Recent content by Charles1968

Hangovers are the best thing about alcohol. They tell you when you've been drinking too much and prevent you destroying your liver too quickly Easiest way to avoid them is to drink less. Stay under about 30 grams of alcohol a day (max safe amount according to British medical advice). If you...

You can see a drop at the start (Aug 2013) from my previous intake, which was higher. I don't know exactly how much as I wasn't monitoring. I have a beer just about every day but find it easy to stick to just one by keeping an eye on the tally. This works for me as a way of enjoying beer yet...

I recommended the Alcodroid app earlier on this thread as a good way to cut down on beer without giving up. Here are a couple of screenshots of my recent graphs. I've set alcohol units to US standard drinks.

Well done AG and good luck going forwards. I'm sure you'll savour your brews all the more if you keep an eye on your intake. Congrats to the others too.

You'd notice more energy in the mornings if you're sleeping better. Drinking tends to disturb sleep patterns, especially if you drink late at night.

Don't forget they were UK units, i.e. 8 grams alcohol. So 24 UK units is equal to about 15 standard US beers. Still a lot though. Medical advice here is to drink no more than 3-4 units a day, which is about two 12oz bottles of 5% beer. I usually have one 12 oz bottle of 4.5% beer. Any more than...

Maybe bingeing is too strong a word. There was a BBC Horizon on TV in the UK a couple of weeks ago where two identical twin doctors did a study comparing the effect of drinking 24 weekly units spread across 7 days or all in one day over 6 weeks. The guy drinking 24 in one day did much worse on...

There's good medical evidence that fasting followed by bingeing is worse for health than spreading out the same number of units. However, a lot of people find it hard to drink below recommended daily units (which are much lower in Europe than US) - that first drink usually triggers a craving for...

I don't know about cornys, but a good substitute for beer is chilled sparkling water. Also good 50:50 with freshly squeezed orange juice. Later in the evening I also rely a lot on fruit flavoured herb tea. If you're used to always having a drink on hand to sip, look to replace it with something...

Good luck for the last week and to the others who've joined in. Hopefully an inspiration to the many people on here who doubtless wrestle with the issue of control where alcohol is concerned.

A couple of years ago I listed to the artist Damien Hirst on Desert Island Discs (UK radio show, also a podcast) talking about giving up alcohol altogether in middle age - he was pretty much an alcoholic. He said that after decades of drinking socially, he had to completely re-learn his social...

Best way to beat depression in my experience is exercise or sport. Something about physical activity switches your brain into a different gear. My brother has taken this to an extreme and is a military exercise fanatic. I'm not that bad but I do cycle every day and it makes me feel great.

A lot of that is probably because alcohol wrecks your sleep. One cause of this is rebound from the sedative effect, caused by a rise in glutamate level in the brain. If I drink too much, I typically pass out as soon as I go to bed but then wake up maybe 4-5 a.m. and can't get back to sleep...

Yes it's interesting how much you notice other people's drinking when you quit or cut down. The people with control problems become very obvious. I've also noticed a correlation between drink and career issues such as redundancy. Non drinkers or light drinkers tend to be harder working and more...