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

debjay

20/24 for tonight please. I'm well impressed with your target of 31 for March Chardonnay. I've got a long weekend away plus it's my birthday with a week off work. I'll need to count up before I declare my target.

Barny1979

18/24 AFDs today

Honey_Bear

22/28 please, Shaggy.

Chardonnay

Honey_Bear wrote: »

I realise this is a huge step for you Chardonnay, but I am so, so pleased that you've decided to do it. It'll be lovely to have someone going at the same pace, sharing the achievements and the frustrations - which I have to say diminish to an amazing degree relatively quickly but not being allowed to do something is just irritating.

Please post, post, post. If there's anything that got me through the first 100 Days it was Belle and this thread and if there's anything that I/we can do to support you, please let us.

Belle says to email her if you feel the want or need to, 24 hours a day and she will always get back to you. She really, really means it!

Even after 211 days I'm quite anxious about staying off the alcohol which is why I still maintain all the support mechanisms, although I have to check periodically how many days I've been AF, which I just did for this post. I love this new life, I love this new me, and I want to keep it. There was never going to be a good time for me to stop, like you I had social commitments that I truly believed involved alcohol, so it came as quite a surprise to find that alcohol wasn't part of the equation, really, and I could live quite happily without it and still enjoy everything.

Good luck, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you so much HB! You have been an inspiration to me, no doubt about it. Reading your posts and seeing how much you are enjoying life despite (or maybe because of!) not drinking alcohol have made me realise that there is definitely life after alcohol! I'm on Belle's waiting list. I watched her video and I think she said it was 25-30 days! :eek: That just shows how many people are feeling the same as us.

I'm really excited and enthusiastic at the moment. I even dreamed I was boozing last night and was confused as to why I was - I was so relieved when I woke up and found it was a dream! I am lucky in a way because I find it easy not to drink at home. It's the social occasions/holidays that will get me but I am planning ahead this time to make sure that I make life as easy as possible for myself. I've been reading lots of blogs. Mrs D's is great! I wouldn't mind starting my own if I can work out how to go about it. I do think it would help me, because I enjoy writing and I don't want to take over this thread

edwink wrote: »

Hi Chardonnay


I think some of the problems with some medication and alcohol is that they increase the effect of the alcohol. So if you take certain medication and even have a small amount of alcohol you could have a rotten hangover the next day even though drinking very little. Also alcohol is known to block the effects of some medication so they actually do not do the job they are supposed to do. So in theory if you drink with them you may as well not take them in the first place.


So glad for you that you have decided to give the Bavaria a go. My husband is a lager drinker and he says there is not a lot of difference in the taste. I personally do not like the Beck* Blu*, I think it tastes slightly of perfume, maybe it is just me as others seem to like it!! My husband actually agrees about the perfume taste though!! I think it all boils down to personal taste of each individual!!


I just want to wish you the very best of luck on your target of 31 days for March. You go for it!!! Just try and imagine how you will feel if you get to the 31st and have not touched a drop. I can see you jumping up and down with joy with a non stop smile on your face!! My fingers are crossed for you!!


All the very best to you and everyone on this thread!!!


Edwink x

Thanks so much Edwink and sorry for calling you Edwin in my previous post. I had got it into my mind that you were male - so sorry for that assumption! Yes, I agree about the medication. The thought of not knowing how the medication will react with alcohol is what's really done it for me. I seem to have a very low tolerance to alcohol these days anyway and get bad hangovers on very little booze so I'm not risking these being made worse by the meds. Also, it has taken me a few years to pluck up the courage to try meds and I really want to give them a good chance to work.

I didn't mind Becks Blue but will definitely give Bavaria a go. I've not really been a beer drinker but I do enjoy one or two bottles or shandies on a hot day, so it's nice to know there is a good AF alternative! I've got a bottle of AF bubbly in the fridge but haven't tried it yet. I'll be testing out a few I think!

Thanks again for your support and recommendations! Much appreciated!

debjay wrote: »

20/24 for tonight please. I'm well impressed with your target of 31 for March Chardonnay. I've got a long weekend away plus it's my birthday with a week off work. I'll need to count up before I declare my target.

Thanks Deb! You're doing really well too, racking up the AFDs :T

Am on 17/19 now please Shaggy

shaggydoo

Morning :hello:

1 more AFD for yesterday and 1 for Friday.



Shaggyx

shaggydoo

AlexLK wrote: »

Sorry I've gone AWOL. I've not kept track of days,unfortunately even though I know I've only had two days that were NOT AF since I last posted on here. Tomorrow I'll see if I can find my last post to work out my total but for now, I think it's time I tried to get some sleep.

You last posted on the 13th and you were on 10 (including the 13th) so I make that 6 more AFDs not including the 22nd. So I think you are on 16.....not including the 22nd

Honey_Bear

Chardonnay wrote: »

Reading your posts and seeing how much you are enjoying life despite (or maybe because of!) not drinking alcohol have made me realise that there is definitely life after alcohol! I'm on Belle's waiting list. I watched her video and I think she said it was 25-30 days! :eek: That just shows how many people are feeling the same as us.

I'm really excited and enthusiastic at the moment. I even dreamed I was boozing last night and was confused as to why I was - I was so relieved when I woke up and found it was a dream! I am lucky in a way because I find it easy not to drink at home. It's the social occasions/holidays that will get me but I am planning ahead this time to make sure that I make life as easy as possible for myself. I've been reading lots of blogs. Mrs D's is great! I wouldn't mind starting my own if I can work out how to go about it. I do think it would help me, because I enjoy writing and I don't want to take over this thread

Most unlike me to quote such huge chunks but pretty much everything you said brought something to mind, so if you don't mind I'd like to continue the conversation.

" ... enjoying life despite (or maybe because of!) not drinking alcohol ... "

It's because of, not despite. And that's a huge surprise to me because I thought giving up would be a real downer, especially on special occasions like Christmas and birthdays, and evenings out. Actually, they're really great!

"I'm on Belle's waiting list. I watched her video and I think she said it was 25-30 days! :eek: That just shows how many people are feeling the same as us."

I think anyone who actually asks for support to change behaviour has made the decision that they want the change very much, and has discovered that on their own the struggle is overwhelming. It's a huge step, to actually go public, even to one person in an email, and that's the point, in my opinion, when the commitment actually occurs. Once you're on Belle's 100 Day Challenge you'll appreciate just why she has a waiting list - she puts a huge amount of care into what she does, and at the very least, three hours a day of her time. Every single day. Most days now I just email the word 'Sober' to her and get a in reply, but it's enough. (Some days we do swap words, and that's great, too.) I don't know how she does it, but I will be forever grateful to her.

'I even dreamed I was boozing last night and was confused as to why I was - I was so relieved when I woke up and found it was a dream! '

The same thing happened to me about two or three weeks in, (I think I posted about it at the time) and I remember knowing the following day that something fundamental had changed in me because of the dream. The same thing had happened to me when I finally gave up smoking after 30 years of loving it and several attempts to stop - the only time I had a dream was the final, successful time. I think it's our subconscious accepting the new regime.

'It's the social occasions/holidays that will get me but I am planning ahead this time to make sure that I make life as easy as possible for myself.'

Planning is absolutely key, I think. Knowing that I have to have an alternative to alcohol is critical and the one place we go regularly where they don't have an AF drink I like is the local art's centre. I buy OH his glass of wine and don't have anything, but that's okay because for most of my adult life you couldn't take a drink into the film anyway. (I hated Kia-Ora as a child and I'm not a fan of multiplexes with their stink of sugar wafting around, the slurping of slushies and the cracking crunches of popcorn. *Yuk*)

'I've been reading lots of blogs. Mrs D's is great! I wouldn't mind starting my own if I can work out how to go about it. I do think it would help me, because I enjoy writing and I don't want to take over this thread '

I'd be the first to read it if you started a blog or thread on here and would definitely subscribe. Could you do it as a Debt Free Challenge? To be honest, I'd rather you stayed here and posted and posted and posted, because when I embarked on this journey, the posts that helped on the older threads and this one were the ones that actually said something, the longer the better. I soon realised who was preachy (a huge turnoff for me) and who was saying something interesting and those were the posts that inspired me. It's how I found my lovely Beck's and I think I'll try Bavaria again and let OH have a sip because he's struggling with having two AF days a week, and I'd like him to succeed.

Finally, and this is something that sits on my shoulder all the time - we will never know who is reading these posts. Judging by the numbers on the Forum, I'd guess that there are several hundred readers and lurkers who stop by for general interest, something to read, or maybe think about changing behaviour. It's how I found this thread and, like blogs, it was massively, massively important in me making a huge change in my life. I think I found this thread about three years before I posted on it, that's how long I was thinking about it. If you keep posting here, people who are considering doing what you're doing will learn more without wasting more time searching for more information. Just a thought.

And, selfishly, I'm enjoying your company.

shaggydoo

February:

= 7 Days AF

= 14 days AF

= 21 days AF


= 28 days AF

= target achieved



AlexLK 16/21
Barny1979 18/24

BHB 6/20
BlueDaisy 10/14
Chardonnay 17/19
CountingPenniesClaire 17/21
DansMam 9/24
DebJay 20/24
Ellsbel 9/17
Fruball 8/20

Gien 2/15
GrassGirl 16/20

GrumpyOldGal /25
Honey Bear 22/28

Mackeroo 5/10
Maman 12/10

MummyTo3Boys 3/16
PippiLongstocking 19/28
Pricey 14/20
Satchmo 17/21
Shaggy 16/20

Shelbi /24
SukeyBoo 9/12
StopLurking 16/22




Everyone Welcome! It's never too late to join....

Please highlight your AFDs in Red

Don't hesitate to let me know if I've made a mistake!

sukeyboo

Morning all :wave:

No AFD's to report for the weekend but declaring early for tonight at 9/12 please shaggy

CountingPenniesClaire

A couple of glasses of red with roast lamb lunch yesterday and a large glass last night saw me use one of my two remaining alcohol days wisely!

Today will be an AFD so I'm declaring early (17/21 please Shaggy)