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

Green_Karen

Hi Spinning - it's certainly a tough thing to break a habit, hopefully the start you have had will spring board you a bit. Whatever happen though, remember that a habit that has taken years to start will not be easy to stop. As Fruball says measure progress by the steps on the journey and see what works best for you.

Pauline - It looks like you have done a lot of work on yourself and been through a hell of a time. I too have issues over food and since cutting down on alcohol find myself switching to food. For me, I have to work on the issues rather than the symptoms, I have made some steps towards this but have a long journey ahead.

I am sure you will both find help here as dealing with any habit/addiction involves working on the body and the mind. Cutting down helps the body but there's a lot of advice here for the mind too.
I hope you both stick around and wish you every success.

paulineb_2

Fruball wrote: »

Hi Pauline - Welcome to the thread

Sounds like you have had a tough time of it. I imagine that your experience on a personal level, and with your previous work, will be valuable on a thread like this

Thank you very much.

I dont know what I want to do long term, all I can say is I want to get through the year and have more alcohol free days than alcohol full ones, because regardless of whether I was drinking a bottle of wine a night or a 187 ml glass of wine a night, alcohol has been a feature in my life for way too long, I was trying to think yesterday when the last time I had a week off alcohol, that would have been in September last year and the last time I had 3 weeks without alcohol, probably when I was about 18 and didnt drink very much. I'll be 45 next week, thats ridiculous. I actually come from a long line of teetotallers on my mums side of the family, my grandpa drank once a year at new year and my gran hardly drank alcohol until after my grandpa died when she was 55 and not at all in the last few years of her life.

I live in a medium sized town where theres nothing much else to do but go to the pub, gym or out for a meal so alcohol features in a lot of people's social lives around here. It just needs to feature a lot less in mine.

So far Ive tried becks blue (like), cobra zero (not as much as becks blue but its ok), also Ive tried the bavaria 0.0 percent wheat beer, I dont love it but at 2 quid for 6 cans its drinkable. The erdinger frei is very nice and apparently sainsburys do a low alcohol czech lager.
I was also drinking raspberry and mint cordial but I was reading a book I bought in poundland yesterday and it said most cordials have 5tsps of sugar per glass, so back to the sparkling water.

Ive spent a lot of my life thinking I had nil willpower when I actually have plenty. Its just getting to that light bulb moment when you think enough is enough, I need to change my life.

I cant do the fitness classes I do with a hangover either, I teach classes but I do a lot as well, any sign of a hangover and it would be a horrible experience because the ones I do are ones where you work till you literally crawl out at the end. A fairly new experience and I cant say I like it, but Id never ask my classes to do something I wouldnt do myself and once Im done, I feel much much better.

I also put weight on very very easily, hence cleaning up my diet is something I need to do in order to feel better about myself, both alcohol and food.

paulineb_2

Green_Karen wrote: »

Hi Spinning - it's certainly a tough thing to break a habit, hopefully the start you have had will spring board you a bit. Whatever happen though, remember that a habit that has taken years to start will not be easy to stop. As Fruball says measure progress by the steps on the journey and see what works best for you.

Pauline - It looks like you have done a lot of work on yourself and been through a hell of a time. I too have issues over food and since cutting down on alcohol find myself switching to food. For me, I have to work on the issues rather than the symptoms, I have made some steps towards this but have a long journey ahead.

I am sure you will both find help here as dealing with any habit/addiction involves working on the body and the mind. Cutting down helps the body but there's a lot of advice here for the mind too.
I hope you both stick around and wish you every success.

Thank you. You too. Food for me is a battle. Ive never been anorexic or bulimic. I just like my food. Thats all it ever was and I wasnt overweight in my teens or early 20s even though I was never slim, my BMI was healthy.

Ive exercised on and off for 20 years, Ive run half marathons and 10ks, but my weight has gone up and down and when I was stressed it was the first thing that went, exercise. Ive really had to be tough on myself and get it through my head that no matter if Im having a bad day I wont not go to the gym, I wont eat a multipack of crisps and I wont buy a bottle of wine.

So far so good, Ive done 8 months of training 4-5 times a week, my diet has been more or less cleaned up and the alcohol was the last thing that I needed to sort.

But Ive spent years not caring about myself to get to this point. Even when I started teaching fitness classes I could teach 15 a week, go home and have nothing left over. Only in the last year that Ive started socialising properly again as well, I havent for about 6 years or so and the last 6 years have just been, well I felt very much that Id never feel like I used to feel again, that Id never want to go out again or do things. But even though last year I maybe only went out 20 times socially, I felt better for it.

I think my biggest issue, was that when things went very wrong in the workplace, when you try and raise the issues, a lot of people attack you. Ive been sent horrible vicious emails, letters, had so many lies told about me, been told I was awful at my job, my confidence just hit rock bottom and stayed there for a lot of years and the way I dealt with it was to reach for the crisps and wine. I did that for so long I was just in a habit I didnt know how to get out of.

I have family (mum and brother) who really care about me and think Im great, but sometimes you get so low you are just used to people telling you how rubbish you are, you cant see a way out of that feeling. But thats gone now and even though Im flat broke most of the time, my classes are doing ok, making a difference to the people who go even and its time to sort my life out and put myself back together, otherwise I'll waste another year doing squat about the negative stuff in my life, like I wasted so many in the not so distant past.

I wish you well in whatever you want to achieve.

satchmo1

2/24 AFDs tonight. Welcome newbies, you'll get nothing but support on this thread.


I've got a job-interview on Friday: one more step on the road to our North West life.

Barny1979

2/24 AFDs tonight

Baileysonice

off the mark with 1/15 please shaggy

Doshwaster

1/16 here too

afoolwithmoney

3/26 Please Shaggy
Still not sure if Im not drinking cos I don't want to or because Im afraid to!!

Green_Karen

satchmo1 wrote: »

I've got a job-interview on Friday: one more step on the road to our North West life.

And what a great life the North West life is too, good luck with the interview :T

2/25 AF days for me tonight thanks Shaggy.

debjay

2/20 please.

Had a non-AF day yesterday after Dryathlon but back to SNC this week.