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Less Alcohol ~ NOVEMBER 2021 ~ One Day At A Time
Replies
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Redordeadhead wrote: »Does anyone find that their sleep gets worse when moving to AF?
I know that seems to be the opposite effect many people experience, but I'm finding myself waking up a lot during the night and wondering if there is any connection.
I find the first 3-4 days I have trouble shutting my brain off to fall asleep. I usually toss and turn almost all night. Then somewhere around day 5-7 I do start sleeping better. I just have to power through it. This has actually made it easier for me to NOT drink more than 1 day. It really seems to be a problem for me when I have had drinks on a Friday and Saturday then come Sunday I suffer through till Thursday....then do it all over again. A viscous cycle
No for the meal prep ideas you have inspired me. So while I wait for my new freezer to be delivered today I am going to sit down with the ole fashioned paper and pen and make a 'chart' of what I can and can not freeze successfully the foods we enjoy. Then plan from there
Was not alcohol free last night, and don't know why I though I needed/wanted it but I did...today is a new day!
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Thank you all! Good to know it's not just me and that perhaps if I persevere, my sleep will improve 😴6
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11/1 - 11/7: 1 / 7 days AF, 10 drinks
11/8 - 11/14: 6 / 7 days AF, 6 drinks, better, but the 1 drink day was a doosy! Took a full day to recover, and ate way too much in the process.
New Week -
11/15 - AF
but too many sweets last night 
, overcompensating maybe?
11/16 - AF... 4 in a row, sleep is better, and getting my morning walks in too! Time to make it 5 in a row!
This weekend is our bowling sweeps in Laughlin, and usually means lots of drinking involved. So far the plan is not to pack any "adult" beverages for the room, and keep the drinks to a minimum if any at all. Lucky for me, hubby seems to be on board with this!6 -
I ended with 16AF days for October. My ongoing goal is 16-20 AF days.
November 28th 2018 was when I started on this thread. My late Dad's birthday.
I have learned to drink less over the past 3 years, although it was very tough at first weaning myself off of being a daily drinker.
Diary style is how I roll and keep track.
Wednesday November 17 - 2 drinks an hour ago. Not my planned drinks day. I vaguely attempted a 6 minute wait, but am sure that I did not last 6 minutes. Caught a small buzz and really relaxed. I thought about what the wise poster said about it being our addictive brain being fed and then it feels better. Yeah, probably that. Call it what you will, it was lovely. I may still have drinks on my designated day, Friday.
Rolling total: 13AF days out of 17 days.7 -
Speaking of prepped meals, I took one out of the freezer early this morning knowing that I had a long workday ahead and wouldn't want to cook. I call it my Cabbage Stew: Cabbage in big chunks, Cannelloni beans, Caraway seeds, and Farmer's sausage. Delish.7
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I've had a bad week so far due to crazy work hours and work deadlines. Everything got derailed: no exercise, excessive sitting, no appetite and skipping meals, and I was AF 2 days this week but then had 2 beers at night. It was odd but it had zero "relaxation" effect on me, maybe because of my stress level, who knows. I worked the past 14 days straight. Oh and I am sleepless in AZ.....
Well, what didn't help was going to the doctor early on in the week and seeing an 8 lb. weight gain and my blood pressure dangerously high.
I'll go out this morning and enjoy a nice sunrise walk to feed my soul. Stews and soups sound comforting too, maybe I'll make a chicken tortilla soup in the crockpot .......8 -
Redordeadhead wrote: »Does anyone find that their sleep gets worse when moving to AF?
I know that seems to be the opposite effect many people experience, but I'm finding myself waking up a lot during the night and wondering if there is any connection.
I found it takes 4-5 days of AF to finally sleep through the night. It is a bit of a rocky road before your body recalibrates. But it eventually does. Meanwhile, we also have to deal with temperature, how much caffeine we’ve had during the day, noisy snoring husbands, and the age old needing to pee in the middle of the night! Honestly it’s amazing any of us sleep at all! Haha!8 -
A welcome hello wave to @Mouse_Potato.
Hope you have been getting some helpful information. This is a great group and very dedicated.
😁6 -
AF and sugar free again last night, and my weight continues to go down again. I had a long busy day at work and boy, did I want one! But instead I ate a late dinner and crawled into bed. Tonight is supposed to be drinks after work, if someone remembers to bring in wine.
Cooking ahead makes my life so easy. If all the meat is cooked and the veggies roasted on a Sunday, I can just grab and reheat when I get home late for work. Of course, it goes out the window next week when my son comes home for Thanksgiving. Then, leftovers do not last. Ever heard of “second dinner?” That’s when a college man or growing teenager, still up at 1:00AM, has another full meal and burns through all your leftovers from the dinner you served at 7:00.7 -
Yes sleep issues while drinking are/were the worst.
Having less now is not very noticeable. It is when I crest that 2 drink limit per " drinking hours".
Let's face it I have NEVER woke up with sleep still in my eyes and taken a drink, and rarely even when I drank heavy would I have something before noon. So that is why I say drinking hours instead of drink day.
Ok back on track, sleep. It was horrible to be so sleepy from drinks, fall into bed and then be wide awake from 12:30-5:30 only to crash hard for 45 minutes then have the alarm go off. DO NOT MISS THAT. And the hot flashes that come with drinking too much waking up in a pool of sweat. UGH.
Now, I can get my full 6-8 lovely hours of neccessary sleep. With an occasional left over hot flash from hormones that has me sticking my foot out from under the covers and a thermostat 🤣
@globalhiker thinking of you during your stressful time. That trip to see @dawnbgethealthy can't come soon enough for you.7 -
Redordeadhead wrote: »Does anyone find that their sleep gets worse when moving to AF?
I know that seems to be the opposite effect many people experience, but I'm finding myself waking up a lot during the night and wondering if there is any connection.
I have a much harder time getting to sleep, but my sleep seems better. I wear a Fitbit which indicates my sleep is MUCH better when I don't drink...plus all of my health indicators increase. My HRV increases and my RHR decreases after only 1 day without wine. It's one silly thing that motivates me sometimes. I check my Fitbit as soon as a wake up.7 -
So begins the drinking season.
• A well deserved reason to partake in more than we wish too?
• Needing to feel part of the holiday celebrations and not be the only non-drinker in the room?
• When all else fails for a gift idea, give 'em a bottle?
These are only three that pop into my mind right off that I will try my best to avoid.
The kick off is tomorrow evening when our town lights it up with an outdoor lights extravaganza celebration to draw people into our off season area to spend $.
Not getting onto that drinking train this early in November is key for me. I've been sucked into years ago, like quick sand. Very hard to get pulled out of when everyone expects you to keep up the pace.
Awareness and the ability to stand your ground.
AF last night BUT snacked on newly opened bag of cheddar CRISPS. In a blink the bag was 3/4 gone. My gut feels it this morning. Blah.8 -
A welcome hello wave to @Mouse_Potato.
Hope you have been getting some helpful information. This is a great group and very dedicated.
😁
Thank you! I slept better last night. My next door neighbor has been working on his house and I think he's been sneaking in some very late sessions with a power saw. I am a light sleeper under the best of circumstances and I suspect maybe he's been contributing to my late night waking. With or without alcohol, I am just one of those people who needs everything *perfect* in order to sleep well.
Today will be day 11 AF for me. I do not have a specific goal in mind. I just wanted to get out of the habit of drinking every night before bed. I haven't seen all the benefits I'd hoped, but my RHR has gone from 68 bpm to 60 bpm, so that's big. My weight is going up, though. Does quitting alcohol cause water retention? My calories are actually way down over the last two weeks, so I'm not sure why the scale is going up. Too much sodium, perhaps? I seem to have avoided the sugar cravings, but I'm eating too much salt!
7 -
11/1 - 11/7: 1 / 7 days AF, 10 drinks
11/8 - 11/14: 6 / 7 days AF, 6 drinks, better, but the 1 drink day was a doosy! Took a full day to recover, and ate way too much in the process.
New Week -
11/15 - AF but too many sweets last night , overcompensating maybe?
11/16 - AF... 4 in a row, sleep is better, and getting my morning walks in too!
11/17 - AF - Yippee! 5 in a row, and feeling good!4 -
Mouse_Potato wrote: »A welcome hello wave to @Mouse_Potato.
Hope you have been getting some helpful information. This is a great group and very dedicated.
😁
Thank you! I slept better last night. My next door neighbor has been working on his house and I think he's been sneaking in some very late sessions with a power saw. I am a light sleeper under the best of circumstances and I suspect maybe he's been contributing to my late night waking. With or without alcohol, I am just one of those people who needs everything *perfect* in order to sleep well.
Today will be day 11 AF for me. I do not have a specific goal in mind. I just wanted to get out of the habit of drinking every night before bed. I haven't seen all the benefits I'd hoped, but my RHR has gone from 68 bpm to 60 bpm, so that's big. My weight is going up, though. Does quitting alcohol cause water retention? My calories are actually way down over the last two weeks, so I'm not sure why the scale is going up. Too much sodium, perhaps? I seem to have avoided the sugar cravings, but I'm eating too much salt!
Good streak you have going! Scale weight is just a mysterious thing. Whenever one of my DD says her weight is up, I always ask HOW do you know? I track my weight every day, and in spite of that I remember times seeing a big number on my scale and impulsively wondering how I gained. Then I look at my daily weight log and I see the TREND is exactly as expected, it's just that the one higher number stands out more prominently in my brain. The brain is so devious! So I try to encourage my girls to ignore isolated data points and instead consider data in context, i.e. not the one high weight day but a couple weeks worth of ups & downs and how that averages out. I'm not aware of water retention associated with quitting alcohol, but it is associated with new exercise (muscle soreness), dehydration (ironically), replenishing glycogen stores, air travel, inflammation/swelling (allergies or injury), menstrual cycles, and who knows what else. I hope you see a mysterious drop on the scale that matches the mysterious increase.5 -
I ended with 16AF days for October. My ongoing goal is 16-20 AF days.
November 28th 2018 was when I started on this thread. My late Dad's birthday.
I have learned to drink less over the past 3 years, although it was very tough at first weaning myself off of being a daily drinker.
Diary style is how I roll and keep track.
Wednesday November 17 - 2 drinks an hour ago. Not my planned drinks day. I vaguely attempted a 6 minute wait, but am sure that I did not last 6 minutes. Caught a small buzz and really relaxed. I thought about what the wise poster said about it being our addictive brain being fed and then it feels better. Yeah, probably that. Call it what you will, it was lovely. I may still have drinks on my designated day, Friday.
Thursday November 18 - AF - Kind of felt like having drinks tonight, I put in a good long workday and was very productive. Decided to wait until tomorrow evening after work, designated drinks hours. Saturday I have a full scheduled day off after 8 in a row.
Rolling total: 14AF days out of 18 days.5 -
November accountability: 8/30 days AF
Alcohol: 10 days (21 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.
11/01 - 3 wine
11/02 - AF
11/03 - 2 wine
11/04 - 2 wine
11/05 - 3 wine
11/06 - 👩🍼☔️ 💜😊💜 AF
11/07 - 2 wine
11/08 - AF
11/09 - 🍓 AF
11/10 - AF
11/11 - Torchy’s Tini
11/12 - 2 wine
11/13 - 2 drinks 💜😊💜 (1 wine + 1 blackberry liqueur & soda water)
11/14 - 1 wine
11/15 - 📚 AF
11/16 - 3 wine
11/17 - 📚 AF
11/18 - 🍓 AF
11/19 - Plan 2 drinks 🍾🥂 38th wedding anniversary
3 evenings out socializing with friends ... book clubs and ZTA alumnae social and I remained AF even with the wine and margaritas flowing. 1 night with my sister and DH where I indulged in 3 glasses of wine at home. DH & I planned AF but when my sister showed up after her work of course the bottles opened.
Tonight a celebration at Ouisie's Table. Lovely restaurant in Houston if you are ever in the area.
4 -
Flower arranging class with my ZTA alumnae🍓 ... it was fun! Lots of open wine bottles but I brought my Yeti cup of water. An AF evening and a beautiful flower arrangement for my Thanksgiving table.
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@Lilylady3k sounds like so much fun, and what a beautiful arrangement!! I’m not involved at all with our local ZTA alumnae chapter. May be worth checking out. In the meantime… ZLAM!!
One glass of wine after work last night, and my weight is up. But, I also didn’t measure my food yesterday, which could explain why.
@ahoy_m8 great insights regarding weight fluctuations. Especially when trying to cut back on alcohol, we all seem to start out by eating more chocolate or salty snacks. Salt kills me. I swear, one half of a pickle at lunch and my weight is up the next day. Luckily all that stuff is temporary. But, it is alarming to see! Meanwhile, I’m dying for a Pastrami Reuben from this great Jewish deli nearby. Not only is it enough calories for my entire day, the pickles they serve with it are delicious. I’ll look like a Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon the next day, but it will be worth it!!!6 -
Checking in -
@Lilylady3k your photos are always so gorgeous. That looked like a wonderful time. Good job being AF.
AND Happy Anniversary to you. Enjoy your evening out tonight❣
Oh the evil scale as @ahoy_m8 has noted.
Also remember that working out and creating muscle makes the scale number go up. Muscle weighs more than fat. You can fit into a smaller dress or pant size and yet see an increase on the scale. I was an obsessed scale watcher when I was first trying to drop weight. I would get on several times a day🤔. A nutritionist told me that was not healthy for my mind set. Your body could actually be at the correct weight and size. But if your mind or eye has a number it WANTS to see on the scale it could put you into an unhealthy zone.
AF last night, a 5 day break from alcohol and a good nights sleep too.
Happy FRIDAY.
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Checking in -
@Lilylady3k your photos are always so gorgeous. That looked like a wonderful time. Good job being AF.
AND Happy Anniversary to you. Enjoy your evening out tonight❣
Oh the evil scale as @ahoy_m8 has noted.
Also remember that working out and creating muscle makes the scale number go up. Muscle weighs more than fat. You can fit into a smaller dress or pant size and yet see an increase on the scale. I was an obsessed scale watcher when I was first trying to drop weight. I would get on several times a day🤔. A nutritionist told me that was not healthy for my mind set. Your body could actually be at the correct weight and size. But if your mind or eye has a number it WANTS to see on the scale it could put you into an unhealthy zone.
AF last night, a 5 day break from alcohol and a good nights sleep too.
Happy FRIDAY.
@MissMay @ahoy_m8 - I totally agree with MissMay about working out, muscles weigh the same as fat but the scale doesn't reflect the loss in inches! My scale is going up since vacation in October but my pants are much looser and I keep having to hike them up! I just bought these jeans in August a size or 2 smaller than last year and though they are high waisted they are drifting down to my hips LOL.
LOVE my strength training class (lunges, squats, push ups, core, hand weights to music for an hour 2x per week). Though I did do something to a muscle in my shoulder/neck area last week and had to baby it this week ... probably the reason for the heavy drinking last weekend as well as the "what do I care" attitude regarding the food I'm consuming this week. The pain just will not go away and I'm feeding my feelings & pain.
Thanks for the reminder that I too need to step away from the scale ... and the extra food and dwell on my new good habits.
Oh and on the topic of sleeping. With or without alcohol I have always been an early riser. Usually up around 4-6am but I also go to bed usually around 9-11pm. At least getting 7 hrs each night except for the occasionally potty break.5 -
@globalhiker
Oh my, you sure are going hard. Do you see a break in sight, like a weekend off?
Big hugs!
4 -
@Lilylady3k I agree with you about strength training. I enjoy free weights but I do like to shake things up.
A pound is a pound is a pound...but..muscle takes up less space than fat! +++ the more muscle you have the more calories you burn all day =you can eat at higher calorie base if you wish.
Ok I am still looking at my meal prep options since the foods have to be appealing and fast. I do not like reheated roasted veggies unless they are in a soup, stew, sauce type thing.
So tonight I am going to try something a bit different and hope it works. I am going to make a bread dough then make a chicken pot pie stuffing then wrap that in the dough and bake. I hope it works, in my head it sounds good.
Last night I had 2 shots late in the evening, not even sure why I did it but I am learning to accept these things when they happen and practice self love, not self bullying.
btw those flowers are sooo pretty.5 -
@lmlmrn - One of my favorite meal preps is to make chicken sausage jambalaya but not mix in the rice. Freeze the mixture only in separate quart size bags. Then when we feel like a quick meal I can thaw, reheat and mix with rice ... easy peasy!
Of course I love soups & chili or fajitas for quesadillas, too!
Sometimes I'll make 2 batches of a main or side dish for dinner and freeze one for later.
I'm good at little baby steps like making a double recipe. I'm not good at prepping for the week. Love the idea but just never execute on my desire.5 -
@globalhiker A sunrise walk does sound good for the soul. Enjoy! I hear you, @Womona, about the shock of suddenly having a full house to cook (and shop!) for. And I've got young women, no teenage boys! The carefully planned pre-prep disappearing in the midnight 2nd dinner sounds all too real.
I'm enjoying the quiet before the storm at home alone tonight. DD#3 just screeched in from college, and she's at Hamilton with DD#1 & DH. DD#3 is the only one in our family who hasn't seen it, and I'm so happy for her to finally get to see it! Honestly, it changed how I see Broadway. DD#2 and my brother+fam arrive tomorrow. I drink more when my brother is around. I would love to learn how to break that code. I think what's going on is we don't see each other very often so we both get in the "special occasion" mindset. Every night for a week. Can't wait to see my nephew who was born on Thanksgiving day 2007. His birth is the sweetest story. The pandemic has been really hard on him, and I've missed him. We're celebrating his birthday Monday then Wednesday I'm having a "champagne toast" for my brother and his bride who eloped in May. We haven't seen them in 2 years! It will be 75F Wednesday, up from 34F earlier this week- crazy Texas weather! 12 at our Thanksgiving table and then chaos thereafter. Many people, many moving parts.
I'm not feeling strong resolve to stick to M-Th AF next week. Maybe one of you wise MFPs can offer perspective that stiffens my spine. I'm on board with the holidays-are-only-one-day mindset. I'm not sure what to do with the ancillary celebrations, however. I'm trying to justify weeknight drinking if I limit it to 2 & don't go over on calories.6 -
Want to be proud of myself but can’t for some reason. My boys are away for the night and it’s an evening with my girls. Usually I’d have a bottle of wine with our movie….no wine in the house and knew that while out and about today. Spent 25minutes torturing myself as to wether or not to stop off and get a bottle…. I didn’t, but for some reason it felt like a punishment! I knew if I got a bottle I would of drank all of it!! WHY!?
Gave myself 5A days for this month and so far I’m at 8 and over indulged every time 🤦♀️
The increase of alcohol this month has shown. My weight is on a gradual incline, 1lb a week!
Tomorrow is a new day!!!9 -
11/19 - 🍾🥂2 wine
Kept to my 2 glasses of wine last night at our anniversary dinner. We ordered a B&B or Benedictine straight up after dinner but they did not have any in stock, we did not stop at the liquor store on the way home, or a bar to indulge. And we did not open another bottle of wine we got home. Feeling pretty good and the stars were aligned to help keep me on point with my planned evening.
November accountability: 8/30 days AF
Alcohol: 11 days (23 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.5 -
Mouse_Potato wrote: »A welcome hello wave to @Mouse_Potato.
Hope you have been getting some helpful information. This is a great group and very dedicated.
😁
Thank you! I slept better last night. My next door neighbor has been working on his house and I think he's been sneaking in some very late sessions with a power saw. I am a light sleeper under the best of circumstances and I suspect maybe he's been contributing to my late night waking. With or without alcohol, I am just one of those people who needs everything *perfect* in order to sleep well.
Today will be day 11 AF for me. I do not have a specific goal in mind. I just wanted to get out of the habit of drinking every night before bed. I haven't seen all the benefits I'd hoped, but my RHR has gone from 68 bpm to 60 bpm, so that's big. My weight is going up, though. Does quitting alcohol cause water retention? My calories are actually way down over the last two weeks, so I'm not sure why the scale is going up. Too much sodium, perhaps? I seem to have avoided the sugar cravings, but I'm eating too much salt!
Good streak you have going! Scale weight is just a mysterious thing. Whenever one of my DD says her weight is up, I always ask HOW do you know? I track my weight every day, and in spite of that I remember times seeing a big number on my scale and impulsively wondering how I gained. Then I look at my daily weight log and I see the TREND is exactly as expected, it's just that the one higher number stands out more prominently in my brain. The brain is so devious! So I try to encourage my girls to ignore isolated data points and instead consider data in context, i.e. not the one high weight day but a couple weeks worth of ups & downs and how that averages out. I'm not aware of water retention associated with quitting alcohol, but it is associated with new exercise (muscle soreness), dehydration (ironically), replenishing glycogen stores, air travel, inflammation/swelling (allergies or injury), menstrual cycles, and who knows what else. I hope you see a mysterious drop on the scale that matches the mysterious increase.
Thank you for your informative response! Day 13 now, assuming I don't drink tonight. I've been weighing myself every day and my weight has crept up about 2 pounds and stayed there. I know that doesn't sound like much, but I don't fluctuate much. Or maybe it's my scale. I'm autistic, so I tend to eat the same things and do the same routines. I'm a very boring person. However, there have been a lot of factors involved lately. I took vacation at the beginning of last month and who knows how long that disturbance will affect the scale? I'm not concerned. I know my post count doesn't reflect it, but I've been here a long time. I've seen a lot of ups and downs and when I see an anomaly on the scale, it piques my curiosity. Right now, I suspect it's the sodium. I've been drinking energy drinks (which have a lot of sodium and I never had before) and the only foods that appeal to me right now are things like cheese and crackers. Oddly enough, when I quit drinking, my appetite just plummeted. Like, I recognize that I am hungry, but nothing sounds good. Bodies are strange! 5 -
I ended with 16AF days for October. My ongoing goal is 16-20 AF days.
November 28th 2018 was when I started on this thread. My late Dad's birthday.
I have learned to drink less over the past 3 years, although it was very tough at first weaning myself off of being a daily drinker.
Diary style is how I roll and keep track.
Wednesday November 17 - 2 drinks an hour ago. Not my planned drinks day. I vaguely attempted a 6 minute wait, but am sure that I did not last 6 minutes. Caught a small buzz and really relaxed. I thought about what the wise poster said about it being our addictive brain being fed and then it feels better. Yeah, probably that. Call it what you will, it was lovely. I may still have drinks on my designated day, Friday.
Thursday November 18 - AF - Kind of felt like having drinks tonight, I put in a good long workday and was very productive. Decided to wait until tomorrow evening after work, designated drinks hours. Saturday I have a full scheduled day off after 8 in a row.
Friday November 19 - Drinks - May have drinks Saturday also, Sunday off! Even though it will be laundry, cleaning, puttering, how nice to have some days off.
Rolling total: 14AF days out of 19 days.5 -
I ended with 16AF days for October. My ongoing goal is 16-20 AF days.
November 28th 2018 was when I started on this thread. My late Dad's birthday.
I have learned to drink less over the past 3 years, although it was very tough at first weaning myself off of being a daily drinker.
Diary style is how I roll and keep track.
Friday November 19 - Drinks - May have drinks Saturday also, Sunday off! Even though it will be laundry, cleaning, puttering, how nice to have some days off.
Saturday November 20 - 2 drinks. Nice relaxing day off, got lots done including more to the yard. Still some left to do there, but will do more Sunday.
Rolling total: 14AF days out of 20 days.3
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