Alright, where are my fellow Dry January participants? How’s everybody doing now that we’re in the home stretch? I’ve done Dry January every year since 2020 and despite all of the real world sh-t that’s bombarded this last week, this has been my easiest year yet.

Every year, we hear about celebrities who are doing Dry January. Last year, we got play-by-play updates from Amy Robach and TJ Holmes. Tom Holland and Bella Hadid are both on record as Dry January success stories. Now, we can add Kelly Ripa to the list! Last week, Andy Cohen was a guest host on an episode of Live with Kelly and Mark. When Andy talked about how he’s doing Dry January again this year, but hasn’t lost any of the weight that he usually loses, Kelly shared that although she doesn’t drink anymore, the year that she did do Dry January, she ended up gaining 12 pounds!

During the Wednesday, Jan. 22 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, Ripa was joined by Andy Cohen as a stand-in co-host while her husband. Mark Consuelos, is filming a new project. During the opening segment, Cohen, 56, revealed he’s currently participating in “Dry January” and not drinking for the month.

However, as Cohen detailed his experience, he remarked that “usually a little weight loss comes my way after,” but this year, it’s “not really happening yet.”

“I told you when I quit drinking, I expected there to be this windfall of weight loss because everybody’s like, ‘Well, you are going to get too skinny, and you can’t afford to lose it,’ ” Ripa, 54, said before revealing the opposite occurred. “I gained 12 pounds [and said], ‘I don’t understand this magical weight loss that people apply.’”

“I think I just took to eating the sugars,” she continued. “Because apparently, alcohol is like a lot of sugar, which you don’t really realize when it goes in it tastes kind of bitter.”

Ripa revealed in January 2020 during an episode of Live with Kelly and Ryan that she eliminated alcohol from her diet in 2017. The following month, she told PEOPLE that she and her friends decided to try a sober month, and once she completed it she realized she “felt great” and “liked the way [she] felt.”

“It wasn’t even really a thought process. It felt great, I felt like I looked great, I felt like I didn’t feel hungover. Not that I was a heavy drinker — I wasn’t someone who got drunk — but even like two glasses of wine at a girl’s night out dinner; I would feel it the next morning,” she said.

“I just didn’t really feel the need or desire to go back to it,” she continued. “It wasn’t really a choice or a thought, it was just, ‘Yeah, I guess I don’t drink anymore.’ ”

At the time, Ripa said quitting smoking in the early ’90s was something that she “really had to think about,” noting that quitting drinking “was very easy” and she “didn’t really think about it at all.”

“I’m not comparing cigarettes to alcohol, but for me it was just like, I don’t do that anymore,” Ripa added. “I felt better so I just stopped.”

[From People]

Replacing alcohol with sugar and extra food in general is absolutely a real thing. I remember a friend from college telling me once that they kept either gummy bears or Swedish Fish on hand to keep the cravings down when they were trying to give up alcohol. That’s crazy that she put on 12 pounds though! For Kelly, giving up alcohol was probably easier than giving up smoking because she had that sugar substitute. The nicotine patch was only available by prescription from 1992 to 1996 until it was made available over-the-counter. I’m happy for her that she’s living her best sober life. That’s awesome.

I’m in Andy’s camp this year. My first year, I lost 16 pounds and in subsequent years, “only” lost around five. Honestly, this is my first Dry January in which I haven’t lost any weight, but my kids have been home from school for this entire month (they’re in year-round school) and I’ve definitely had more than my fair share of Crumbl Cookies and Peanut M&Ms over the past four weeks, lol. Ha, gee, I wonder if that could have anything to do with it…

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