Sober October, Dry January and Dry July: For one quarter of a year, these campaigns provide a motivation for people to come together and challenge themselves to go without alcohol.

It isn't a surprise to Annie Grace that these periods to reduce alcohol consumption are becoming more popular. The author of "This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol" said she is seeing more and more people evaluate the relationship that alcohol plays in their lives.

How much is too much? The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention classifies moderate drinking as two drinks or less in a day for men and one drink or less for women. But two-thirds of adult drinkers report drinking more than those levels at least once a month, according to the CDC.

And the pandemic didn't help. A December 2020 study found that 60% of respondents increased drinking over the year and more than a third said they engaged in binge drinking, which is defined as five or more drinks on an occasion for men and four for women.

Studies show that alcohol isn't good for healthy living. There is no safe amount when it comes to heart health, according to the World Heart Federation. And even moderate drinking reserved for the weekend can have social, emotional and psychological impacts, according to a 2022 study.

Sober October could be a step to cutting out alcohol entirely, but it doesn't have to be, said biological psychologist Aaron White, senior scientific adviser to the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Whatever your level of drinking, a monthlong sobriety challenge could help you be more mindful about your drinking, White added.

Who benefits?

You may think you might not need a break from drinking because you don't have signs of substance abuse disorder: your drinking causing serious impairment, health problems, disability or issues meeting responsibilities.

But problematic drinking is a spectrum -- not just a binary between addicted and fine, Grace said. You may drink a little but not feel good about why or how you drink. You may drink a lot but feel doing so functions well in your life.

Even people who don't drink heavily may find themselves with less control over when and how much they drink than they would like, Grace said.

She was one of those people. Grace didn't feel she needed treatment programs, but she found that reducing her drinking was a struggle, which to her was a sign that something needed to change.

Taking on a sobriety challenge doesn't mean you have to quit forever, but it can help you be more thoughtful in your decisions around drinking rather than doing it because it's what you usually do, White said.

"It gives somebody a chance to cultivate alternatives," he added.

How does it help?

Even in just a month, there is evidence that reduced alcohol consumption can be good for your physical health.

"Most people who drink excessively have fatty livers," White said. "Even taking a break for a month is enough to just bring your liver enzymes down and for your liver to look healthier."

Some people may find with less or no alcohol they sleep better and make better food choices for themselves, White said.

And for emotional health, a short-term challenge can point out feelings and routines that could be improved, Grace added.

Many of the people she works with -- even moderate drinkers -- describe their relationship with alcohol as something they are not in full control of, she said.

She encourages people who are using a sobriety challenge to take note of when they feel the urge to drink and what purpose it serves. Does it make you feel part of a community to share a drink at a party? Is that glass of wine after a long day a reliable sense of comfort?

Maybe the drink is an easy way -- but not the best -- to get those needs met, Grace said. Taking note and trying to find those things without a drink could open you up to new ways of fulfilling those feelings, White added.

How to be successful

There are a couple of stumbling blocks to plan for during a sober month, Grace said.

One is overcoming the desire to drink, and experts had different approaches to solve that problem.

Reducing drinking can have a similar effect as dieting -- the more you tell yourself you can't have it, the more you want it, said Natalie Mokari, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Charlotte, North Carolina.

She recommends starting with one less drink than you would usually have at each occasion or breaking a daily habit by limiting drinking to certain days. You can also have a sparkling water in between drinks or make weaker cocktails than usual to reduce your alcohol consumption, she said.

White said it is important not to feel shame if you end up drinking during your sobriety challenge. Don't throw out the whole experience by beating yourself up over a glass of wine, he added.

Grace recommended leading with curiosity and information. Learning more about the psychology and biology of alcohol really helped reduce her desire to drink, she said, and approaching her urges with curiosity rather than judgment allowed her to learn more about the role alcohol played in her life.

There is also social pressure to drink. How do you not drink when everyone else is? Especially if friends get uncomfortable when they don't see you with the beer you always have?

The first thing is to remember that people may make you feel bad because they are uncomfortable about their own relationship with drinking, Grace said.

It often helps to have a nonalcoholic drink in your hand at social events, White said, so the offer to have a drink doesn't even come up.

Don't binge on Nov. 1

If you are hoping to curb your habits or boost your health, it is important not to see crossing the finish line as the time to overindulge, Mokari said.

Dramatically reducing your consumption over that time can lower your tolerance, and what was enough for a buzz today could result in a much higher level of intoxication than you expect 30 days later, White said.

You may also be undoing the changes in habit you have been building over the course of the month by going back even harder once it's over, Grace added.

"In our society, even saying 'I want to take a break' is super brave," she said. "If you don't change how you feel about it but white-knuckle it the whole month, it becomes like this forbidden fruit syndrome."

LOVELAND, Ohio —

A roadblock is on the way for one of the region’s most popular bike trails because a new bridge will take all summer to install.

The Loveland Bike Trail will be closed at a distance from downtown that takes about one minute to walk.

The bridge will be closed for most of March and will reopen, but will then close down again from May until October.

“I don't think it's going to make too many people happy. The timing is not what I would call the best,” said Loveland resident Julie Dolbier.

“That is very disappointing because that is the riding season,” said Diana Hodges-Batzka. “It just means we will be going to the other parts of this wonderful trail that Ohio has.”

That’s the concern. The trail is important to downtown Loveland businesses.

Now, people hitting the trail at Loveland can’t go north toward Morrow and Lebanon, which is the most popular route.

Loveland City Manager David Kennedy said the Ohio Department of Natural Resource’s plan was to replace the bridge in January, but supply chain issues pushed it back to the summer.

“They're doing the right thing, timing, it's not good. It's not good for our businesses, but I'm absolutely supportive of the project,” Kennedy said.

Business owners are remaining optimistic.

“You’re always tempted to think worse-case scenario, but I think, for the most part, if you’re committed to doing good work, people want to come and find you anyway,” said the owner of Narrow Path Brewing Company, Chad Powers.

HAMILTON, Ohio —

The West Chester man accused of murdering four family members will not stand trial in May, as planned.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused the capital murder trial to get pushed back to October.

Gurpreet Singh is accused of murdering his wife, Shalinderjit Kaur, and her parents, Hakiakat Singh Pannag and Parmjit Kaur. Shalinderjit Kaur's aunt, Amarjit Kaur, was also killed inside a West Chester apartment in April 2019.

The trial would require selecting 12 jurors and a handful of alternates.

"I just don't see us being able to get 16 people to sit with us for three weeks, away from their families, sitting next to strangers," said Butler County Common Pleas Judge Greg Howard. "Further complicated by the fact, if we are able to do that, what happens if in the middle of trial, a juror says, 'I'm not feeling well. I've lost my sense of taste and smell,' and we have to quarantine everybody."

Howard said in other cases, jurors have expressed concerns with coming into a courtroom during a pandemic, even with safety protocols in place.

Since the rollout of the vaccines isn't going as quickly as people hoped, he said it might be better to move the trial date.

Neither prosecutors and defense attorneys objected to postponing Singh's trial.

"We echo the same concerns where if we have a juror or a family member of a juror or one of the litigants get sick or contract COVID, what would happen to the trial?" said assistant prosecutor Josh Muennich.

Defense attorney Neal Schuett said, "We too don't want some mistrial or to get halfway through and have to take a break and all quarantine."

Singh maintains his innocence. He is now scheduled to stand trial on four counts of aggravated murder on Oct. 18.

This is the second time the trial was delayed because of the pandemic.

It was originally scheduled for last September.

Family members of the victims previously told WLWT, they didn't like the delays but have confidence in the American justice system.

A finance company will pay an individual $1,300 to watch 13 scary movies in October, in an effort to find out whether the size of a movie's budget impacts its effectiveness.FinanceBuzz is looking to hire someone to be a Horror Movie Heart Rate Analyst. The person will watch 13 of the scariest movies ever made while monitoring their heart rate using Fitbit, the company said in a news release."In honor of the upcoming spooky season, we at FinanceBuzz are dying to know whether or not high-budget horror movies deliver stronger scares than low-budget ones," the release said."You'll help us discover whether or not a movie's budget impacts just how dread-inducing it can be by wearing a Fitbit to monitor your heart rate while you work your way through the list of 13 movies."The chosen participant is required to watch the following films between Oct. 9 until Oct. 18: Saw, Amityville Horror, A Quiet Place, A Quiet Place Part 2, Candyman, Insidious, The Blair Witch Project, Sinister, Get Out, The Purge, Halloween (2018), Paranormal Activity and Annabelle.Related video: Could scary movies help you burn calories?FinanceBuzz will provide the new analyst with a Fitbit tracker along with $1,300 and a $50 gift card to cover the rental costs of the fright fest.To apply, those interested have to fill out a form and tell the company why they are the best person for the job.Applications are due by Sept. 26, and FinanceBuzz will pick a winner by Oct. 1.

The week after Labor Day has historically represented the unofficial start of fall, and though most leaves have retained their green color, the season of pumpkin spice is already in full effect.

On Aug. 24 -- a full month before the official start of fall -- Starbucks posted a tweet that sent half of the internet into a frenzy, while the other half shook their heads in despair: "Pumpkin has entered the chat."

It was a de facto announcement about the return of the coffee chain's cult favorite Pumpkin Spice Latte, a drink some look forward to all year. A week earlier, competitor Dunkin' posted about the return of their own pumpkin coffee confection.

Every year, it feels like pumpkin spice mania comes earlier and earlier. Though some of these products may be blatant marketing ploys, some segments of society seem to welcome it back with open arms every time. From coffee to candles to deodorant, pumpkin spice is ubiquitous -- a signal that fall is upon us once more. Even if it's still 90 degrees outside and there's nary a golden leaf in sight, it's suddenly time for fires, apple picking and cozy sweaters. Fall begins when we say it does!

But why do so many crave the return of this season so much? What are we really reaching for when we cling to the edge of fall's garment, hoping it will envelop us sooner than it has before?

Part of it is nostalgia. Part of it is the warmth the season brings. But it could also just be the events of the past 18 months that are causing many of us to feel ready for fall early.

With fall, comes nostalgia

Some of the joyous anticipation of fall is just that: anticipation. When our mouths drool while imagining warm mugs of apple cider and pumpkin bread, it's the anticipation that gets us excited, rather than the actual reward, one psychologist says.

"So come August, we're like fall is kind of around the corner, we're anticipating all the good things that are coming," said Richard Lopez, professor of psychology at Bard College.

There are powerful cues that play into the nostalgia surrounding fall -- possibly even more so than with other seasons. There's a nip in the air, the leaves are different colors, kids and their oversized backpacks are schlepping to school -- all of these signs are triggers that, oftentimes, remind us of our younger selves, Lopez said.

Think of holidays like Halloween, and the childlike joy it brings, with its costumes and bright orange-wrapped chocolate. Or even specials like "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." These are things that bring many of us back to an earlier, more simpler time.

Those layers of positive memories and nostalgia, coupled with the anticipation of what's to come, all play into the excitement many feel about fall, Lopez said.

"It's this change of season; there's a lot of things to look forward to. We had those same experiences when we were young," he said. "Other times of year, there isn't that effect with that nostalgia or that anticipation."

Tom Hanks' character in the 1998 movie "You've Got Mail" sums it up perfectly: "Don't you love New York in the fall?" he asks. "It makes me want to buy school supplies."

Fall can offer comfort in tumultuous times

But when we think of fall, it's not just nostalgia at play. There's a cozy aspect as well, visions of s'mores and snuggly hayrides. Even in beloved pumpkin spice sweets, it's not the pumpkin flavor that most people love, it's the warming spices of nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger.

The season, quite literally, makes people feel warm. And by extension, that could make folks feel safe, or cared for. The general wariness many feel from the last 18 months due to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest last summer and climate change-related weather events this year, could also be part of why people are craving fall sooner rather than later.

Human beings naturally want certainty and order, Lopez said. Recent events, amplified by social media and near-instant access to news, have denied that.

"It's just a lot to handle," he said. "All these things were true before, but we didn't have these kinds of events at this scale to force us to think about it."

This could make this upcoming fall a little more difficult, Lopez said.

"We want that feeling of safety and coziness, but ... in previous years, pre-Covid, we'd have an active spring and an active summer, and then we'd love to go home and cozy up," he said. "But home is a strange place now, because we've spent so much time here."

It means that those associations we've had with home, safety, coziness, comfort -- maybe even fall -- could be changing.

That doesn't mean that fall won't be as cozy as it has been in the past, or that those first few sips of sweet pumpkin coffee won't hit. It just means many Americans are different now than they were prior to March 2020. It's OK if fall feels different, too.

If there ever was a year to get a flu shot, this one may be it.

Typically, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests people get a flu shot by the end of October.

But the coming flu season may be a bad one. With COVID-19 still complicating things, the experts say you may want to do it even earlier.

"Years ago, we would say you should wait as long as you can to get a shot, but if you get it in the fall, that really should cover you through the season," said Dr. Claudia Hoyen, director of pediatric infection control at UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland. "If people get the chance to go ahead and get their flu shot, whenever they can do it is probably good."

Based on the number of viruses she's seen hitting people early this year, she thinks it doesn't bode well for the flu season. Hoyen's children's hospital has been busier this summer compared to last, treating children for a bigger mix of viruses.

"Once we all took our masks off, the viruses did what they do best and found lots of people to give runny noses to," Hoyen said.

What the flu season will look like this year

The U.S. isn't seeing a lot of influenza yet, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but that could soon change.

To predict what kind of flu numbers the U.S. should expect, experts often look to the Southern hemisphere, where flu season usually starts in June and peaks in August.

"The story is mixed so far," said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Australia, with its tight pandemic restrictions on travelers coming into the country, has had very low flu activity, Schaffner said.

"But China, which has more interactions with the outer world, has had a moderate flu season," Schaffner said.

"So we think we'll have at least a moderate season this year."

Children the 'distribution franchise' for flu

Typically what kicks off the flu season is the start of the school year. With more kids going back to the classroom than last year, unless kids are wearing masks, and everyone else for that matter, there will likely be more cases, he said.

"Children are the 'distribution franchise' for the influenza virus. They're on top of each other and they are not the most hygienic little lovelies, so they spread the flu virus amongst themselves," Schaffner said.

"When kids get infected, they shed the virus for a longer period of time than adults do, so they're really the people who bring the virus into the family and spread it about to the neighbors and, well, everybody," Schaffner said.

Flu by the numbers

In an average season, the U.S. sees between 9 and 45 million cases of the flu each year, according to the CDC.

Last year was no average season. Flu was practically non-existent in the U.S. with only a few thousand cases for the entire year. One child died. For comparison, in 2019-2020, there were 199 flu-related deaths in children and 144 the season before that.

The "twindemic" with a high number of flu and COVID-19 cases that some experts predicted for 2020 thankfully never happened.

What's different this year

What may have helped are the extra precautions people took to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Masks, good hand hygiene, limited in-person school, restricted travel and less interaction with others can help prevent COVID-19 and the spread of the flu.

As the country has opened back up, protection from a flu shot therefore becomes even more essential for just about everyone.

A person can get a flu shot and a COVID-19 vaccine at the same time, so if they haven't been vaccinated against COVID-19 yet, or they need a booster, there are no real medical reasons to space them apart from a flu shot, Schaffner said

"If it's your opportunity to get both, I would say get both," Schaffner said. Of course, children 11 and younger cannot be vaccinated against COVID-19 yet.

Flu shots are already available at pharmacies like CVS and Walgreen's.

An added motivation to get a flu shot

While Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN's Anderson Cooper Monday that the United States could get back to a "degree of normality" by spring of 2022 if the majority unvaccinated in this country get the COVID-19 vaccine, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases noted that getting through the winter "could be complicated" by the flu.

Getting vaccinated could certainly keep those numbers to a minimum and with COVID-19 in circulation, Hoyen said people have an added incentive to get a flu shot this year.

Kids under 12 still can't get a COVID-19 vaccine, and while the disease can be milder in the little ones, Hoyen said hospitals are seeing more children with COVID-19 and another virus.

"Even if we don't think these things are important for ourselves, we should really do them for a child in our lives so that they can get back to a little more normal," Hoyen said.