Less Alcohol ~ JANUARY 2022 ~ One Day At A Time

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  • NVintage
    NVintage Posts: 1,463 Member
    Jan3-9th-1 Light beer
    Jan 14th=2 glasses of wine

    <3 Me and alcohol/drugs....
    There are signs that can help you understand what is going on and if the love you are feeling for someone is being reciprocated. Some people describe feeling as if they are getting "mixed signals" from a love interest only to find that it is, in fact, unrequited love.
    https://www.verywellmind.com/unrequited-love-4175362
  • sarah7591
    sarah7591 Posts: 415 Member
    Xellercin wrote: »
    sarah7591 wrote: »
    Xellercin wrote: »
    sarah7591 wrote: »
    Day 15 here....and was very wobbly last night. I kept thinking...oh what the heck...why not. I didn't and glad for that. Woke up feeling rested.

    Awesome. Every time you do this, you gain so much capacity to say no.

    @Xellercin Thank you for the encouragement....I needed that today!

    I hear you. When you have a day where you know you struggled not to drink, it's easy to feel weak or vulnerable or focus on how close you came to drinking and feel discouraged. But really, it's those days where you are SO CLOSE to drinking, but you don't, those are the days where you are really flexing your sobriety muscle and getting stronger. It doesn't feel like that when it happens, but if/when you get to a point where you feel you have total control over your drinking, you will look bad at those moments and know that THOSE are the moments, the hard decisions, where you stood your ground and changed your life.

    For me, it was the first week sober, I think just a few days in, and I went to my sister in law's and then the next day to a party with a bunch of strangers. I so badly wanted to delay my start until after those two events. I was miserable at both, and left both early because I was so unhappy forcing myself not to drink. I really felt like a lost cause after those events, knowing I was so close to giving in and drinking that I did not feel string at all.

    Yet, those two days now feel like the turning point. Whenever I scan back over the last two years of sobriety, I always land on those two events and remember that I came so close to drinking, but I didn't, and that's what showed me what I could do, even in the face of massive temptation. Even on the knife's edge of saying yes, I said no.

    It didn't feel like strength at the time, but in retrospect, doing that proved that I could say no whenever I set my mind to it.

    Remember, every time you drink when you planned not to, you have trained your brain to believe that you can't say no. So every time you do manage to say no when you feel like you really, really want to, that's a huge win in training your brain to realize that you CAN say no. The more of those you build up, the more you will believe in your own ability to decide when to drink and when not to drink, as opposed to feeling like giving into cravings is your only option.

    The more you believe in yourself, the more you can trust yourself. So it may not feel like a big deal, but it really, really is.

    Strength is not finding things easy, strength is finding them bloody hard and doing them anyway.

    @Xellercin Thank you again for such excellent advice. Yes, each time I resist it makes me stronger.
  • MissMay
    MissMay Posts: 3,738 Member
    @globalhiker sorry to hear you have been.so ill. Healing thoughts your way 🧘‍♀️
  • Lilylady3k
    Lilylady3k Posts: 4,000 Member
    @globalhiker - Sending you healing vibes!

    @cowgirlslikeus86 - You faced one of the hardest challenges ... doing what you planned instead of giving in to the people you are with and the surroundings! CONGRATS! And wonderful that you found out how you thought someone would react to you not drinking ... was only a fear but not a reality.

    @sarah7591 - YEAH! You didn't give in to the old "Why Not"!

    @crb426 - I agree. A lot of people think drinking helps them sleep better. But in reality that sleep deeply for an hour or two then the rest of the night is very restless sleep. Sleep is very important for our health! @dawnbgethealthy posted a wonderful chart on the benefits of sleep or really all the health issues due to lack of sleep on another thread. Very insightful
  • Fit_Happens_2021
    Fit_Happens_2021 Posts: 303 Member
    edited January 2022
    @GiveHerGrace Congrats on your 3 weeks AF! I find a lot of things Annie says very inspiring.
    One that I really liked this week was
    "Take care of your incredible body it is the most amazing thing you own, and it is the only place you truly have to live."

    @globalhiker Hope you are feeling better soon.

    @Sarah7591 Good job and sticking with it, I had a night like yours last night. I was sorely tempted, so I made a bargain with myself that I would watch the next TAE video and do the journal, and if I still wanted one after that I would go ahead, but by the time I finished I was past the craving.

    Day 15 AF - Half way point on the dry January that I didn't really set out to do, we shall see, still one day at a time.
    67% of those who complete dry January report that they drink less during the rest of the year than they did the year before, and 8% stay AF.
  • Turtlemummy
    Turtlemummy Posts: 71 Member
    Hi, all, just checking in.
    Running total including today:
    8 normal drinking
    1 much reduced drinking
    6 AF

    AF will continue for a couple of days since I'm working, so I can't count that as a win, since I wouldn't drink anyway when working nights. What will be a win, however, is if I get to Friday with only a couple of drink days and not go crazy next weekend!0
  • dawnbgethealthy
    dawnbgethealthy Posts: 7,873 Member
    @Xellercin

    I am in Canada too, south east BC. Where are you that it is minus 34?
  • Lilylady3k
    Lilylady3k Posts: 4,000 Member
    Feeling good so far about my choices this month though I did go over the limit and drink 3 glasses of wine. Easy to do when you have 2-3 bottles of wine open and available. So far though so good on AF vs A days for the month. I'm not staring down 15 days of drinking and thinking how the heck am I going to get my 12-16 days in this month. LOL I'm more than half way to that goal!

    January accountability: 7/15 days AF
    Alcohol: 8 days (18 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.

    1/1 - AF
    1/2 - 1 wine
    1/3 - 2 wine
    1/4 - AF
    1/5 - 3 wine
    1/6 - 3 wine
    1/7 - 1 wine
    1/8 - 2 drinks - 1 beer @ lunch + 1 wine @ dinner
    1/9 - AF
    1/10 - AF
    1/11 - AF
    1/12 - AF
    1/13 - 3 wine
    1/14 - AF
    1/15 - 3 wine
  • Xellercin
    Xellercin Posts: 924 Member
    dawnbgethealthy wrote: »
    @Xellercin

    I am in Canada too, south east BC. Where are you that it is minus 34?

    Eastern Ontario, much, much colder here
  • tmbg1
    tmbg1 Posts: 1,433 Member

    Jan 1-6 AF
    Jan 7-9 Had wine
    Jan 10- 12 AF
    Jan 13-15 had wine but not too much
  • dawnbgethealthy
    dawnbgethealthy Posts: 7,873 Member
    My usual goal, 16-20 AF days per month.

    My schedule pretty much dictates my AF days.
    I will be AF on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays for the next few months.

    Diary style is how I keep track


    Saturday Jan 15th - 2 drinks. Time to rack up some more AF days.

    Rolling total: 8AF days out of 15 days.
  • LazyBlondeChef
    LazyBlondeChef Posts: 2,809 Member
    @MissMay You are a great steward of this monthly group. I appreciate the regular participants here because it is such an encouraging space.

    Yesterday I made a double mojito mocktail (aka as nojito) using this recipe as a guide:
    https://www.culinaryhill.com/mojito-mocktail-recipe

    I used simple syrup rather than sugar. I do a 1/3 sugar to 2/3 water when I make simple syrup as it's otherwise too sweet. For my double I used only 2.5tbsp of simple syrup which provided the right balance for me. I'm more of a savory person and don't have a sweet tooth.

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