Mocktini Magic; Welcome Dry January

If holiday excess has got you feeling a bit bloated and hung over, it might be time to consider a Dry January and abstain from alcohol for the first month of the year. It won’t give you carte blanche to drink as much as you want for the rest of the year.  But it can give your body some well-deserved rest and allow you to realign your relationship with adult beverages.

Enjoy Overall Health Improvement

Most people leave the holiday season feeling like they’ve probably overindulged a bit and doing a dry January can give your body some much needed R&R. You also might enjoy better sleep as alcohol can affect your REM cycle.  And you could lose a little bit of that holiday weight since you won’t be imbibing in any caloric cocktails. But more importantly, it can allow you to reestablish and evaluate your relationship with booze and provide you with a healthier baseline to operate from. Since excessive drinking can lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and even cancer, taking a step back and questioning if you’re really happy with your happy hour routine can help your overall health in the long term.

Here are more helpful tips and potential benefits of a Dry January thanks to our friends at Self:

Your Immune System Might Beef Up

We’ve all been thankful for our immune systems this year as they’ve been working hard to protect us during this pandemic. But did you know that being under the influence suppresses immune function, making you more vulnerable to disease? While there isn’t evidence directly linking excessive drinking to catching the flu, the side effects of not drinking – like better sleep, increased exercise and more controlled eating habits – will probably help you stay healthy and fit in 2021.

If you do overindulge during the holidays, Spafinder is here to help. Learn more in “Tackling Holiday Hangovers: Booze, Sugar and Family.”

Your Wallet Might Get Heavier

The holidays can be a stressful time due to extra spending but a dry January might make you realize exactly how much of your hard earned dough is going towards your drinking. Because we all know that even if the mimosas are bottomless, your bank account isn’t. By tracking how much you’re saving while abstaining, you might decide to limit how and when you drink for the rest of the year and focus more of that cash to building up some savings or paying down some debt.

How to Get Started

If you’re nervous to give a Dry January a try, see if you can recruit a group of friends to do it with you. Then you’ll be more likely to stay accountable and actually make it through the 30 days. You can also use non-alcoholic beers, wines and spirit replacements to give your brain the mental release of a drink while still secretly abstaining. But remember, if you slip up, don’t beat yourself up. You can always restart the next day and extend into February. This is about finding a new balance within yourself and starting your year off right. Give yourself a break!

Looking for a festive alternative? Check out Town & Country’s  “31 Best Recipes for Mocktails.”