Good intentions: pause your alcohol consumption with IkPas

Have you subconsciously developed a pattern where you drink alcohol almost every day? Do you want to see what happens when you break that habit? Then IkPas is something for you.

IkPas – alcohol break

IkPas is an initiative of the Positive Lifestyle Foundation and is financially supported by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. It is an annual campaign in the Netherlands to pause alcohol consumption. The Netherlands is not alone in this, there is Dry January in England and OcSober in Australia. They all have the same approach: together we pause our alcohol consumption.

But why would you take an alcohol break? IkPas explains why this is sensible: “Many people have unconsciously adopted a pattern where it goes without saying that they drink several glasses of alcohol almost every day. IkPas is committed to making you more aware of the choice whether or not to drink. By participating in IkPas you break through stuck patterns and alcohol is no longer self-evident. “

Guidance via the app

If you register for IkPas, you will receive guidance in various ways throughout the period. There is a dashboard on the site and in the web app where you will be provided with all kinds of useful tools. Indeed, the old Android app was outdated and incomplete and will no longer be updated. In its place, a web app has been added and all functions are available.

You can create a shortcut for this website / web app that will be placed on your home screen. This way you can easily reach the web app. You do that as follows:

• Go to www.ikpas.nl on your phone in your browser
• At the top right, tap an icon with three dots
• Tap ‘Add to home screen’
• Give the shortcut a recognizable title or leave the default name

Challenges and teams

When you register, you must register for a challenge. That is the period in which you pause your alcohol consumption. We have the Dry January challenge (30 days), the Lent challenge (40 days), but you can also join a challenge later in the year.

You always only participate in a challenge, but you can also participate in a team. You can also participate in one challenge with different teams.

Coach, recipes and badges

The IkPas coach acts as a personal source of information but also as a coach if you don’t like it anymore. In addition, you can earn badges for certain wins such as drinking Coke at a dinner party and dropping the beer on a birthday. You will also receive news and tasty non-alcoholic recipes by e-mail. You determine the frequency of these messages.

Benefits of not drinking

IkPas wants you to become aware of your alcohol consumption and to break through your ingrained patterns so that alcohol is no longer self-evident.

Many participants also experience physical benefits. For example, 62% feel physically fitter, 55% sleep better and 32% lose weight.

IkPas is there to support you during your alcohol break. You will of course have to do it all by yourself.