Less Alcohol - March 2019 - One Day at a Time

beebva4 wrote: »

gladys0919 wrote: »

robertkimble wrote: »

I will join this challenge, I drink almost every day so need to cut back.
Love my wine, Jack and Vodka....

SAME!!! Glad to know I am not the only one slamming back hard alcohol LOL

We always have sailor Jerry in the house, a single night cap turns into, well more. So I'm right there with ya! We just finished the bottle last night and I said I'm not buying another. Out of sight, out of mind!

I am frank the tank in my crew LOL- shamefully!!! BUT we got this!!! I literally have a cupboard FULL of alcohol and I spent all weekend seeing it as i cooked and not ONCE was i tempted. I said to myself "you dont NEED IT, you WANT IT, but for what?!!"

worked like a charm

Ok so I ended up drinking on Saturday night but I had my usual amount of beers and I have enough leftover for next weekend, which is great because I hate going to the liquor store every week. I don't feel too badly about it because I didn't drink at all last week and I wasn't hungover yesterday. My husband told me to buy him a 12 pack and I did, thinking he wanted to do the same thing as I did, but he ended up drinking the whole 12 pack and felt terrible all day yesterday.

I used to do that every single time I drank. We would drink until there was nothing left in the house (and sometimes would go out and buy more) so at least I'm making some progress. I'm glad I can be honest with myself now about how much I drink too. In the past I would say, oh I didn't drink THAT much, or I would lie to others about how much I really drank and I don't do that anymore. Since I was sick all last week I didn't exercise at all so I gotta get back into that this week. So no drinking at all until Friday!

Happy Monday, everyone! My weekend was good, stayed dry on Friday and then had 2 glasses of wine Saturday and 2 beers yesterday. I am honestly shocked at how well I'm doing. I used to have 10 drinks on Saturday alone and now I'm nowhere near that. It feels so good to have control over what I'm drinking! I'm still being very mindful about how I'm feeling and if at any time moderation starts to feel difficult or the urges start to come back with force, I'll have to re-evaluate. But for now, I'm really loving the balance that I've found!

beebva4 wrote: »

@AbandondedKSCharger I find I have a harder time when my spouse has something when I am trying to do better. We both said AF all week this week!

I understand. Over the years, when I thought I'd had enough I'd tell my husband I'm done. Then 3 days later he's inviting me to meet him at the bar to meet some of his co-workers...which was rare to get an invite. There was also the couple times he'd come home with a wine bottle for me. A friend of mine suggested he doesn't know he's doing it intentionally, but is probably afraid of being alone drinking at home and how it will change our relationship. This time it seems his drinking is not an influence on me. Basically because I am not giving it all up, just working on making it less

I set drinking goals back on Friday.
Here is how I started with my goals......blahhhh…….but finished the weekend better.
My goal was, Friday's non tracking: In a sense you can say I kept that goal, but later in the day I stated I would keep it to 6 so not to feel like crap the next day. Then, as I was tracking my meals, I found I didn't have enough calories to maintain my goal on another challenge.....ohhh the challenges So I said only 5 beers to maintain within my calories........So I blew the first day right out of the water.
I woke up Saturday with regret.....forced myself out of bed at 10 am...…..hung my head in shame thinking of how I've let myself down. Felt like crap.....but then as the day went on I started dusting myself off again and realized I went over my beer count by only 2...ok, livable, the couple of shots were just extra.....But the eating that it caused!!! Ohhh raided the cabinets. That is really the hurtful part.
So Saturday's goal, 5 - 6 beers: Thanks to Friday, I had only 2 or 3 beers. Kept busy all afternoon/evening. That helped.
Sunday's goal, 4 beers: I thought it was 5....ooppss…...so I had 5.
My goal for week nights begins tonight. No more hangovers at work!!!!
3 beers per night.
Making progress is small ways.

Thank you- for those of you who shared the Rachel Hart video link- makes sense. The urge to drink another drink originates because of a dopamine hormone response. And it's an abnormal response (programming gone wrong), brain just fooled to think it needs more alcohol to survive, yet the opposite is true. I just felt the urge to drink more a few minutes ago, my coping strategy was to eat 2 bowls of popcorn, now my belly is too full and I am too tired to get in the car to go buy more wine. Plus now I tell myself it's a false urge......

Jumping in here! I had 2 ounces of whisky on Saturday, logged it but wanted more and not for the taste, just for the buzz. I'm going to abstain from alcohol until March 23rd and make that my only drinking day for the month. That will definitely be a challenge for me.

Ohhh, I am SOOO tired of the local weather. Last week I spent 3 days without electric..not a huge deal since I used to live in a rural area where the power went out on the regular, and 7 days off the grid was not an unusual event. Became something of a "prepper" with all the tools needed for survival at hand. Now here in a "city" having a woodstove was an oddity, but I deemed it a necessity to save $ on heating. The cool tools I used to survive "powerlessness" are long gone, and were sorely missed last week. Warmth, cooking, [woodstove] were just fine, but I needed a battery upgrade on my EMS scanner, and there was no phone service on the internet, and the cell phone battery was closing in on dead, I needed a mental insurance policy on the possible longevity of the battery life of my new flashlight/lanterns, and a shoulder to cry on because I discarded my crank operated radio...SIL up the alley [ who never lost power due to the 65 MPH winds] lent me a few battery lanterns so I could read a 700 page Steven King to take my mind off my current miseries...and I survived...but, other SIL across the street gave me a bottle of wine as a comfort item...and I opened and finished it...
Now , y'all know where I'm coming from.
Waving the red rag in front of a charging bull.
Yeah, I finished it. After the power emergency, thank goodness.
Now following up on renewing and replenishing my "prepper" supplies. "Fool me once..."
All the the resolutions to stay AF for several months just wafted away on an icy breeze...
Starting again today...pulling up my oh-so-soft CATpuccino to stroke for therapy .
We have decided that I will not drink again until we hit the road again for Louisiana, where there will be no booze and plenty of feline companionship and busyness.
Day'um all this crap is so much harder than it seemed at the beginning...

AbandondedKSCharger wrote: »

Another crazy accomplishment! I managed only 3 beers last night......thanks to a cute lil red headed mini poodle. When I got off of work, I thought I had 4 beers in the fridge...…...there was only 3...what?? Did my husband drink one of mine, no....apparently that was one I went over the night before. Oh yeah. So only 3 beers. It's always in the back of my mind. With each drink I take out of the first two beers. I quit my chores at the end of the 2nd and sit down for relax time and watch the Voice with hubby. Drinking my last beer....hummm……...I'm going to have to get me one more drink....what will it be??? Rum? Vodka? Whiskey??? Thinking, thinking, "Teri, don't do it" I keep hearing my good self saying. But how am I going to stop?? I need that one more. Then my husband lets the dogs out for their last potty break. When they come in, instead of my dog heading off to bed, she jumped up on my lap. Enjoying our cuddle time, I finish my last beer. I don't want to get her up from my lap. So I continue to sit there with her on my lap, petting her. Pretty soon I start getting tired. That urge to get "one more" passes. I announce I'm going to bed. Aaahhhh that felt SOOO GOOD!!
Again my goal for tonight is suppose to be 3 beers. My niece and nephew asked me to dinner tonight. Of course at the local pub where I have my basic. I have to develop a plan before the end of the work day to manage this one. I am thinking...…...one wine there, then a beer, then one beer when I get home.
Ohhh the challenges
Glad you all are here with me!!
Yes, @MissMay it is so nice to be able to lay it all out there

GOOD FOR YOU TERI!!!! Another thing I learned listening to Rachel Hart... PAUSE.... JUST PAUSE...... let the "DESIRE" pass and it WILL pass, i promise. So tonight at dinner, after you have your drink, PAUSE, when you are saying "one more"... PAUSE

YOU GOT THIS LOVE!

I'm doing well with keep the alcohol reduced. A tad concerned as I've had a little bit more lately but still much better than a month ago. I just don't want the habit to come back. I'm doing well avoiding the evening glass of wine. I did have some wine with dinner a couple of times but I have a small glass and don't normally go back for seconds. I've also had lemoncello twice during the week, only one time was in the evening. I don't want to change my wine habit to a 'stronger but less volume' habit.

FeelinFooFoo wrote: »

Kinda looking forward to Saturday and a few drinks. But I gotta admit. I ain't anywhere near as excited as I used to get.

The thought of a hangover after so long without one?

The realisation that I can have fun without alcohol?

The price of buying drinks, some places are £7 for one large glass of wine!

Or, is it mostly cos I now feel more in control? And I don't fancy losing it? Haha.

I will go and have some drinks. And I will enjoy it. But I am so pleased with the new thoughts I have, the new perspective. It's the start of a new life for me. I had to get my drinking under control and it's a positive feeling. Will i binge drink on Saturday, probably, yes. So maybe my next challenge will be when I do drink, drink in moderation.

We shall see.

I couldn't agree more with all of that! I find I actually enjoy myself when I have a drink or so on the weekends with good company, compared to just drinking heavily during the weeknights just because. I have noticed I like to look at drinking that way now, as an enjoyable treat not used as a daily crutch. But that's just me lol.

@BuffMom84 great job!! I am looking forward to getting to that stage.
Last nights goal of 3 drinks failed. I had 5. Good news, I opened the 6th, sat it on the table, took a drink, then put the lid back on and went to bed. Whewww.
Still working on this big challenge in my life. I find it similar to when I quit smoking. I think that was harder. So I know I can do this. I'm a gradual kind of girl though

Odd thing happened yesterday though. I was filling in my calories around mid day, planning my dinner. Holy smokes I had almost 300 calories unaccounted for. I think that insight is where my accepting of the 4th and 5th beer came in...….what else do you fill in the extra calories with right??? Silly me.

I'm bringing a craving here and leaving it here, I hope. Today seems like a perfect day for a glass of wine, but why?! Okay I can do this, I definitely don't need it.