Less Alcohol - MARCH 2020 - One Day at a Time

3/2 - less than usual. hopefully i skip buying a bottle on the way home today. no AF days yet in 2020
3/3 - dont ask
3/4 - 3/4 of normal. went to bed on time instead of passing out in front of TV

Day 4 AF done! Mission accomplished at the restaurant last night. Followed plan to get a large club soda with a lime. First time in 15 years!!!!! Husband happy bill was so low. I totally forgot about drinks the whole time, focused on good food and good company. I did decide on having coffee about an hour before and it seemed to curb the "drinking" appetite.

In Feb, I relied on sweets every day and that helped a lot. This month I noticed I am getting sick of sweets and craving crunchy, so I keep popcorn on hand and eat crunchy raw vegetables in salads twice a day. Keeps me full and satisfied. I also eat a lot of high fiber foods early on in the day, seems to keep my blood sugar happy, thus fewer cravings for sweets or drinks.

MissMay wrote: »

alrightmsjenkins wrote: »

I ate so many sour belts! LOL Another day without drinking though. Plenty of water and I kicked butt with my workout. I'll take it. Less candy tomorrow though. Yikes! Goodnight y'all!

Believe it or not your craving for more sugar is a tempoary little bit of a trade for drinking less alcohol.we habe all gone through this. Your not alone.workouts do help to.

Mine never went away😆 6:46 am in Vegas another 24 🤠

Mar 1: AF
Mar 2: AF
Mar 3: AF
Mar 4: AF

So far in March 4/4 days AF

I haven't even felt much like drinking this week. I've been so busy with my husband out of town for work and me holding down the fort for our family. If I had a spare moment to relax in the evening I might consider a glass of wine- but I haven't had that spare moment! I was up to 11 pm last night doing dishes, making lunches for today, folding laundry. My husband gets back tonight, this is good.

I had a binge attack though late and ate a bunch of cereal. It was the only semi-sweet thing I had around. I definitely have more acute sugar cravings when I'm not drinking, which I don't like. @whitpauly I'm interested that this may never go away for me! I've been really cutting back on drinking, so I thought it would be gone by now after a few months of reduced drinking, but maybe I'm still drinking too much.

So far in 2020 I have been AF 43 out of 64 days.
I like that fact because in the past, I probably only had 2 AF days a week, if that.

Another day in the books without a drink. Still drinking a lot of water to stay hydrated, got my workout in early and I'm off to bed. I will say that I had moments today that were slightly frustrating, and I thought about what I'd normally do to deal with that. Interestingly enough, I wasn't tempted to go out to the store to buy a bottle. Fewer sour belts today too. I'm grateful that I do not have cravings. I realize though that it's not always going to be this easy, but it does feel good to do this day by day knowing that my liver and my wallet are both getting a break. Good night y'all.

A busy week at work with even busier schedule next week. Starting to feel stressed but trying to manage that with talking and exercising versus eating and drinking.

3/1 - more like 3 drinks 🤦‍♀️
3/2 - AF drinking my tea and hoping for good sleep tonight
3/3 - AF drinking my tea
3/4 - AF drinking my tea
3/5 - AF drinking my tea. No cravings tonight - yay!

As usual, I am going to try for 16-20 AF days for the month.
I had 18AF days for January
I had a surprising (and record setting for me) 21AF days for the short month of February!

Sunday March 01 - AF - The month kind of came in like a lamb out West.
Monday March 02 - AF - Tomorrow is my designated drinks day, we'll see. It could have been the strategy that led to 2 AF days in a row, knowing that I have a drinks day coming up. Definitely going to stick with my newest rule to have at least 2 AF days in a row in between which will add up over the month.
Tuesday March 03 - AF - It is my designated drink day, and I felt like having drinks but decided not to today.
Wednesday March 04 - AF - I just read up on Kava, it is banned in Canada due to severe liver damage and deaths! Yikes. Guess that I won't be trying that as a relaxing alternative to booze. I will stick with my sugar free jello on AF days.
Thursday March 05 - 3 drinks, started from work stress (so using it as a stress reliever still) but after the first sip I was feeling better. I have been applying for new jobs, I have known that I have to make a change in that area for quite some time. I already feel like I have made changes to drink less and am feeling pretty successful at that so far. Coming up to 60 this year and know that I need to define how that is going to be. I think that the days of daily drinking are behind me now. Posting daily on this thread gives me the impetus to keep that in check. Quitting smoking will be a big challenge, but that is on my radar too. Losing weight, cutting down drinking...well, I can't quite quit everything just yet. Baby steps.


Running tally: 4AF days out of 5 days so far.

@dawnbgethealthy, here are some foods that are high fiber (filling!) and nutritious. I went to a hospital dietitian for about 6 months and learned a lot. Do note that one needs to slowly increase their fiber intake gradually otherwise there's risk of tummy troubles/gas...

1- Coleslaw mix: mix of different color cabbages and carrot. Instead of adding mayonnaise, I eat it as a side with a bit of salad dressing. The label says 20 calories!
2- Cuban black beans in a can (Trader Joes) - these have green chiles. If you don't have this store, you can add in onion, green chilis, tomato to the beans. I heat them up in a pan for 20-30 min very low heat, so it thickens. Our usual side with pork chops. All bean types are good. I am experimenting now with lentils and making an indian Dal dish. I am lazy so I will get pre-made indian spice mixes from the local asian market and use that to flavor the lentils
3-Potatoes: especially sweet potatoes. I poke holes in one, microwave for 4-5 min. So tasty one doesn't need to add oil or anything. I like this with louisiana hot sauce or grated parmesan with some rosemary
4-Vegetables: last night I took fresh sugar snap peas, broccoli, zucchini, and carrot, cut small, thew in water that had boiled, 3 min to blanch, rinsed with cold water to stop the cooking, then later mixed those into a homemade asian dish mixed in with rice noodle, egg, and leftover chicken. I grate equal parts ginger and garlic and cook the veg with that. Can add curry powder or red pepper to spice up. NOTE: big flavor difference with fresh veg
5-Salads: anything you want really - we like romaine lettuce, tomato, onion, and black olives
6-Frozen brussell sprouts and french green beans (also Trader Joes). I boil the brussell sprouts just a bit so they are no longer frozen, cut them in half and place them on a sheet pan with olive oil and just bake them so they brown on both sides (or you can do this in a pan).
7-Berries
8-Popcorn: I buy the yellow kernels and have a machine at home. Good so I can control how much oil I add and I use no salt
9-Pasta with quinoa as an ingredient. I use ancient harvest brand.
10-Other grains, I don't generally eat much grain but suppose there are cereals like honey oat cheerios that have oat bran fiber they say is beneficial.

I try to avoid foods with colorings and chemicals. I was told they could interfere with hormone balance and guess what, hormones are what gives us the craving signals. I also usually have a protein serving at each meal which helps keep blood sugar stable.

One can also get more ideas from lists on the internet of high fiber foods that fight cravings.

Enjoy eating!

I'm doing frosted mini wheats for a hi fiber snack+they have some iron in them which I need, come to think of it, it's hard to get enough fiber🤔 and good fats are hard for me too when I was tracking carbs I could never hit the fat goal! Bad fats are easy however 😆 6:44 am in Vegas another 24,have a Fab day peeps!