Less Alcohol ~ JUNE 2021 ~ One Day At A Time

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  • dawnbgethealthy
    dawnbgethealthy Posts: 7,553 Member
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    Hi : - )

    My goal is 16-20 AF days per month.
    Diary Style.


    Friday June 11 - AF - I have been experiencing legs cramps in the night for 3+months and Thursday night it kept waking me up. Friday was a very tired day operating on fumes. A drink might have been nice, but I resisted.
    Saturday June 12 - 2 1/4 drinks. Census plus my yard/garden, I put in a good day. Sunday will be the same script.

    Rolling Total - 7AF days out of 12 days.
  • dawnbgethealthy
    dawnbgethealthy Posts: 7,553 Member
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    @Lilylady3k

    Wow, I am soooo impressed with your garden!! My tomato plants and peppers are about 2 inches high at this point. It got cold and rainy here, so nothing grew much except for the weeds.

    You had asked what I drink when I drink alcohol. Black Russians are kind of my go to, but I also do love to make cocktails on occasion. Mojitos once my mint is flourishing for sure. I make so many coffee/hot chocolate specialty drinks in the winter, using all sorts of things - one of my favourite specialty coffees is Dark Rum, Grand Marnier and Bailey's. Cocoa with Peppermint Schnapps or Apricot Brandy is lovely after a day of playing in the snow.
    I don't drink very often any more, and because my tolerance is low I will often just have a couple of Black Russians on my designated drinks day. Unfortunately I can no longer drink wine, but I used to enjoy an Oregon Pinot Noir (Amity) amongst other varietals.

    I had a few varieties of cans in the pantry that I put in the fridge several weeks ago. I opened one of them after digging in the garden at the end of the day yesterday. I had 1/4 of it in a very fancy chilled glass, and then put saran over it. It was yummy and refreshing. I have never tried these before

    i2vwfkaraahj.png
  • Lilylady3k
    Lilylady3k Posts: 3,814 Member
    edited June 2021
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    @MissMay - I get the downsizing of your garden! I use to have 4- 4x4 raised veggie beds and I removed 2 and now just focus on herbs and things I can put in salsa or pasta sauces. I've also let some of the flower beds that use to wrap the outline of my garden ... go back to grass to the house or fence to reduce my time weeding. Now I focus on what I see through the windows of the rooms I live in as well as the front & back door! Picking my battles ... especially since I have another yard at the camp. That one I selected just a couple of pots and then 2 flower beds which all don't need me to continually water or weed. They take little effort because when I'm down there I just don't want to have to "work" ... it is already more than enough to clean the inside each month!

    @lmlmrn - Hoping that you can shake the ailments away but sounds like you might need more diagnosis and assistance from more drugs to get over this sinus issue.

    @dawnbgethealthy - REMEMBER I'm in Texas ... we've had hot weather for the tomatoes for a while now. They will likely burn up by the time your tomatoes start producing. I use to have 5 types of mints ... I need to pick a couple and plant them in the empty pots I have ... would love to have it around for cocktails, mocktails, water and tea. Thanks for the reminder. Thanks for the other drink info ... the coffee liqueurs sound lovely on a cold day! I'm going to look for your gin smash ... that too looks interesting. I've had a Black Russian but I seem to lean more toward either wine or citrus drinks like margaritas and gin & tonics. Though the "Morejito" from Be More Pacific ... their take on Mojito was yummy! It had RumHaven coconut rum, pineapple juice, mint, & lime juice. Which now that I think about it I could replace the rum with coconut water and try making a mocktail!



  • lmlmrn
    lmlmrn Posts: 783 Member
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    Womona wrote: »
    @lmlmrn sorry to hear your sinus issues are still dogging you. I hope you feel better soon!

    Only one drink yesterday and two with a long dinner on Friday night. So I’m happy with that.

    Absolutely no cravings for alcohol, ice cream, food, chocolate, etc. today. Why, you ask? Well, this peri menopause roller coaster ride stopped today with a visit from my Aunt Flo. (Sorry gents!). I’ve been super bloated, and a food and alcohol vacuum for the last two and a half weeks. Now I know why!

    The funny thing is I never had bad PMS symptoms back when I was normal. Now with my cycle hopping around , PMS cravings are lasting weeks instead of for a day or two. It’s all over the place and I never know what the hell my body is up to. It is the weirdest thing to experience this. If my period is going to skip around, it would be really nice if at least PMS would only show up a day or two before hand like it used to. But Nooooooo. I’m in a near- constant state of PMS these last 4 months or so, with very little break before the PMS puffiness and cravings start up again. This is true whether my cycle is 3 weeks or 3 months apart.

    I know this is all totally normal, but it’s still a real pain. I hate the constant food and drink urges. Menopause makes trying to maintain my weight very difficult, especially since my body is craving sugar like nobody’s business, whether it’s in the form of ice cream or , more likely, alcohol!!!!!! Ugh!

    Any words of wisdom for those who have or are going through the change of life? It’s not for the faint of heart!

    Oh and I’m going to cry like a baby when it’s all over because I won’t be able to have kids anymore! Haha!


    I have been through it all and I agree that skipping around stuff is a real inconvenient part of the process. I hate to tell you this but after that you body becomes like a furnace with a thermostat that will come on and off with no warning! This will last, oh I don't know, until we are dead. Not as frequent as at first but still all of a sudden....poof armpits are wet, sweat dripping down the nap of your neck and hairline all this to soak your shirt. Then at night, well lets say there were times I had to sleep with a bath towel under me because I soaked the bed in my sleep and was too tired to change everything.
  • lmlmrn
    lmlmrn Posts: 783 Member
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    AF tonight, I really could have used a bit of the whiskey but I am settling for diet tonic water and bitters.

    Took some time this evening to do some painting, it can be quite funny at times to watch when I start working. Or so I am told.

    @Lilylady3k I have a TX question for you. Are there any parts of Texas that are mostly full of green plant life and hills? I have only been in the pan handle and Dallas/Fort Worth area. I have a nephew in Houston right now and a few people in San Antonio
  • dawnbgethealthy
    dawnbgethealthy Posts: 7,553 Member
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    Hi : - )

    My goal is 16-20 AF days per month.
    Diary Style.


    Friday June 11 - AF - I have been experiencing legs cramps in the night for 3+months and Thursday night it kept waking me up. Friday was a very tired day operating on fumes. A drink might have been nice, but I resisted.
    Saturday June 12 - 2 1/4 drinks. Census plus my yard/garden, I put in a good day. Sunday will be the same script.
    Saturday June 11 - AF, reluctantly, but I had drinks only yesterday. Census work and yard work on a very hot day made me want to have a bit of the Gin Smash. I had an AF beer, and I am not a beer drinker.

    Rolling Total - 8AF days out of 13 days.
  • dawnbgethealthy
    dawnbgethealthy Posts: 7,553 Member
    edited June 2021
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    These are the AF beers that I bought.

    I had this one tonight with a burger, it was pretty good, and 35 calories:

    c88418xtnwkm.png


    This one is new to me, and I haven't tried it yet.
    Not being a beer drinker, I don't even really know what an IPA should taste like.
    A whopping 10 calories sure makes it appealing though!

    u7m00pl9a7mz.png


  • dawnbgethealthy
    dawnbgethealthy Posts: 7,553 Member
    edited June 2021
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    @Womona

    Yikes. Really glad that I have been out the other end of all of that Meno stuff.
    Technically you will go from Perio to full on once you haven't had menses for 12 months.
    And then the fun (really not fun) begins.

    I tried to tough it out, but really couldn't function. It was pretty much to the day of the 12th month passing with no menses when it came on like a vengeance.
    Ditto to everything that @lmlmrn said.

    I went crying into the health food store because I refused any kind of pharmaceuticals that the doc suggested.
    In the 60s and 70 they just put women on the hormone replacement when they hit 50. Some women say that they didn't go through Meno because of this (they did, it was masked), but disastrous health effects resulted from the drugs.

    Anyway, the health food lady (who had already been through this and was very empathetic) got me to try Estroven and told me that it would take about 7 days because it is herbs not chemicals.
    I stayed on it for 2 years. I seriously could not have gone to work or anything, I was a sweat drenched mess getting the flashes every minute or two. The Estroven brought it down to around 7 of them a day. Night sweats were terrible, but they also got much better.

    2 years I guess that it lasted, narry a hot flash or anything since then, my hormones evened out and I have lost all of the weight that I put on during perio.

    Argh, I might have nightmares about this just remembering it now. Really glad that it is behind me.

    Not trying to scare you. It will be quite a while yet until you go into the full-fledged thing.
    Of course it is different for everyone. My sister is an old hippie, she managed to go through it without anything, let the flashes wash over her "like an O" she said. I was inspired by her to try it with nothing. Nopey-Nope.

    There are lots of great herbs and herb mixtures out there that really help. Some people have to stay away from coffee and wine.

  • MissMay
    MissMay Posts: 3,548 Member
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    "Sweating to the oldies" as if night sweats with drinking were not bad enough, yeah add meno sweats on top if that within the last 10 years. H3LLISH! A cruel curse if you are female. Men are lucky we don't bite their heads off during that time like some creatures do. LOL

    @womona thinking of you. Hang in there kid.

  • MissMay
    MissMay Posts: 3,548 Member
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    @lmlmrn your post had me spitting out my morning java. " like until death" LOL
    Hope your having your hubby video you during your "pool" painting, that one would be for the books.
  • Lilylady3k
    Lilylady3k Posts: 3,814 Member
    edited June 2021
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    @dawnbgethealthy - Thank you for the pics of the beers ... I need to try sans alcohol beer ... never had one.

    @Womona - Yep what they said. I too did not go on the hormone treatments because playing bunco with older ladies that were in their 60s and 70s trying to wean off said hormones were going through the sweats and all the symptoms. They said it was worst than the original symptoms but the doc wanted them to get off the hormone treatments so they were splitting pills in half, using patches, etc. Plus my mom and sister had breast cancer and the risk was too high. So when I hit that stage I asked my doc what she did ... Estroven Nighttime, Calcium 1200, D3 2000. The extra Calcium was key. The Estrogen helped I used it for about 6 months. Plus DON'T drink RED wine ... it is a killer and kicks the night sweats into high gear! I am a survivor :)

    Went to my sister's in the afternoon to wash clothes since my washer is broken and did not partake in her orange cosmos or wine that she offered! DH & the wine drove me crazy last night. He ended up drinking 2 bottles by himself (I took only 1 sip to taste the French Chablis from his glass). It was very good but I was determined to stick to my no more than 2 nights in a row goal. Plus I have a very challenging week ahead! DH on the other hand was not looking forward to working this week and went overboard. :(

    Oh my youngest son was offered a job double his current salary with a signing bonus ... they sought him out. He is 27 years old with an Economics major and Math minor degree from LSU plus a Finance Masters from UT, his current company put him through accelerated training program since he was doing well plus he just took his 3rd & final test for the Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) and has 4 yrs work experience. The market is hot right now and all that education paid off. His and his wife's cars are falling apart over 200k miles and neither are safe for long trips ... finally he said he was going shopping for a new car (ONE not two ... he is still managing his cash flow with the new house). His wife said who will drive the new car and he said "you of course". I'm really proud of all 3 of my kiddos ... the other 2 (28 and 30 years old) were laid off during the pandemic last year and within 3 months found new jobs with promotions and raises. It was rough having 3 in college out of state at the same time but I'm glad that DH & I managed to do it with no student loans. They are all financially stable which is one of the reasons I could retire early and I'm hoping that DH will retire this year as well.

    June accountability: 6/30 days AF
    Alcohol: 7 days (19 drinks)
    Goal: Limit 1-2 glasses per day; 12-16 AF days per month. Aim to drink no more than 2 nights in a row.

    6/1 - AF
    6/2 - 2 wine
    6/3 - 5 … 1 beer + 3 wine + 1 Benedictine @ New Orleans
    6/4 - 4 … 3 wine + 1 Whiskey Diet Coke @ New Orleans
    6/5 - 4 … 1 whiskey sour + 3 wine @ Wedding in Natchez
    6/6 - 2 wine
    6/7 - AF
    6/8 - AF
    6/9 - AF
    6/10 - AF
    6/11 - 1 wine @ 1 year anniversary party for goddaughter
    6/12 - 1 wine
    6/13 - AF
    6/14 -
    6/15 -
    6/16 - @ Book Club
    6/17 - @ ZTA Sisters Unwine'd @ Unwine’d Wine & Cheese Lounge
    6/18 - @ Another celebration for DD. Fiesta planned in 2020 before her wedding that had to be postponed. The 9 couples (friends of my son in law’s mom) hosting are insisting on a party to celebrate their wedding as well as an excuse to party and get together after a year of the pandemic.
  • globalhiker
    globalhiker Posts: 1,517 Member
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    Monday morning confession, I drank on Sunday only because my husband was drinking. It was 2.5 glasses. Meh. Wine and cheese party, curious to try out a South African white wine and well, not all that.....

    @Womona, 55 years old here and been in perimenopause about 10 years. My body just wants to stay at this stage. @Lilylady3k is 1000% correct, when she gave me the calcium advice (I take a tablespoon liquid calcium citrate+mag+Vit D since I hear it's better absorption)...and no red wine....and all my night sweats and flashes went away like magic!

    The blood sugar issues and afternoon crashes are WAY better following a mostly paleo type diet/low carb mostly veg and protein.

    My problem remaining is I go thru "PMS" twice in one cycle. Like I am mostly in PMS state (bloating/sensitive to stress/depressed and occasional Brain Fog) unless it is days 1-5. Exercise helps but that feeling lasts an hour.I have work at feeling happy. I do feel my normal "happy" if my estrogen level spikes (white wine but it's not good)...and I used to take 7-KETO-DHA (not DHA but a derivative). It made me feel 25-30 and would take ALL the PMS away and leave my tummy flat. I stopped taking it just because nobody yet knows what long term effects are...but I am tempted to re-start since I felt that good.

    Ok. 11 AF days done/2 non-AF...let's see if I can push myself this week and reach my goals.

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