Wellbeing

Managing your alcohol consumption

By Halls 13 Mar 2023

There's nothing wrong with enjoying a drink, but it can easily get out of hand if you're not careful.

Not here to lecture you on your drinking habits, you're at uni so you'll likely be doing more drinking/partying than at any other time of your life. You just want to make sure you stay in control so you can enjoy yourself and still feel productive and positive. A lot of people now practice Dry January and give up alcohol for a month. It's a good way to quickly see the effects of less alcohol in your life but people tend to slip back into binging as soon as February hits. Why not instead try to cut back on your day-to-day drinking for a more balanced experience?

What are the benefits of less alcohol consumption?

There are lots of little positive changes you will see in yourself after just a few days of less or no alcohol:

Better sleep - Alcohol reduces the amount of deep sleep you have and you need deep sleep to feel fresher and be able to concentrate more. You will also find that you wake up less during the night and can get to sleep faster.
Better skin - Alcohol dehydrates you more than you probably think. This has deep effects on your skin, making it feel dull, wrinkly and flaky. It's good practice to have soft drinks or water in between alcohol to maintain hydration.
Better wallet - Spend less on alcohol and save more money for other activities. Your time and cash can go on plenty of other stuff, productive or fun. This will also help you meet new people by trying new things and spreading your time with other types of groups than your drinking buddies.
Better belly - Your digestion takes a beating from alcohol and can lead to heartburn, IBS and gastritis. Your waistline will also increase with all those calories and if you're self-conscious about your appearance/weight, then this will in turn have negative mental impacts as well.

For a full list of other benefits, check out the drink-aware website for more details.

Methods for managing alcohol

We all work in different ways so some of these methods may work better than others. Think about your own needs and triggers and match that with what you think will be the most effective solutions:

Try low-alcoholic drinks/mocktails - If you still want to keep that social aspect of drinking then you can give different types of drinks a go. Check the percentage of what you are drinking and switch to a low-alcohol option (usually around the 2.1% mark). There are low-alcoholic versions of most drinks nowadays, with wines and beers being the most popular as they taste pretty much the same as their counterparts. There are also lots of zero-alcohol options as well but if you're feeling fancy, give mocktails a go. Cheaper than a normal cocktail but just as tasty!
Set up drink-free days - Sometimes the best way is the simplest way and this method is exactly what says on the tin. Decide on what days you will commit to not drinking on a weekly basis and stick to it. Most people usually go with the no drinks through the weekdays and then allow themselves to drink on the weekends. This alone will see a huge improvement in your health and is really easy to do. Obviously, there will be special occasions which means you may drink on a day you said you wouldn't, but then you can just choose to not drink on a day you regularly would.
Start a new hobby - A lot of people feel the urge to use drinking as the default thing to do when they're bored. Instead, why not try something new that doesn't involve drinking? There are plenty of solo and group activities which are tonnes of fun sober. For example, joining a sports team is a great way to keep active, socialise and stay off the booze all at the same time! Or maybe it's time to learn how to play an instrument or how to code. Pick a hobby that suits your lifestyle and doesn't require you to go the extra mile for then you will be more likely to keep up with it.
Keep track of your unit intake - It may help you keep your alcohol intake to a healthy level if you start to measure it in a numerical value. The recommended weekly intake for both men and women is no more than 14 units. For reference, that's about 6 pints of larger or 6 medium wines. So you could start to work yourself down to that many units if you are currently over that limit. It's best not to make a huge jump, baby steps to help your mind naturally get used to the change rather than it be a shock to the system.

For a full list of other methods to reduce your alcohol intake, check out the drink-aware website for more details.