Cutting Down Alcohol Thread

cathybird

Morning all, 11/21 for me today please.

Baileysonice

CuppaTea wrote: »

7/17 please.

Well done CuppaTea a dancing monkey is yours :T:T:T

Itisme_2

11/12 please.

ElusiveLucy

6/15 for me please. Really wanted a dancing monkey this week but blew it on weds night with 2 drinks.

CuppaTea

Thanks Baileys

Arkers

Good afternoon,
8 please Baileys
Arkers x

doingitanyway

13/30 for me. Friday feeling again, not quite a craving, more like an ingrained habit. Nearly halfway through my target. Exciting

Baileysonice

doingitanyway wrote: »

13/30 for me. Friday feeling again, not quite a craving, more like an ingrained habit. Nearly halfway through my target. Exciting

Yeah I get that too particularly when its Pizza for dinner. Pizza requires beer or wine

You are doing so well it will all be worth it

Honey_Bear

(((Hugs))) Arkers. We all splurge one way or another when we're having a tough time, so I hope you're feeling a bit better now. Well done for keeping the weight off.

Hi Steveh68! :wave: I love it when Lurkers surface. Huge congratulations on getting to 100 Days - it's a massive achievement and something you can rightly be very proud of. I didn't want to stop drinking totally, but I had to because I just loved red wine and g&t and that was never going to change. I knew with 100% certainty that the central, most important relationship of my life wouldn't survive many more of my spectacularly unpleasant, aggresive, vicious drunken episodes. Unlike Arkers I don't get maudlin, I get angry, although I stopped short of being violent.

You know yourself best. If you think you'll be able to control your drinking, then I can understand why you would want to allow yourself to drink sometimes. I can't, and staying stopped is a lot easier for me than trying to stop myself after I've had one, tried that for years, it didn't work and I'm not going to risk it after four years since I finally knocked it on the head.

However, I'm not going to pretend that I never have a liquour chocolate or three, have taken a swig from OH's g&t and it didn't kill me or make me need a second swig and even had low alcohol beer by mistake when I meant to drink an AF one. The longer I'm AF the more I enjoy it, although just like you I didn't feel physically much better after 100 days, which I thought I would. (A drinking buddy came round this evening to do me a big favour, and he mentioned in passing that he's dreading tomorrow because they're starting at 10.00 am and then eventually ending up at a football match later in the day. I can remember dreading drinking, but still carried on doing it for years - I don't miss that one bit!)

I also didn't have much truck with that rubbish about needing to sort myself out emotionally and mentally to deal with whatever it was that made me drink too much - I drank too much because I liked the taste and I quite enjoyed being tipsy / drunk - until I didn't any more. Nothing drove me to drink, I'm not an emotional basket case, and I suspect most people with drinking issues aren't, either. That kind of rubbish is peddled by people who stand to profit by making people believe it, and it's just not true of most of us.

I stopped drinking when I was in my late 50s, and it took at least three years before I genuinely started firing on all cylinders again. I'm now flat out most days and fall into bed exhausted by about 10.30 and then sleep like a log before waking up early and starting the whole thing all over again. I had 10 years of staggering from hangover to hangover, with hindsight, and I wouldn't swap what I've got now for that for anything. Staying stopped is easier for me than going back to that life, so it's become really easy for me not to drink. The transition's the tricky bit!

You'll have to make your own mind up about what you can enjoy without going back to living the way you used to. Maman and FatRab have found a way of balancing their drinking, as have most of the people who post on this thread so it's perfectly possible.

When you're ready to tackle the weight thing, I strongly suggest you talk to your doctor because the practice is quite likely to be able to suggest various weightloss regimes and you may be able to get the fees paid if you go down the S1!mming W0rld route.

Hugely well done on what you've achieved so far and good luck with whatever you decide to do. It would be lovely if you stick around, contribute your thoughts and let us know how you're getting on.

13/30 please, Baileys.

cathybird

Morning all, 12/21 for me please.