LESS Alcohol ~ FEBRUARY 2023 ~ One Day at A Time

RubyRed427

@MissMay Beautiful photo! I'm so happy you are down south in warm weather.

globalhiker

I did cancel my gym membership. Life is too short to do things that just don't fit into my schedule. Classes were always full and the drive too long.

Instead I follow what makes me feel great and my goal is to clear out the stressors in my life. I re-started running 3-4x a week. On week 2. Mood is up, weight is down. I challenge you all to re-think what it is you love to do - and plan time for it.

Lots of people don't run and I thought I never could since I have asthma, but I did by just walking and running a bit on a local high school track, alternating it...and over time I got better and better. And it does help the calorie burn and the motivation level.

My plan is to fill up my day doing the things I love, which I have not made a priority. All of this has everything to do with drinking because for many of us (me too) drinking is used to fill up spaces in our lives that are not fulfilled or ones that we have neglected.

Sinisterbarbie1

Ruby’s post made me curious about the various options that are available these days for people who want to use medical assistance to reduce alcohol cravings either by blocking its effects (what naltrexone does) or by intentionally provoking ill effects in order to ensure that the person is not tempted to relapse. Here is what I found. . .

First some useful resources from NIH to calculate how much you are actually consuming and the weight , blood alcohol content and wallet impacts:
https://www.rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov/Tools/Calculators/calorie-calculator.aspx
https://alcohol.org/bac-calculator/
https://www.rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov/Tools/Calculators/Alcohol-Spending-Calculator.aspx
https://www.rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov/?_gl=1*liti17*_ga*MTYwNTQxNjg1My4xNjc1ODE4MzIy*_ga_E2D8B2PVE9*MTY3NTgxOTk1Mi4xLjAuMTY3NTgxOTk2MC4wLjAuMA..

And here is a guide (also from NIH) for physicians on the use of medication in treating alcohol use disorder. It has interesting advice on how/for whom the medicines work best and how they can be prescribed:
https://store.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/d7/priv/sma15-4907.pdf

I was sad to see that these are all old drugs (though the report is also a bit old, so maybe there are newer things not reported here). I am not a scientist, but there seems to be so much research these days about the gut-mind connection and how important the microbiome is for pretty much everything … it makes me wonder whether we might someday discover that there is a connection here as well that can be exploited in ways far more nuanced than merely blocking alcohol’s effects after you have already consumed it or making one throw up as a consequence of imbibing. For instance maybe there is some gut flora missing (or present in too high a quantity?) in people who use alcohol excessively that produces a reaction when encountering it again that can be tempered in a nuanced way so that our guts/brains reset back to a time prior to ever having been exposed to alcohol so we just don’t care about it? It seems like part of the challenge with the drugs is being/staying motivated to take the drugs - so addressing that motivation problem would probably help a lot of people. I sort of doubt there is anyone actively funding the development of any new drugs in this space. I think these current uses may have been unintentional discoveries when researching pain medicines (many act on opioid receptors)
Anyway…. Good luck to all!

Lilylady3k

February accountability: 2 days AF
Alcohol: 5 days (8 drinks)
Goal: Limit 2 glasses per day; 12-16 AF days this month.


2/7 - 2 wine; Central Market Cooking School Sauteing and French Pan Sauces with 1 glass of white and red wine each.

globalhiker

Agree with @ahoy_m8, if you want to spring for NA spirits, Ritual Tequila is the best of the bunch. I went thru 3 bottles in Dec and Jan and that helped me AF it. Mix it with a bit of 100% cranberry and you will want another one. But the AF tequila is like 5 or 10 calories....:). No complaints.

I bought both lemons and red grapefruits and plan to just squirt those in seltzer this week. I figured this provides me with maximum vitamins, less plastic and chemicals. One can hope.

siberiantarragon

SunnyDays930 wrote: »

Happy February Everyone Day 4 for me AF. I slept 5.5 hours straight which is a miracle for me. Hopefully that will keep improving. Thank you Miss May for continuing this challenge. It certainly helps keep me accountable. Good luck to all with your personal goals.

Not sure if you are open to prescription medication but I have a lot of insomnia problems and I was recently prescribed hydroxyzine and it really helps. I take it and within 15 minutes I can barely keep my eyes open and I have a great night's sleep.

Anyway kind of an alcohol update. I'm not exactly in the same situation as you guys since I never was a particularly big drinker but I can't drink much due to medication which poses its own set of difficulties. Last week one of my friends passed away unexpectedly and at the memorial I got pretty drunk, as did most people. It was my first time getting actually drunk since July. I think I only had about three glasses of wine (which is one more than my doctor recommended me to have while on medication) but since I have no tolerance anymore that got me pretty drunk. I didn't get heartburn or nausea or a hangover which is good but I did start eating everything in sight at the snack table thing they had there which also was probably related to eating my feelings type of grief thing. I ate like half a package of pine nut cookies, a bunch of cheese, crackers, candy, etc. And I would have both eaten and drank more if I didn't force myself to stop. However I think it deserves a pass under the extenuating circumstances. It was definitely a comfort thing, especially the cookies I found to be comforting to eat.

On Saturday I went to a house party and while I didn't drink that much (only about two drinks), again I had to tell myself to stop. Also today I randomly wanted to have a drink while at home but decided not to since I'd either have to open a bottle of wine or open a fairly large sized beer since that's all we have, and I didn't want to drink that much.

I think that if I go a while without drinking then I get some kind of FOMO where it's harder to have an off switch. This also happened after the COVID lockdowns. I didn't drink during the lockdowns since it seemed like that would not lead to anything good. Then once lockdown ended I was going out a lot more than previously and drinking more than I ever had (which is still probably not that much compared to a lot of people, since I have a low tolerance) and also eating everything in sight since that's what usually happens when I get really drunk. So I gained like ten pounds that fall and winter LOL. After a few months it evened out though because I guess I got it out of my system.

It also doesn't help that a lot of my friends are kind of alcoholics. They aren't the kind where you could tell, they're like professional successful people and all that. I always knew they drank more than me whenever we went out. But I especially noticed that there might be a problem when I went on a girl's trip with some friends this summer. It's like...you're really going to drink 5 or 6 drinks a night for 4 nights in a row?

joans1976

Hey everyone, I’m Amanda. I live in Michigan and it is freezing and gray here but at least it’s staying light out past 5 pm now. ☀️
I joined this lovely thread in the summer of 2022 and it has made a huge difference in my life! I’ve gone from being 25% AF to 98% AF.

The people here are kind and real and smart and fun! Welcome to all newcomers!

2/1-2/7: 6 out of 7 AF

SunnyDays930

Last night I took half of my husband's prescription gummy (legal in our state) and slept like a baby. It was heavenly. I don't want to become dependent on these though. I will just take occasionally. I do have a lorazapam prescription for anxiety but these I take VERY infrequently and only in what feels like an emergency. These also put me right to sleep. I would love to learn to sleep naturally as I know how important it is is to our complete well being and especially mental health.

tmbg1

2/1- 2/2- 2/3 -2/4 - A
2/5 - AF
2/6 - AF
2/7 - AF
2/8 - AF

MissMay

New, very low alcohol 2.5% =130 calories beverage. I am planning to buy this when I get to Las Vegas and have at our resort.

MissMay

Glad everyone enjoyed the sunset photo.
It was Navarre beach which is in the panhandle of Florida.

MissMay

So 2013 was my very first trip out to Las Vegas. A huge deal as my then significant other and I made advance plans to be married there when we arrived.

The flight was an early one (5:00am) that day and we decided to stay over night at the airport hotel the evening before our flight.

BAD IDEA! They had a free shuttle service all night long. We got to the hotel at 3:00pm and started with one drink in the lounge there.

Then hopped the shuttle. After being driven around town bar hopping with the excitement of going to Las Vegas and being married there, well my drinking brain was in charge.

Have you ever gotten on an airplane with a drunken hangover? It is the WORST. Once in Vegas I just wanted to sleep in the shade at the pool. I only had 27 hours before my wedding to try and pull myself together.

UGH, so now each time I return there I try to recapture those golden moments lost my first trip because of too much drinking the night before.

RockinRobyn672

@SunnyDays930 Do you have a heart doctor? I developed AFib in my early 50s and it worsened over time. Mine would flare up big time when I did aerobic activities, mostly when swimming or running. I could really feel it at night when trying to sleep. Long story short, I went to a heart doctor who connected me with a great heart-rhythm doctor in 2018 and I had an ablation. I haven't had trouble since. It really made a difference in my quality of life.

RockinRobyn672

@RubyRed427 I hope you can stay connected with your therapist or can find another good one!

RockinRobyn672

Hi - Robyn here in SE Virginia. My goal is 16+ AF days per month. I had 18 AF days last month. I'm drinking less for health and weight loss. I post the next morning.

2/6: AF
2/7: AF - I'm in a funk right now. My weight is up and I have a long list of to-dos at work and at home that I continue to avoid just doing. I'm not making a lot of progress on any front. Ugh. I'll work through this and know what to do but can I whine just a little?

Rolling Total: 4 AF Days out of 7

RockinRobyn672

@MissMay I know you're going to have a marvelous time in Las Vegas!

dawnbgethealthy

@RockinRobyn672
Yay that your boot is off!!

dawnbgethealthy

Chiming in on the AF spirits.
The taste is a big thing for me with alcohol drinks, but also the effect.
Sometimes when I make a frozen N/A drink it just makes me want the real thing and the buzz.
N/A beer works for me because I don't drink beer. I choose only those that are 35 calories or less.
If I have a gin martini or a manhattan they are 60-80 calories - but all alcohol leads to snacking with me.

dawnbgethealthy

I am in.

I am Dawn, I live in SE BC Canada
My ongoing goal remains, 16-20 AF days per month.
I had 17AF days for January (a long month)

I do this diary style to keep track, and I post the next morning

Saturday Feb 04 - Drinks, one of them out. Having a nice Sunday so far. Plan is AF today, and to stay above 50% for the rest of the month. Planned drinks (and dinner) pre-ballet Wednesday (Cinderella).
Sunday Feb 05 - AF - Felt tempted watching the Grammy's, but didn't imbibe.
Monday Feb 06 - AF - Had some work stress and definitely wanted to have drinks afterward, but didn't. Planned AF for Tuesday so as to be "fresh" to enjoy the ballet on Wednesday.
Tuesday Feb 07 - AF - Felt like having drinks as usual, but planning on drinks pre and post ballet so could wait.

Rolling total: 5AF days out of 7 days. 50% AF won't cut it to reach my goal in 28 days (reminder to self)

itladyee

Thank all for the feedback on the AF Spirits.
@tmbg1 ~ I agree, the bottle looks interesting but at $32.00 a bottle, I will pass! They should have sample sizes!
@ahoy_m8 ~ I would love to visit a AF shop to see the options available. I will look for the Ritual Tequila!
@lmlmrn ~ I have not had any success with AF wine. I'd rather just drink juices and I have found some low calorie, low sugar ones to drink. I am primarily a wine drinker but thought maybe an AF spirit could be a fun substitution.
@globalhiker ~ Thanks for your 2nd on Ritual Tequila!
@Missmay ~ Enjoy your stay and memories of Vegas. Vegas is my "go to" place! Let us know if you like the Schofferhofers. They look refreshing!