The Giving Up/ Cutting Down alcohol support thread - number 12

mrsdee

Grey_Pilgrim wrote: »

Morning all.

Another LardLow this morning...scales said bang on 19 stone. There's a massive psychological boost around the corner because I really can't remember the last time the scales ever said "18 stone xxxxx something". Certainly not in my adult life. Any day now. Can't wait...

I can't believe I've spent all these years resigning my self to being a chunky monkey, figuring it was all in the bones and the genes, and not really accepting that it was the lack of exercise, stupid amounts and kinds of food and copious amounts of beer I was throwing down my throat.

Actually I think I knew it deep down, I was just too much of a lazy !!!!!! to get off my !!!! and do something about it.

QUOTE]

Hey greypilgrim I can absolutely relate to your comments about size and weight and not really thinking you could do anything about it.

It's so odd. I am now 50 and for the first time in my life I am slim and healthy after years of battling with my weight. The epiphany came I was getting on a flight a couple of years ago and saw a lady a few years older than me, but very overweight, struggling even to walk to the gate to get on the plane. Then couldnt put her bag in the overhead locker, and then struggling to get into her seat. She struggled with her breathing too and couldnt lower the little table in front of her to eat her meal.

I thought - if I dont do something soon, I am going to end up like that and I want to live a long and happy/healthy life!!
So I started working at it - exercising and eating less. I started off originally a size 16 (I've always wavered between a size 14 and 16) and now I am a size 10!! I have never been that size even at secondary school. It's only now that I realise that I can see that I am actually quite a small framed person - not large-boned at all, which is how I had always thought of myself before!
it feels great. Now i just have to stop drinking myself into an early grave.....

tracy_36

Hi all

Just nipping in to declare 7AF for Feb please Shaggy
Cooked a 3 course meal last night, washed down with posh pear juice....

41 - todays another day

Tracy

Grey_Pilgrim

mrsdee wrote: »

Hey greypilgrim I can absolutely relate to your comments about size and weight and not really thinking you could do anything about it.

Good on you! I think looking around at people was one of my drivers too. Everyones entitled to look the way they want, this isn't a dig at people...but it's impossible not to think sometimes 'Jesus - how do you actually cope being that size?'

I'm 6 foot 4, so I did hide the 21 and a half stone well - people would comment that I didn't actually look that heavy (but I knew I was...things wobble which shouldn't be wobbling). But I see people around me all the time who are probably a foot a half shorter who way more, when it really does seem to be an effort to walk. It's beyond obese. It's gargantuan. It's Leviathan. It's Behemoth.

There's a woman at work who gets special dispensation to ignore the fire drills because she simply can't handle the stairs...and you think 'christ, if this was a real fire, what would you do? Burn? Jump? Or perhaps sit there like a helpless victim until a fire crew comes upstairs to carry you out risking their lives in the process'. But it's purely medical with her (genetic, thyroidal, metabolic). Nothing to do with the three or four family sized bags of crisps she puts away each day and the bottles of coke and the bacon and egg breakfast sandwiches.

Rant over

mrsdee

i'm just waiting for a meeting to start and wrote down the reasons why I like not drinking. I am sure there are more to add :

i am avoiding serious liver disease
i am better to be around
i can drive around in the evening and give my stepkids lifts
i can drive to the cinema or theatre and back
i can lose weight or use the calories on delicious FOOD
i can not be so grumpy in the morning
i can not embarrass myself
i can read books in the evening
i can watch films in the evening and remember the end
i can save money for a fabulous holiday
i feel happier
i prefer who i am
the whites of my eyes are getting whiter
my mouth feels fresher
my skin looks better
i can leap out of bed early without putting the alarm on snooze
i can run without feeling rubbish due to dehydration

Reasons why i like drinking wine :
i like the taste
i like the ritual
i like the initial feeling of relaxing wooziness

Lilith1980

mrsdee wrote: »

i'm just waiting for a meeting to start and wrote down the reasons why I like not drinking. I am sure there are more to add :


i can lose weight or use the calories on delicious FOOD

I love your list, but this one is my favourite because I love the fact I have more money to spend on fresh food and cook nice things

14 AFD for me please Shaggy

Grey_Pilgrim

mrsdee wrote: »

i'm just waiting for a meeting to start and wrote down the reasons why I like not drinking. I am sure there are more to add :

Pretty much agree with all of those.

But money...gawd.....I'm lucky enough to be debt free at the moment. I joined these forums about 10 years ago whilst heavily in debt and lived like a pauper for a couple of years to pay off everything and ever since then I've been a bit obsessed about keeping track of all spends (your eyes would fry if you saw my spreadsheets ). I track all spends...but i've been a bit 'selective' in how I log certain things...If we do a big shop that contained a few cans and a couple of bottles of wine, I would put everything down as 'groceries'.

Before new year I started splitting them out as 'groceries' and 'alcohol' just to see how much I was actually spending. It was scary.

So even since Jan 1st, I'm seeing a load of money saved. (balanced out a bit by the oven blowing up and having to buy a new one though).

Barny1979

Number 15 of the month for me out of a planned 27 AFDs.

satchmo1

15/24 AFD so far this month and 46 in total. I'm even rethinking the idea of having a celebratory glass on Sunday which I'd promised myself for completing my big paperwork task that I had been avoiding for months.

Imagnu_2

7 AFD and 3/3SNC please

mrsdee

Thought I would have a planned drink today but stopped after a glass as I found myself getting cross. Wound up by stepson but I knew if I had another drink I would get really cross. So took control and stopped. DSC is pretty annoying and knows which buttons to press to rile me but I am now safely in bed with cup of tea and have decided against a drink tomorrow too....
I feel really tired.
Have a good evening everyone..