2 Week No Alcohol Group

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dlvuyovich
dlvuyovich Posts: 102 Member
in Motivation and Support
While I aplaud the no-alcohol month to eternity challenges, I am interested in finding people who will do a modified version. I tend to do better with moderation rather than a drought (which turns into a monsoon) approach.

So here is what I am proposing since I am in the camp of 1 week being too short and 1 month being too long. I have already challenged myself and my husband to a 2 week plan. Actually based on when our cleaning lady comes (every other Saturday) as that is when we tend to have people over. We love wine and our recent trip to New Orleans introduced us to fresh ingredient cocktails. oh boy

Here is my schedule:
1/17, 1/31, 2/14, 2/28....will check in the following Monday mornings

This weekend is not an alcohol weekend and we have a wedding to attend, will see if I can hold off...

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Replies

  • 53LaniP
    53LaniP Posts: 4 Member
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    I'm in! I had a pasta and wine binge on 1/3/15 and swore off all drinking for awhile. Originally, I was thinking of "weekends only" but I think a 2 dry weeks kickoff will be a great start. I'll be sticking to non-alcoholic beverages until 1/18. I just noticed that's a holiday -- perfect timing! Let's see how I do!
  • gettinfit23
    gettinfit23 Posts: 7 Member
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    I'm in! I don't think I would be able to have absolutely no alcohol because it appears to come up too often with get togethers with friends and I don't want to miss out entirely, especially when I'm from Wisconsin ;) my goal is to drink once a week and when i do drink i will drink vodka seltzers with lemons to limit calorie intake....Does anyone else have any suggestions ?? Mayb i could also limit the number of drinks i consume that night as well...
  • dlvuyovich
    dlvuyovich Posts: 102 Member
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    Well, we have a wedding this Saturday, which does not fall on my 2 week cycle. So here is my plan. I will be asking for seltzer with lemon/lime for the cocktail hour, and will most likely have a glass of wine with dinner and maybe a sip of champagne for the toast, giving the rest of my glass to my husband who will gladly accept. He was with me through my competitions and has been really supportive with my discipline/determination.

    In the past, I have surprised myself and others with having fun and being the most sober in the group. I contribute that to being "a product of the environment", if the mood is festive, I let myself roll with it. I still have the ability to dance, goof off and relax w/o the alcohol. Instead of dwelling on the negative (not having a drink) I celebrate the positive (having fun and not being at work, in traffic, etc.)

    1/2 star for limiting ourselves is better than a fallen star for going on a binge. Glad you two are in and are open for wiggle room :smiley:
  • dlvuyovich
    dlvuyovich Posts: 102 Member
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    So, epic fail on my part. My only defense is that out of the 200 wedding guests, 76 of them were rugby players. I'll leave it at that.

    I wasn't terribly hungover but definitely not shooting w/ all cylinders, so I spent the day on the couch with my husband to watch football. No recovery workout. The bad part was caving when he ordered pizza. And naturally I had a glass of wine (red) to take the edge off.

    At least I got to the grocery store to refill the fridge with clean ingredients to get ourselves back on track. Today is a new day.
  • gettinfit23
    gettinfit23 Posts: 7 Member
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    That's ok!! New day new week! I also slipped on some alcohol and had a long island during the football game but I considered that my cheat day. I still managed to be down 3 lbs since last week so that's encouraging !! We can do it ! If we limit ourselves entirely from something we crave I think we would end up binging on the food instead so I think how we are doing it in moderation will help :)
  • dlvuyovich
    dlvuyovich Posts: 102 Member
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    Thanks, just after a day & 1/2 of eating clean I already feel better. We may cancel social plans this weekend as they are no big deal and want to stay on track. Did not work out yesterday either but the eating clean was the biggest part. A coworker of mine is throwing together a full body workout for me today for a kickstart.
  • gettinfit23
    gettinfit23 Posts: 7 Member
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    That's awesome !! I try to attend the fitness classes at the YMCA if it works around my schedule. I'm training for my first half marathon and I took the weekend off of running so back at it today ! I'm aiming to lose 2 more pounds by next Tuesday !!
  • dlvuyovich
    dlvuyovich Posts: 102 Member
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    Never ask a former Navy Seal for a fullbody, 45 min workout:
    Warm-up (stretch, whatever you need to get blood flowing)

    2000M Row - Shooting for 10-12 min

    2 Rounds of the following:
    10 pull ups (I'm substituting barbell rows, forgot my versa grips)
    20 pushups
    30 situps
    40 squats
    (about 20 min)

    3x1 burpees w/ Kettle Bell (5-7min, 2 min b/w sets) - put KB b/w feet, when getting ready to stand back up from puh-up position, p/u KB and do a KB swing then put down, start next burpee

    1000M Row (shooting for 5 min - all out sprint)

    cool down - stretch

    God help me.
  • Flgal31
    Flgal31 Posts: 1
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    I'm in! Is it too late to join?
  • CanadianCountryGirl1973
    CanadianCountryGirl1973 Posts: 108 Member
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    We've been doing this! Although not extreme like "it's a no alcohol weekend in the schedule". We found it was becoming too easy to share a bottle of wine a night... with calories AND finances! You open while making dinner.... glass. Continue while eating dinner... glass.... Continue after dinner.... glass and bit. Bottle gone. It was also giving us munchies at 10:00 at night and affecting our control over what we would snack on at this time. We are not beer drinkers (aside from Corona for me in the summer and a Guiness now and then... loaded with iron btw....!) And hard stuff is rare.

    So all we decided to do is put the $15 a bottle in an envelope for every night we didn't have that wine. We saved up (reasonably... not extreme) $1000 easily. We used this envelope to pay the final payment on our upcoming cruise. We're back to saving again (after the holiday celebrating of course!) and will have enough to cover our estimated alcohol on said cruise. We really are not drinking anymore Sunday to Thursday. Friday and Saturday are treats and relaxation.

    Aside from that.... choices..... white wine is better in the calories than red. Caesars with low sodium tomato juice and no salt on the rim, sparking n/a wine (Legero is available here and is really yummy.... you'd never notice the difference); my husband would opt for a gin and tonic over a rum and coke if he were to have a cocktail.

    And then it's habit. Don't sit with the beverage in your hand. Pour yourself "shorter" drinks so you would have to make or get another one. And what I swear by.... serving sizes! We have these gorgeous large wine glasses that we have stopped using. We use a smaller size and have measured out exactly where 5 oz comes to in the glass. Makes it easier to track serving size.

    Those are our ideas!
  • 4leighbee
    4leighbee Posts: 1,275 Member
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    if you guys start again after the 18th, please count me in. related: I'm kind of new (again) - how do I check back on conversations like this one that I didn't start but want to follow without scrolling through all the recent conversations?

    I am a beer drinker - had two tonight. It added 200 unnecessary calories to my diary and yet I'm hungry and have been all day. Silly choices ... I need to do better. I can't go dry - love it too much, and we play pool on the weekends. But I could definitely cut back, so I'd love to try to join you when you get to a start-over place. Keep me posted! :) Leigh
  • dlvuyovich
    dlvuyovich Posts: 102 Member
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    I like the $15/bottle plan. Will run that by my husband, maybe suggesting we use the cash saved up to pay our New Orleans bar tabs! (we go to NOLA for Christmas and it gets pricey)

    If you read my threads, I am the one who scheduled a 'no alcohol' weekend and proceeded to blow that plan out of the water and paid for it the next day. But, I am back on track, been eating very clean since Monday, and want to keep going cause I'm feeling great.

    New joiners always welcome! Start overs are going to be different for everybody but if we keep encouraging each other, one of these days, one of us is going to make the 2-week mark.

    If this were easy, we wouldn't call it a "challenge". And if being where I was in my profile picture were easy, we would all look like that all the time and it wouldn't be a competition. I definitely do not look like that now, I am using it as motivation for myself.
  • debz673
    debz673 Posts: 2 Member
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    I'm in too....started on 01st Jan and not had a drop yet, finding it quite easy really, hubby has given up though! Lost 9.5 lb since then and on a mission to do a stone in a month. Still feeling really focused at the moment, so long may it remain that way!
  • notcorky
    notcorky Posts: 49 Member
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    I'm in a 30 day no alcohol challenge so I'm in for this. This is actually my 11th day alcohol free. I just had to face facts that I simply can not lose weight when I drink.
  • jpaulie
    jpaulie Posts: 917 Member
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    dlvuyovich wrote: »
    While I aplaud the no-alcohol month to eternity challenges, I am interested in finding people who will do a modified version. I tend to do better with moderation rather than a drought (which turns into a monsoon) approach.

    So here is what I am proposing since I am in the camp of 1 week being too short and 1 month being too long. I have already challenged myself and my husband to a 2 week plan. Actually based on when our cleaning lady comes (every other Saturday) as that is when we tend to have people over. We love wine and our recent trip to New Orleans introduced us to fresh ingredient cocktails. oh boy

    Here is my schedule:
    1/17, 1/31, 2/14, 2/28....will check in the following Monday mornings

    This weekend is not an alcohol weekend and we have a wedding to attend, will see if I can hold off...

    I joined the 1 month Jan challenge so I am two weeks into it. I understand you just want two weeks.
    However, in two weeks it has made a huge change for me in a number of categories which I thought I would share because two weeks really does make a difference.
    I lost 5.5 lbs in two weeks. I had plateaued for the previous 4 months. Between my wife and I and restaurant alcohol We have saved $250. My eating is way better. I sleep less wake up earlier and feel better for it.
    Two weeks without out red wine: Don't miss it RESULTS: Priceless
  • CanadianCountryGirl1973
    CanadianCountryGirl1973 Posts: 108 Member
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    So had my Friday Night "cheat" last night. After a VERY long week, had some best friend time and a bottle of wine.... each. I had planned for it all week and adjusted everything else accordingly. Does a glass of wine ever taste different (better!) when you haven't had it for a week! You can't discount the relaxation factor involved in socializing with a bottle of wine and time with a good friend, which is also important to good health!
  • dlvuyovich
    dlvuyovich Posts: 102 Member
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    I made it through the weekend! Even though I grilled a london broil for dinner (prime time for a nice glass of red) and we had neighbors over for a glass. I stuck with lemon water. We have a rugby coaching conference this coming weekend, my plan is to stick it out Friday night and enjoy a nice big glass of red Saturday night.
  • CanadianCountryGirl1973
    CanadianCountryGirl1973 Posts: 108 Member
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    Bring a can of something with you dlvuyovich...... like a can of Perrier or something. Wait a minute.... Rugby hunh....?! Better yet, bring an opaque water bottle and when you're offered something simply grin and wink.... point to your bottle and tell them you've got yourself covered!
  • dlvuyovich
    dlvuyovich Posts: 102 Member
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    CanadianCountryGirl1973 wrote: »
    Bring a can of something with you dlvuyovich...... like a can of Perrier or something. Wait a minute.... Rugby hunh....?! Better yet, bring an opaque water bottle and when you're offered something simply grin and wink.... point to your bottle and tell them you've got yourself covered!

    LOL! Thanks. Is it considered bad form to put coffee instead of the usual in my flask? Maybe I'll just stick to the opaque bottle idea ;)

    Just wanted to share, that since I have been eating clean(er) after the holidays, I have lost 3/4 - 1" off of my neck, waist, hip & thigh measurements! woo-hoo!
  • notcorky
    notcorky Posts: 49 Member
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    I am still in the 30 day no alcohol challenge. Alcohol free for 16 days!

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