Dry January: Could you pull it off?

Could you quit drinking alcohol for a month?

The creative minds behind the Baroness von Sketch Show toyed with the idea of a dry January, as the annual ritual has become known.

Going cold turkey after the excesses of the holidays isa growing trend.

• New year, no beer: Dry January's increasing popularity offers benefits, researchers say

We asked readers to weigh in.

The question:Could you pull off the dry January challenge?

'Everything called for a drink'

Jenn Goldiedid it, and kept doing it.

The Ottawa woman's dry January turned into a year-long cleanse.

"I'm glad I did it. I'm going to keep it going. The benefits far outweigh anything that I've lost," Goldie said.

How does she describe her bond with alcohol before she quit?

"We were committed. We had a very intense relationship."

Putting a cork in her booze consumption is something she admits she needed to do.

"Any day that ended in 'y,'any excuse. If you were sad you drank, if you were happyyou drank, if you were celebrating, if you were commiseratingeverything called for a drink," she said."You start to look at your watch and wonder when it's 5 o'clock."

'The sober guy'

Wesley Rodney wasn't a big drinker, but wanted to drop a few kilos, so he also decided to quit booze in 2019. Like Goldie, he kept going.

He lost a few pounds, but nothing close to his goal of 18 kilos, or 40 lbs, andadmits he mayhave compensated for the liquor with sugar.

"I'm goingto have to try something crazy like diet or exercise," he laughed.

Rodney did manage to save some cash.

"I did find I was saving a lot of money. In a restaurant these days, two beers is $25off the bill."

He's going to ask friends and family if he should continue to abstain, or as he puts it: "Should I become 'the sober guy?'"

• So I made it through dry January. Now what?
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Meanwhile, friends have given Rodney a bottle of his favourite beer with alabel that reads, "Open on January 1st, 2020."

"So that's waiting for me if I decide to start drinking," he said.