In 2005, when I was working hard, doing a lot of work-related socialising and then coming home at weekends to unwind, I started to plot the number of alcoholic drink-free days I was having.  I’d read that one’s body (the liver especially) needed rests from alcohol to recover.  I realised that I wasn’t managing those rests well and so started monitoring alcohol free days. 

By 2017, when I retired, I had progressed from about a quarter of days being alcohol free to about a third.  However, what I noticed after retirement was that, on the alcohol days, I was drinking more than I probably should.  Guidelines had been issued by health bodies saying that 14 alcohol units per week was the approximate safe level of drinking.  I felt that achieving that would be too ambitious but I started pairing the tracking of alcohol-free days with counting of alcohol units I drank each day.

By 2018 my target was to drink alcohol on no more than 50% of days each month and to restrict myself to 100 units of alcohol per month.  That was much more than the guidelines but still challenging for me.  My monitoring was helped by the MyDrinkaware App which helps calculate the units for each drink I consume.  The advent of half-decent no-alcohol beers has also helped!

I have achieved both self-imposed targets since January 2021 and I’m pretty proud of that.  However, even though my progress has plateaued, I am not inclined to push myself further.

It’s harder to achieve the targets in some months than in others.  Months with 31 days mean I have to be alcohol free on 16 of those to achieve my target.  Also, some months have more weekends than others and, despite retirement, the weekend is still when I tend to reach for wine and beer most frequently.  Some months have Bank Holidays too.  Plus, some months contain big celebrations or holidays.  The May that has just passed was one such tough month.

May this year not only had its usual 31 days but there were two Bank Holidays, five weekends, my birthday and a brief holiday in Pembrokeshire to celebrate it, plus a ‘Hogfest’ beer festival at The Hog, Horsley, our village pub.  I managed to achieve my targets but doing so was quite constraining in the last week of May and it got me thinking about whether I need to be so diligent.

The trouble is that the longer the period over which I have achieved the targets – over 5 years now – the more it seems a shame not to continue to meet them.  As with all things, there is a balance to be struck.  My physical health is almost all-important and all the evidence suggests that alcohol is bad for it; I’m lucky to have lived this long but I want to live healthily for longer.  On the other hand, holidaying, socialising and relaxing with a glass of wine or chatting with mates in the local pub over a few beers is restful and, I think, healthy for the mind.

June, July and August are always challenging for me in terms of meeting my alcohol targets because it is often tempting to capitalise on the relatively sunny weather with a glass of wine in hand in the garden.  But September is going to be the next really tough month for me.  Then, we are off on a holiday in Europe where eating and drinking in cafes and restaurants will be a constant temptation – indeed, a requirement. 

I’m determined that I will remember that the alcohol targets are self-imposed and are not incontrovertible.  Maybe I’ll continue to meet them, but maybe short-term aims for a happy social life will get in the way.