The Giving Up/ Cutting Down alcohol support thread - number 13

Honey_Bear

Sandypan wrote: »

8/10 for last night, not going to make my target now but pleased that haven't had a hangover at all in December due to cutting down if not cutting back altogether, think I might have finally found my stop button!

Being able to stop drinking before hangover-inducing quantities - brilliant! Well done, Sandypan; I reckon that's pretty perfect.

cathybird wrote: »

Honey Bear, you are quite seriously the only person ever in the course of history who has described me as "self-disciplined" :rotfl: but many thanks - it's really heartening - maybe I have got better over the years?

Isn't it marvellous, CathyBird, that we can pleasantly surprise ourselves with what we achieve as we get older? Self-discipline is a tough one to crack, and if you can set yourself a limit and stick to it regardless of whether it's an annual figure or a monthly figure, I reckon you've cracked it. And if you can do it in one area of your life, you now have a transferable skill that you can apply to anything you want to do. Blinking marvellous. What are you going to tackle in 2017 to surpise yourself?

maman wrote: »

Thanks for that HB, it cheered me no end.:)

I was struggling last night after a disastrous football match and very tempted to get home and drown my sorrows. Instead I thought of the thread and what a waste of an AF day it would be. Success!

I'm so pleased for you Maman. The thread lacked a little je ne sais quoi without your daily bon mots - see what I did there?

It's lovely to see people reflecting on what they've achieved this year and being really happy with it. For everyone who's planning on starting their new year celebrations tonight, I hope you thoroughly enjoy them and have a happy one.

30/31 please, Shaggy.

CuppaTea

Thank you Maman, I totally agree.

CuppaTea

And 1 more AFD for me please. Thank you.

Its New Year's Eve Eve!!

Poor_Single_lady

maman wrote: »

Thanks for that HB, it cheered me no end.:)


I was struggling last night after a disastrous football match

Do you play?

21/28
Think this is it for now till January.

Please can I have 22 for January

Thank you to everyone. I love the positivity in this thread and to be honest it's one that puts a lot of goodness into the world. Very grateful to be a small part of it.

scatterbrain109

I announced to my family tonight that I am doing 100 day alcohol free challenge. My kids (age 9 9 (twins) and 14) cheered.
That scared me. Is my drinking having such an impact on their lives?

Scary stuff

No change today Shaggydoo

Jo xx

cathybird

Morning all, 22/21 and that's it for the year (obviously) , huge thanks to Shaggydoo and everyone else for all your help and support this year. I think it has resulted in big changes for me and I'm happy about that.

There are a few people on the thread this year who have come and gone and I do hope we see them again in 2017, though don't know how likely that is, or if any are still lurking. This is such a useful and helpful thread though that I hope people feel free to come back to it even if they've fallen by the wayside this year, or however many times.

Here's looking forward to a what I hope will be a happy and blessed 2017 for everyone. xxx

cathybird

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Isn't it marvellous, CathyBird, that we can pleasantly surprise ourselves with what we achieve as we get older? Self-discipline is a tough one to crack, and if you can set yourself a limit and stick to it regardless of whether it's an annual figure or a monthly figure, I reckon you've cracked it. And if you can do it in one area of your life, you now have a transferable skill that you can apply to anything you want to do. Blinking marvellous. What are you going to tackle in 2017 to surpise yourself?

Honey Bear, all true Weirdly enough, though you wouldn't normally link alcohol and money per se, I felt the AFDs followed on from last year when I changed from being someone who was naturally spendthrift into someone who was a natural saver - which is partly just the influence of Money Saving Expert as a website and partly new websites that give you an oversight into all your accounts as a whole. When I had the whole picture in front of me in detail I suddenly got control of it and so I suppose it was a kind of self-discipline that I acquired but also it became a pleasure and a habit. In a way it felt the same this year - at the start I was getting through the AFDs without too much difficulty but it was the days I drank that I really looked forward to, but this changed during the course of the year and now I don't necessarily bother with the days I can officially drink on and take them off instead - somewhere along the way there was a tipping point. I'm still not giving up altogether (just as I haven't given up spending occasionally), but there has been a definite shift, and the days off have also become a pleasure and a habit. So I wonder if self-discipline isn't in some ways just a shift in terms of what you enjoy? It's the same with exercise - there's always a line you cross when you take up exercise when not doing it is less enjoyable than doing it and you miss it when you don't. But it takes a certain amount of arduous slog to get there, is the thing, and sometimes the arduous slog feels as though it will be that way forever, like running uphill, and so people give up. But if they didn't give up they would arrive at a point when it would actually cease to be a slog and blossom into something clear and clean and fabulous.

Anyway, just my two bobs' worth Howver, in addition to saying thanks to this thread, I owe a pretty massive thanks to MSE and Martin Lewis, as do countless thousands, maybe millions? I'm sure he isn't reading, but I will say anyway that if it wasn't for him setting up MSE back in the day, I would probably still be heavily in debt and drinking too much and wondering miserably how to stop. For the fact that life isn't like that now, I am very grateful.

maggiem

I have stayed on 13/16 - due to lack of will power over the festive period. I think I have drunk less than usual and a lesson in the benefits of more careful planning. I could have met the target if I had not had wine on one or two nights as a response to arguments, a bad day etc but really these are excuses. I can be very creative at finding reasons to drink but have drunk less on these occasions and enjoyed some of the social drinking over Christmas.

However I am going to try to have an AF January. The main reason is to try and keep healthy. I fall into the group the Government was warning the other day, overweight, not exercising and drinking too much. I want to have a healthy retuirement when I get there so need to start to make changes in all those areas.

Thanks again to Shaggy for keeping the days up to date and good luck to everyone for 2017. 31 please for January

smiley_77

I am calling in 30/31.
I hope everyone has a great new year.
Like all the other posts have said, thank you to Shaggy and the other posters who contribute to this thread. It really does help, even just reading what others think makes me feel like I am not alone in this.
So thank you one and all.

shaggydoo

Afternoon :hello:

I hope you all had a fantastic Xmas. We have had a brilliant time. I am, however, hoping to have a nice quiet and AF NY's eve......

Happy New Year!

Shaggyx