Menu
Menu
When you drink moderately, you’re practicing healthier drinking habits. Drinking in moderation is a great way to maintain your overall health, improve your sleep routine, and get more energy. If you’ve ever considered cutting back on your drinking to become a more moderate drinker, Sunnyside can help.
15-day free trial. Cancel any time.
According to the CDC, moderate drinking is considered one drink for women and two for men in one night. Typically a healthy amount of drinks a week is less than 8 for women and less than 14 for men. This number of drinks is considered to be a lower-risk range for alcohol consumption. That being said, it’s important to understand that there are always health-risks associated with drinking alcohol, but being more mindful about how you consume it and when you consume it, can help keep you happy, healthy and energized.
Moderation is important in many facets of our lives. When practicing moderation, keep in mind that weight, hormone levels and water weight can play a big part in how alcohol affects each individual. So even if one drink a day for women is considered the low-risk number, keep in mind that everyone is different. In order to practice moderate drinking, try to keep track of how much you are drinking, and give your body time in between drinks to metabolize the alcohol. Tracking what you consume is important to staying aware and accountable.
Our simple but powerful moderate drinking platform will get you started on your journey in only 3 minutes. And from there it only requires a few seconds a day to stay on track.
Tell us a little about yourself and your goals so we can personalize your experience. This is a judgment-free zone.
Every week we’ll give you a recommended drink plan for the week ahead to help you reach your goals, which you can adjust.
Via a simple text-message interface, we’ll remind you to track your drinks every day, and provide nudges to stack on target.
Our upbeat and positive eduation, motivation, tips, and tricks will keep you on track every day of the week.
You’re joining a community of members who have been through exactly what you’re going through, and have achieved amazing results. Here’s what some of them have said about using Sunnyside to cut back on their journey to be more moderate drinkers.
When I first started I was a bit leery about the whole thing. I am 70 years old and retired and didn’t think that I needed someone to tell me how much to drink. So I took the 15 day free trial and found out that it really helped me control my drinking. These guys are not trying to change you, just your drinking habits, which has help me a lot. Sometimes I would drink just to drink and that came to a stop. I still do what I want to do, I’m just doing it differently and it really working well for me. – Rene
Over the last two years I became a bit of a heavy drinker. After 84 days with Sunnyside, I’m now a moderate drinker, on my way to becoming a social drinking. The transition was easier than I thought. -Ted
I’ve been trying to cut back on my drinking for years and this is the only way I’ve actually done it. I’m so extremely happy with just the mindfulness that it has provided me. It’s not judgy. It doesn’t make you quit immediately. It is just a way to cut back and be mindful of your drinking and I really appreciate it. It’s honestly transformed my life. -Stefani
I love this program – it’s simple and supportive. I feel like I’m on my way to making some lasting changes without ever feeling shamed. Also the coaches are real & respond personally (not just bots). -Lucy
Sunnyside members see big results in their first 30 days, and it only gets better from there. Start with your 15-day free trial, then stick with it if it’s right for you.
Feel your best, inside and out.
Enjoy more restful sleep and brighter mornings.
Every month you’ll be cutting out unnecessary calories.
Greet the day with increased energy and focus.
Save real cash every month by spending less on alcohol.
Mindfulness lets you enjoy drinking more, by consuming less.
The Mindful Drinkers is a group for people who want to cut back on their drinking. The group is a judgment-free zone grounded in positivity. The community aims to cultivate a sense of connection for those who prefer mindfulness over the traditional “all-or-nothing” approach. You’re invited to share your story about how you integrate mindful drinking into your daily life, offer encouragement, and ask questions.
Every Sunnyside membership includes all the features below, plus a free 15-day trial to make sure it’s right for you.
Sunnyside gives you simple, accurate tools to track your drinks that you’ll actually love to use.
Every Sunday we’ll share your plan for the week ahead that you can adjust and customize as needed.
We have real human coaches available for when you need a nudge or a bit of motivation. But only if you need it.
We’ll share advice, education and motivation on a daily basis to keep you on track with your goals.
Drinks cut, money saved, improved sleep… we’ll help you measure success in the terms that matter to you.
Sunnyside is easy and simple to use, but is backed by proven habit change techniques reviewed by our advisors.
Sunnyside utilizes proven behavior-change techniques to help you reach your goals, and it’s all reviewed by our team of experts.
Our goal is to be transparent and honest with you about Sunnyside. It’s in our DNA. Here are a couple common questions, but please email us if you have more.
A Sunnyside subscription starts at $8.75/mo, less than the cost of two drinks. Everyone starts with a 15-day free trial to test it out. And we’re nice about refunds if it’s truly not right for you.
We believe that everyone who drinks can benefit from more mindfulness and healthier habits. You can join Sunnyside no matter what your starting point is, and we’ll help you hit your goals. Sunnyside offers a 15-day free trial, and you can cancel at any time.
Definitely not. Talking to a coach is completely optional. You can take advantage of the planning, tracking, behavior change, analytics, and amazing results without ever talking to anyone.
We employ proven habit change techniques like pre-commitment, conscious interference, and belief and positivity. Our methods are reviewed by habit change and alcohol use experts. Learn more.
We take data privacy and security very seriously. We never sell your information or use your drinking data for marketing tactics. Review our Privacy Principles.
The Sunnyside community is made of thousands of people who enjoy drinking but want to create more mindfulness around their consumption, whether it’s to cut back or stop entirely. We’re moms, dads, professionals, students, and everyone in between.
“Alcohol can make life more enjoyable. But alcohol isn’t essential to enjoying life.” If these 2 statements apply to you, there’s a good chance you have the mindset of a moderate drinker.
In practice, the moderation mindset looks like this: The moment alcohol starts to have a negative impact on your health or relationships, you’re able to cut back. But this is often easier said than done.
In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into what moderate drinking looks like — and offer tips on how to keep it from morphing into something more harmful.
The CDC defines moderate drinking as “no more than one drink per day for women and no more than two drinks per day for men.” A drink in their book is “12 oz regular beer, 5 oz wine, or 1.5 oz 80-proof distilled spirits.” [1]
These daily benchmarks add up to 7 weekly drinks for women and 14 for men.
If you wait until Friday night to enjoy that number of drinks, you’re not a moderate drinker. That’s binge drinking, which can cause serious health issues.
Think you might be a binge drinker? Read this guide to learn more and take back control.
Moderate drinking can easily morph into riskier levels of alcohol consumption. But if you have these characteristics, you’re likely in the safe zone.
Sure, if you drink fewer than 7 weekly drinks for women or 14 for men, the CDC considers you a moderate drinker.
The reality is 7 or 14 weekly drinks might still be too many for some people. Say you start seeing cracks in your performance at work or increased fatigue after 5 weekly drinks. Moderation means something different for you.
We’re not saying that “moderate drinking” is totally subjective. If you regularly exceed CDC guidelines, you might develop alcohol tolerance. You’ll gradually need more alcohol to get the desired effect. Alcohol dependence might result, and you’ll find it much more difficult to cut back.
Wellness depends on good physical and psychological health. Moderate drinking shouldn’t interfere with either side of the wellness equation. Here’s what this looks like in practice:
When you put your physical and mental health first, you won’t depend on alcohol to “feel better.” You’ll be in a better position to maintain moderation.
In 2022 we surveyed 500 Sunnyside members and learned almost 5% of them call “social pressure” a drinking trigger.
If you’re a moderate drinker, you’re able to enjoy alcohol socially without losing sight of other drinks you’ve had or plan to have that week.
You might plan to have 2 drinks on a night out with friends but be tempted to have more. You stick to 2 because you know that 3 or more will affect how you feel the next day.
Here’s some useful tips on communicating your drinking choices to friends.
Alcohol calories vary by your choice of drink. Some of the worst caloric offenders include flavored beers like chocolate stout (250-350 calories) and cocktails like espresso martinis (320-340 calories). The more of these you drink, the more weight fluctuations you’ll experience.
“Experimental evidence” from the scientific community suggests “moderate intake of alcohol does not lead to weight gain over short follow-up periods.” Heavy drinking, on the other hand, “is more consistently related to weight gain.” [2]
So if you stay within the CDC’s guidelines for moderate drinking — and maintain an active lifestyle — your target weight should be within reach.
Say you’re a moderate drinker but find you’re starting to drink more than usual. Follow these tips to keep your drinking in check.
We have enough to keep track of in our daily lives, such as appointments, work meetings, and kids’ activities. If you want to keep your alcohol consumption in the moderate zone, add drinks to this list.
Keeping track of drinks starts with planning your daily or weekly alcohol consumption. It turns out attaching a goal — like having 7 weekly drinks — to an action plan makes you more likely to achieve that goal.
Here’s what the American Board of Family Medicine learned when they ran a study of patients who needed to change a lifestyle behavior for better health. More than half (53%) of patients “making an action plan reported making a behavior change consistent with that action plan.” [3]
Use an app like Sunnyside both to create your moderation action plan and keep track of drinks. You’ll get daily reminders to log your drinks and weekly reports on progress toward your goal.
You have a habit when a certain behavior becomes automatic in response to a trigger. Are you even aware you bite your nails while updating a spreadsheet? If not, nail-biting is the habit. Spreadsheets are the trigger.
Unfortunately, drinking can become a habit. Suppose you only drink when out with friends. But thanks to a stressful month at work, you find yourself reaching for a drink more often to manage that stress. If you’re not careful, drinking will become the go-to response to stress triggers.
Soon, your moderate drinking goals go out the window. Not to mention that once a habit, it’s tougher to cut back.
According to habit science, changing a habit or keeping one from taking hold means stopping triggers in their tracks. If stress is a trigger, you must consciously decide to manage it without resorting to alcohol. For example, do ten push-ups when stress strikes rather than head to the fridge.
An important aside: Maintaining or changing a habit is hard. Forgive yourself if you stumble.
One of the best ways to manage triggers is to have low- or non-alcoholic drinks on hand. These drinks are often as satisfying as a beer or glass of wine, and help keep you within moderate drinking limits.
Non-alcoholic beer, wine, and spirits is a booming market, so it’s much easier to find them at bars and retail stores. Take non-alcoholic spirits. According to Nielsen, these drinks were worth 1.3% of the non-alcoholic drinks market in August 2022, up 88.4% from the previous year.
Be mindful that non-alcoholic drinks shouldn’t be your only alternative to alcohol. These drinks can still pack a caloric punch. Many non-alcoholic beers have as many as 80 or 90 calories per serving. True, these numbers are lower than regular beer’s 140 to 170 calories. Still, too many non-alcoholic beers can make it difficult to maintain a target weight.
Here’s a list of 80+ low- or non-alcoholic beverages that mimic the taste of the real thing.
Though alcohol is a depressant, the first drink or two can lead to temporary feelings of elation. This makes it tempting to grab a drink when you need stimulation while bored. As with other triggers, bored drinking can undo your moderation goals.
Try to find stimulating activities or hobbies to occupy your downtime, whether knitting, learning a new language, or working on a crossword puzzle.
As your skill level grows, you’ll get a sense of satisfaction that drinking cannot provide. To stay motivated, find a friend who shares the hobby, and schedule a weekly call to share your progress.
Moderate drinking has the fewest health risks of all drinking patterns. But it can be a difficult pattern to achieve, especially if you regularly drink more than the CDC recommends.
At the heart of moderate drinking is mindfulness, a state where you consider how each drink affects your overall health. With moderate and mindful drinking so closely linked, you’ll need a partner to help achieve your goals. This is why Sunnyside is so important.
Sunnyside helps you evaluate your current drinking pattern, devise a plan to cut back, record your progress, and offer support when you stumble along the way. Getting started only takes 3 minutes of your time.
Click here to start your journey to better health — without giving up alcohol completely.
[1] Dufour MC. What is moderate drinking? Defining “drinks” and drinking levels. Alcohol Res Health. 1999;23(1):5-14.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6761695/
[2] Handley M, MacGregor K, Schillinger D, Sharifi C, Wong S, Bodenheimer T. Using action plans to help primary care patients adopt healthy behaviors: a descriptive study. J Am Board Fam Med. 2006 May-Jun;19(3):224-31.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16672675/
[3] Traversy G, Chaput JP. Alcohol Consumption and Obesity: An Update. Curr Obes Rep. 2015 Mar;4(1):122-30.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4338356/
Sunnyside is a system for creating a more mindful approach to drinking to help you reach your goals. Our members are seeing major benefits, including a 30% average reduction in weekly drinks, improved sleep, a healthier diet, money saved, and an overall improved sense of well-being.
Sunnyside is not designed to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD). For resources related to AUD, including how to get support, please visit the NIH website. We’ve also partnered with Moderation Management, a non-profit dedicated to reducing the harm caused by the misuse of alcohol.
Sunnyside is a system for creating a more mindful approach to drinking to help you reach your goals. Our members are seeing major benefits, including a 30% average reduction in weekly drinks, improved sleep, a healthier diet, money saved, and an overall improved sense of well-being.
Sunnyside is not designed to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD). For resources related to AUD, including how to get support, please visit the NIH website. We’ve also partnered with Moderation Management, a non-profit dedicated to reducing the harm caused by the misuse of alcohol.