The four foundations, said as one person practised them.

Water

• Plain water, in cups not bottles, two and a half litres a day A glass on waking, before coffee. A glass before each meal. A glass between meals on the hour. The body that drank for years has been chronically under-hydrated; the cellular tissue, the joints, the skin, the soft tissue around the spine, the eyes, the gut — all of them have been working dry. They take months to rehydrate, and the water itself does the rehydrating, not the supplement.
• Bottled water is not better than tap water for this purpose, in the UK or in most of Europe. The exceptions are local water-quality issues you already know about. The supplement industry sells bottles. The body needs water.
• Caffeine and water are not opposites, but caffeine moves water through the body faster. If you are drinking three coffees, you are drinking three coffees plus a glass of water with each.
• Beer-shaped thirst The first months after stopping, the thirst that used to be drink-shaped will sometimes still want a bottle in the hand. Plain sparkling water in a wine glass, with lemon, served by you to you, is not silly. It is signalling.

Electrolytes

• Magnesium first Chronic alcohol use depletes magnesium specifically; the deficiency is a known feature, and the symptoms — muscle cramps, restless legs, sleep disturbance, anxiety, palpitations — are all consistent with low magnesium. Most discharge letters specify a course; many doctors will continue it. Roughly four hundred milligrams a day is a typical dose; magnesium glycinate or citrate are common forms. Talk to your clinician.
• Sodium, potassium, calcium, chloride— the rest of the electrolyte picture is mostly handled by food, if you are eating reasonably and not on a low-sodium clinical diet. The expensive electrolyte powders sold to people in early sobriety are usually not what the body specifically needs; the food and the magnesium are.
• The morning electrolyte drink A pinch of sea salt, a squeeze of lemon, a glass of water, on waking, in hot weather or after exercise. Plain. Cheap. Not a brand.

Sleep

• Fixed wake-up. The single most useful thing one person did over six years was to get up at the same time every morning, including weekends, including bad nights. The body's clock — the circadian rhythm — is set by the wake-up, not the bedtime. Drinking dismantled the clock; the wake-up reassembles it.
• Light in the eyes soon after waking. Daylight, ideally outside; a bright lamp if not. A short spell is enough. This is the strongest signal the brain receives that the day has started.
• No alcohol obviously, but also caution with substitutes. Cannabis and high-strength CBD will give you sleep that is not really sleep, in a way that can become habitual. Sleeping tablets prescribed for the short term should not, generally, be taken for the long term. Talk to the doctor.
• The bedroom dark, cool, quiet. The sleep-hygiene basics actually work. Black-out blinds. Sixteen to eighteen degrees. A phone outside the room.
• The bad night. Bad nights happen and are not, by themselves, dangerous. One bad night does not require a corrective intervention. Two consecutive bad nights, or a pattern, is worth a sleep diary and, eventually, a conversation with your doctor.

Food

• Protein at breakfast. The hunger architecture is more stable, across the day, when protein is the first food.
• Three meals a day, at consistent times. The body's blood sugar, hunger, and energy run better on a fixed schedule. Drinking blew the schedule apart; the schedule reassembles it.
• Sugar carefully. Cravings for sweet food are normal in the first months. Treat them as a body asking for energy, not as a moral failure. Fruit, dates, dark chocolate — handle the craving without putting in a daily refined-sugar habit that will be the next thing to dismantle.
• Coffee and tea, normally. Most people do not need to give up caffeine to recover from alcohol. Some do. The bot will help you find which is true for you.
• No supplement is a meal. Supplements work alongside food, not in place of it. The shake industry sells a lot of breakfasts that are not breakfasts.