Less Alcohol - SEPTEMBER 2019 - One Day at a Time

MissMay

Womona wrote: »

Fun time at my kids college family weekend! Ate more than I normally do, but the scale this morning is better than horribly expected. Whew! As for drinking, just one Friday night, 1.5 on Saturday, nothing at brunch but a glass at dinner yesterday. So I’m proud of myself.

Hubby wants to “do something radical for himself” and do Sober October! He said “don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to do this with me” and I was like “Dude, I’ve already cut back so much, I’m way ahead of you here!”

I absolutely love this post @Womona. Tell "Dude" we are rooting for him! Nice job!

Womona

OMG, this!

Womona

globalhiker wrote: »

I'm now fully sold on 100% pure cranberry juice mixed with mostly water and ice. It's my new wine replacement and it works. Since I've had to ditch diet soda and all my alcohol replacement goodies (ice cream and chocolates)...I discovered cranberry juice. Google cranberry juice benefits and you will see how good it is for us....

100% Cranberry juice is also my go-to! At home I mix with Pellegrino, out its with seltzer. Always in a fancy glass! It absolutely works as a great alcohol replacement!!!

mainelylisa

Happy Monday! So happy to read through the accomplishments and keeping it real moments. I've realized a few things this month. First, I typically start out the week all gung ho--tracking and exercising and not drinking, and then it's a downhill slide into debauchery. Not 3+ drinks--but 2 is enough sometimes to feel like crap and then crap promotes crap. I'm going to spend October figuring out why. It's like the devil on my own shoulder just starts shouting louder than the angel on my other. Devil's name is Sabotage.

Secondly I realized that when I'm struggling, I don't tend to reach out for several reasons. I feel like I should be strong on here. Well that's dumb. This forum is about intention, accountability (which includes vulnerability), support, and keeping it real. While I haven't been terrible, and have even continued slight weight loss, I'm still drinking some as a coping mechanism. And sometimes I'm not even sure what I'm coping with--now that's also dumb. I don't have the pressures many of you have--social / partner encouragement, etc. In fact, my bf would rather I not drink. Sometimes I feel I'm being rebellious by taking a secret swig. What am I--13?

So renewing commitment to myself to be more present here and in tracking the good, bad, and ugly and figure out why I want to drink to cope. Then I can tackle it. Make it a great week!

LoveyChar

MissMay wrote: »

LoveyChar wrote: »

I read all of your replies to everything but I don't know how to individually respond. I do agree/relate/understand about replacing a better activity with another maybe not so great one. Several years ago, I stopped drinking for five years. Weight loss wasn't a goal, only goal was to stop drinking, and I replaced that behavior sign eating ice cream every night and I did gain weight...

Anyway, then I lost that little bit of weight and replaced the ice cream behavior with studying, then exercise...and so forth. I should try cleaning every time I thought about a drink; my house would be immaculate.

Hey there @LoveyChar. That is pretty normal when we cut back or stop drinking. Our body craves the sugar that is in booze and we tend to go for sweets. Not always though....some people just crave more food calories because they did not realize they had just cut back on several hundred by not drinking as much.

To respond to someone individually you can:
start with the @ sign and then type in their username (no spaces) OR click on the word quote at the bottom of their post. It will bring up their entire post. Make sure to start responding to it below the post. You can then click on preview to check how it looks before sending it. Also if there is a long post and you only want to highlight some of their comments you can erase within their original. This is tricky as you have to be careful not to erase the quotations or the username with their given code.

And yes that is why we are all here to help drink LESS. 😉

Thank you Miss May! I can communicate and respond individually now! Yessssss, it's the little things...❤️💚💛!!!

globalhiker

I'm joining in for Oct. Now I really don't drink anymore except for special social events or a restaurant dinner outing. I have my first one challenge up this weekend- I fly to Vegas, drinking capital of the world. There for a family reunion. All power drinkers. Family eats and drinks together and the drinking continues after the dinner meal. There is strong pressure to participate. You know what kind of high pressure situation I'm talking about. They buy good wine, pour it for you and put it under your nose. If you say no thank you, they chase you around saying "you have to try it". Then it's followed by a road trip with more family, children (and their drinking parents). I can't run away from this one. Will take some careful planning. I am ok to drink 1-2 nights out of the whole week but not more. Need an action plan.

MissMay

mainelylisa wrote: »

I've realized a few things thisIt's like the devil on my own shoulder just starts shouting louder than the angel on my other. Devil's name is Sabotage.

😈 ~vs~ 😇
So great to see you in here again @mainelylisa. Just thought you were to busy with life to post. Now we know better. Lol.
Give that Devil a flick with your finger if he shouts to loud, you want to keep that Angel happy. See you on Oct thread!!!

MissMay

My evening is winding down. Almost time to head off to bed. So I can give my September accountability.

Did not plan a totally dry September yet that is what happened. It was so for the best. I literally took on a project at home I had been sweeping under the rug since 2012. Ugh.....it is tough and difficult. But I guess I never got around to this because I was "pre-occupied " with my right hand lifting it towards my face for the last 7 years. Such a waste of my precious time.

Looking forward to our October chats
(My most favorite month of the year)

Womona

Finished that last glass of wine in the bottle to kill it off. I didn’t even really want it, and I don’t like how I feel afterwards. I need to let go of that Great Depression mentality (thanks Mom &Dad!) and realize I’m not a human garbage dump.

anglilacs

9/3- AF
9/4- AF
9/5- AF
9/6- AF
9/7- AF
9/8-AF
9/9- 3 drinks (rounding up)
9/10 - AF
9/11 - AF
9/12 - AF
9/13 - AF
9/14 - 3 drinks
9/15 - AF
9/16 - AF
9/17 - AF
9/18 - AF
9/19 - AF
9/20 - 2 drinks
9/21 - 2 drinks
9/22 - 2 drinks
9/23 - AF
9/24 - AF
9/25 - AF
9/26 - AF
9/27 - 3 drinks
9/28 - AF
9/29 - AF
9/30 - AF

22 days AF this month! So happy with this. Never would have done it without checking in here and reading all of your posts!!

fitand50inSD

My plan is to have more AF days than drinking days each month. I will need to build up several in a row for September since I am starting my tracking on the 7th.

9/07 - AF
9/08 - AF
9/09 - AF
9/10 - AF
9/11 - 2 bottles Michelob Ultra
9/12 - AF
9/13 - 2 vodka/soda
9/14 - 1 Mich Ultra, 2/3 bottle of red wine, and an after dinner bourbon.
9/15 - AF
9/16 - AF
9/17 - AF
9/18 - AF
9/19 - 2 drinks
9/20 - AF
9/21 - 9 oz red wine. 2 oz vodka.
9/22 - AF
9/23 - AF
9/24 - 2 drinks
9/25 - AF
9/26 - 1 drink
9/27 - 1 Michelob Ultra
9/28 - AF
9/29 - AF
9/30 - AF
Starting 9/7 - AF 16 days, Alcohol 8 days
Counting the first 6 days of September when I wasn't tracking (we will assume I drank each day) AF - 16, Alcohol 14 - that's a WIN in my book!)

Onward to Sober October!

WinoGelato

Finished the month with 13 AF days out of 30. Not my best but not my worst month by far. The end of the month had some weeknight drinking events - nothing too crazy. October seems to be low key at least for weeknight events. I’m looking forward to a break from the heat, changing the wardrobe over to flannel and boots and maybe just one or two pumpkin beers... see you all on the next month’s thread!