I have one or two glasses of wine most nights. I have taken multiple years off of drinking but just really enjoy it: I’m fit and in good health, high performer at work, good mom and wife. Why not?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2-3 beers at an event of some sort 4-5x/year.

I don’t drink as part of my normal day to day life, I don’t find it relaxing and it impacts my sleep, but I’ll have a few drinks at a big party or social event.

I drank a lot in college and in my early 20s but I lost the desire to once I got older and had kids.

This is me. I'll have a couple of drinks at a party occasionally and may be one drink most days on vacation. But I can also go three to four months without a single drink.

What do you thnk of guys your age who try to get you to drink more?

Anonymous wrote:2-3 beers at an event of some sort 4-5x/year.

I don’t drink as part of my normal day to day life, I don’t find it relaxing and it impacts my sleep, but I’ll have a few drinks at a big party or social event.

I drank a lot in college and in my early 20s but I lost the desire to once I got older and had kids.

This is me. I'll have a couple of drinks at a party occasionally and may be one drink most days on vacation. But I can also go three to four months without a single drink.

Anonymous wrote:Hmm, this thread is interesting. Many of the drinkers call nondrinkers “killjoys” or losers or boring. Many of the nondrinkers call the drinkers weak, unhealthy, alcoholic. Odd because many nondrinkers were once drinkers.

I’m not drinking right now—reevaluating the whole thing. I’ve been a regular drinker since a teenager and have a super busy social life. That will continue but I don’t think I can continue drinking as I have been over the years. I don’t drink more than the people I’m around (I’m a lawyer, if that matters) but they drink a lot. At this point, I think alcohol is making me less happy (it makes me anxious and wrecks my sleep) than I would otherwise be, so I have to stop.

Drinking heavily into middle-aged doesn't make you a loser, but I do wonder about people who do it and why they don't give it a little bit more thought, like you have.

Zero. It doesn’t interest me.

Hmm, this thread is interesting. Many of the drinkers call nondrinkers “killjoys” or losers or boring. Many of the nondrinkers call the drinkers weak, unhealthy, alcoholic. Odd because many nondrinkers were once drinkers.

I’m not drinking right now—reevaluating the whole thing. I’ve been a regular drinker since a teenager and have a super busy social life. That will continue but I don’t think I can continue drinking as I have been over the years. I don’t drink more than the people I’m around (I’m a lawyer, if that matters) but they drink a lot. At this point, I think alcohol is making me less happy (it makes me anxious and wrecks my sleep) than I would otherwise be, so I have to stop.

Once every 6 months. I only drink at conferences, and that too a glass or two of wine.

Drinking is a weakness.

I have a glass of wine or a cocktail at a restaurant maybe once a year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh, I usually have two drinks a night. Sometimes 1, sometimes none. I may have more at social gatherings but the drink will be spread out over a few hours and with food, usually, so I rarely get "drunk" and almost never hungover (can't even remember the last time).

I like alcohol and am not sorry for that. I know that there are health effects but there are health effects from everything. I don't eat meat, for example, which is also bad for you. I'm generally otherwise healthy. Also, people generally are not teetotalers in my family and it hasn't really shortened their lives, with most relatives living well past 80.

I have changed WHAT I drink as I've aged. Almost no beer (b/c of gluten) and cut way back on wine due to heartburn. Wine is also much easier to toss back and before you know it you've had a half bottle- lots of calories.

Finally, some of you will judge me. Fine. I literally could not give any F's what some random internet killjoy thinks about me. So flame away!

This. I socialize ALOT. We go to many parties, especially on the weekends. I have a social job with lots of dinners. My dad drank vodka every day (not alot, but at least one). He died when he was 94 from Melanoma of all things. If it kills me, I'll die happy.

You'll die happy or drunk?

The vast majority of my drinking occurred at work functions and I generally enjoyed it, but I didn't like the hangovers and it wasn't helpful for my efforts to get and stay fit. I was chatting with a friend about this—he was alarmed that a longtime mutual friend was in the hospital with liver failure, strapped down because his tremors were so bad—and I said that I only really drink for work functions, and he was like, you don't have to, you know. And I was like, well, I don't want to be rude or unsocial. My friend pointed out, correctly, that he and I are both at the points in our career where we don't have to impress anyone by drinking. I'm successful and important enough that if I meet someone for drinks and only order a club soda, or if I am at someone's event and I pick up an Athletic NA beer, no one is going to scoff at me, think less of me. I don't need to have another round because they want one, people I meet with need to have (or not have) another round because I want/don't want one.

And the more I thought about it, the more I decided it was true. I know people who turn down drinks and it doesnt' come across as dorkiness or refusal to play with the team. It comes across as confidence and maturity. And the kind of bro-skis at work who are always trying to get people to have a shot or shout about beers are people who are less important and frankly I enjoy not having to socialize with.

I still definitely do have a nice cocktail with a friend, but I also feel much less pressure to have a lot, keep up with anyone, accept a drink I dont' want, etc. Not drinking for work has become something I enjoy.

Anonymous wrote:Meh, I usually have two drinks a night. Sometimes 1, sometimes none. I may have more at social gatherings but the drink will be spread out over a few hours and with food, usually, so I rarely get "drunk" and almost never hungover (can't even remember the last time).

I like alcohol and am not sorry for that. I know that there are health effects but there are health effects from everything. I don't eat meat, for example, which is also bad for you. I'm generally otherwise healthy. Also, people generally are not teetotalers in my family and it hasn't really shortened their lives, with most relatives living well past 80.

I have changed WHAT I drink as I've aged. Almost no beer (b/c of gluten) and cut way back on wine due to heartburn. Wine is also much easier to toss back and before you know it you've had a half bottle- lots of calories.

Finally, some of you will judge me. Fine. I literally could not give any F's what some random internet killjoy thinks about me. So flame away!

This. I socialize ALOT. We go to many parties, especially on the weekends. I have a social job with lots of dinners. My dad drank vodka every day (not alot, but at least one). He died when he was 94 from Melanoma of all things. If it kills me, I'll die happy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My "typical" week is a bottle of wine on Saturday. I used to be an almost daily drinker.

With a meal? Are you a wine connoisseur or is it whatever box you can get your claws on?

I guess it's with a meal, Saturday is when I like to cook (or bake) something nice. I pour a glass (or 2) while bopping around the kitchen, then the rest is dinner/after dinner. I'm somewhere between "connoisseur" and "anything will do". Typically I find a wine, obsess over it for a bit (right now I'm very into Piquepoul), and then move onto the next region/grape/whatever.

That seems like a really reasonable way to drink.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My "typical" week is a bottle of wine on Saturday. I used to be an almost daily drinker.

With a meal? Are you a wine connoisseur or is it whatever box you can get your claws on?

I guess it's with a meal, Saturday is when I like to cook (or bake) something nice. I pour a glass (or 2) while bopping around the kitchen, then the rest is dinner/after dinner. I'm somewhere between "connoisseur" and "anything will do". Typically I find a wine, obsess over it for a bit (right now I'm very into Piquepoul), and then move onto the next region/grape/whatever.

Anonymous wrote:My "typical" week is a bottle of wine on Saturday. I used to be an almost daily drinker.

With a meal? Are you a wine connoisseur or is it whatever box you can get your claws on?

My "typical" week is a bottle of wine on Saturday. I used to be an almost daily drinker.

Meh, I usually have two drinks a night. Sometimes 1, sometimes none. I may have more at social gatherings but the drink will be spread out over a few hours and with food, usually, so I rarely get "drunk" and almost never hungover (can't even remember the last time).

I like alcohol and am not sorry for that. I know that there are health effects but there are health effects from everything. I don't eat meat, for example, which is also bad for you. I'm generally otherwise healthy. Also, people generally are not teetotalers in my family and it hasn't really shortened their lives, with most relatives living well past 80.

I have changed WHAT I drink as I've aged. Almost no beer (b/c of gluten) and cut way back on wine due to heartburn. Wine is also much easier to toss back and before you know it you've had a half bottle- lots of calories.

Finally, some of you will judge me. Fine. I literally could not give any F's what some random internet killjoy thinks about me. So flame away!