.jpg?h=1b01dd54&itok=SqXji3TL "Dry january: very healthy and all that, but how do you keep it up?")
Dry january flew over from England a few years ago, and we have now also had a Dutch variant in the first month of the new year for two years. Under the name ‘I pass’, thousands of Dutch people try to stay away from alcohol for a month.
How do you keep that up? 7 tips.
1. This is coming
“There are, unknowingly, quite a few moments when you realize that it can feel pretty uncomfortable not to drink alcohol,” says Ninette van Hasselt. She is head of the ‘alcohol’ program at the Trimbos Institute. “Coincidentally, my husband has just started drinking for a month, and he also thought: ah, apple-egg. But there are really many moments in such a month when you have to switch a button.”
Van Hasselt’s advice: think in advance what those moments are. That they are coming. “Then you will not be faced with surprises.” If necessary, put them on a list, mark them in your diary.
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2. “Yes, but …”
Anyone who does not drink for a while will be confronted with peer pressure, Rob Bovens expects. He is a behavioral scientist at Tilburg University and one of the initiators of ‘I pass“. “People will say,” Aaah, don’t be silly. “We know it’s hard for people to say,” I don’t drink. “
Bovens states that it works better to think up your arguments in advance. “You can say that you want to lose weight, want to sleep better, want more energy, that you want to be clear at work tomorrow. Research shows that those are positive consequences of an alcohol-free month. The argument that you are bobbing has already been accepted. These other arguments must gradually wear into it. “
3. Shout it from the rooftops
Another tip from Bovens: tell everyone that you are not drinking for a moment. “Shout it for my part,” he says. “Even if you get the invitation to a party. It’s easier to say in advance than halfway through the evening.”
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For the second time
For the second time, the ‘I pass’ initiative was launched in the Netherlands in January. “Previously we always did it only in March,” says initiator and researcher Rob Bovens. “Because for many people a period of fasting starts after carnival.”
But Bovens and his colleagues noticed that the British initiative dry january has also become increasingly popular in the Netherlands in recent years. “That is why we thought last year: let’s do it in January, and then repeat it again in March.”
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4. Just one? Do not!
Alcohol lets you make choices that you would not make so quickly in an empty state. So: whoever drinks, drinks more. “That’s why it’s so hard to have just one or two drinks,” says Bovens. “So it’s better not to drink anything if you want to keep it up.”
5. No longer bored
Drinking a glass of wine at home, or popping a beer open: often happens out of routine or boredom, Van Hasselt knows from the Trimbos Institute. “It is important to think in advance at what times you drink at home, and how you can get around that.” For example, by exercising more, reading a book.
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6. Sociability knows no alcohol
“Many people associate alcohol with socializing and connectedness,” says Van Hasselt. So if that alcohol is not there, it must become cozy in a different way. “You can, for example, set up music, put on candles, play a game. You have to get a different routine.”
What Van Hasselt also advises: getting alternative drinks at home. “If you are used to drinking a glass of wine while cooking, it is nice to pour a special drink for yourself, but without alcohol. It also helps that you can stand with a beer glass in the pub thanks to non-alcoholic beer “It’s often about feeling.”
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How many people participated?
Last year, 37,757 registered people took part in ‘I pass’ in January, and in March 14,128 participants were added. In 2018, when the campaign only received attention in March, the counter stood at 11,503 participants.
With the caveat that it is not clear whether every registered person has also completed the month. And that there may also be people who have participated in the alcoholless month without registration.
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7. The new just
There is a good chance that you will be ‘reset’ after a month. “You know that you can live without it for a month, and that it has advantages,” says Bovens. So, according to Bovens, it is time to teach yourself a new habit. “You don’t have to stop drinking altogether if you don’t want to. But you can agree with yourself and your environment that you no longer drink during the week. Or not from Monday to Thursday.”
And if you have a drink on Tuesday that you don’t want to miss or spend soberly? “That’s possible, then you don’t drink for one day the following weekend, for example.”
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