Less Alcohol- May 2018- One Day at a Time

@Alzzi76 you did really great! Especially with the daughter situation, it was one of those things you could have made yourself reason out since it was a gift. Well done!

I had a dry weekend. Yesterday was my only temptation because we had a bbq with my daughter-in-law to be and all that new family. Absolutely nothing in common with these people except the grand baby and they were all drinking. It would have been so easy grab a drink and lighten the awkwardness, but instead I drank my water and tried not to roll my eyes the whole time ;-) le sigh

Here's to a great week for us all...stay strong, friends!!

JulieAL1969 wrote: »

First, you drink one or two, then you drink a bottle and eventually you drink every day all day, but it does not dull or get rid of the deep pain you harbor.

Just wow. Makes you realize there's no end to the escalation. Thanks for this, @JulieAL1969. Always appreciate what you pass along. You've worked that AF muscle a bunch and I know it's going to be like riding a bike for you when you get home. I've had to prove to myself over and over again since January that it just ain't worth it. Oh, I think having one glass of wine is great, but it's the drinking to the point of being hung over that isn't worth it at all.

And speaking of one glass of wine, that was my total consumption this weekend. One. Out with my husband for happy hour. Said no to #2 and had a glass of water. Had a sip of a bottle of red I'd had open at home since Christmas just to see if it was still good. Nope. Threw it out. The old me would've been appalled at wasting it.

Pretty successful moderation weekend here - drank a bottle of wine total at home between Friday-Sunday, plus an extra beer both Saturday and Sunday at social events.

I did have that feeling Friday night though, that I wasn’t sure I really wanted a drink but felt like I should because it was my plan to drink moderately on weekends. I had a glass of wine while eating a late dinner, but wasn’t tempted to keep going, it didn’t honestly taste that good (didn’t prevent me from finishing the bottle Sat and Sunday though!). I think it was @kittybenn who said she felt like she was drinking on the weekend just because that’s when she had planned to drink, not because she really wanted it or for any special reason. I need to think about it a little more and maybe consider what constitutes an “event” that I would want to drink at and not just drink because it’s the weekend.

Back to AF this week!

I am day 11 AF. I have been dealing with boredom. TV seems boring without drinking and honestly, I do not know what to do with myself. This week my kids will be with their dad so I will have plenty of time to get bored. Trying to come up with things to do so I do not get too bored. Alcohol Experiment talked about willpower and boredom. I am doing okay on the willpower just bored. I am avoiding going out with friends as that always seems to involve alcohol. Will try working out post work.

Starting fresh today. Weather has been sooo good and hubby perfected a margarita using fresh juice from grapefruits we picked off our friends trees, soooo back to dry Monday

Weekend was a mixed bag. Saturday was great. Had the two cocktails I planned to have. Yesterday . . . did not go as planned. Spent some time today trying to figure out what went wrong and what I can do differently to avoid a repeat. I guess my insights fall into relatively surface-level stuff (I seem to really struggle to moderate when I mix fruit juice and liquor) and more profoundish stuff (I drink when I do things I really enjoy because I fall into this "magical thinking" trap that I can somehow capture or prolong the experience with alcohol and that is why Sunday afternoons and evenings can be so tricky for me and it's something that I'm going to have to figure out an approach for now that it's approaching summer, my favorite season).

Just not feeling the greatest today. Physically, of course, I feel pretty awful (I didn't just exceed my two drink limit, I pretty blew up the entire concept). And just like, ugh, this isn't something that should be hard.

So nothing this weekend went the way I wanted it to and I don't think talking about it yet is good. I have to learn to treat it the way I treat food and not be angry.

I had one more drink than I was suppose to on my AF days and one less drink on my moderating days, so I guess the week was a pretty good one.

However I had some self realization on Friday. I brought home some wings and fries for dinner. My husband and I stood in the kitchen and devoured the fries with our cocktail. While doing so I literally sucked down my glass of wine like it was water. I couldn't believe it! I was not thirsty as I had already drank 7 glasses of water for the day. So not only am I a wine sucker but a french fry muncher as well!! I will have to remember that the two shall not mix. I wanted to immediately pour another one, but I filled my wine glass with ice water instead and drank it first. I did pour another, but I was able to sip that one and then have dinner. (There were no fried to go with our wings. oops)

I guess I'm just happy that I was able to control it with one. Whenever I think about breaking, I think about you all, and it helps to keep me on track.

(In the beginning I use to get upset with a woo, but now I don't give them a care. I'm me and that's all I can be. If you woohoo me in a positive way then I will woohoo you right back, because I'm that kind of a girl! :-) I believe most people are good.)

Happy Monday!