Less Alcohol - March 2019 - One Day at a Time

Sassymanda wrote: »

Oh wow Im so glad I found this board! I have been trying so hard to go AF for a while now and its been a real struggle. My problem is wine I love to come home every night and have a few glasses or bottle of wine and then on the weekend my bf and I will drink tequila. I know that drinking makes me feel like crap every morning when I get up. I know its made me gain so much weight has had an effect on my life I've been lazy I dont go out and do things that i use to I would much rather sit on the couch with my wine. I haven't been able to go more then 2-3 days with out it.
Yesterday I did good I came home made dinner, exercised on my gazelle, relaxed and went to bed. I want to be able to keep this up all week every week. I get so stressed at work on my way home I think about how nice it will be to have that glass of wine and I really want to change this way of thinking. I want to be able to replace alcohol with exercise and getting out enjoying life and experiences on the weekend not being drunk then nursing a hangover the next day.
Im looking forward to the support i can get from this thread and you all! ANd to support you all in return So heres to day 2 of being AF wish me luck!

Good luck 🤞

Quite often we think it's the drink we're craving at the end of a stressful day, when in fact it's a shift in state of mind that we seek. Alcohol is one way of achieving this, and I think we can all agree that its not the best. So I find that the trick is to find alternative way to change your state. So exercise is a great idea. Keep strong and steady connected.

Bless x

pramason38 wrote: »

Hi guys!

I know it's half way through the month but if it's okay I'd like to join you. Annie Grace, Mr Beck and Alan Carr are all great reads and I followed Annie Grace's 30 day alcohol experiment last year heading into the summer and was super hyped. I had decided my decision was to try and moderate after the challenge, I had a holiday coming and planned to drink then but moderate once it was over. That was the 17th Aug 2018..... I've drank everyday since right up until last Sat 9th. I'm not sure if moderation is an option for me, I'm it seems an all out nothing kind of guy. So anyway I'm here now, I have planned to make some changes and if I'm honest I'm not sure what the end game looks like but something has to change. So it's 3 days AF, it's my daughters 21st bday party on Sat so if penciled that in but the plan is continue AF for the rest of the month after that.

Wish me luck

And good luck to everyone.

I hope I haven't rambled too long

Bless x

No not at all! Welcome! We are all here to support each other!

today’s plan. Don't buy a bottle.
3/7 – well its been 34 hours without my whiskey. Not really an accomplishment for some but after failing at Less I am attempting cold turkey. I do have a couple cheat days planned for social events but no bottles in my house for a long while. I have no confidence that I will succeed.
3/8 – 58 hours AF – long story – delete delete delete. I am regretting cold turkey. To anyone that drinks 1/5th or more of 80 proof a day alcohol. Get medical support or taper off before quitting cold turkey. Read up. I have every symptom besides death so far and I do not feel cleansed of alcohol yet. Going to be a hard weekend!
3/9 – I have not slept well or felt good since Tuesday nights normal binge drinking. Oh Well I didn’t die or drink. I am quite sure I had night tremors or mild seizures the last few nights.
3/10 – one of the hardest days yet but I am sticking to my plan.
3/11 - I debated and debated about not drinking even though the written plan says celebrate on Sundays. Well I eneded up picking up a bottle before going to a party. Bottle sat in the car for the first hour. Then when I opened it I didn’t stop till it was gone. good by 1/5th see you next Sunday. Slept like a baby.
3/12 - AF yesterday but probably still some alcohol in system from Sunday. Slept okay and don’t feel entirely horrible like last week.

3/13 – one full week on my plan - AF but sure was a long day. Really wanted a drink badly. i have to wait till Sunday. Could not sleep most of the night only got about 2 hours shut eye at most.

Fitness327wk wrote: »

gladys0919 wrote: »

I started off really strong, was going into weekend number 2 AF. Friday was a breeze, saturday we even went out to eat and i didnt order booze, order seltzer water! YESTERDAY however, girls came over and I cooked and drank a half bottle of pinot by myself and two shots of tequila. Woke up beating myself up cos i was going to SO WELL with AF weekends. BUT reading thru here i decided NOT to beat myself up any more, its LESS alcohol... and I am doing REALLY well with that ... ((SIGH)) here is to a good week

Exactly, don’t beat yourself up! You have made huge changes and have been doing great! I feel the same way that I have been doing really strong. I had a few planned nights of drinking in Feb and drank too much. I was frustrated with myself and then took a look back of all the progress I have made compared to last year!!! Woo HOO!!! I feel so much better!

thanks so much for the encouragement doll!! Last night i felt like a drink so bad, instead i got dressed and went to the gym and ran my *kitten* off!! 3 miles between 7 and 8m speed, crushed it! Went home, made the boys dinner, had some seltzer water and took my *kitten* to bed ! WIN

I am learning tons from this group! Only in week 2 and down to 1.5 drinks a day (from 1-2 bottles!) and what I've learned:
1. urges to drink may not go away for a long time and pop up unexpectedly without warning
2. urges are only an urge and nothing else
3. thoughts can stare down at urges right in the face and not be fearful but recognize it for what it is
4. often urges go away quickly
5. we are more powerful than our urges
6. fall-back strategies are especially useful during this transition (exercise, distraction, herbal teas, watch a movie, call a friend, relaxation techniques, whatever makes you happy or occupied that is not damaging)
7. it may be difficult to diet at the same time; maybe best to tackle one problem at a time
8. slow and steady wins the race
9. checking in daily on this thread and being accountable
10. celebrate success in a positive way
11. if you choose to drink, set limits and let your thoughts make that decision, and not let it be because your urges bullied you to do so

Yesterday was hard but it went well! Came home cooked dinner, exercised ate and went to bed. I have half a bottle of wine sitting on my kitchen counter and i heard it calling my name a few times last night but I continued to resist. I think Im gonna pour it down the sink tonight. Im hoping to keep this momentum going. Wednsedays or Thursdays are usually my give-in days so I hoping I can make it through to Friday.

My goals for March will be the same as the previous months - 4 AF days per week. I have found it to be a realistic goal for me. I hit my goal in February (and surpassed it a little). Daily accountability is good. I was a daily drinker before making this resolve.
I log the next morning usually.

March 01 - 3 drinks - yes, chose to do that because I have a free Saturday to sleep in, basically no responsibilities or commitments. I had a very busy week and it was so nice to finally kick back, have a great dinner and a few drinks.
March 02 - AF
March 03 - AF
March 04 - AF
March 05 - AF - technically my goal of 4AF for the week.
March 06 - AF
March 07 - 3 drinks
March 08 - 3 drinks - time to rack up some more AF days. I think that I broke that good advice on here not to have drinks 2 days in a row. It too quickly can fall back into a habit that I don't want to go back to.
March 09 - AF
March 10 - AF
March 11 - AF - now to get the scale to move!
March 12 - AF - I really really wanted to have cocktails last night, but also didn't want to look puffy, so vanity won out : - )

9 AF days out of 12 days so far

marcvb35 wrote: »

today’s plan. Don't buy a bottle.
3/7 – well its been 34 hours without my whiskey. Not really an accomplishment for some but after failing at Less I am attempting cold turkey. I do have a couple cheat days planned for social events but no bottles in my house for a long while. I have no confidence that I will succeed.
3/8 – 58 hours AF – long story – delete delete delete. I am regretting cold turkey. To anyone that drinks 1/5th or more of 80 proof a day alcohol. Get medical support or taper off before quitting cold turkey. Read up. I have every symptom besides death so far and I do not feel cleansed of alcohol yet. Going to be a hard weekend!
3/9 – I have not slept well or felt good since Tuesday nights normal binge drinking. Oh Well I didn’t die or drink. I am quite sure I had night tremors or mild seizures the last few nights.
3/10 – one of the hardest days yet but I am sticking to my plan.
3/11 - I debated and debated about not drinking even though the written plan says celebrate on Sundays. Well I eneded up picking up a bottle before going to a party. Bottle sat in the car for the first hour. Then when I opened it I didn’t stop till it was gone. good by 1/5th see you next Sunday. Slept like a baby.
3/12 - AF yesterday but probably still some alcohol in system from Sunday. Slept okay and don’t feel entirely horrible like last week.

3/13 – one full week on my plan - AF but sure was a long day. Really wanted a drink badly. i have to wait till Sunday. Could not sleep most of the night only got about 2 hours shut eye at most.

Have you thought of getting medical support to taper off your drinking? If memory serves, detoxing from alcohol is more dangerous than from drugs. I’m concerned about the seizures, etc, and generally not sleeping without alcohol. White knuckling through this cold turkey on your own may be more difficult than it needs to be. Just take care of yourself! We are all rooting for you!

today’s plan. Don't buy a bottle.
3/7 – well its been 34 hours without my whiskey. Not really an accomplishment for some but after failing at Less I am attempting cold turkey. I do have a couple cheat days planned for social events but no bottles in my house for a long while. I have no confidence that I will succeed.
3/8 – 58 hours AF – long story – delete delete delete. I am regretting cold turkey. To anyone that drinks 1/5th or more of 80 proof a day alcohol. Get medical support or taper off before quitting cold turkey. Read up. I have every symptom besides death so far and I do not feel cleansed of alcohol yet. Going to be a hard weekend!
3/9 – I have not slept well or felt good since Tuesday nights normal binge drinking. Oh Well I didn’t die or drink. I am quite sure I had night tremors or mild seizures the last few nights.
3/10 – one of the hardest days yet but I am sticking to my plan.

3/11 - I debated and debated about not drinking even though the written plan says celebrate on Sundays. Well I ended up picking up a bottle before going to a party. Bottle sat in the car for the first hour. Then when I opened it, I didn’t stop till it was gone. good by 1/5th see you next Sunday. Slept like a baby.
3/12 - AF yesterday but probably still some alcohol in system from Sunday. Slept okay and don’t feel entirely horrible like last week.
3/13 – AF but sure was a long day. Really wanted a drink badly. Could not sleep most of the night only got about 2 hours shut eye at most.

3/24 – AF – slept the night, probably out of necessity but still it was nice to only toss and turn instead of needing to get out of the bed. Still a rough night, my body is not liking the change, blood pressure is through the roof even with meds, I am going to try and ride it out till Sunday again.

pramason38 wrote: »

4 days AF now and feeling good. Saturdays already penciled in for a few beers as its my daughters 21st I'm not even gonna attempt not drinking because I know if I don't ill just be miserable and everyone will annoy me as they slowly get drunk. This is one of the biggest challenges of going AF. My missus wants me to cut back but not stop because she doesn't think she needs too and when I don't drink and she does I'm no fun. When you're sober you realise how little alcohol does for people personalities which says it all really. I don't want to spoil my daughters birthday so I'll tackle that battle another day.

It is difficult when the spouse is not supportive. I run into that all the time. Mine is starting to realize he has a problem and this year started joining me. So I no longer have to drink a glass or two of wine from a bottle he has just to keep his count of drinks down.

I use to drink every day but for my daughter's birthday my best friend and I made a pact to drink water. We took the girls to New Orleans for their 21st ... think Bourbon Street & Pat O's. We were responsible for a group of 21 year old girls. We had a ton of fun.
At one point they asked for another round and I said ya'll need to drink a glass of water. One girl guzzled the water, turned the glass upside down and said I want my drink. I said peer pressure ... everyone has to finish drinking their water. We did this twice min during the night (kept water on the table at all times). The girls were surprised to wake up without a huge headache. Cafe Du Monde wrapped up the evening (coffee, water, beignets). They had a great time. My friend and I had a blast too.
My friend and I were glad at 2am that we were sober ... girls skipping down the street, arms linked, banging on taxi cars they walked in front of (oh my), guys trying to pinch them, people trying to sell them things, saw a car crash and 6 police car chase ... we were there to handle it all and got everyone back to their room safely. It was a whew moment LOL.

Good luck at your daughter's 21 birthday.

francineb4 wrote: »

so glad to have found this group. I want to try 4 AF days/week to dry out from a fun vacation where I drank 1-2 drinks every night for a week. That part was fine, but then I decided to let myself "extend my vacation" and drank 3 drinks everynight for the next week. When I dont drink, the evenings are hard but the mornings are glorious. I know I am more present to the family, less depressed, thinner, happier etc. when I don't drink, so why is this so hard to stay AF?

I can certainly relate...last year I almost quit, but then I started up again - why? Well because I had the right line up of all the good excuses: went on vacation and when I returned it was Christmas/holiday season and then I had 2 stressful business trips. It seems everyone I know "drinks" on vacation, during the holidays, during business trips. I even found myself drinking wine for breakfast at 8am in the morning at an airport, along with the travelers doing the same. Former drinkers must have a very strong long term memory "association" with the pleasure drinking provides, I think. I can't blame society, the problem lies in my thinking....and the solution lies in my thinking. I believe this to be true because it's not the fault of the social norms (vacation/holiday/business trip) because those events simply do not drive people who never drank, to drink.

My goals for March will be the same as the previous months - 4 AF days per week. I have found it to be a realistic goal for me. I hit my goal in February (and surpassed it a little). Daily accountability is good. I was a daily drinker before making this resolve.
I log the next morning usually.

March 01 - 3 drinks - yes, chose to do that because I have a free Saturday to sleep in, basically no responsibilities or commitments. I had a very busy week and it was so nice to finally kick back, have a great dinner and a few drinks.
March 02 - AF
March 03 - AF
March 04 - AF
March 05 - AF - technically my goal of 4AF for the week.
March 06 - AF
March 07 - 3 drinks
March 08 - 3 drinks - time to rack up some more AF days. I think that I broke that good advice on here not to have drinks 2 days in a row. It too quickly can fall back into a habit that I don't want to go back to.
March 09 - AF
March 10 - AF
March 11 - AF - now to get the scale to move!
March 12 - AF - I really really wanted to have cocktails last night, but also didn't want to look puffy, so vanity won out : - )
March 13 - 3 drinks. Those of you who have seen me on here before know that I throw up if I exceed 3 : - )

9 AF days out of 13 days so far