How to be drinkaware this New Year

Wednesday, 9th January 2008

"As 2008 gets into full swing, we would encourage people to become more drinkaware and adopt resolutions that are sustainable", commented MEAS Chief Executive, Fionnuala Sheehan. Practical New Year's resolutions that will help you moderate your alcohol intake, and adopt sensible drinking habits are available at drinkaware.ie.

Here are some timely tips to bolster and sustain those resolutions:

Know the reasons behind the resolution

There are many incentives for drinking responsibly. You may be concerned about health problems, perhaps you want to lose weight or improve family relationships. Keep these reasons in mind to maintain your motivation.

Get real

While it's great to make a resolution, it's even better to keep them realistic. Try 'I'm going to stick to the low risk drinking guidelines' instead of 'I'm going to give up booze for ever and ever'. The Department of Health and Children advises that low risk weekly limits are up to 14 standard drinks for women and up to 21 standard drinks for men. One standard drink is roughly equal to a glass of beer, a small glass of wine or a pub measure of spirits.

Get the know-how to know when

Set up your own personal online drinks diary on drinkaware.ie. The diary adds up the drinks you have consumed in any given week so you can easily compare your drinking with the recommended weekly low risk limits. As an added feature, you can also keep an account of your spending by calculating how much each drink costs.

Take a break

Daily low risk drinking limits are 2-3 standard drinks for women and 3-4 standard drinks for men. However, it is important to include some alcohol free days over the course of the week. Pick a day or two each week when you will not drink alcohol at all. Why not offer to be the designated driver on one of your alcohol free days?

Become drinkaware

Do you know what affects the amount of alcohol in your blood? Need advice on how to get home safely after a night out? Want to know how to avoid hangovers? Check out drinkaware.ie to find out why and how alcohol affects your body and mind - whatever your circumstances.

For more practical hints and information on alcohol and drinking, as well as useful guides for download, go to www.drinkaware.ie