First congrats on finishing Dry January! Here’s lessons learned on cutting/back moderation going forward-lessons learned rather than tips as I’ve failed to moderate well after past DJs, including the past two years.

• Big one for me reflecting on the past two years if that if you felt this DJ was hard up to the end, or most of the way up to the end AND/OR are still having strong cravings AND or are feeling nervous or anxious or apprehensive or worried—pretty much anything other than excited— about your first drinks back AND/OR you don’t feel confident in sticking to whatever moderation goals/plan you have then take a longer break. Any of those kind of feelings, especially the more of them you are having, mean you likely need a longer reset of habits, any dependency, working on willpower to drink less etc. to set yourself up to succeed in moderation. Vs. starting back right away if you’re not in the great place for it like I wasn’t the past couple of years. I’m doing at least through March dry this year as the one time I moderated well for over a year was after 3 month break.

• Be mindful of those first drinks back whether their today, this weekend or further off if you do a longer break. If you were drinking a lot, like me, and want to cut back I’d advise waiting until you truly want a drink in a situation/context your 100% fine having as s drinking occasion going forward and not just because DJ—or whatever longer break you may go for—is over. Having 3-4 beers just because it was 2/1 (well last year did fall on one of our regular group outings I’d still be fine drinking at, I just wasn’t ready yet per the point above) and that wasn’t a good way to start trying to moderate again for me.

• Hopefully you thought a lot about your drinking triggers, reasons you drink etc. over the month—if not do so now. And think of which ones you truly enjoy and want to keep as drinking occasions (whether always or sometimes) and which ones you may want to cut like drinking as an attempt at stress relief or after bad days or alone at home getting cut/cutback while fun times out with friends are ok and so on

• Think hard about yourself and what types of goals/rules etc. work for you and set ones that are reasonable to achieve. If you set rules/limits that are too strict or unrealistic for how you want to drink you’re likely to fail. And for many of us, when we fail we get down on our selves and can end up on a bender or, at least, saying screw it with our goals for that week and maybe struggling to get back on the wagon the next week. For me, I learned rigid rules like only on the weekend or 4 dry days a week minimum or never more than 3 drinks just didn’t work for me. I think, building on the above point, just not drinking at home, not drinking after tough days and only drinking on positive occasions where years of DJs etc. have shown my I have more fun with 2-3 drinks can work for me and will roughly have me at those limits anyway the vast majority of weeks. That’s what I’ll try this time, assuming I get to a place I feel a desire to try again and confident I can succeed in moderating after my longer break.