Less Alcohol- July 2018- One Day at a Time

I was curiously inspired by the convo yesterday about advertising. I usually hate that stuff. I listen to albums or podcasts. I stream tv or watch on dvr to skip the commercials. But i decided to take notice of everything i saw/heard yesterday.
For this I lumped all alcohol (beer, wine, hard liq) together and junk food (fast food, chain restaurants, soda, candy etc).
Some things seemed obvious, some shocking.

Radio ads were not as bad as I expected. 2 1/2 hrs in the car. Not ONE ad for alcohol. Only 3 ads for junk foods.
Espn: no surprise here that alcohol was advertised twice every commercial break. Sometimes the same ad twice. Usually beer. Male demo for sports.
Daytime tv, not sports related: a little mild here. An occasional ad for alcohol or junk food. Maybe once a commercial break.
This was the shocker to me. Prime time tv: an average of 4-5 ads for junkfood every single commercial break. I saw so many gross ads for burgers, pizza, pancakes etc over and over. Booze was occasional, not as much as you would think.
Billboards were odd. Didn’t see any for junk food or booze. I know that isn’t the norm. I did see three billboards for NJ produce! Go garden state!
Another shocker: big time presence for gambling/lottery on all formats. Not physically unhealthy but gambling addiction is a whole different topic.

Of course this is a small sample based on a day and a half in my personal life. But it was interesting to see. And now i’m ready to ignore these things again, haha

lorrainequiche59 wrote: »

@sallweewins AWESOME!!

@malliness I feel for you. I used to have panic attacks fairly regularly for a period of time. The first few times I thought I was dying. It totally confused me because the onset would usually be when the sun was setting & it was always in my own home...never out & about, in crowds or other common triggers. I had some help figuring out what was setting me off & listened to my gut when the adrenaline kicked in & I just wanted to run away. So whenever I would feel one coming on, I would begin to talk myself down & reassure myself that I wasn't dying & then set out for a very lengthy, quick paced walk to burn the adrenaline off.

Thanks for your support and also to others who commented. I was fine, woke up with a little jolt of anxiety at 4 am but it didn't last. That was the first night I haven't had a drink of some sort in at least a year. It's weird how I was so afraid to even try not drinking. I think saying your intention out loud, in a public forum, like this is helpful. So thanks again.

Listening to Demi Lovato brought up a lot of thoughts and feelings and I wanted to share some perspective on my sobriety.
I started drinking when I was 18 1966 I was in the military and it seemed the two things we always had access to was smoking and drinking. I was stationed in many places and met many people but the constant was we drank I remember sitting down to play cards and the other 3 players produced a 5th and asked me where was my bottle, these guys weren't about to share so I went back to my rack and got a bottle for that night. The fact that we functioned sometimes was unexplainable. By the time I was discharged I was drinking pretty much every day.
Over the years this tainted a lot of my family relationships I seemed to feel if someone wanted to talk ( my parents were both alive back then) I pushed them away anticipating they would be lecturing me on my drinking or my health. I got up every morning worked 5 or 6 days a week so I didn't have a problem, they did. I was married and raised three great kids so on most levels I was a functioning alcoholic. I didn't find out until years later that they all knew that there were topics we just didn't discuss like dads drinking. I lived this way for over 40 years and the good news it didn't kill me but my daughter who is a physician told me if she had been in NY at the time I was getting ready to quit she would have hospitalized me. My mom never got to see me quit drinking she passed over 13 years before I quit, but my dad who lived to 95 did. I was able to open my arms and my heart without the paranoid feeling he was going to be pushing me to quit. I have relationships with my kids and grandkids because we are comfortable with each other and my drinking isn't that "taboo topic" that could set me off. I flew to LA and ran a 10K with my daughter in 2013 and all her friends, most of them are Drs as well and as I finished and they were jumping and screaming and cheering me on the tears were streaming down my face.
My sobriety represents good health physical fitness and good relationships with my family. I had always refused to admit or recognize what I was doing to them. They have all said "no need to apologize so long as we have gotten you back"
So I listen to her song and think about the times I should have said sorry but didn't and what it meant to all of us.
My profile picture was at the finish line of the Santa Monica 10K.

Hi all,I used to be an all day/everyday drinker for years,about 7 years ago I became more of a,"binge drinker" going weeks,months with nothing then going whole hog,my goal is to finally put drinking in the past,,I've been sober since July 5

Day 31 today.....January felt a lot better and lost a lot more weight back then...this time around not so much....but I feel better

Mind you, going back to what @erikNJ has been saying, it's definitely easier for me, because:

a) I don't watch TV, so I don't see advertisements for alcohol (or food); and

b) Our alcohol in Australia can't be sold anywhere except in bottle shops ("liquor stores") or licensed venues, which must be separate to supermarkets. For me, I only have to walk past the bottle shop door once and that's it for me at the supermarket. There's no alcohol inside the supermarket.

But I do have lots of friends on Facebook who post lots of pictures of themselves drinking! Haven't quite got to the point of not being a bit put out by that. Tending towards feeling superior to them though.

Orphia wrote: »

NovusDies wrote: »

@eriknj It is funny how life can be messy. You are comfortable with how much you drink and I am uncomfortable because I stopped so abruptly without much resistance (at least on this leg of my journey). I know I should be happy but I am nagged by the old saying "if something seems to be too good to be true it usually is." My goal was never to accumulate AF days but I seem to be doing it. I think I am closing in on 80.

@NovusDies That hits the target for me. I found it really easy to quit on Jan 31, and have stuck to it ever since.
But ...

In the back of my mind, I have a fear that it's not always going to be easy. One reason why I don't try drinking on a special occasion is because I think I might go straight back to daily drinking.

Maybe it's only "easy" because of the fear. Hmmm.

Your comments resonated something within me...Initially when I joined this thread I wasn't THAT confident that I'd go beyond the end of June AF. BUT I needed the month of June to test the waters & & clear my head. Then once I began reading everyone's stuff & watching Craig Beck & Annie Grace and really doing some self examination and a lot of prayer ( I have a spiritual motive for changing my behavior & that is a HUGE part of my lifestyle change, and no worries, I won't go into that end of my life LOL because this is NOT the platform for discussing spirituality, but for ME it was a definite factor).

Anyway, I'm 55 days in & really feeling the benefits of being AF on all levels. NOW, having said all THAT, I have yet to be REALLY tempted...but I'm certain it is coming at some point...I'm just hoping to get enough AF days under my belt & to have developed enough coping strategies that I will be able to resist. At present I avoid situations where I feel vulnerable...and I may always do that but the real test will be the unexpected & unavoidable.

I actually really LOVE being sober & it's interesting that a couple short months ago I NEVER ever would have thought I'd EVER say that!! 55 "one days" and today is one more "one day!!" That's all I need to focus on.

Well day15 for me
I can’t believe it
Day 1, was very hard
Days 11 & 12 were the worst days I can ever recall

Then suddenly it’s day 15 and I’m here, free of alcohol,
I’m soooooooooooooooo pleased