Sober March Challenge #marchingtosobriety

RaeBeeBaby wrote: »

Day 14 and still dry as the Sahara!

Although, it sure seems like I am being tempted at every turn. Tonight two of my friends wanted to go out for happy hour. It's something we do about once a month or so. Yummy appetizers and wine is the usual fare. I reluctantly agreed, but was thinking all day that I would cancel if I didn't feel up for it. Why put myself in harm's way? Then one of my friends texted me asking for a ride because her car was acting up. Ok, well then I was pretty much locked in.

I did really well. They each had several glasses of wine and I had 4 glasses of lemon water. I'll probably be up all night, but pretty proud that I resisted.

@RaeBeeBaby, congratulations on resisting temptation but still being able to enjoy your friends - I know it isn't easy, so well done!

Great job, @RaeBeeBaby! I'm going to see Mama Mia with a group next Wednesday and am planning in advance what to eat/drink to avoid the inevitable bottles of wine at the pre-show dinner. Everyone at work was talking about Pi Day (always March 14- 3.14, mathematical formula for pi) and I thought about pie all day - lemon meringue, pizza pie, chicken pot pie!

yeah so, I was so totally in but then my birthday happened last week and this past weekend was a doozy...like I'm still a wee bit hung over today from Saturday doozy. I'm getting tired of this, so today is my new day 4. I keep debating on whether or not to give up the sauce for good. I know I'm not so bad that every day is a struggle but once I start that's it. there is no 1 or 2 for me. It's no drinking or all out craziness. I've read some of your other stories and feel less alone. I know I'm not the only one. And I know it's the sauce that's keeping me fat, tired and gross. It makes me depressed. Then I stop drinking for a couple weeks, binge again and the cycle starts over. I keep thinking next time I can control things and then whoops, nope that didn't happen. This stops now!

RaeBeeBaby wrote: »

I love the idea of treating yourself with something special! Kind of like rewarding yourself for weight-loss with something other than food.

Here's a few things that are helping me, so maybe will help some of you, as well.

1. For me this is a Lenten challenge - not just March but until Easter Sunday. Lent is a period of personal reflection. Lenten abstinence is about self-sacrifice and strength of will. It's not SUPPOSED to be easy!
2. Positive self-talk. I tell myself that I'm strong enough to do this. Alcohol doesn't rule my life.
3. Weight-loss. I know by the end of this self-imposed abstinence I will like the number on the scale!
4. It's good for me physically. My body (especially my liver) will appreciate the break.
5. My husband and mother are both doing it. I won't be the one to give in first! (Too competitive!)
6. I'm finally using up all the fancy teas hanging out in the cupboard and drinking the La Croix sparkling water that's been in the pantry for a year.
7. I'm trying some new drinks and resurrecting some old ones that I haven't had in awhile. A friend told me about Golden Milk. It's coconut milk with turmeric, ginger, honey and some other spices. Supposed to be very detoxifying. I'm also making two batches of homemade Kombucha - something that I used to do but haven't in a long while.

Love Golden Milk and I brew my own Kombucha! Some bars in my city have Kombucha on tap...it's a nice way to have a "drink" without having a drink. Wish more of them did it...

AlisalGal wrote: »

Great job, @RaeBeeBaby! I'm going to see Mama Mia with a group next Wednesday and am planning in advance what to eat/drink to avoid the inevitable bottles of wine at the pre-show dinner. Everyone at work was talking about Pi Day (always March 14- 3.14, mathematical formula for pi) and I thought about pie all day - lemon meringue, pizza pie, chicken pot pie!

If the pre-function dinner is at a restaurant with a full bar you can ask the bartender to make you an amazing non-alcoholic drink. The place I was at last night has a whole list of non-alcoholic beverages and specializes in various flavors of mojitos. I drank lemon water because I'm on a budget right now and didn't want to spend the extra $5.00, but I definitely want to try one the next time.

@RaeBeeBaby @donimfp without hijacking this thread too much Kombucha is very easy to make at home and delicious! Store bought is usually a bit more mild, when you make it at home it's only as "tangy" as you let it get over time. Like apple cider it will turn to vinegar the longer it ferments. IM me if you want some more info on homebrewing, I've made my own going on 10 years. RaeBeeBaby I'm glad you got a full grown scoby, growing one usually does not work out. You can buy them online with starter liquid as well, in fact I started with a kit from Kombucha Brooklyn, which is a great resource for info as well (unfortunately I think it's more expensive now because this stuff is so trendy). Now I do continuous brewing with a vessel from Kombucha Mama, likely the most extensive source of info on Buch.

For me it's a good replacement because I primarily drink beer and wine. Mostly beer. One of my friends makes it as well from a mother I gave her years ago and sometimes when I'm over there I drink her kombucha rather than an adult bev. I think I might make this an ongoing thing. I might also start bringing some of my own buch to share and drink when I go to other friends homes.

Day 17! WooHoo! It seems to be getting a little easier for me, at least the last few days. I've been out several times this week at places with lots of drinking going on. My niece was down from Washington working in a town nearby so we met her at a place (cowboy tavern) where the bar is center stage in the restaurant. Not really that tempted. Then last night I had a ladies group meeting potluck where wine is always served. I brought my own lemon water and only had a tiny little temptation. It probably helped that the wine was all riesling, which is not my favorite (too sweet). I'm also a tart/sour/bitter girl so anything too sweet just doesn't appeal.

@KombuchaKat - I enjoy hearing about the kombucha! I go through phases with drinking it and not sure why. I really enjoy it but then I let a batch get too "fresh" (as my son calls it) and then I get sidetracked. My friend who gave me the scoby grew her original from scratch so I thought I'd give it a try. I've got one batch going with the new baby and am going to leave the other one sit and see if it will actually grow one. I've done some natural fermentation so am always keen to try things and see what happens. I've made my own apple cider vinegar for several years now. This past year I made pickled garlic, sauerkraut and kimchee. The kimchee was my favorite by far. It was delicious! All this talk about kombucha has me wanting to try the kimchee again, so I'm going to get some napa cabbage at the store today.

@donimfp - whenever I buy the store brands of kombucha, my favorite is Brew Dr. Love. It is very different in that it has kind of a floral flavor with jasmine, lavender, chamomile and rose. I'm going to attempt to do a secondary fermentation of my kombucha with some lavender and see what happens. Love experimenting.

Oh, and something funny to share. At my meeting last night we had a presentation by a doTerra essential oil person. It was interesting and she talked quite a bit about probiotics and natural healing. Mostly stuff I already knew from my own reading and research. The leader of our group kept saying stuff like "I'm sure Rae does that. Oh ya, Rae makes that or grows that. She's our hippie girl". LOL

I really like kombucha, I'm glad I've never looked it up on Wiki and got scared off (and I'm not gonna look now!). I've been on a real tea kick lately, trying to have herbal tea in the evening to stave off the desire for a drink.

All the teas sound awesome. I'm headed to the nearby Farmers Market to try to get some Tangerine Sea Salt Kombucha. The Tart Cherry Melon is doing the trick. It's quite sour/tart. OK, I caved in to St. Patrick's Day yesterday (didn't take much to make me cave). I had 2 glasses of wine and one light vodka/Perrier. That's a lot of alcohol after 16 days without, although it's not much at all compared to what I typically drank/drink before March. Now my challenge is to go back to abstaining. It honestly wasn't all that great. I have a slight headache this morning. I hope today isn't back to as difficult as the first week of March. Argghhh. I'm determined not to get down on myself because I know where that would lead.

@AlisalGal, I'm like you with the teas (in a rut). However, I have found that peach or peach/ginger herbal tea is delicious iced. We didn't have a winter here in central TX this year (just one day!). It was in the 80s much of Jan. and Feb. and now March, so cold drinks have been the thing. I did just discover that half Kombucha and half Perrier is really yummy to me. I like bubbles, and the kombucha I have is pretty intense, so it can stand dilution.

Hope everyone's hanging in there. 2/3 of March gone. I was really dumb to have drinks on St. Patrick's Day because it is SO tempting to have drinks again. I just left my (home) office to get a latte at Starbucks as a treat, hopefully to distract me from cravings. So ridiculous! But I guess this whole exercise is worth it just to wake me up to the fact that this is a problem. Any strategies anyone else is finding helpful, please share. I've lost 6.8 lbs. in March, so that's probably the biggest motivator. I'm thinking having alcohol at home is probably not wise. It's much easier to moderate when out for a meal or social occasion. blah blah blah. I also think not drinking makes my face look better. Is that weird?

Glad to see I still have company. I'm doing Lent, too, @RaeBeeBaby. I think I need the extra time to get more of a handle on this. That one day of drinking made the temptation stronger, I've found. I'll be glad to have another 16-day stretch under my belt. So far, tart cherry kombucha and diet ginger ale are saving me. They are the most "cocktail-like" substitutions I've found. I wish someone could invent a non-alcoholic wine that really tasted like wine. My recovering friend told me it took a good 3 months before her mind wasn't focused on not drinking. I can believe it!! Have a great weekend everyone.

I've successfully made kombucha many times in the past, so I absolutely KNOW when it's good or bad. I think the scoby might have gotten contaminated in the transfer between my friend and me, but who knows?

Funny about the shrub. My mom just mentioned that yesterday! She's also on the wagon for Lent so we are each other's support in that regard and trying different things. She asked me if I'd ever heard of a shrub and of course that led to some hilarious discussion about landscaping.

Mom: Have you heard of a shrub?
Me: Of course, I have them all over the yard.
Mom: No, no - it's a drink.
Me: Why would I drink a shrub? Aren't some of them poisonous?
Mom: No, a drink called a shrub that's made with vinegar. Etc etc

(Of course, I kind of knew what she was talking about all along. I just love to tease her. She's an easy target.)

She also said a lot of people drank shrubs as a "refreshing" summer drink before lemonade and before someone figured out how to add carbonation to drinks.

Hum, Kombucha getting moldy is actually pretty rare. I'm not saying that it didn't happen but if you try to brew again you can send pics to the Kombucha Mama and she will verify if it's mold. Sometimes the culture spew all sorts of things but it's just some yeast. If anything I think it might have been a kind of unstable SCOBY since it was grown from store bought I think? I just got my new scobys in the mail and started up my continuous brewer again. Also going to make some water kefir which I always liked and it crazy easy to make. That has a super quick ferment so I had some ready in a couple of days. Flavored with some ginger, YUM!