Less Alcohol - MARCH 2021

AR10at50 · March 2021

@dawnbgethealthy - I love your idea of 2 AF days in between drinking days! This is totally doable for me. My girlfriend was here last weekend and we were quilting like crazy and drinking. She left Tuesday and I was going to wait 2 days, but was so busy and 2 days turned into 4 really easy for be because I had so much to do. I am going to try that again this week because I know I can do it!!!!

chocolate_owl · March 2021

3/1-3/7: Very bad, lots of drinks
3/8: AF
3/9: AF
3/10: AF
3/11: AF
3/12: 2 drinks, walked an extra two miles so I could have a second glass of wine
3/13: 4 drinks, there's a lot to unpack here
3/14: 2 drinks

So this weekend... It got a little sideways. I would have liked to stick to four drinks; instead I ended up with 8, and I'm processing how I got there. From those triggers we talked about: I have never really considered hunger a big trigger, but Saturday I ate less than 1200 calories from actual food, and I had less than 60 grams of protein. That's not going to cut it. I don't actually feel hungry, but I feel...lacking? The end result is less control over alcohol.

And then there was pain, so much pain, so much "I want to drink until I stop caring about this" going on. So I drank too much. That's a thing that happened and I can move on from it, but the lesson I *really* need to learn here is how to not put myself into so much pain that I drink myself silly, because I do this to myself. I am recovering from surgery after six years of debilitation. I am so desperate to get back to "normal" that I walk too much, cook too much, do too much. There is so much guilt that my husband does most of the chores while I sit on my butt. There is so much shame over my body. NONE OF THIS - not the drinking, not the pain, not my self-esteem - is going to get better if I don't treat myself better.

I walked over 10,000 steps on Friday, which is a feat I haven't achieved since October last year. I am excited about this, and I think this would have been OK if I hadn't done another 7,000 steps on Saturday. Like... I want to test my limits and push my boundaries. I just need to be more sensible about it!

I lost 2 lbs this week. My rings are sliding on and off my fingers a little easier. My jeans aren't digging into my stomach quite as much. I reorganized my dresser drawers because I can do little things like put my socks away in the bottom drawer. I cooked some really amazing, healthy meals. I got my first vaccination. And I got 10,000 steps in one day! It really has been a very good week.

lmlmrn · March 2021

Rolling AF 12 out of 14 days so feel good about that, but I suspect we will finish the month AF, DH is on board 80% of the time and I am ok with that.

@chocolate_owl are you located in the PNW? I am trying to think of some things around the gorge and all I come up with is the concert venue LOL and we won't be having those for awhile. There are the lakes I suppose or genko petrified forest to visit......just dreaming out loud of days gone by. DH and I have been known to just drive 2 hours to have lunch in yakima.

Lilylady3k · March 2021

@globalhiker - I don't run across mussels much in the south. I checked 7 of my favorite southern Louisiana cookbooks and not one of them have a mussel recipe. Lots of oyster recipes

Womona · March 2021

AF tonight, and I completed my food diary! One glass last night with dinner. So much more reasonable than this past weekend. Vacations are my big trigger.

dawnbgethealthy · March 2021

Happy March!

I am continuing with my goals that I have mostly been following for a year:

16-20 AF days per month
Don't drink 2 days in a row
Try to keep 2 AF days in between drinks days

I choose the diary style so that I check in every day, keep myself accountable, and can see at a glance where I am at.

Thursday March 11 - Drinks. Still haven't had drinks 2 days in a row, but I have missed my 2 AF days in between drink days twice already this month.
Friday March 12 - AF - I had a runny nose and sneezing. This disturbs me because everyone is wearing a mask so how could I pick this up and not pick up more dangerous things? I don't usually get allergies, but maybe the melting is uncovering some leaf mold or some such thing. I will go with that!
Saturday March 13 - Drinks - First time that it was warm enough to sit on my friend's patio and have drinks. I wouldn't go inside since I have this runny nose and sneezing going on. Stayed 6 feet apart.
Sunday March 13 - AF - Monday will be also to get my 2AF in a row.
Monday March 14 - AF

Rolling total: 10AF days out of 15 days.

globalhiker · March 2021

Still going AF strong. Practicing the daily skills I learned through readings from the psych pros. All common sense but if I think these to myself in the mornings or while stretching in front of the TV, they seem to have a stronger effect.

1. Start the day expressing gratitude, to oneself, people I care about
2. Appreciate myself. Be one with myself and tell myself that we have plans to do good things today
3. Catch any negative thoughts as they come up. Talk back at them with a positive. Positive thoughts=positive behaviors.
4. Envision throwing all doubts and fears along with thoughts that don't serve me out the window.
5. Watch out for the self-imposed stress load and those triggers. Know my manageable stress level and stay under that level as much as possible.
6. Be a solutionist. Learn from my prior actions. If the behavior didn't work before, repeating it won't work again. Think of changing something up.
7. Improve when I feel I have a solid foundation and feel strong. Know when to rest and when to push forward.

globalhiker · March 2021

@chocolate_owl I see you are putting introspection and solutioning into practice and getting some nice results. It's a nice momentum to ride. On a roll you shall go

!

lmlmrn · March 2021

AF last night this makes 13 out of 15 days this month for me. I am feeling pretty good.

@globalhiker I try to live by positive thoughts lead to a positive life. It is so hard some days to find positives and I always have a few negatives that are out of my control. But like you we push through and keep moving forward.....thank you

Womona · March 2021

A book I just picked up. Zero Proof written by Maureen Petrosky. She lives in my area and is a contributor to one of the major networks. Anyway, it’s all non alcoholic easy cocktails that are not sickly sweet. It available on Amazon, but my local bookstore ordered it for me.

I don’t know how to make it a bigger image. Any suggestions?

Can’t wait to try the recipes! I’m pretty sick of Pelligrino and cranberry.

AF again tonight. And my weight is coming down!

dawnbgethealthy · March 2021

Happy March!

I am continuing with my goals that I have mostly been following for a year:

16-20 AF days per month
Don't drink 2 days in a row
Try to keep 2 AF days in between drinks days

I choose the diary style so that I check in every day, keep myself accountable, and can see at a glance where I am at.

Thursday March 11 - Drinks. Still haven't had drinks 2 days in a row, but I have missed my 2 AF days in between drink days twice already this month.
Friday March 12 - AF - I had a runny nose and sneezing. This disturbs me because everyone is wearing a mask so how could I pick this up and not pick up more dangerous things? I don't usually get allergies, but maybe the melting is uncovering some leaf mold or some such thing. I will go with that!
Saturday March 13 - Drinks - First time that it was warm enough to sit on my friend's patio and have drinks. I wouldn't go inside since I have this runny nose and sneezing going on. Stayed 6 feet apart.
Sunday March 13 - AF - Monday will be also to get my 2AF in a row.
Monday March 14 - AF
Tuesday March 15 - AF - My trigger day, but a job interview over zoom tomorrow, so no drinks tonight.

Rolling total: 11AF days out of 16 days.

Womona · March 2021

Good luck on your interview @dawnbgethealthy !!!!

Lilylady3k · March 2021

Checking in to keep myself accountable. Not off to a stellar week.
3/15 - 1 Torchy’s Tini
3/16 - 3 (1 skinny margarita lunch, 2 wine dinner)

@dawnbgethealthy - You've got this!!! Good luck with your interview.

globalhiker · March 2021

Still AF but barely....

Yesterday was a challenge day for me. I found a new trigger! It's my wonderful spouse. He was having a really bad work-from-home day and his grouchiness polluted the energy in the home so to speak. I made it to dinner time and was prepping dinner, feeling ravenously hungry. Then a delivery came and it was a new house phone. Surprise...one I was not consulted on and one I did not like. Ugh. Now the scene involves 3 triggers all together: grouchy spouse + hunger+ the unwanted surprise making me angry. I ran into the triple-trigger!

My head said we need to jump in the car right now and go to the store for wine because it couldn't take it anymore...yes it did....UGH.

Thought I was done with this BS....so I retreated into another room, grabbed my "workbook", the one that I am using to help me manage my responses to triggers and just skimmed it for some inspiration. Ten minutes later the impulse is gone and husband apologizes. Life is back on track.

globalhiker · March 2021

@lmlmrn you are indeed doing amazingly well! Nice momentum going too!

@Womona appreciate the info on mocktails. Me too, and tired of sparkling water. People who like beer have Clausthauler beer which so far tastes the most like the real thing. But I prefer mocktails, sour as can be.

@dawnbgethealthy hope your interview goes well!

chocolate_owl · March 2021

3/1-3/7: Very bad, lots of drinks
3/8-3/14: 4 AF days, 8 drinks
3/15: AF
3/16: AF

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today is my favorite holiday. I live in the neighborhood that throws the St. Patty's Day party in normal times. It starts off with a 5K (I'm wearing one of my 5K shirts today!), then a parade with tacky, adorable floats, then the street gets closed for the rest of the day and people slowly migrate from my neighborhood down south to the restaurants and bars. Several live bands play until after dark. A lot of my neighbors hold house parties, and some guys will sit on their lawns and hand out beer to passers-by. Every year there's been a wealth of stories, photos, and fun, but not these past two years. I haven't gotten to pull my gold headband, green eyeshadow, and clover knee-highs out. I haven't sipped green champagne by the pool. I haven't had side-splitting laughs with strangers. I am looking forward to this SO MUCH next year, and there's a high chance I will be running - actually running!!! - the 5K. But tonight husband and I will put on the St Patty's Day Pandora station and drink Guinness (well, I will have a single Guinness. He will have 3, plus some Jameson, and he will be hung over tomorrow) and talk about next year.

chocolate_owl · March 2021

@lmlmrn Nah I'm down in Texas. I road-tripped around Oregon with a friend a few years back, and did another trip to Seattle/Chelan in Washington after that, so I've spent a lot of time reading travel guides

@globalhiker Oh, the Frustrated Husband trigger. One of the tough things about WFH is not having the car ride home to decompress and let everything go so you can walk through the door without work baggage. I work with my spouse, so when he gets grouchy like that (admittedly quite frequently), I get sucked into it because I know *exactly* what he's so angry about, and it makes me angry too. If I drank every time one of us was pissy over work and feeding that energy into our house, I'd never be sober. It's a hard, unbreakable rule for me that I do not drink because work was aggravating for one of us, and it's a rule I'd strongly recommend for a lot of reasons. Of course, I'd probably have used the phone situation as a reason to bust out the wine, so good on you for taking a few minutes and not following your worst impulses.

@dawnbgethealthy Hope your interview goes well!!

@Lilylady3k Just keep checking in! A drink out at lunch sounds like a social occasion? With the Covid shots rolling out, there's going to be more and more opportunities to have drinks with friends, and it seems really important to have strategies in place for those situations.

@Womona Now that you have your mocktail book you probably don't need more inspiration, but I'll share anyway

I got stuck buying a giant thing of pomegranate juice for a recipe; all 3 grocery stores I checked were out of the small ones. I've been slowly draining it by mixing it with sparkling water and lime, and I like it a lot more than cranberry anything.

starrynightskys · March 2021

Enjoying this thread. Really interesting to hear about how people cope with cravings. I was wondering what everyone counts as a glass of wine though. Would it be 125ml, 175ml or 250ml?

Lilylady3k · March 2021

starrynightskys wrote: »

Enjoying this thread. Really interesting to hear about how people cope with cravings. I was wondering what everyone counts as a glass of wine though. Would it be 125ml, 175ml or 250ml?

I usually count 5oz as a glass of wine

though I'm not measuring at the moment but I've poured enough to know what it looks like in my glasses at home. At restaurants they usually pour 5 oz and if you want to order a deep pour it is usually 9 oz.

lmlmrn · March 2021

@dawnbgethealthy good luck with the interview! I am excited for you. haha, stay calm and remember you are interviewing them too.
@globalhiker wow great job on controlling the urge. I am about 1/2 through the workbook. I actually set it aside for about a week but am ready to dive back in.
@Lilylady3k it is great you are checking in and being accountable here for yourself. We are here and I would love to help if you need it
@chocolate_owl We plan to visit TX and may even retire there but.....DH is not much on heat and humidity. Is there anywhere in TX that has lower temps?

Last night AF so tonight will make 15 out of 17. I don't plan to drink all week and may skip this weekend too. I am finding it a bit easier to do and I am so competitive with myself I want to beat my Feb goal. What is wrong with me?

I am a bit nervous about our upcoming trip to OH, visiting relatives always triggers the drink devil. I don't sleep well in unfamiliar places and have used alcohol to knock me out. I won't do that this time so I need to develop another strategy between now and May 1....suggestions?

Less Alcohol - MARCH 2021

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