2014 Goal

meljoemom

Okay friends and neighbors, time to put up or shut up!

My goal is to cut out drinking on weekdays, no drinking on weekends unless AFTER a workout (Friday is a weekend day after work), with Sunday being a free day unless I don't get a workout in another day of the week. Today I am on holiday, but it IS a weekday. If I actually get in a workout, I can imbibe, but only after 6 PM and no later than 9 PM. I will not eat after 8 PM unless we have guests or a special occasion. That's it in a very big nutshell.

I would normally say "wish me luck." but no luck is necessary because I have just kicked my will power into high gear!!!!

2014 and I am FIERCE!!

meljoemom

Owning this post, I guess!!

Day 1 - 1/2/2014
Didn't do my workout. No excuses. But... I DID take the dogs for a walk and spend the day at a museum. Better than sitting around on my butt at home. I had a beer and small margarita with dinner, then came home and had water and tea instead of pounding down another 6 pack. After a brief drive and trip to the grocery store, I did indulge in one more beer at 9 PM. Should not have done that, but it's baby steps. On a day off, 3 cocktails as opposed to many more is an AWESOME thing.

Goal for Day 2 - 1/3/2014
I have company coming over tonight so will not start drinking until they arrive. Need to wash 2 dogs and a truck then WILL GET ON MY TREADMILL before showering for company. That IS THE PLAN!!!

meljoemom

Day 2 - 1/3/2014
Strike Two on the workout. Ran errands, washed Christmas towels, regular towels, blankets, dog beds and dogs, then washed more towels. Cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more. Pulled the pork for the "fried" srirachi wontons I wanted to make on New Year's Eve and didn't (they were delicious!), made the balsamic reduction for the watermelon apps and went to the store so hubby had charcoal to bbq our very healthy dinner of not so sweet teriyaki chicken with salad. Had a beer too soon and stayed up drinking too late. I can make the excuse that it was Friday, but I still didn't work out before it or worry about calorie intake, not to mention sticking to the 9 PM plan. Now that that night is over I think it's time to take a little break from entertaining and do a little internal cleaning..... I DID take the dogs for a walk at 10 PM after our friends had left. In that goal I am 3 for 3. Celebrate the small stuff, right?

Day 3 - 1/4/2014
No drinking today at all. FOCUS!

meljoemom

Day 3 - 1/4/2014
SUCCESS - No drinking! And.. it wasn't that hard. Want a glass of wine with dinner, honey? No thank you. So very proud of myself. Did NOT walk the dogs though and they were bummed. Will walk them every day no matter what.

Day 4 - 1/5/2014
Day off but didn't have my Colorado cocktail until after 4 PM and stopped drinking at 9 PM. Ate a ton of salad with our salad and pizza night and stopped at half of the 2nd slice of pizza. Normally I would have had 3+ pieces. Baby steps.

Day 5 - 1/6/2014
It's MONDAY! I'm not bummed because it will be 7 days before it comes round again AND... I only have 4 days before I can have a Colorado cocktail again. I didn't get up and workout, but am starting day 1 of a 3-day diet to kickstart my weight loss (and shrink my tummy!) Will walk 30 minutes at lunch or on breaks (whenever I can fit it in) and take the pups for a walk. Would like to do a 20-minute ab workout to start strengthening this flabby tummy so my back won't hurt so much as well.. but baby steps....

meljoemom

Day 5 - 1/6/2014
A weeknight with no drinking and a super busy Monday at work, no less. Kept to plan for meals today and burned 100 cals walking the pups. Made me feel better cuz I was getting grumpy. Pups are nice and relaxed now, too. It's 9 PM and think I will give myself a little downtime with a cup 'o tea and get up very early to get on that damn treadmill.

As Pink Floyd would say....."Is there anybody out there?"

I'll keep posting just in case. Did make a new friend today from posting here.. :happy:

meljoemom

Guess I'm done with day counting and the date is listed.... Bottom line..it's another weeknight without a silver can in my hand. Feeling really strong this time around. Went to pick up lunch at Chipotle for a big group at work and didn't order anything and didn't pilfer anyone else's. I stuck to the lunch I brought. SO PROUD!!! I am seriously having fun patting myself on the back for all these little success, because I know 2 months from now I will still be doing it and will have bigger successes! Got up at a quarter to 5 and got on the treadmill this am, too. My baby steps are getting bigger. Waiting for my salad to settle and will take the dogs for another walk. Add another 100 cals of exercise and another 20 min of mild cardio. That will mean I actually met my workout goal. So cool. Keeping it up will keep me PUMPED UP! Going to go get a cup o' tea. Good night all (that's no one in here but it feels good to post).

scs317

I also have the same goal! I'm currently in Hawaii but I exercised for 39 mins on the elliptical so I'm going to have a drink with my dinner tonight. I also did a ton of walking today while shopping. \\G

meljoemom

That's awesome! My problem is I never stop with just one. And I am getting to the point where I don't want to give up the calories burned. But sounds like you burned enough to earn it so enjoy!!

meljoemom

Typing here instead of thinking about how bad I would like a beer or glass of wine... or the fact that I should go get on the treadmill!

Didn't stay strict today cuz I messed up my lunch, didn't have a boiled egg to take to work. So I ended up having a handful of almonds and a tablespoon of PB. Then I had such a big headache that I had 2 mini snickers hoping it would give me some sugar/carbs and settle it down. Need to be prepared with my lunches at the start of the week!!

Still stayed within calories.

Going to get a big glass of water...YAY!!!

scs317

I'm on day 2 of no alchohol and back at work which is making me want a drink! But I did the Jillian Micheal's Level 1 20 day shred and I want to stay feeling fit more then the glass of beer after work. Good for you for not giving into the urge to have a drink!!

meljoemom

10 days after my last post I am struggling to stick to any goals each day. Drank every day and indulged in a lot of homemade lasagna with the family. Right back to where I was 10 days ago. Need to get some stamina going on this life change and really commit whether it's a weekend or a weekday. The weekend after I had done so well just wrecked any progress I made. I commit to sticking to my weekend calorie goal!!! It's 300 more daily than weekdays so that should afford me just a little alcohol without going off the deep end. I WILL STICK TO MY CALORIE GOAL DAMMIT!!

MsFitzpatty

You can do this - keep it up! That fire will come back to you. You made this decision for good reasons right? Reading your posts reminds me of me. Stopping at one isn't in the cards unless I'm out for a quick get-together. But I'm likely to drink more once I'm home. It's when I'm home that stopping at one is a problem. You already know all your own tricks I'm sure...what you tell yourself to make it okay to drink.I say try to embrace a week of depression and robot like activities and not drinking at all if you can swing it. Deep breaths...lemon water in the morning. I joined a website called Lulora and did a a one month green smoothie challenge. I did complete the challenge, and even though my goal wasn't directly to quit drinking and smoking (although that is always always my goal and I have not licked it yet), just the routine of lemon water in the morning and drinking a green smoothie and smelling the cilantro and lemon and ginger helped me reaffirm that I want to make changes and why I want to make changes. Life is much better without guilt hanging over your head. Or anxiety or a hangover. I did quit smoking and drinking for 2.5 months after that green smoothie challenge. It was fantastic and there was an electric buzz flowing through my body. I lost 8 pounds in 2 months, and was told my skin looked glowing and I felt like I smelled good. No smoky drinky smell. Anxiety went way down, pretty much non-existent. Felt strong. Confident. I messed up again. Gained most of the weight back, currently smoking and drinking but feeling ready to go again. Previously in 2013, I quit drinking for 5 months. Most in my life as an adult. Didn't quit smoking, just drinking. Started again that time too. But this is life, and I won't stop trying. Think both times I told myself that I had it cased, went from thinking about drinking daily to not at all and told myself hey, you are doing great! You're not someone who needs to stop all together - you don't even think about it anymore! It's okay to let your hair down for a night! Then right back to square one. Both times. So that's me anyway. But you can do it and so can I. I do recommend the green smoothie thing, and or lemon water. Easy goal to set and keep, which feels good. I'm not sure what my goal is here but I know what it should be. For now I suppose it's no drinking during the week at all and no keeping alcohol at home at all. Since I rarely go out - and when I do it's to a movie or a play or something, drinking out will pretty much be non-existent. Guess this is a way of tricking my mind so I don't have to tell it "you can never drink again ever" because that's a lot to take in. I'm going to do this because I'm just so tired of having that voice in my head tell me that I suck. I like this group because nothing worse than alienating yourself when in reality there are many people who are struggling with similar issues and we are good people who are just trying to get this monkey off our backs. Ok, my goal is to get back the time when I was waking up in the morning guilt-free and proud of myself. And I'm going to buy myself a treat for every week I make it clean, Like something from Chapters or Anthropologie or a new restaurant or something that makes me feel like a lady...tee hee.

annoel

I need to set goals. Every night is not cutting it. We all know the benefits of cutting back! Better sleep, better focus the next day...
So here is my goal:
No drinking alcohol during the week (this includes Friday!)
No more than 2 glasses on Saturday.
Nothing on Sunday

annoel

So this is Night #1 - Mission accomplished with no alcohol. I got mad with myself this afternoon just thinking of no drinking. I guess my inner teenager was talking and rebelling. Thank goodness things turned around early this evening

jacques57

I recommend the book "One Small Step Can Change Your Life; The Kaizen Way" by Robert Maurer, Ph D.
The premise is that BIG changes are difficult because your amygdila (?) or brain stem initiates a fear response. If you make ridiculously smaller changes over time (I will have one sip less of my wine and leave a swallow in the glass), and incrementally increase the change, you will have better success.

Think small. Think "half as much" on Monday. And once that is no problem, think half as much on Tuesday in addition to the reduced Monday. You get the idea.

This technique works for just about any change you want to make in your life.

Cheers!