A common resolution people have for the New Year is going alcohol-free. Whether it’s abstaining from alcohol for January only or abstaining from alcohol for as long as possible, refusing to drink alcohol has a lot of benefits that your body and wallet will be thankful for.
If you’re planning on joining in the non-alcoholic fun, here are five of our tips to help you do so. We wish you good luck in having a non-alcoholic January (or 2023!).
1. Share Your New Non-Alcohol Objective with Everybody
Ringing in the New Year means coming up with New Year’s resolutions. Indeed, the New Year is the prime time to go alcohol-free as nobody will judge you for it—New Year, new you, after all.
You can even share your new objective with your family, friends, and other loved ones. Heck, you can even share it with people you aren’t as close to on social media platforms! Most of them would probably support you in your endeavor and help you with it too by offering non-alcoholic beverages or taking you out to other non-alcoholic activities.
Announcing it to the world will also hold you accountable—nothing’s more embarrassing than failing to abstain from alcohol only a week or two after announcing you’d stop drinking alcohol!
2. Always Start with a Non-Alcoholic Drink
Never start your evening off with an alcoholic drink. One tiny alcoholic drink can quickly spiral into a whole row of alcoholic drinks as the night goes on if you’re not careful because you’ll get a taste of that alcoholic drink and will have difficulties holding off on more.
Never take that chance on an alcoholic drink, especially if it’s the first drink of the day, and pretty soon not succumbing will become a habit to you.
3. Make Non-Alcoholic Drinks Extra Special
Who said only alcoholic drinks could be served in flair and style? Non-alcoholic drinks can be just as fancy, and if you do things right, non-alcoholic drinks can be just as much of a hoot as alcoholic drinks at a special event or occasion.
There are many non-alcoholic drinks these days that feel like the real thing, so order those drinks instead at your local bar. You can also buy ingredients and experiment with them at home to concoct a drink that totally suits your palate and is alcohol-free!
You can even use special glasses for them. Sure, grape juice in a glass doesn’t seem as fancy, but grape juice in a wine glass? That could definitely work! You can also use martini glasses, shot glasses, and tumblers for that added effect.
4. Switch Your Meetups Around
Meeting up with friends, coworkers, and other loved ones almost always end up with some type of alcohol these days. Whether it’s a glass of wine to top a scrumptious meal or happy hour with the gang at your local bar, alcohol has been a bonding experience for people for a very long time. But that doesn’t mean every meetup you have should involve alcohol—there are many other things you can do without them!
For example, you can visit the local park or museum to see the sights there. You can also do something crazier like going to the amusement park, hiking up a trail, or going boating. You can even do all the things you did before like eating at fancy restaurants or attending happy hour—just let them know you’re going alcohol-free for the New Year and would rather drink something non-alcoholic or abstain from alcohol.
If they were someone who truly loved you, they would understand.
5. Be in Control of Yourself
Going alcohol-free for New Year is a tough endeavor that will take a lot of your willpower to achieve. So, if you’ve been invited to a gathering where you know there’ll be alcohol, there’s no shame in saying you won’t be coming. You might be called a party pooper, but at least you’ll be a healthy party pooper that will achieve a significantly healthier and trimmer body in the long run. And once your desire for alcohol abates slightly, you can start attending socials again with stronger self-control.
