Less Alcohol - JANUARY 2021 - One Day At A Time

dawnbgethealthy

Amanda_Brit_Expat wrote: »

@dawnbgethealthy Wow! Such amazing photos! May I ask where there are? Living in Texas it is always a treat for me to see snow and mountains. It looks very beautiful where you live!

I really loved Texas, it was my last big trip before Covid.
I am in South Eastern British Columbia, about 45 minutes from Montana, about 35 minutes to Idaho.
My best friend lives in Idaho, but I obviously can't spend any time there right now.

MissMay

@Womona GREAT point. It really is about the cutting back, which then can lead you to AF days.

This is how I began drinking less way back when:

1) I cut back by not drinking all my high power / high calorie alcohol drinks like Espresso Martini, Long Island Iced Tea, White Russians all night long.
Instead I would order 1 of the above and then have really low calorie, low alcohol beer the rest of the night poured into a glass so no one knew what the bottle brand was.

It was a huge step not to have 3,4 or more of those high alcohol drinks in my hand all evening. I think I was most concerned what others thought. (Gee, why isn't she partying tonight with us?)
When I look back now, I know they weren't giving a hoot what I had in my glass. It was more of a me issue, than a them issue. (Except for my husband because he was losing it that I was not keeping up with him)


Last night I had one flight glass (which is a 4 ounce pour) of the special jalapeno beer that is made at our brewery in town. I had forgot completely that husband picked up a growler of that on Friday. He has hopes with the play off football games coming up his buds will pop by for a cold one.
Good thing is, a taste is more than enough with that beer. No one will leave tipsy.

1/2 beer accountability this past weekend

Lilylady3k

Confession Time: My 2 glasses of wine with dinner were planned; however, the evening drinking did not end there. DH poured himself a bourbon & 7up. I went into the kitchen and turned on the tea pot, washed the dishes and then turned off the tea pot. Made myself a rum & 7up instead of hot tea and finished watching the Saints game. Then when DH went elsewhere in the house I poured myself a shot of rum. NOT proud and not even sure why I did it.
Moving on ...

Jan accountability: 4/17 days AF
Alcohol: 13 days (21.5 drinks)
Goal: Limit 1-2 glasses per day; 12-16 AF days per month

1/1 - 1 (3oz champagne toast)
1/2 - 2 wine
1/3 - AF
1/4 -1 wine
1/5 -2 wine
1/6 - 2 wine
1/7 - 1 wine
1/8 - 2 wine
1/9 - 2 wine
1/10 - 1 wine
1/11 - AF
1/12 - 1.5 wine
1/13 - AF
1/14 - 1 wine
1/15 - 1 wine
1/16 - AF
1/17 - 4 (2 wine + 2 rum)

This chart looks so much better than when I didn't count my drinks and sipped through 5-6 in an evening. Hanging in there.

Lilylady3k

@MissMay - I find mixing the jalapeño beer with another beer to be much more tasty ... I've not been to our local beer garden that will pour that combo in a while. But you are right ... easy to not over indulge when drinking the jalapeño beer!

Oh and you are so right ... no one else cares what's in your hand. Thanks for sharing that story!

Womona

@dawnbgethealthy you weren’t kidding when you said you were from Southeast BC! My BC experience begins and ends with Vancouver and Victoria. Still, beautiful!

So how often do you need to sharpen your blades skating on a lake? Years ago I did figure skating at rinks. I imagine your blades get chewed up pretty quickly!

mainelylisa

@dawnbgethealthy Saw a segment on the news of a store/restaurant owner just this side of the Canadian border in Idaho who is holding on by a thread. He was counting his customers with roman numerals on a napkin. So sad. But I certainly think border closing is the right thing. You look so cute with your kneed pads and stick! Our pond has melted (I got blamed cuz I bought skates).

@Lilylady3k I think it was like the quote says, "...then the drink takes a drink." But you didn't keep going and let the drink take you (or you probably wouldn't have remembered!)

@CryingBlue Did your headaches start after trying to cut back? If so, I agree with MissMay. I know people react from caffeine withdrawal with headaches. Hope you start to feel better soon.

@Womona Yay for stopping at 1. I'm guessing it did mess with your sleep a little--at least I've noticed even one (unless it's early in the day) affects my sleep (remind me why we keep subjecting ourselves to this???)

globalhiker

@dawnbgethealthy that's an awesome picture and I like how you replaced drinking with skating! I know of at least 2 Canadians who were able to make their way into my community. Maybe they have a special work permit. Anyway, they are the 2 guys in their 50s, rollerblading like professional hockey players, completely bare-chested, yes with no shirt on. And it's 50 degrees here mid-morning. BBRRR....!

@Lilylady3k it wasn't you who went from drink #2 to drink #3......it was the drink who then took another drink, like F Scott Fitzgerald said well.

Today I will practice drinking 1 followed by a candy treat

Trish1c

I got support & accountability from an unexpected source this weekend: my husband.

I kind of roped him into doing dry January with me. There's just no way I could stop if he was still drinking. He's my worst trigger. We'd have a drink with dinner, then sit there talking until the bottle of wine was finished or worse, we'd open a 2nd & drink it too. I felt like my brain got re-wired to think that a serving was a bottle not a glass.

I'm a little jealous. He's still drinking his AF beer. There just isn't a good wine substitute. A cup of tea isn't that satisfying.

Anyway. . . on Saturday I was hinting around about a cheat day, going to the store to buy a bottle of wine over the long weekend. He said no. He gave me the push I needed to resist going to the store. I really thought he would have been all over that since he is only doing this for me.

January ends in 2 weeks. I can do this! Who knows maybe we can make it to the 1st weekend in February. We're going away for Valentine's Day, so that will involve drinking.

Maybe if we can manage 3-4 AF nights per week things will be more stable going forward. The goal is to eliminate weekday drinking, trying to limit it to Fri & Sat. We'll see how that goes.

I did bake & then ate almost 1/2 of the lemon bars I made.

@Lilylady3k Good for you for making those 5's & 6's into 1's & 2's. Doing that is how I kicked my soda habit. Now that I have 3-4 per week instead of day I consider myself a reformed success. Moderation can be achieved.

lmlmrn

Hello to all the wonderfuls who are working hard to drink less alcohol.
Last night oopsy, did not go well. Just wanted 1 glass of wine with my homemade pizza. Well this song and dance of course kept going so 1 glass turned into the bottle, then a shot of whisky to round the night out.

New day. Plan this week. AF Mon-Friday and if I still feel the need it will need to wait until Saturday.
January to date 9 out of 17 AF days.

CMB44512

I am back. Did not go any place, been busy. Took on a new workout routine that is taking a lot of time. Logging in and preparing workout schedules to keep from getting bored.

I been trying extremely hard to manage a non alcohol day, to sqeeze it in some place, it has not happened yet. I think about it all the time, but can't execute it.

About a week ago I ran into an old classmate of mine. We got to talking and I told him I would grab us a 12 pk and he could come over and hang out with my GF and I.
So he meets me at my house about an hour later and I go to toss him a beer and he holds up a coffee cup for a convenience store he stopped at. WHAT? I asked, is that?
I don't drink on the week days he remarked. On the weekends I do, but not all crazy like in the past. I told him I was trying to get to that place and was not happening to quick.
He told me to work at it slow. Could not believe we were having that conversation in my garage. Nothing had/has changed in our relationship except he was having a coffee and me, my beers.

I suppose it will happen when I least expect it to.

Thanks for always having an open door in here.

SkinnyGirlCarrie

Hi everyone!
Been a bit busy and haven't had a chance to post except for 1 time and I hit the dreaded done button again. Ugh. Inspired by everyone - love all the outdoor talk, I need to get out more. Inspired by everyone's accountability, even those who aren't where they want to be, acknowledgement is half the battle.

Day 22 AF here for me. This weekend I've been contemplating a glass of whiskey, just one, BUT really want to fully get in a Dry January. Sensible me is winning. Biggest win for me was this past Sat was super irritated by the husband all day and that night didn't even want to drink. Take that as a win! I did leave the house for a bit to get a break from him and went thru the DQ drive thru, but it's OK since I didn't put back a bottle of wine plus a glass of something. Bei g super busy and/or irritated is a huge trigger/justification to drink and proud of myself that I haven't given in these last 3 weeks.

Onward everyone, keep doing great!

mainelylisa

Sounds like accountability and/or motivation is coming from unlikely places. Awesome. Or could it be that maybe the little voices were coming before now and then, but we weren't listening? Maybe a combo.

@SkinnyGirlCarrie Way to go! Irritation greatly increases desire for alcohol for me, so double congrats!

I agree there's no good wine sub. But I must share my new fav mocktail (I know at least one of you @MissMay would love this ;-)) Be open-minded even if you think you hate Kombucha. The fruit flavors really milden it (my made-up word of the day because I gotta find fun in little places). It tastes grown-up. I chug it like I would chug beer sometimes.

Tart Cherry KomBomb (approx 30 calories):
2/3 glass Tart Cherry Kombucha (I like Kevita--it's not too out there)
1/3 glass seltzer (or Fresca or diet 7-up or Sprite)
Lemon squeeze.

I really love straight Kombucha, but half the money I was saving from wine was going to it at $3/bottle, so this way one bottle lasts me twice as long.

Lilylady3k

AF! Cup of tea for my book club meeting over zoom. DH poured himself a number of bourbon & 7up but I'm just staying away from that cabinet after last night's slip.
Jan accountability: 5/18 days AF

dawnbgethealthy

Womona wrote: »

@dawnbgethealthy you weren’t kidding when you said you were from Southeast BC! My BC experience begins and ends with Vancouver and Victoria. Still, beautiful!

So how often do you need to sharpen your blades skating on a lake? Years ago I did figure skating at rinks. I imagine your blades get chewed up pretty quickly!

Yes, I remember that you used to live over that way. So beautiful there, but no outdoor ice skating : - )
I am about a 12 hour drive to Vancouver.
I love Washington Coast and that Oregon Coast too!

Um...sharpen skates, mental note lol. I haven't sharpened them at all since the beginning of the season! I would probably feel that more in an arena where the ice is smooth, but I seem to dig in pretty well on the outdoor stuff with likely dull blades.

I am so not surprised that you used to figure skate. Throw-back photos?

dawnbgethealthy

globalhiker wrote: »

@dawnbgethealthy that's an awesome picture and I like how you replaced drinking with skating! I know of at least 2 Canadians who were able to make their way into my community. Maybe they have a special work permit. Anyway, they are the 2 guys in their 50s, rollerblading like professional hockey players, completely bare-chested, yes with no shirt on. And it's 50 degrees here mid-morning. BBRRR....!

Haha to the canuckle-heads. Skating makes one heat up pretty good, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt lol.

I didn't really replace drinking with skating, in fact I pretty much always want to have drinks after a day of playing in the winter. I am practicing some sort of willpower only.

dawnbgethealthy

mainelylisa wrote: »

@dawnbgethealthy Saw a segment on the news of a store/restaurant owner just this side of the Canadian border in Idaho who is holding on by a thread. He was counting his customers with roman numerals on a napkin. So sad. But I certainly think border closing is the right thing. You look so cute with your kneed pads and stick! Our pond has melted (I got blamed cuz I bought skates).

I hope that your pond freezes back up. Ours all melted too, but have now re-frozen.

Bonner's Ferry Idaho is likely feeling the lack of Canadians coming down.
Sometimes I would just go there for lunch to meet friends.
They don't get much else for traffic. Spokane and Coeur D'Alene are where even the locals from Bonner's Ferry go, so Bonner's I think really relied on Canadian dollars. They have a Casino there that allows smoking, and you can't smoke in Canadian Casinos, so that also is a big draw for Canadian Casino goers especially patrons from Creston BC which is only 15 or 20 minutes away.
I am also a smoker and enjoy being able to go to pubs and places where I don't have to go outside to light up while I am having a coffee or a drink. I go out there more than I do here. Or used to.
Definitely I am glad that the border is closed though, and I wish that our Provincial border to Alberta was also closed because they have so much Covid there. Our parking lots are full of Alberta plates even though they are under an "essential travel only" ban within that province.

I hope that the business in Idaho can hold on a little longer, maybe the new government will come up with some sort of plan to help.
Before long we can all get vaccinated. We will all have a new appreciation of things having gone through this.

I want to start making up words too!

dawnbgethealthy

I am Dawn, I live in SE BC

I will post with my usual diary style to keep track of my AF days.
Keeping to my usual goal of 16-20 AF days per month, which is manageable for me and doesn't put too much pressure on me.

Friday Jan 15 - Drinks. That was a no-no, 2 days in a row. Hoping that I got it out of my system.
Saturday Jan 16 - AF - Planning AF at least until Tuesday. I had a really great few days, pictures to follow.
Sunday Jan 17 - AF - Another great day out skating on a lake : - )
Monday Jan 18 - AF - I was too busy to even get out for a hike or a skate today : - (
Busy day tomorrow, so AF for me tonight.

Rolling total 15AF days out of 18 days

lmlmrn

Last night was AF so yeah! this is 10 out of 18 days for January. When I started at the first of the month I did not have a specific goal of AF days. Now I am actually getting excited to see how many days in a month I can rack up! This is such an empowering feeling.

AR10at50

Thank you @MissMay for keep this going.
My January goal was to not have my husband tell me I’ve had too much or hide my drink. Bless his heart, he never dumps it out, just puts it out of sight.
So, far it has worked 99% of the time. I’ve had some hard quilts I have been working on and that requires a sober mind.I also give myself a deadline when they have to be completed and that really helps.

Trish1c

OMG @SkinnyGirlCarrie -- I must have hit the done button 3x before my last post. At first I couldn't even figure out what I did wrong.

@CMB44512 invite that buddy over more often to drink coffee with you on weekdays. He may help / inspire you.

We invited a neighbor over for dinner last night. She usually shows up with a 1.5 l bottle of wine. I forewarned her that we were doing Dry January so she came empty handed. It was nice. I didn't even feel like drinking, which is a good thing.

Hang in there, everybody. One day at a time! We can do this.