5 Ways You Can Start Cutting Back on Drinking 

Have you been thinking about cutting back on drinking lately? You might be seeing negative health effects from the amount of alcohol you’re consuming. Or you may have a general concern for your dependency.

According to the CDC, the recommended guidelines for drinking in moderation are only 1 drink a day for women and 2 drinks for men.

Moderating alcohol can have a lot of health benefits, and even making small changes can help.  Keep reading to learn 5 ways you can start cutting back on drinking now! 

1. Create Goals and Rules for Moderation

It’s important to start with setting clear and realistic goals for moderation. One of the goals should be how many drinks you want to consume in a day or week. You can always adjust the rules you create later, based on what will work best for you.

Saying them out loud to yourself or to your friends can also help to hold you accountable. Then, record your drinks throughout the night so ensure you stick to the plan. 

2. Take Care of Other Areas of Your Health

By changing your drinking behavior, it’s important to take note of other areas of your health. Sleeping more and resting during this time will help you to remain on track.

For some people, drinking water and eating food can help curb their alcohol cravings, or at least slow them down.

If you start to experience symptoms of withdrawal, you could seek out alcohol withdrawal syndrome treatment. Depending on your current level of drinking, this could help you to detox. 

3. Pace Yourself and Sip Your Drinks

An aspect of cutting back on drinking is to pace yourself throughout the night to prevent you from having more drinks. If you sip your drink slowly, it’ll be easier to have only about one drink per hour. This will also depend on the goals you set at the beginning.

Another way to cut back is to space out your drinks by having nonalcoholic drinks in between. Having a soda or something you genuinely enjoy can help curb your cravings. 

4. Avoid Scenarios With Heavy Drinking for Now

There are likely certain activities or groups of friends where you would normally participate in heavy drinking. Avoiding these scenarios at first will prevent you from being triggered.

You can also speak up with the people in your life and suggest alternate activities that don’t involve drinking or avoid bars where there are endless amounts of alcohol. 

5. Say No and Put Your Needs First

If this is a recent change, people might not be expecting it. They may not only ask you if you want another drink several times, but they could also end up encouraging you to do so.

Taking up a hobby or finding activities you enjoy that don’t involve alcohol will allow you to put yourself and your health first.

Cutting Back on Drinking Will Improve Your Health

There are many tricks to avoid alcohol and slow down your drinking habits. By cutting back on drinking, you’ll be able to improve your health and moderate your consumption.

Read more on our site for other tips and ways to improve your life!