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

satchmo1

10/24 AFDs for me

Baileysonice

6/15 please shaggy

gien

I'm back and just caught up with the thread. Everyone is doing so well, it's fantastic! Alex, well done

Hello and welcome to all the newbies and ex-lurkers, hope to see more of you.

I had a girls weekend and drank 2 nights so I am on 9/24 please Shaggy. The drinking nights were fairly controlled I have to say but even so, I have thought more about alcohol since having a drink, but I am glad to be back on the wagon with you all.

AlexLK

365days and gien: Thank you.

Today has been very busy, not even had time to so much as contemplate a drink, so 11/25 for me.

arsenalbarnie

Thats a 4/12for me please.

Wanna_Bee_Free

shaggydoo wrote: »

I'm trying for more. I have no particular goal in mind - 1 Llb at a time ...doing alright this week....

I think that sounds like a good approach. Some of the newbies at fat club this week seem so impatient they want to lose everything in their first week! It was going well for me the last few weeks but one of them lbs missed me last week, and decided to come back.

Thrifty, thank you so much for posting, it's really good to have you delurk and I read your post with a lot of interest. I feel that a lot of my drinking is in response to stress but now I've made some progress and improved my number of AFDs I seem to be feeling very low, depressed and haven't found my sleep has improved much. Plus I have caught every bug going round London this Autumn/Winter. I know some people have said that you need to deal with the feelings that alcohol numbs but at the moment I feel overworked, underpaid and overwhelmed. I also seem to have much less energy although I think that might have been the sugar in all the wine I was drinking.I also am much more aware of physical aches and I think alcohol has been acting as a muscle relaxant. I'd love any thoughts or tips from other people on this stuff - is this normal and does it get better.

So, constructive plan of attack for today is go to work, work hard, try and have a laugh or two and enjoy it even though it's busy, come home, have a healthy dinner and a nice bath. Next possible drinking day is Friday so the debating society can go away until then. Storm depending a walk at lunchtime to get some fresh air and exercise too.

I got much more sleep last night which should help me today and this latest cold has to go at some point to make way for the next one!

sukeyboo

Fruball wrote: »

Welcome

When we first moved to a rural area, my ex said "well you will fit in perfectly round here" and pointed to the recycling boxes that people had put out which were full of wine bottles and beer cans The whole village seemed to have full boxes and overflowing ones on bin collection day :rotfl:

No more to add for me. I am undecided tonight.

I think you must live in the same village as me Fruball - all the recycling bins near us are brim full every week :rotfl:


Feeling really 'on track' this week so will declare early for tonight making 6/12 for me please shaggy.


Have a great day everyone

System

Well...after a will I wont I moment - I didn't!! I was out last night with the book club girls :T I was having a debate with myself "sure 1 glass could be classed as an AF considering I would normally have consumed 2 or 3" - pah!! then I thought of you lot and I read the struggles we all have so I wised up and stuck to water :j THANK YOU!!!


Shaggy - 5/20 AFs please


Im with Wanna Bee Free on the aches and pain and feeling so, so, so tired...but I know it will pass as it did in Dec when I did 9 AFs in a row...so hold on in there

thrifty79 - thank you for the mention and I did the Ribena drink last night after I got in and boy it certainly calmed the ole tastebuds. This and soda water and lime I think are my preferred placebo drinks

Have a great day and evening everyone :grouphug:

PS - I havent quite plucked up the courage to announce another AF evening before it has happened - so my hat off to all you wonderfully willpowered people...that's another goal to add to that list of mine

** Think before you drink **

thrifty79

Sukeyboo and Fruball - it is true that a lot of people drink at home more in the country, but I have also become more aware of people who don't drink habitually, and so have tried to tune into that kind of thinking more and learn from them.

I find that avoiding the shops in the early evening was important, and just carrying cash and not a card, especially before Christmas when there was pressure everywhere to drink and the rubbish weather and dark evenings made it an attractive thought. I've recently got a freezer and so have been able to visit the shops less now.

Thanks Wanna Be Free for your feedback - a turning point for me was a course I went on last year - I spent about 4/5 days spread over a few weeks getting together in a group of fellow unemployed/economically inactive people and we did nature-based activities designed to reconnect with nature and ourselves.
I felt physically more relaxed after the first day due to firstly being outdoors all day and also being in a group and talking to others in similar situations. We did nature art, made campfires, and it was great.
It all comes under the idea of nature-therapy and is a growing idea that people can become disconnected from their environment, and how to tune in to nature using all your senses, which obviously works better in green spaces. Hopefully this doesn't sound too far out there but it involved walking in woodland and stopping to take a moment to really take in the sights, smells and sounds.
This was quite a pioneering course and is not widespread I believe, but I would suggest that going for walks in green spaces is a starting point, and doing anything creative like painting, even if you haven't done it for years and not confident, like myself, as it can give your mind a chance to relax as it's something different, and you don't 'have to do it' but are choosing to do it.
I'm really thankful for this course as it increased my confidence a lot and I find myself thinking of the outdoors more and things I could do there rather than limiting myself to my front room. I was going to volunteer for the organisation as I was so full of enthusiasm after doing it, but I've found a job now.
P.s I did try and put in a few smilies in there, but can't for some reason, my keyboard is not the best.

thrifty79

Just another thought on feeling ill after reducing alcohol - my husband gave up smoking last month, and he had cold/flu for a few weeks, and two lumps appeared on back of his head, all related to sinuses problems brought on by stopping smoking according to a doc. The lumps went down in a week or so, but I think that it's a case of the body detoxing all its rubbish, and is prob the same with alcohol. The body reacts by displaying illnesses previously repressed by a busy lifestyle and living off adrenaline and assorted chemicals. By getting plenty of sleep and eating well, you can then build yourself back up to an even level.