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As a social drinker, alternating boozy beverages with N/As helped me have fun while cutting back on alcohol. Julia Pugachevsky
2026-01-08T11:09:01.215Z
- I wanted to drink less in 2025 than I did the previous year.
- I kept track of my drinking and followed the 1-2-3 rule.
- Dry January and alternating alcohol with mocktails helped me stick to my goals.
This time last year, I was in for a rude awakening. Despite fancying myself a purely social drinker, I learned that I went above the recommended moderate drinking limit m…
By
You’re currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
As a social drinker, alternating boozy beverages with N/As helped me have fun while cutting back on alcohol. Julia Pugachevsky
2026-01-08T11:09:01.215Z
- I wanted to drink less in 2025 than I did the previous year.
- I kept track of my drinking and followed the 1-2-3 rule.
- Dry January and alternating alcohol with mocktails helped me stick to my goals.
This time last year, I was in for a rude awakening. Despite fancying myself a purely social drinker, I learned that I went above the recommended moderate drinking limit much more often than I realized.
The CDC says even moderate drinking can increase health issues; going above the line, even more so. It recommends no more than one drink a day, which means around seven a week, for women (the amount doubles for men). Based on the NIAAA’s guidance, having four or more drinks in a day counts as binge drinking, no matter how spaced out the drinks are. This was a rule I also broke fairly frequently at parties and weddings.
In 2024, I went over the healthy limits 26 out of 52 weeks, or half the time. On 19 days out of the year, I drank four or more drinks in one day. Even though I got married that year, went to multiple weddings, and traveled a lot, the numbers still shocked me.
My first step was to panic and commit to Dry January for the month. However, I knew it wasn’t realistic for me to fully quit drinking. I enjoyed the social benefits of alcohol, like feeling more relaxed, and I loved the taste of wine with dinner. I just didn’t want those things to get in the way of my health.
Social settings are the most common reasons for drinking "slip ups." Jonathan Knowles/Getty Images
Plus, going cold turkey doesn’t work for everyone. In 2025, Reframe, an alcohol reduction app, analyzed its insights from over 220,000 users who self-reported their habits. It found that social settings and weekends are the most common causes of "slips," and that Damp January — drinking less without abstaining — was overall a more approachable and sustainable strategy for users than Dry January.
Continuing to track my drinking, I knew I shouldn’t go above three drinks in a day and try not to go above seven in a week. So, I leaned into a great loophole: following my own "one and non" rule, or alternating my alcoholic drinks with N/A beers and mocktails.
The habit helped me cut my drinking in half compared to the year prior. In 2025, I technically drank over the healthy limit for 14 weeks out of the year (roughly once a month). The days I had over three drinks also dropped from 19 to seven.
While my results weren’t perfect, they were a vast improvement over the year before. The downstream effects were nice too: After cutting down, I slept better, got sick less often (possibly due to a stronger immune system), and found it easier to lose fat.
The second-drink trap
Having one drink makes you euphoric — and crave a second. Javi Sanz/Getty Images
It can take just a few minutes for alcohol to seep into your brain. That first drink can leave you feeling a little relaxed, even euphoric.
However, the more you drink, the longer it takes for your liver to process the alcohol. This is what causes drunkenness and all its related health risks.
Like many people, I love the feeling of that first martini — so much so that I naturally want a second. Only by the end of that one, I usually feel sleepy, more prone to headaches, and less rested in the morning. Plus, if I socialized four times a week and had two drinks each time, that would be eight drinks —** **above the CDC’s "one per day" recommended limit (frustratingly, this was the case most of the time I went over).
That’s where N/As come in. If I alternated my drinks — what Gen Zers also call zebra striping — and chased a beer with an alcohol-free pilsner, I’d feel like I tricked my brain into feeling I had the second drink, minus any downsides. I could feel like I had two drinks over a long dinner, when I only had one.
Social drinking without overdoing it
Many mocktails and N/A beverages feel indistinguishable from their boozy counterparts. SimpleImages/Getty Images
On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced its new dietary guidelines, including recommendations for alcohol consumption. The guidelines removed any specific recommendations for daily alcohol intake, instead focusing on drinking less in general.
In a news briefing, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, stated that moderate drinking could have some benefits.
"Alcohol is a social lubricant that brings people together," Oz said. While he wouldn’t recommend drinking alcohol in the "best-case scenario," he said "there’s probably nothing healthier than having a good time with friends in a safe way."
But for me, and I suspect many other people as well, social drinking was why I drank more in the first place — even when I felt like I wasn’t.
My biggest hurdles were long social outings. I’d tell myself it didn’t "count" as much if I had three or four drinks over a 12-hour period.
Swapping for N/As helped me keep the party going without regretting my life choices. Last month, I had an unusually social day: I went to a housewarming party, watched a football game at a bar, and ended the night with a friend’s birthday dinner. I had five drinks in total — two of them nonalcoholic Coronas.
What made this rule easier to follow was how easy it’s become to find booze-free options. N/A beers have become ubiquitous at bars, and I feel like every restaurant nowadays boasts at least one zero-proof cocktail. The same goes for house parties: as it’s become more common to be sober or sober-curious, I find there are usually N/A options around (or, I BYOB it).
Intentionality is the key
Looking back, I gave myself more of a free pass to drink on vacations. Oleg Breslavtsev/Getty Images
Now that I have the habit of tracking my drinking and trying to adhere to more rules, the only thing left is being intentional. I found that on nights when I actively thought about getting mocktails as my second drink, I was more likely to stick to the plan.
Similarly, what usually derailed me were occasions I’d assumed were free passes for drinking, like weddings or vacations. I drank the most on hiking trips (believing I’d "earned" a few Negronis after an 11-mile hike) and on holidays. Looking back and noticing this pattern will make it easier for me to adjust in 2026.
I know I have plenty of motivation to drink less this year. My moods improved, I had more energy at the gym, and I saved a bit of money. Cheers to that.