I bring a bottle of Roederer Estate (great stuff FYI).

I might have 2 glasses of champagne at these times.

I had a female visitor a few years ago and we would have some champagne before the fun.

I haven’t met a girl who doesn’t like champagne unless she is a drinker.

I actually love some drinks, but I’m not going to drink alone.

I love a good gin and tonic with key lime juice. I love a good Margarita in Mexico. I love good tequila which is sipped not pounded. I recommend Sauza Black Barrel tequila, among others.

If I go to a good restaurant I usually have a glass of wine with my food.

I have found that watching girls get slightly drunk is more fun than getting drunk.

GreaterNYCDude says

I'm making a concerted effort to back off the sauce.

Good idea. I found that when I stopped drinking, I did not miss it much. The longer I abstained, the less I missed it and now don't even miss it a bit.

You can do this.

GreaterNYCDude says

For wahts it's worth, I did a Sober January or whatever the trend is earlier this year. Felt better at the end, but didn't loose any weight. Replaced the alcohol with sugar, trading once vice for another.

Surprised you didn't lose any weight. I'm taller hence more weight to be lost, but I lost almost 20lbs the last time I stopped for 3 months doing nothing extra as far as exercise and abstaining. I do drink light beer that basically is almost water, so unless it's a crazy weekend night I'm rarely even buzzed.

Craft beers are where you get into trouble if you don't look at the labeling. 3 craft beers of a certain brand could be like having 8-9 beers worth of Bud Light. So I stay away from that. I try to do low alcohol content and low calorie, for a beer at least. Busch Light. Lol, waiting to get shit on for that.

Not a wine fan and avoid hard stuff like the plague. Beside the empty calories, I personally feel like it's the best route if you want a drink. You usually can burn the calories off with just 3 mile or so walk if you're not into exercise. Wine is safer just because it's somewhat expensive for even average stuff. Hard liquor is relatively cheap even for above average stuff and the quantities you can get it in. If you can drink below average vodka it's an even worse the rabbit hole you can go down as happened with my BIL.

I personally think we need to lower the drinking age. With IL being legal for pot, I've noticed no difference. The potheads in the past still are. Some people I wouldn't expect might pop an edible now, but they're not out of line. You take away the restrictions for something like alcohol, kids will be less tempted to have it. I'll likely have a beer with my kids when they're 16-17. It's not all it's hyped up to be, but when you get into a college atmosphere all bets are off when partying on the weekend IS what you do because you haven't experienced it.

GreaterNYCDude says

For wahts it's worth, I did a Sober January or whatever the trend is earlier this year. Felt better at the end, but didn't loose any weight

Thank you for sharing.

I stopped when I realized that if I have alcohol in my system, I cannot respond to a crisis or emergency (car-dependent living). This was important when I had school-agers at home. You never know when you'll need to do an emergency errand for stitches or whatever. Then, slammed by the reminder when an alcoholic I know happened to be sober (rare) the night he and his spouse had seconds to flee the Tubbs Fire in Wine Country (Santa Rosa). They were safely able to evacuate in the fleeting seconds and bring their dogs.

As you learned from your January experiment, we can carry on without and feel pretty good about it. And have all our wits in intellect faculties ready for whatever may come.

I don’t usually drink and I love beer. A 12 pack can last me six months at times. I usually have a beer with dinner when I go out.

My consumption goes way up when we go to Las Vegas(4-8 times a year) and on vacation.

FuckTheMainstreamMedia says

My consumption goes way up when we go to Las Vegas(4-8 times a year) and on vacation.

Vacation is my time to shine. lol. Kid free trips are like college again to some extent. With kids not so much, but I will have more on vacation for sure as 8 out of 10 times we won't rent a car and it's all PT/cabs/uber.

I'm a happy drinker though when I drink more on trips. No passing out, yelling at people, fighting etc. I actually become more extroverted in a good way. I'm the guy that breaks up the drunk fights.

Iced tea year round.

Very little. While I enjoy it, I find that it ruins the next day for me. Even if I don't drink much (3-4 beers), I'm groggy the next day and lack drive. Probably due to my sleep being affected. I may sleep 7 hours, but it's an ineffective sleep that doesn't refresh me.

Beer is also carb-heavy and I find that I quickly gain weight if I drink it regularly. I prefer rum or whiskey, neat or on the rocks.

NDrLoR says

Iced tea year round.

Twisted Tea ;)

Never could do any kind of tea. The flavor just doesn't work for me. I can't stand the flavor, but people don't like beer or wine either so no judgement on my part. I'm a water guy or sparkling flavored water for non-alcoholic beverages. I like to keep it simple besides beer and even then my beer of choice is flavored water anyway.

B.A.C.A.H. says

Good idea. I found that when I stopped drinking, I did not miss it much. The longer I abstained, the less I missed it and now don't even miss it a bit.

You can do this.

I wish I could like this ten times.
Same thing with me. The longer I’m off it the less I miss it.

Shaman says

B.A.C.A.H. says

Good idea. I found that when I stopped drinking, I did not miss it much. The longer I abstained, the less I missed it and now don't even miss it a bit.

You can do this.

I wish I could like this ten times.
Same thing with me. The longer I’m off it the less I miss it.

Question for both of you though. Do you easily get hung over or have brain fog the next day? I could see that being miserable. Everyone's body handles alcohol differently.

Besides a few times on vacation, maybe 3, I haven't been hung over for a decade plus. I can have 3-6 drinks and my next day is just fine. Beating the horse dead at this point, but I think the hard stuff is where people get into trouble. If you're out and about, some of those mixed drinks you have no idea how much they're putting in.

Kudos to you guys though as alcohol has little to no benefit to the body. I'm just like Cavanaugh though. I like beer and I'm okay with any future consequences. It's warming up here now and I'm going to shed my winter beer weight.

Karloff says

Probably due to my sleep being affected. I may sleep 7 hours, but it's an ineffective sleep that doesn't refresh me.

Right, this is probably the main reason I cut back. If I have even two drinks with dinner instead of one, my sleep is noticeably worse that night. And red wine, sadly, makes my sleep even worse than beer. I love red wine, so my compromise is to have a bit of it at lunch, not enough that I actually feel anything much but I still get to enjoy the taste.

It also turns out for me that beer coming in units of a can or a bottle is a good way to count and limit. One bottle is one bottle, and I just don't open the second one unless it's Friday night or I'm out with friends. Wine is different in that it's tempting to just tilt a little more when you pour, to cheat.

Wife literally has 1/3 of a hard cider at dinner each night, splitting the bottle across three nights. But then she's 115 lbs and I'm 200 lbs. Used to be 185 lbs before the damn lockdown bullshit. That was another motive to limit the drinking.

Last tip: for me, an edible provides a plenty nice buzz and completely eliminates the desire to drink for that night. I've taken all of April off from the edibles though, because that habit got up to every night and it probably not good for you in some way, though I'm not sure what way. In May I'm going to limit it to just Fri and Sat evenings and see how that goes. I like to impose rules on myself for a limited time and prove I can follow them. The key there is to make it for a limited time. No one has infinite willpower, so you have to use it wisely.

Karloff says

Very little. While I enjoy it, I find that it ruins the next day for me. Even if I don't drink much (3-4 beers), I'm groggy the next day and lack drive. Probably due to my sleep being affected. I may sleep 7 hours, but it's an ineffective sleep that doesn't refresh me.

Beer is also carb-heavy and I find that I quickly gain weight if I drink it regularly. I prefer rum or whiskey, neat or on the rocks.

I realized that if I start at 5pm, stop around 7-8pm and go to bed around 10pm it doesn't affect my sleep adversely. If I start late and keep drinking up until I go to bed - the sleep is shit. Same with eating, btw: early dinner is where the sweet spot is.