Reducing alcohol consumption is not just about cutting back—it’s about reclaiming control, improving health, and boosting overall wellbeing. Many people find that drinking less helps them sleep better, feel more energised, and save money, while also lowering the risk of long-term health issues. Whether your goal is to stay within recommended guidelines, break old habits, or simply feel more balanced, small changes can make a big difference. In this blog, we’ll explore practical, sustainable strategies to help you drink less, that support a healthier relationship with alcohol.
Set Clear Goals
The first step is to create a SMART goal on what you would like to achieve. This is to ensure that you have a road map to follow when life gets tough. It is important that your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and has a time frame of when you would like to achieve this goal. For example you may want to limit your drink consumption to one glass of wine on a Wednesday evening along with your dinner and two glasses of wine on the weekends with your friends.
Having a smart goal would support you be accountable to yourself and track your progress.
Keep a drinks diary
Self-tracking is the cornerstone of accountability and behavioural change. It is important to keep a diary using a mobile app or physical paper diary.
Your drinks diary should track: what you drink, who and where you tend to drink, the thoughts and feelings you experience when you drink, the amount you spend on each drink and the unit each drink contains.
When you have this awareness, you’d be able to track your progress and clearly see what is helping and what is stopping you from achieving your goals. You would ultimately feel motivated to keep going.
Set a budget
The purpsoe of keeping a drinks diary is so that you can track the amount you spend on alcohol. Knowing how much you spend on alcohol would help you set a budget for yourself. Setting a budget is a good way to ensure you spend less on alcohol, thus drink less
Identify Triggers
No one sets out to have an addiction to alcohol. Alcohol dependency is usually tied to specific situations, people, emotions, stress, boredom, trauma and social contexts. When you identify your triggers, you’ll understand what you need to prevent, tackle or mitigate it.
For example, if your trigger is boredom, you can fill your calendar with your routine, pleasurable and necessary activities to prevent boredom.
If your trigger is stress, you can create an outlet to minimise stress by exercising, meditating, exercising and socialising.
When you address the root cause and take the relevant actions to tackle the cause of your increased alcohol consumption, your reliance on alcohol will dissipate
Chnage your social plans
Goint to a bar for drinks is not the only way to socialise. There are social activities to engage in to ensure that you aren’t tempted to drink. You can go out for breakfast or brunch with your friends. If you prefer activities that keep you fit, you could go on a walk date or book an exercise class together at your local sports centre. If you prefer indoor activities you can go bowling, pottery class or go to the cinema.
Find other ways to decompress
Most people feel that the best way to decompress after a hard day at work is to have a glass of wine in the evening after dinner in front of the television However, a glass of wine can easily burn to a bottle of wine. The other more helpful ways to decompress in the evenings that would support a healthy sleeping pattern and they include, reading a book, practising yoga, listening to music or meditating.
In summary, if you would like to reduce the amount of alcohol you drink, it’s important that you identify your triggers and develop a strategy that targets your triggers.
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