Health Hub

Having a Dry July has great health benefits. We've brought together a collection of articles that could help you with your Dry July.


Tips on cutting down after Dry July

By Dry July Foundation on

Carry on your good work from July through to August and beyond. Here are some practical tips if you want to try to cut down on the amount of alcohol you’re drinking:

  • Before you start drinking, quench your thirst with a non-alcoholic drink
  • Drink slowly – have a drink of water with your alcoholic drink
  • Make every second drink non-alcoholic – this will help space out your drinks.
  • Eat food when you’re drinking, but avoid salty foods – these make you thirstier.
  • Try to dilute your alcoholic drinks – for example, a shandy (beer with lemonade) or a wine spritzer (wine with mineral water).
  • Designate at least two alcohol-free days a week
  • Know your standard drinks – buy an alcohol measure for at home

  • One standard drink equals:
  • 285 ml of beer (one glass of beer)
  • 100 ml of wine (one small glass of wine)
  • 30 ml of spirits (one measure of spirits)


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Seven tips for using the back-to-school mindset to help you stick to your goals

By Trudy Meehan on

Even if it’s been many years since you were last in school, you might still associate this time of year with that “back-to-school” mindset – that feeling of a page turning, a new phase beginning and the chance to start anew and reinvent yourself.

While you won’t find any research on the “back-to-school mindset” itself, this feeling is very similar to what science calls the “fresh start effect”. This is a boost in motivation for change that comes with a shift from one time in your life to another – called a temporal landmark. The beginning of a new school year, birthdays, anniversaries and even Monday mornings are all temporal landmarks.


Temporal landmarks support our belief that we can reinvent ourselves, acting as a threshold to a new...

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12 ways to finally achieve your most elusive goals

By Peter A. Heslin, Lauren A. Keating, Ute-Christine Klehe on

It’s that time of year to muse on what you hope to accomplish over the next 12 months.

The best advice when making resolutions is to set goals that are “SMART” – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant (to you) and time-bound.

Once you’ve set your goals, what can help you achieve them? Based on our research, we’ve distilled 12 goal-enablers. These cover four broad principles you can use to keep yourself on track.

You don’t have to do all 12. Just focusing on the most relevant three to five can make a big difference.


Set relevant supporting goals

An outcome goal isn’t enough. Set clear supporting goals that equip you to attain that outcome.

1. Behavioural goals stipulate the actions required to reach your outcome goal. If you want to...

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How putting purpose into your New Year’s resolutions can bring meaning and results

By Benjamin Houltberg & Arianna Uhalde on

People worldwide make New Year’s resolutions every year in an attempt to improve their lives. Common resolutions are to exercise more, eat healthier, save money, lose weight and reduce stress.

Yet, 80% of people agree that most people won’t stick to their resolutions. This pessimism is somewhat justified. Only 4% of people report following through on all of the resolutions they personally set.

We have spent years studying motivation, emotion regulation and behaviour in family relationships, athletic performance and health information processing in the marketplace. Now at USC’s Performance Science Institute, we help people attain and sustain high performance in all aspects of their lives.

Based on our research, we propose a potential...

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