The Sober Squad- Alcohol Free Living
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FeelinFooFoo wrote: »RubyRed427 wrote: »@FeelinFooFoo 60 days!!! Wow - and you are close to wining that bet with your brother!!
Hmmm. What can I spend £50 on lemme think 🤔
60 days of giving my liver & other organs a well deserved break from processing toxins. Now that makes me feel like a millions bucks $$$
A massage, pedicure, bracelets, new wallet to hold your winnings....4 -
Gotta admit with this Covid thing, the holiday is a little boring. I'm used to happy hours with friends, shopping a lot at the mall, etc. I have to keep my attitude positive though or I get mired in "woe is me" thinking when I have so much to be grateful for.6
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Hi Everyone! @RubyRed427 I don't even have much of a social life normally, but it's more that BC (Before Covid), I had the choice to see if friends would be up for a get-together. I'm trying to focus on creativity and being with myself. Because that's who I'm with 24x7. Also trying to do some soul searching work that would be easy to distract myself from otherwise. I did find a therapist who's a good fit. She reinforced what y'all have said here. For someone who has had a bad relationship with alcohol, moderating is next to impossible for biological reasons for most.
@FeelinFooFoo I agree w/ @donimfp - You are a beautiful magical unicorn! So proud of you!
AF since Thanksgiving and no plans to resume. Christmas will be interesting.6 -
@Mainelylisa good for you! Yes, the holidays are a new AF adventure for many of us. I figure if we can get sober in 2020 plus navigate Christmas we need to pat ourselves on the back.
Yeah, the impossibility of unpickling the cucumber is a bummer but as Byron Katie says, Whenever I argue with reality I lose, but only 100% of the time.
It has been eye opening to me to be in Kate Bee’s Sober School group for graduates and to hear people say things like they were AF for 6 years or so and then thought they could surely handle one drink to celebrate something and then soon found themselves out of control once again. Their cautionary tales are helping me avoid testing that boundary for myself.
We can do this!7 -
OK. Y'all won't believe this. And I'm kind of embarrassed to post this. But I need to. So . . . tonight I was sitting in bed reading a new cookbook I got. My husband came in and sat by me and was reading our monthly Texas Highways magazine, which arrived today. The cookbook ended, of course, with a whole "cocktails" section. They looked really good. I turned to my husband and said, "Would you please fix me a vodka and Perrier?" He looked surprised but said, "Of course I will if that's what you want. Are you sure that's what you want?" I said yes, but no hurry. He looked back at the magazine and said, "Hey, this article is about those things you've bought--Kin Euphorics." (Those are nonalcoholic cocktails I've bought a few times--the ones with adaptogens like the Curious Elixirs--which I like better). I looked over and saw a photo of a tattooed bartender and the article title "Toppling the Tipple." I said, "Why is that in Texas Highways? What does nonalcoholic drinks have to do with Texas???" He said, "The writer is saying she visited a bar in Ft. Worth and one in Austin where they are serving nonalcoholic drinks. She says she hasn't been drinking for 10 years but found herself in a new kind of bar." I said, "What's the writer's name?" He said "Sarah Hepola." She was the author of Blackout , one of the quit lit memoirs I read. Since then, I've noticed her byline a couple of times in Texas Highways. She is a writer after all, and from Texas, so I guess she has become a contributor to that magazine.
Anyway, I grabbed the magazine from him and said, "Never mind. I don't want a vodka. This is a miracle from God." He laughed but I really wasn't kidding. I was actually going to drink a vodka on day 170. I saw those recipes and thought, "I can handle one drink." Then God put this article in my face. That is SO bizarre.
So . . . I asked him to make me a "tequila sunrise" instead--POM juice, orange juice, a little Perrier, and a splash of Ritual Zero non-alcoholic tequila--a drink I've been enjoying. While he was making it, I read the short article. She talked about being sober for 10 years and being glad that there are finally these options, with entrepreneurs realizing there is now a huge, growing sober market. She mentioned that "Shirley Temples" used to be the only option and mentioned a really good NA cocktail she had in a Houston bar--cocktail named "Don't Call Me Shirley."
Anyway, I'm sipping my lovely drink. I swear that if that hadn't happened I would now be drinking alcohol. That scares me. I'm just an impulse away from drinking and hadn't really realized that. I really do think there was some divine intervention going on. Anyway, just had to share. Dodged a bullet. God sent me a message from Sarah Hepola, one of our peeps.
Good night all. Sorry for the long post.12 -
Thanks, FooFoo. That’s really interesting that the UK takes such a hard-line stance about alcohol free alternatives. I wonder what the rationale is.5
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@donimfp excellent story- so happy you had that God-wink moment - So happy for you.
Tonight I was talking myself into having just one wine - just one. I said I’ll just get a wine spritzer .... so when I arrived at the restaurant I ordered a club soda with lime. I thought the drink through. I figured tomorrow Christmas Eve would have been day 1 and I would have been jittery and anxious and ruined the holiday.
I came home early and my friends went to drink some more - my one friend even said “come with us - you don’t have to drink”. I said nah it’s not as fun ....
I came home kinda sad and kinda proud all at the same time. But ultimately no regrets6 -
My husband and I are contemplating moving to a 55 plus age community. They have a huge clubhouse and when it's non covid, I expect a lively social scene. The realtor said, "oh these people love to party. Thirtsy Thursdays, Happy Hour Fridays etc." This is definitely weighing on me. I do want to be in an active community....I have been unhappy where we currently have been for 2.5 years. The people are just not so friendly. One good thing about moving though would be I would just come in as a non drinker....no one need know about my past with wine. Plus I am sure there would be other like minded people. I'll have to join the knitting club or something where you need to concentrate. We will see. Merry Christmas, Friends.7
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i actually don’t mind much being around my friends when they are drinking. lets me be more of my natural goofball self, without them wondering why i’m being such a goofball.6
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Hooray for you, @FeelinFooFoo! You're ahead of me, time-wise, by 6 hours, so I'm thinking of you as you head into Christmas Eve evening. You have done so great!
Wishing everyone a happy Christmas, enjoying the many, many things there are to enjoy without alcohol!!
@RubyRed427, I'm convinced that the phrase that will be my undoing, if there is ever going to be an undoing, will be "Just one." I have to remember that for me, there is NO SUCH THING. It's like the Loch Ness Monster or the Yeti. the "Just One" creature is a total myth. Good for you for thinking it through to the end. Have a blessed Christmas!7 -
Here I go!
I figure why wait until new year 😀10 -
Welcome @CookieUnicornNinja! I think you will find our community supportive and helpful and I quite agree: Why drink like crazy on New Years Eve only to start a brand new year feeling yucky? Might as well start now. By Jan 1 you will already be feeling better.7
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Merry Christmas and Peace on Earth!6
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Merry Christmas to all!
I saw a quote that said the best gift you could give your family this Christmas is the gift of staying sober.
Peace!
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Last night on Christmas Eve, we went to my parents on the next street. Completely sober meal and evening- no alcohol whatsoever anywhere.
My sister and I who are sober said we imagine there are a few families out there who probably ended the evening with arguments or drunken harsh words being spoken.
I told @JenT304 anytime I romanticize drinking wine, I make myself imagine the worst aspects of my drinking (hangover, illness, puffy face, anxiety, etc.) Keeps me in line for now.6 -
https://youtu.be/kI-BhQGwDO8
My favorite video.... as you know. I post it every year. Because it gives me hope and I hope it gives you hope.6 -
As much as this year was painful, the positive is several of us identified our desire to change our relationship with alcohol. That is such a beautiful result of this terrible year. If we can stay sober during 2020, then we can stay sober in 2021.
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Merry Christmas, everyone!!
@RubyRed427, thanks for the annual Craig F. video. And you are so right . . . We began this journey in the hardest year possible to begin it. For me, it was because after 3 months of lockdown, I found myself sitting in my den, looking out the window, drink in hand, thinking, "What is the stupid point of living?" That was mid-June, and I decided then and there to get sober. I failed miserably after 5 days. Desperate, I joined the Sober School class that started July 6. My last drink was July 5. Christmas Day, Day 173, and I'm so happy to be alive.
My prayer for anyone else who is struggling because of alcohol is that the "thing" that finally clicks and brings it together for you will come. But don't give up if you're finding it frustrating at the moment. All my many Day One's were worth it because finally I had what I sincerely hope will be the final Day One.
Have a wonderful day, all!!7
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