Giving Up/Cutting Down Alcohol Thread part 18

sunshine_raincloud

Day 30 for me today please
Survived a party with everyone drinking yesterday.. nobody actually noticed I wasn't drinking 
Hope everyone has had a good weekend 

alt80

+1 for today. I got wasted last night and feel !!!!!! awful today. Wake up call to get back to living more healthily I think. 

@cathybird thank you, my GP is aware of my mental health and I still have counselling too. Idk I think I just need to be more proactive in managing it - when I was living healthier I was quite a bit better and not white knuckling recovery either.

cathybird

July

7 days =

14 days =

21 days =

28 days =

Target reached =

Target beaten =

Entire month =

July targets

AllNightDiner 10/10

alt80 7/TF Arkers TF cathybird 30/21 Coveredinbees 12/18 CuppaTea 8/TF Dark Sunday 9/15 dustydigger 26/25 family355 TF lantanna 14/15 maggiem 3/10 maman 14/10 marahouti 31/25 MissPennySave 3/10 oceandreamer 10/20 outoftheviciouscircle 7/23 PriceySOS 16/20 RobM99 31/30 SanguineGina 3/18 satchmo1 14/20 Season of Mist 24/31 Shrewbie 10/21 sukeyboo 13/10 sunshine raincloud 31/28 TornErse 4/31 WBF 12/14 Newcomers welcome!

sukeyboo

Declaring early for today and finishing July on 13/10 please cathybird - thanks for all your hard work as ever and for adding me to the August totals 😀

AllNightDiner

Good morning everyone, I am just squeaking through to make my target for July, 10/10 please @cathybird

it is great to see everyone’s progress, although a concern to read of health issues with some colleagues here over the past week or so. An internet stranger is sending you good vibes….

I will set a target of 9 for August please.

RobM99

Gold star day
Gold star day
Wibble Wobble
Wibble Wobble
Gold star day!

OK so I'll never be a poet but the rhythm is there!

Honey_Bear

Hi All!  Thank you so much those of you who posted kind comments when we lost our lovely Layla earlier this year; I didn't see all of them at the time but I've caught up with them this morning.  They were much appreciated and I thought I'd let you know her adopted successor, Wren, is asleep next to me as I type this.

I should have posted this update on Wednesday last week, when I reached nine years of being alcohol-free, but I forgot.  I apologise for being late to the party, but just wanted to remind anyone who was around when I was giving up that life is pretty good without booze, despite my dread of adjusting to how life would be without it before I committed to it.  I still don't recommend giving up completely to anyone who doesn't want to but thinks they should because it's tough initially but after the first couple of years I have to say most of it's been a breeze.  It's just the intial learning-to-live-without-booze thing that's difficult. 

I also, once again, wanted to thank everyone who posted for those two years because I would never have made it without your support.  You'll never know how much difference it made to me but I do, and I'll be forever grateful.

A couple of other observations.  We were watching the 'Clean Sweep', the new BBC4 9.00pm Saturday slot murder mystery and I noticed something that I used to comment on while I was posting regularly here.  The headline here states it fairly clearly and accurately.  Creeping normalisation of women under stress using wine to cope, rather than 20 years ago, when it was tea. 

47 years ago (1976 was a particularly key year for me so I know exactly when this was) I was given a glass of elderflower champagne by someone I was staying with, who told me it didn't contain alcohol, and how to make it because I loved it.  I tried but when I lifted the cover on the bucket the mix had mould on it, so I assumed I'd done something wrong and never tried to make any again.  Out of curiousity this year while there were still elderflowers on the trees I passed on dogwalks I did a bit of research on YouTube and discovered it should grow mould on the surface so I'd probably got it right all those years ago, and thought I'd give it a go.  A couple of points to note though were that most recipes said it contains alcohol at around 5%, and I'd left it a bit late to pick the elderflowers with the result that there was very little pollen on the flowerheads, which is what gives it the particular perfume and delicate taste I remember.  Anyway, I went ahead and made 20 litres of the stuff and am happy with it.  It's certainly drinkable but benefits from the addition of a bit of sugar syrup once it's in the glass, which if I'd picked the flower heads earlier, it wouldn't need. 

So from that you'll deduce that I've been drinking it.  I've never felt any inclination to have more than one glass of it, so the 20 litres will last me until Christmas and the New Year and I'll probably end up not drinking all of it anyway if it does go over, and I have absolutely no idea whether it's got alcohol in it but it doesn't give me a buzz so if it has it's very low alcohol and other people seem to like it too.  I've made homemade wine in the past and that definitely had alcohol in it, without question, and I certainly enjoyed slinging back a fair amount of that, but this is very different.  It's lovely to have something I made that I can enjoy, that doesn't tempt me to drink more than one glass on special occasions.  If I ever got to the point where I wanted, really wanted a second , I love being a non-drinker so much I'd chuck the whole lot out and be done with it. 

I'm looking forward to being able to post about being 10 years AF, even if I continue having a glass of elderflower champagne sometimes when we have friends in for a meal.

marahouti

Finishing July on 31/25 please cathybird. Gold star for me too 😊. Thank you for keeping score and encouraging us with the emojis. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have for us in August. X

sunshine_raincloud

31/28 for July please. I am 1 week away from being 3 months alcohol free. I wouldn't have even contemplated it without this thread so thank you so much! I feel so much better in myself and very grateful for all the support and encouragement! 

maman

Good to hear from you @Honey_Bear. Well done on your 9 years! Welcome to Wren. 🐕

Pleased to be finishing July with one of your lovely emojis @cathybird. I'm happy to have got straight back on the wagon after my holiday. 

Well done everyone on your scores and thank you @cathybird. 

14/10 AFDs please