How to do Dry January without touching the diet culture?

After a drunken New Year’s Eve, combining cocktails, shots and beautiful bubbles, the month of January begins with a strong desire to hang alcohol, at least for 31 days. This “imposed” weaning also takes the form of a name challenge: Dry January.

This challenge, far from excessive, calls into question our sometimes tortuous relationship with alcohol. But beyond its savings, Dry January can also have this aftertaste of body obsession. By giving the elbow a lift, the pounds tend to fall off the scale. The promise of “zero alcohol” therefore quickly turns into a race for thinness, sometimes pushed to the point of intoxication. So, to participate in Dry January without deviating towards diet culture, here are some small tips to dilute every day.

What is Dry January?

Out of the little foam between colleagues during afterwork, the big student party and the glass of red with every meal, this month of january it is a flat water tour (or virgin mojito) for everyone. At least, that’s the bet of Dry January, a annual challenge with preventive accents.

Born on British soil in 2013 at the instigation of the NGO Alcohol Change UK, this “fun” health campaign invites relax with wine, soft medicine in disguise. According to the association, this experience makes it possible, among other things, to check our alcohol consumption and so assess our level of hope.

In France, the kingdom of the bon vivants, it took until 2020 for Dry January to find its place in the January landscape. But it is a necessity. According to a report from Public Health France, one in four French people drink too much alcohol. However, even though Dry January brings together thousands of people each year based on “good will”, many maintain only a “dietary” chance of challenge. A message with enough to go to the head (a bit like a shot of pure vodka).

Dry January and diet culture: what’s the link?

Dry January, as beneficial, can be pathological weight loss. For good reason, according to a survey conducted by a professor at the University of Sussex, 54% of participants in Dry January dropped two or three kilos.

The “detox” argument. This challenge is definitely positive, especially after the orgies of December. However, it is not uncommon for it to escape the “reasonable” framework. This is where all the subtlety lies. Some participants, instead of questioning their love for the bottle, especially the question of calories astronomical amount of fever drinks.

The supposed Pina Colada is actually a 176-calorie powerhouse while the Cosmopolitan reaches about the same level as chocolate fudge. it’s obvious. This “dry” month of January, misinterpreted or diverted from its basic belief, mainly invites to reject alcohol in the name of “curves”.

The language surrounding Dry January also poses a problem because it is largely confined to terms “cleanse”, “detoxify” and “reset”. A rather reductive register that smacks of diet culture. Sobriety is, in fact, a virtue “vigor bonus”. But as soon as he bathes in the apology of “always better” or the “perfect body”, he becomes dangerous.

“This good thing that allows people to re-evaluate their relationship with a drug can become a commodity. This is the case when it interferes with a cultural system that leads us to believe that our value is defined only by achieving impossible goals”, underlined Holly Whitaker, author of the book “How to quit like a woman”

As Danielle Houliston, director of fundraising and communications at Alcohol Change UK, reminds Glamor UK media, Dry January allows regain “control over his alcohol consumption”. Therefore the goal is not to become a better version of oneself, but to reexamining this often tumultuous relationship with alcohol.

Whether it’s a glass, accepted just to avoid going out “rabajois” or this almost obligatory binge of the integration evening, Alcohol is often “social”. Dry January is therefore a great one “tise” resistance “test”, not a diet to refine or beautify. To approach the salutary initiative with more objectivity, here are three rules to remember.

1 – Estimate your intentions

Dry January, which continues to go through the “well-being” grinder, tends to let’s forget why we are engaging in this challenge. Is it to find peach skin? To have better sleep or more intense sex? Press articles distill here and there headlines to “healthy” aromas WHO our understanding of Dry January is inadvertently blurred.

By leaving this propaganda under wraps, the field of vision widens. This alcohol break is more symbolic than a vulgar “weight loss” opportunity. Besides this is a very confidential match which is experienced in the first person singular. Everyone has a history with alcohol. Whether it is a refuge, a stress reliever or a disinhibitor, alcohol slides down the throat with the many traumas. Dry January is therefore a introspective work first of all.

2 – Treat drinks and food separately

One success begets another. When you take the “zero alcohol” challenge for a month and notice physical changes, you quickly fall into a kind of use.

Silence became so loose in the glass that it quickly reached the plate, wrong, because food and drink are two completely different entities. Weaning does not apply in what is “important” order. Hence the importance of dealing with Dry January “separately”.

3 – Leave the feeling of failure

Dry January, regularly disturbed by the meaning of “body fulfillment”, can create a kind of disappointment. To praise Dry January as a true “sublimation”, we are used to the idea that this will change us. Except it’s not always visible. Indeed, according to one study, three out of five people lose weight during Dry January. But this data is enough randomespecially if the Margaritas are replaced by equally rich mocktails.

Hammering in this idea that the body will inevitably be reborn with Dry January gives a lot of hope. But to each person his postulate. Furthermore, when we remove an “element of pleasure” from our daily lives, we tend to pay for along with other delicacies. So it’s not remarkable if the weight stays off despite a month of abstinence.

Almost no one seems to escape the poison of diet, even the good ones. However, Dry January wants to go beyond the stigmatizing speeches by bringing out the educational ingredient. It should be noted that every year, 10% of the French take part in this challenge.