Lockdown has changed the way we drink. Almost a year has passed since pubs and restaurants closed, millions of parents started home-schooling their children, many of us shifted to working from home, and alcohol became one of the remedies that helps us to go through this tough time.
If you feel that drinking has occupied a big part of your free time, it is high time to overview your attitude towards alcohol. If you’d like to drink more healthily and happily these tips will help you to manage your drinking.
Count your drinks
This is a great starting point to help you manage your drinking. Setting firm boundaries about when you drink and how much you drink will go a long way towards reducing your alcohol consumption. It is not complicated to learn how much alcohol you can tolerate. Listen to your body, notice how alcohol affects you, and when you start feeling worse — it’s time to stop.
You should keep your drinking below the recommended guidelines: For men: keep your drinking to no more than 3 drinks a day and no more than 14 drinks in a week. For women: no more than 3 drinks in one day, and no more than 7 a week.
1 drink is a 12-ounce beer at 5% ABV., a 5 ounce of wine at 12% ABV, or 1.5 of 40% liquor.
These limits may be too high for people who have certain medical conditions or for some older adults. Your doctor can help you determine what's right for you.
Avoid emotional drinking
Don't drink when you are depressed. As well as the alcohol takes away water from our organism, it can wash away our positive thinking too. Drinking too much alcohol can’t solve your problems, but it can cause them. It is harder to control yourself when you feel angry, frustrated, upset, or over-excited about something. So, make sure you are able to control your emotions before you drink alcohol and don’t treat alcohol as a remedy for all your problems.
The HALT technique could be helpful to avoid emotional drinking. Halt is an acronym for hungry, angry, lonely, tired. When you are in one of these states, you are more likely to reach for alcohol. Try to do somethig else instead of drinking, for example, a good nap, taking a bath, or a short walk can help you to feel better.
Drink Cocktails
Turning your drink into cocktail is an amazing trick if you want to drink less and make your booze last longer. In this case, you will have a full glas of libation to enjoy and feel less temped to get another round. Use sugar-free mixers, sparkling water, and tonics as a base for your drinks. Muddle in fresh herbs (such as mint or rosemary) and top with liquor of your choice. If you like your drinks sweet and flavourful, add a splash of freshly squeezed juice and fruits. This is a much healthier alternative to cocktails overloaded with sugar syrups.
Need some ideas for inspiration? Here are three of our favourite cocktails.
Cranberry Attraction
Fill your rocks glass with ice. Pour 25 ml of London Dry Gin and 55ml of cranberry juice over ice. Garnish your cocktail with lime and blackberries. Enjoy!
Strawberry and Black Pepper Gin&Tonic
Muddle 3 strawberries (fresh or frozen) with a good twist of freshly ground black pepper. Pour this substance into an ice-filled glass. Add in 45ml of gin and a splash tonic. Garnish with a strawberry and serve!
Spritz
Combine 3.5 oz. prosecco, 1.5 oz. red bitter, juice of 1/2 lime, and 3 oz. sparkling water in a wine glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lime peel if you’d like.
Try non-alcoholic and low-alcohol alternatives
If you feel that drinking has occupied a big part of your life, it's high time to consider healthier alternatives. The market of low-alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks is flourishing, and there are dozens of delicious alternatives that won't get you drunk. Check out our choice low alcohol hard seltzers, best non-alcoholic drinks, low alcohol beer, and non-alcoholic beer. These are amazind drinks you can enjoy with your friends at a party and be fresh and healthy the next morning.
Drink safe during a pandemic
COVID-19 changed all aspects of our life, from travelling to drinking alcohol. Drinking too much booze can weaken the immune system, and make your organism more appealing for the infection. We don’t want it to happen, right? Now it’s high time to reduce alcohol intake. Try to skip your next Quarantini, and drink a cup of tea or smoothie instead, and your organism will thank you!
Our relationship with alcohol can be complex sometimes, but drinking booze is just a habit, and that means, that we can control it and change it when we want. Making small changes in our drinking habits will lead us to healthy and responsible drinking. Cheers to that!