LESS Alcohol ~ JANUARY 2023 ~ One Day At A Time
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I LOVE all the pictures...thank you ! And well said @MissMay - Agree the mission of this group is not a short-term challenge, it is a self-discovery journey into finding our happiest and healthiest selves.
Day 11 AF. I do still have 3 Lagunitas IPNA in the fridge in case I need them. They are great. If I get an urge to drink, even during work if someone has irritated me, I can go and have a few sips and that really works. Goes to show how much of this is mental.
My plan for tomorrow is to re-focus away from "me" and on the people in my immediate circle and see how I can help them.
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@lmlmrn you totally sound like me the first two weeks I stopped drinking. I was eating anything hat was snack-like. Nothing wrong with Rolos (well, a bit too sweet) but Ghirardelhi semi-sweet chocolate chips though is where it's at. I had a little bowl of those every night during weeks one and two with no wine, and they did the trick.
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Jan 1- AF
Jan 2 - AF
Jan 3 - AF
Jan 4 - AF
Jan 5 - 6- 7- A
Jan 8 - AF
Jan 9 - AF
Jan 10 - AF
Jan 11 - AF- had a few drops of ashwagandha in my water to calm my nerves- worked like a charm!6 -
DH and I usually go to our local fav place on Wednesday nights (it’s “burger night”). We go early, the bartenders know to give me my “special glass” and top it with Prosecco… we stay for a few, order food to go and home by 8. Last night, DH asked if I wanted to go. I said I didn’t really want to go there and not drink. He said “what? You sound like an alcoholic!” Ok, I know I might be a bit oversensitive and irritable, but I took that really hard. Am I unreasonable to think that it is normal for someone to not want to sit literally at a bar and have a glass of Diet Coke, when my habit was usually to enjoy my favorite drink? I did let him know that I didn’t like or appreciate that comment, and he did apologize.
Anyway, AF last night. And no burger either. 😜
Happy Thursday,
Georgia
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Hello! It’s Amanda, I’m back. It’s a new month and a new year! I’ve been thinking about 2022 and 2023. I’ve got some goals for the year and staying 98% AF is one of them. I love this group, I love this thread, it really works.
1/1-1/7: 7 out of 7 AF
1/8: AF
1/9: AF
1/10: AF
Had some cravings yesterday. Just one little drink. Then I thought about the dry mouth, the racing heart beat, the nausea and heartburn and kicked the craving right out of my head!
18 days AF
1/11: AF
More cravings yesterday. I feel like the more I lose control of things around me, the more I want a drink. I joined a cancer support group yesterday, I had to be interviewed for it, to make sure I was “the right fit.” This must be one helluva group! I have an MRI and CT scan tonight after work, yeehaw! I’m going to do my best to not drink when I get home. Maybe I’ll be too tired.
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@GeeBee08505 Georgia, Way to stand up for you! On the alcohol and burger front.
I also wanted to say I saw you on the Success Stories page and you are awe inspiring. Glad to have you here with us!3 -
1/11: AF - We stayed AF last night. The Lagunitas NAs go a lot faster when there are two of us drinking them. The plan is still AF until the weekend.
Rolling Total: 8 AF Days out of 11
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@mfowler883 Glad that no stiches were required! Your story brought back some great memories. They're not as fancy as yours but I have several pocket knives that were my dad's. He always kept them very sharp. One is worn down in it's width due to the repeated sharpening over the years.4
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@joans1976 Big virtual hugs to you.3
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@dawnbgethealthy Thanks for the new dance cardio videos! I can't wait to check them out. Love that he pulled in Grandma and Mom! I'll have to do it before next Wednesday's foot surgery!3
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mfowler883 wrote: »AF tonight, eating better and slowly getting back on track.
Took a massive chunk off of my finger after using new sharpening stones I picked up at SMKW to put my old Calphalon Katana knives back in shape. It's awesome when they're properly sharp. I took the first one done down to the kitchen sink to wash it and put it away and shwippp, the nerves in my finger all stood up and said WHAT WAS THAT? Look down and wait for the blood to come, just thinking I'm glad it wasn't deeper...
-m
Ouch!!! I’ve sliced open my fingers not once but twice while handling knives, so I literally feel your pain!!!!!3 -
dawnbgethealthy wrote: »@MissMay
Spectacular photos!!! Do you have an actual camera or were those taken with your phone?
So lovely.
OMG Dawn thank you for the hilarious laugh from those vids. How can you not like that dude, right?
Take care of that ankle if you go skating. YEESH!
My husband's Uncle has an amazing fancy huge camera and he was showing me how to use it the other night and those are the photos I snapped with it. Any other time the photos are just from my phone camera.
The photos are absolutely beautiful!!!! Nice work!2 -
@joans1976 I think it’s totally normal to want to reach for a drink when things around you are out of your control- which is why we are all here!!!! It is hard to resist when we just want to numb out. But, you’ve been doing so great cutting way back on alcohol despite all you’ve been through lately. So, kudos to you!!! And hugs!!! Hope you get good results from your MRI and CT scans.4
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Thank you @Womona@joans1976 I think it’s totally normal to want to reach for a drink when things around you are out of your control- which is why we are all here!!!! It is hard to resist when we just want to numb out. But, you’ve been doing so great cutting way back on alcohol despite all you’ve been through lately. So, kudos to you!!! And hugs!!! Hope you get good results from your MRI and CT scans.
I seriously want to hide under the covers and just skip the scans, the chemo, work, all of it. Or get on a plane to Bali. Or adopt a cat. I’m going to lean heavily on some support today, I need it. I appreciate all the support here.
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I did one of those fitness marshall videos this morning and by did I mean kind of marched along. That is dude is wild and way more flexible than I am! I love him. What fun and thank you for posting.5
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Hello everyone
Well broke my alcohol rule this week. Went for beer and lunch yesterday afternoon. Stopped at 2 so that is good. But last night, I face planted into a bag of rolo's, butter mints and cheese puffs. ... as I drank mocktails. Go figure?
My body is sore from working out Monday and Tuesday. Taking two weeks off may have not been a good idea.
ok going to scoot
Look on the bright side lmlmrn
"Soreness is just weakness leaving the body" as my old Troop Sergeant used to say
(Mind you it was a lot easier to buy that line in my 20s as apposed to pushing 50 LOL)3 -
11 Days AF for January.....
Sooooooo much easier with my wife joining in
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GeeBee08505 wrote: »DH and I usually go to our local fav place on Wednesday nights (it’s “burger night”). We go early, the bartenders know to give me my “special glass” and top it with Prosecco… we stay for a few, order food to go and home by 8. Last night, DH asked if I wanted to go. I said I didn’t really want to go there and not drink. He said “what? You sound like an alcoholic!” Ok, I know I might be a bit oversensitive and irritable, but I took that really hard. Am I unreasonable to think that it is normal for someone to not want to sit literally at a bar and have a glass of Diet Coke, when my habit was usually to enjoy my favorite drink? I did let him know that I didn’t like or appreciate that comment, and he did apologize.
Anyway, AF last night. And no burger either. 😜
Happy Thursday,
Georgia
Georgia this is a great post and question.
What you feel from comments like that are normal. It may take a little while to have the tables turn where comments roll off your back like water.
Remember we have been programed to think sitting at a high top counter ( that is all it really is) inside a food establishment requires us to consume alcohol. It does not.
Long ago there were places called soda fountains where you could go sit at a high top counters and enjoy
icecream sodas. There was no alcohol served.
Stick to your beliefs. It is more FEAR from those making the comment than it is them making an assumption about why you don't want alcohol.
I like the path your taking. Who knows you might even have an unnoticed influence on someone else that knows your out being social, yet AF at the same time.10 -
@MissMay - thank you for your kind words. 5
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mfowler883 wrote: »AF tonight, eating better and slowly getting back on track.
Took a massive chunk off of my finger after using new sharpening stones I picked up at SMKW to put my old Calphalon Katana knives back in shape. It's awesome when they're properly sharp. I took the first one done down to the kitchen sink to wash it and put it away and shwippp, the nerves in my finger all stood up and said WHAT WAS THAT? Look down and wait for the blood to come, just thinking I'm glad it wasn't deeper...
-m
Ouch!!! I’ve sliced open my fingers not once but twice while handling knives, so I literally feel your pain!!!!!
I've done it more times than I care to count. I was telling my son, play with sharp things enough and you will eventually get cut.RockinRobyn672 wrote: »@mfowler883 Glad that no stiches were required! Your story brought back some great memories. They're not as fancy as yours but I have several pocket knives that were my dad's. He always kept them very sharp. One is worn down in it's width due to the repeated sharpening over the years.
I have a few, but not all of my knives are fancy. My day to day kitchen knives are inexpensive Farberwares that do just fine for most tasks, and I have several not so fancy pocket knives. I got one of Dad's old pocket knives a while back, it's nothing particularly desirable, an old Kamp King that he carried throughout most of my childhood. Like yours, the blade is pretty heavily worn from use and sharpening. A couple years ago, he gave me a stone that I had always seen in his toolbox. It was smallish, and shiny black. He says it's been in the family since at least his grandfather, but I wonder if it's been around longer than that. One day, as I was sitting at my desk pondering how many strokes of how many blades had worn the edges of that stone over the years, I noticed that the black was rubbing off on my thumb and revealing a buttery yellow underneath. I took it to the kitchen and scrubbed the hell out of it, and most of the swarf came away to reveal what appears to be a Belgian coticule, likely quarried at Ardennes. I used a diamond lapping block to flatten it and it quickly became one of my go-to stones for sharpening. One reason I suspect that it is older than thought, is that most veins of yellow coticule are fairly thin. The thick parts were all quarried ages and ages ago, and thin slabs of yellow coticule have been glued to blue slate backings for a very long time.
Now that I have the new Arkansas stones, the coticule will be more or less retired as an heirloom.
Fancy knives....those would be...lemme see. Boker Applegate-Fairbairn Combat II dagger is pretty cool. Benchmade Barrage Mini was my first really good one, and the full size Barrage first production run, 402 of 1000, that's been my everyday knife for a few years now. The Benchmade Phaeton I got in November and the Microtech Ultratech D/E I just got, those are pretty slick. In the kitchen, I think just the Calphalon Katana 7" slicer and 7" santoku count as fancy. The One That Got Away was a SOG Tech II bowie from the early 2000s that was stolen from me. If and when you find one now, they're getting more and more expensive.@mfowler883
OHhhhhhh dang that must really smart. I've done almost the same thing right after sharpening.
It isn't as bad as I expected it to be. I don't mind things that hurt, but I've been cut enough to get that rolling in my stomach when I feel that nameless sensation that only comes with a very sharp knife going in...it's a little tender today but healing faster than I thought it would. Now I have nicks on my thumb and middle finger to go with it from working with two more kitchen knives. O_oGeeBee08505 wrote: »DH and I usually go to our local fav place on Wednesday nights (it’s “burger night”). We go early, the bartenders know to give me my “special glass” and top it with Prosecco… we stay for a few, order food to go and home by 8. Last night, DH asked if I wanted to go. I said I didn’t really want to go there and not drink. He said “what? You sound like an alcoholic!” Ok, I know I might be a bit oversensitive and irritable, but I took that really hard. Am I unreasonable to think that it is normal for someone to not want to sit literally at a bar and have a glass of Diet Coke, when my habit was usually to enjoy my favorite drink? I did let him know that I didn’t like or appreciate that comment, and he did apologize.
Anyway, AF last night. And no burger either. 😜
Happy Thursday,
Georgia
I feel this.
I totally get the desire to not put one's self in a setting where one customarily drinks alcohol, served by somebody who expects to serve you alcohol, surrounded by people who are consuming alcohol, when trying to form a new habit of not drinking as much alcohol. There's nothing wrong with not wanting to place yourself there.
I totally get the irritation at a comment like that; it's not unlike my irritation at the comments that I should just eat unhealthy foods in unhealthy portions just because it's a holiday or vacation or something without consideration for my desire - no, my need to not do that. I hope that the resulting discussion led to better understanding.
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@GeeBee08505 I enjoy going and sitting at the bar whether my husband drinks or not. It took me a while to feel comfortable having an NA drink. I felt like everyone was looking at me or some nonsense. However when I look around now, I see lots of people having a seltzer or soda or something NA. But I agree, it is not our usual "thing" so it doesn't feel right. I believe with practice you will be able to go enjoy that burger with something AF if you so choose.
The word "alcoholic" has fallen out of favor because it is so loaded and it is a label. I'm not surprised you were annoyed and taken aback. Today Dr's refer to it as having alcohol use disorder. No one wants to be labled for life. I am a former smoker but would not refer to myself as a smokaholic. I quit and it is over.10 -
Some of the highlights of my collection of assorted stabby cutty things:
Top row, left to right:
Boker Applegate-Fairbairn Combat II; Ontario SP-6 Spec Plus Fighter
Middle row, left to right:
CRKT Folts Minimalist Cleaver in D2; CRKT Folts Minimalist Bowie; CRKT Folts Minimalist Keramin; Microtech Ultratech D/E stonewash; Benchmade Phaeton; Benchmade Barrage first production 402 of 1000; Benchmade Mini Barrage
Bottom row, left to right:
Kamp King from ebay; Kamp King from Dad; Boker Kalashnikov 74 auto that has seen better days but was my EDC for years; Small fixed blade by Mookooman Inini, a.k.a. Ed Wzientek, found in a tourist trap in Williams, AZ
The stuff that keeps the stabby cutty things stabby cutty:
Top row:
Sharpie pen and loupe for checking bevels, 4-sided diamond block for lapping stones and setting bevels, soft Arkansas, hard Arkansas, surgical Arkansas, a ridiculously hard mystery stone that I've had for ages, homemade wood backed leather strop with green compound. (Food grade mineral oil for the Arkansas stones)
Bottom row:
Mystery stone that lives in my toolbox for quick and dirty touch-ups, small fine diamond block, and Dad's coticule.
Today, I'll try to get some of the better shots from the TN trip. First few days back have been chaotic and I haven't even touched the camera.
-m
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Oh hey...(Yes, this is pretty much the only thread where I bother commenting. Y'all are my peeps now, so you get to be subjected to my off topic rambling from time to time. Nothing but love for y'all...)
So while we were in Pigeon Forge, we stopped every day at this little place, Smoky Mountain Espresso, and while I mixed up my order, Americano, latte, etc, she got hooked on their chai latte. When we got home, she decided she wanted the means to make our own, so off the the store to buy a cappuccino machine. First attempts didn't work out super great, so back to the store to grab a Bodum milk frother, which really completes the setup.
Slight tangent: last summer, I got on an Arabic coffee trip, bought a cezve and some finely ground medium roast with green cardamom from the local middle eastern grocery. Yummy stuff, but tricky to get just right.
So anyway, I think this is probably some sort of crime or sin or something, but I made a cappuccino with that Arabic coffee with cardamom and almond milk, and a little Swerve brown sugar. I know when I asked for pointers from one of my Jordanian neighbors and mentioned putting sugar in my coffee, he looked at me like I was some kind of lunatic. I can only imagine the face he'd make if he knew what I've just done. I suspect the Italians would feel about the same.
Any time you find yourself in the Pigeon Forge/Sevierville area, I highly recommend that shop, BTW, excellent coffee, excellent staff and a really cool pay it forward thing where you can buy a coffee cup sleeve, write a little something on it and pin it to the wall; somebody who needs a little pick-me-up can take one off the wall and redeem it for coffee.
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@GeeBee08505 I don't think you sound like an alcoholic, you sound like a habit-holic! I can totally understand not wanting to go to a place where you have instilled habits like sitting at the bar with your favorite drink. Maybe next time you can go but sit at a table instead? Or chose a different place for your date night once in a while. Or even have your date night at home with homemade burgers?7
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One of the things I notice is that now that my husband and I no longer drink alcohol we do so many different things. Before all of our entertainment seemed to revolve around eating and drinking - either at home or out. Even with our eldercare responsibilities keeping us close to/in the house, we still do more than we used to. Breaking habits was great for breaking out of old ruts too.5
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The recent posts about "alcoholics" has had me revisiting my conclusions about myself.
When I was a pre-teen there was a casual family discussion about drinking because my aunt's husband was never without a "beverage" in his hand, even when driving. He was not often around, but when he was, he would take me riding around in his car, punching radio buttons with one hand and sipping with the other. My Daddy decided that I should no longer go riding with Uncle, and explained to me that Uncle was an alcoholic, and that he himself was an alcoholic. "But, Daddy, you don't drink" ..."And that is why I don't drink." Apparently when he enlisted in the Marines as a child, he was introduced to hard drinking and thankfully lived to regret it. They kicked him out when they found out his true age, and a couple years later he enlisted in the Army [WWII patriotic fever & all that]. After all the kids were grown & out of the house, he was the one to mow our acres with a push mower. He kept a 6 pack of beer in the rec room fridge and had exactly one, every 2 weeks after mowing. Me, I used to do it for a glass bottle of Pepsi...
After my first marriage went down in flames, I ended up a single mother working as a bartender in a fine dining restaurant. I didn't drink, and at the beginning was pouring booze with one hand and consulting Hoyle's with the other....WTF is a Singapore Sling ???? I wasn't hired for my expertise, just by virtue of being young-cute-perky. Many years-careers-states afterwards I had begun to drink socially, then stop for years as my lifestyle changed, and begin again. Eventually it was just an enjoyable habit. I rarely drink away from home...gotta drive afterwards...don't want to be responsible for the horrors of a drunk accident.
Long ago decided that I am an alcoholic, because just stopping at one or two glasses works for a while....then all of a sudden, it's the whole wine bottle. Quiting for a month or even a year isn't terribly difficult, just let it ride, but moderation sucks. I really, really like the taste and the "chill". The "experts" say that an alcoholic absolutely cannot drink "a little".
Even so, I keep trying. Definition of insanity, right ?? I do not find the word "alcoholic" demeaning or offensive, just a description of someone whose body or mind cannot resist that stimulant without great effort, sometimes more effort than they are capable of at the time.
My heart hurts for those who have signifigant others that can't or don't try to understand the stuggle. And I am also guilty of judging my "drunk ex-SIL" . At least he has served as an excellent example for my grandson as to what NOT to do.
Enough self-absorbed ramblings...Remember, tomorrow, Friday, is the day that New Year's Resolutions come tumbling down...keep the cork in the bottle...hop on the treadmill at 6 am....oatmeal, not Fruit Loops...smile at the idiot co-worker....your spouse is NOT the only one who can take out the trash...
Ciao [Trisha] /Meow [Catpuccino]
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@mfowler883 that is quite the knife collection I must say.
And I thought you were speaking of sharpening your kitchen knives. SILLY ME!6 -
January accountability: 6 days AF
Alcohol: 6 days (16 drinks)
Goal: Limit 2 glasses per day; 20-25 AF days this month. I usually target 12-16 AF days each month which is usually a challenge … hitting 20 days since DH backed out of his dry January commitment is definitely influencing me to join him on weekdays I had not planned when setting the goal. Going for it anyway!
1/12 - 3 drinks ; 2 wine + 1 bourbon & coke - Dining out with friends we’ve not seen in 30 years.3
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