An alcohol drinks diary is a way to track your weekly or monthly drinking habits, as well as the units consumed. Alcohol is something that we all enjoy from time to time. However, when we consume more than the recommended amount of 14 units per week, it can be bad for our health.
The health experts recommend also spreading this evenly over 3 days or more. A drinks diary will allow you to keep a track of everything you are doing, as well as when to drink or when to cut back.
Many people who believe that they think more than the recommended allowance should be aware that it can affect their mental and physical health. Alcoholism is a growing issue, and can negatively impact many areas of your life. Alcohol addiction can occur easily and can be a life-changing issue.
You should consider tracking your alcohol consumption with a drinks diary, to maintain a controlled drinking schedule and ensure you are on top of your health at the same time.
Tracking Your Alcohol Consumption
Firstly, everyone should be aware of their alcohol consumption, even if they do not believe that drinking is an issue for them. Social drinking can be fun, however, if you are exceeding your limits, or you drink weekly without fail, you should consider keeping track using a diary.
If you drink at home, alone or with friends, it can be even harder to keep track of what you have consumed. Alcohol addiction can easily occur, and there is no age limit to this. If you are young or older than 55, you may feel that you are less likely to develop an addiction. This is incorrect.
You should be aware of the following symptoms:
- Craving alcohol often
- Loss of control – not knowing when to start and not setting limits
- Development of alcohol tolerance, meaning the effects of alcohol begins to affect you less and less
- Forgetting your hobbies/work/friends
In order to track these symptoms, you must first be aware of how much you’re spending. A drinks diary is a great way to monitor and can easily be done yourself or online with various apps and websites. Tracking your alcohol consumption has many benefits, which include:
- Knowing how to balance your social life
- Not drinking too much alcohol which can affect the liver/brain
- Being able to enjoy yourself more with limits
- Achieving sobriety for longer
- Great evidence for sharing with your GP/rehab centres if you need
What is a Drink Diary?
A drinks diary is essentially what it says – a way to monitor your drinking habits. Thankfully, there are many ways in which you can do this. You can simply make a timetable yourself in a notebook, breaking it down into days with times. This way, you will fill out the number of alcohol units you have consumed each day.
At the end of the week, you simply add the number of units consumed in the week and find a grand total. If these units add up to more than 14, you have stepped over the recommended limit and therefore you are aware of how to modify your intake for the next week.
A drinks diary may also include a list of other columns, including where you consumed the alcohol, who you were with and the type of alcohol you consumed. This helps you build a visual picture of your addiction/habit and you can start to see when and where you drink more often.
For example, you may realise that every night after work, you drink two glasses of wine when you are home alone. Perhaps you are consuming over 14 units of alcohol on the weekend alone when you socialise with friends. A drinks diary will give you a detailed picture that you can assess.
There are numerous tables available online. Some of these can be found on the NHS website, and others can be found with a simple Google search. It is a great way to learn about yourself and your habits. It is also a good way to learn to control it and adapt your intake. Alcoholism is a disease and can lead to serious health implications which require alcohol rehab to overcome. Staying in control of your health is a vital element.
Recommended Alcohol Intake Guidance
Each alcoholic drink has a different alcohol percentage. When you create your drinks diary, it is important to know the content and units of each drink you consume. Both men and women have the exact same guidelines.
You should not consume any more than 14 units a week or 56 units a month. This also equates to no more than 2 units a day. To put this into perspective, one unit of alcohol is 10ml (ten millilitres) of pure alcohol.
How Can an Alcohol Diary Help?
If you believe that alcohol is becoming an issue in your life and affecting your daily routine, then it is important to take a step back and assess the issue. It is not always easy to remove alcohol from your life. It is a process and often requires some form of rehabilitation.
However, if you believe that you are building up a tolerance to alcohol and craving it daily, then you should begin to make note of your consumption as well as set limits and restrict your intake.
Consequential physical damage due to excessive alcohol consumption is liver damage and can also affect your psychology. This means that you are more likely to encounter nerve damage and brain illnesses.
A drinks diary is an essential place to start on your journey to health. A drinks diary is showing that you are becoming conscious and aware of your habit. It means that you are likely to be able to make the changes needed in your life, and this way, you have clear information in front of you.
If you would like more information on this subject matter or feel that you need rehabilitation treatment for your alcohol intake, please do not hesitate to contact our team. We want to see people lead healthy, happy lives without alcohol becoming an issue.
Please give us a call on 01908 489 421 and speak to one of our friendly team members today.
