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

Poor_Single_lady

2/21

Thanks everyone for posting and making it feel like we are united.

It's easier if there are no social plans.
Yesterday was AF making 2/21.
2 Planned days this week.

maggiem

Declaring early for tonight to stiffen my resolve so that should be 1/15 Not the best start to February in that no AF days so far. However I have not had as much to drink and yesterday only a small single glass as I was out to lunch. It's good though that I am checking back in and will try and make next week almost AF. I do find staying AF hard when away and in hotels. I think it's because I have to eat in restaurants and then there is a link between eating out and drinking wine. Excuses, excuses. Hopefully back on track.

Lucy I didn't lose weight - and I did last year - or improve sleep. But we both did not drink in January and that has to be a positive.

loveasale

I have drank ( as planned ) Friday Saturday and will do so today , but the fact that I've set targets and do not drink Monday's through to Thursday's is for me a huge decrees in my weekly alcohol consumption !
The only week day I will drink this month is when it's my brothers birthday and we have a family meal out !

lulabelle

AF for me last night. So that's 2/26. Yes, I do worry about it with fertility and have decided just to quit!

Green_Karen

In a AF dilemma.


I was considering doing a dry February (rather than dry January) on several counts;
- It's a shorter month than January therefore easier! :T
- I drank after midnight on New Years Eve so had an excuse not to attempt dry January!:(
- I just seem in a better frame of mind than I was in January (I am one of these people who hates January, dark nights back to work with new sales targets for year that are impossible etc), I know, it's all very negative and not the right way to approach a new year....:eek:


So now on 4/12 AF days but then looked through diary this morning and noticed a cheese and wine evening that we booked months ago on the 24th Feb. Also off to Malta next Thursday, which is with work, but am adding a few days leave which will make being AF tricky.


My better frame of mind has been down to some life changing decisions I am considering. If I make certain choices it will require a clarity of mind that alcohol cannot afford me, ie working in the evenings etc.


In some ways I want to be free of the hold of alcohol has over me and the time in my life that is steals, but then sometimes I 'need' the hold it has over me and the time in my life that it steals.

Honey_Bear

Woo hoo Roland the Roadie! Really pleased you're sticking with it and I hope you have a lovely week off work.

Lulabelle, good luck with it. It's much easier and simpler in the long run to cut it out completely even if it's tricky to navigate your way around new behaviours initially. Anyone who did Dry January is perfectly placed to just carry on those new behaviours and I know there are some who do every year. Carry on posting because it's always interesting to know how the journey goes. I still find it helpful two and a half years on.

nosuperwoman wrote: »

Am home in front of the TV at the moment with OH (my wife - sorry for any confusion). She started on the beer at about 11 and us being 'jolly' which is even more annoying when I'm sober! I am a bit bored and tempted to go up the garage for a bottle of wine. I don't really want to though so I am resisting.

To be honest, NSW, it is a teensy bit boring sometimes being around people who are 'merry.' Being brutal, you'll have an interesting day tomorrow and the person with the hangover probably won't. I used to throw in the towel and have an early night when it got to the point where I'd had enough of being bored although I never said that to them. Even now when we're all having a lovely time over a meal I forget that they're pickled until they make it obvious, and that's pretty much always the beginning of the end of the evening for me, but I can guarantee it won't be for them.

Green_Karen wrote: »

In a AF dilemma.

My better frame of mind has been down to some life changing decisions I am considering. If I make certain choices it will require a clarity of mind that alcohol cannot afford me, ie working in the evenings etc.

In some ways I want to be free of the hold of alcohol has over me and the time in my life that is steals, but then sometimes I 'need' the hold it has over me and the time in my life that it steals.

It's always the way, Green Karen. There will always be a reason why you have to drink - or at least it seems that way. I don't know how each person who stops individually finds their way to deal with that issue, but each of us has. I don't think I ever thought I needed to drink to have a good time, I just thought it was fun to have one or two and then wondered why I never seemed to stop after that.

Suffice it to say that if you want to do Dry February I think it would be a great thing to do, and if you can think of a way to enjoy a cheese and wine evening without wine, and a holiday without booze, you'd come out the other side knowing that you can be free of the hold that alcohol has over you.

It was my OH's 70th birthday last month and our neighbours who are coming on holiday with us to Barcelona to celebrate it in a couple of weeks wanted to do a tapas night, matching each tapas to a particular Spanish wine and also invited the other couple who will also be on the holiday, the better to get to know them. At the end of the tapas, each person was given the rest of the bottle of the wine they'd enjoyed the most. They all had a boozy evening, I enjoyed the tapas and my faithful Bec*s Blu* and woke up without a hangover, unlike OH and several of them. It is entirely possible to enjoy ourselves without booze, but I'd forgotten how to until I quit drinking completely.

Incidentally if it's holidaying in Europe that's worrying you, every single bar I've been to has an AF beer and regards people drinking it as completely normal. It's only us Brits who think that people who want it are unusual.

Poor Single Lady, I've been thinking about your long, very heartfelt post about not sleeping any better for not drinking, and not losing any weight. I feel for you because although I started sleeping well a couple of weeks after knocking drinking on the head, nothing else much changed for me either, for a long, long time. Maman put me right on the weightloss thing and said that she had to tackle it separately, once she'd got the drinking under control. It didn't 'just happen.'

My problem was that I didn't feel any better during the day, any day, for at least a year or eighteen months, and even then I had to search for the answer. I tried everything, absolutely everything I could think of and it was only when I started to talk about food and diet generally on these forums that I finally got the answer I personally needed. I tried going gluten free, going to bed earlier and earlier, cutting out caffeine, everything I could think of and I still had no energy, no stamina, and life itself was utterly exhausting.

It was Shaggy who suggested that I try what she'd found worked for her, which was to think about blood sugar levels, in other words, the Glycemic Index approach. I'd been eating food all day that was sending my blood sugar levels rocking up and crashing down, meal after meal, snack after snack. The instant I stopped, the very first breakfast I didn't have toast but ate porridge instead, everything changed.

Every single one of us is different, each of us will have different reactions to re-taking control over our bodies. Booze may not be the only thing that is making anyone feel less than 100%, but it will certainly mask any other issue.

I blamed the way I felt for 10 years on alcohol and it's now completely obvious to me that it was only part of my problem. I think as much of it, in the end, as booze was the GI issue and aging, much as I hate to say that. At 50+ my body simply couldn't cope with what I was doing to it any more.

I'm so sorry that you don't feel better yet for taking control of the drinking issue, but at least it puts you in a place where you can start eliminating other possible causes. If you're worried it's always worth talking this through with your GP who might have some ideas to suggest that are obvious to health care professionals but not to the rest of us.

5/28 please, Shaggy.

Barny1979

Calling early today, 5/21 AFDs today

lulabelle

thanks HB, i once did dry january so know I can cut it out and ran the london marathon last year and was AF for a month before that. Spent some time with my other half's niece and nephew this afternoon and it just re-affirmed that I really want a child (and we are almost in a position to now as we are about to move into a 'family home' rather than a flat) so I have to just remember that every time I think about reaching for the bottle.

Think I'll try and get myself some nice coffee syrups (for decaf!) instead and treat self to different 'exotic' soft drinks and make sure I always have those in the house. It's not really a problem at home as even though we do have alcohol in the house (spirits and beer rather than wine), I don't reach for it when I get home. Years ago (when I was much younger) it became a real habit, as I would have wine whilst cooking but I learnt that if I poured myself a glass of sparkling water or diet coke instead then I didn't reach for the bottle - it was just habit. As my other half doesn't drink much then it isn't an issue at home (though I obv shouldn't be drinking diet coke now as need to cut caffeine down too - double whammy!)

It's really when I go out (and when I am in work situations as I get bad anxiety in groups) so think am going to try to avoid those for now (and it's not a big part of my job now that I've changed roles whereas it used to be) and just stick with going out with those I feel comfortable with. And every time I think I want a drink, I will just imagine our little child in the hope it will stop me as want to give us the best chance. Will keep posting here to help me!!

debjay

4/24 for tonight please.

CuppaTea

2/20 please Shaggy