Less Alcohol - MAY 2021 - One Day At A Time

5/1 - 5/7: 7 drinks, 4 AF days
5/8: 3 drinks
5/9: 2 drinks

Had dinner out with friends on Saturday. 3 drinks over 3 hours. A couple of the guys were hitting it pretty hard and kept ordering beer after beer, but I found it pretty easy to drink a lot of water instead of chugging the beers down with them.

Braced myself for a mega shoe shopping trip on Sunday. Started off by returning my shoes I purchased last weekend, and the running store had just set up a display of Saucony Kinvara 12s that weren't there last time. Those were on my "try-on" list, and sure enough, they were pretty great. They need to be broken in, but I think they'll work. And they came in black. I'm not a bright-colored running shoe person. I love black.

@Lilylady3k That is an AMAZING brunch spread, I really want to try those quiches!

Hi all!

Whirlwind weekend - Kicked off with deliciousCinco de Mayo Margaritas at work after a long week. It was a lot of fun to order take out drinks and commiserate with my colleagues. I only had one, but I will say it was worth it!

Friday, my sister and BIL stayed with us to attend my MIL’s b-day BBQ party on Saturday, which we hosted. I worked early that morning and was sooooo exhausted at the start of the party. Normally I love to entertain, but I was at the point of “can’t you people just go home?” pretty early in the day. The 3 shots and 2 glasses of wine did not help. Spread out over 8 hours, but still, that’s a lot for me.

Which leads to Mother’s Day spent on the couch nursing a hangover. Hair of the dog did not help either.

So, now to dig out- clean the house again, and do mountains of laundry from our house guests and residual bedding from kids home from college last weekend.

I may need to modify my goals. As the summer months approach, and I’m out more, maybe instead of planning so many AF days during the week, which is a “soft” goal at best given recent weeks. my goal should be to limit myself to just one every day. Of course, that sends me back to being a daily drinker, but at least I’ll have less failure guilt for not maintaining AF for a few days during the week?

Too much to ponder, not enough coffee in me to tackle this AND the mountain of laundry.

@Womona I have faith in you...you remind me of myself....I need to get that laundry delegated to others, work on getting my positive mindset boosted and get me some non-drink rewards.

I really hate laundry

5/1 - 5/7: 7 drinks, 4 AF days
5/8: 3 drinks
5/9: 2 drinks
5/10: AF

First AF day after 3 days in a row of drinking, and I spent a good half of my evening post-gym thinking about having a drink. I'm debating going on a "schedule" of drinks on Fridays and Saturdays with one weeknight being optional (i.e. weeknight happy hour with friends now that such things are possible again), because 3 nights in a row seems to make the cravings worse.

@MissMay My friends and I talked about our pandemic alcohol usage. My husband and my BFF admitted to drinking more, BFF's girlfriend and my other friends didn't change their drinking, and I was the only one who cut back. BFF was like "Who decides to stop drinking during a pandemic?!" and "How do you guys deal with one of you drinking and the other one not??" (Obviously I am still drinking, just not daily, and apparently that's hard to deal with?) Those who have been drinking more or were already pretty heavy drinkers are now able to indulge their habits with other people, and you not behaving like them brings out confusion because how could you NOT want a drink or 5?

@Womona never do hair of the dog! At best, it will shift your hangover to later because it will numb your senses, but it just gives your liver a heavier load to process, and it doesn't help to rehydrate you. For your goals, is setting a weekly or monthly drink limit too broad? Instead of max 1 drink per day, maybe 7 drinks per week would give you some flexibility, which it sounds like you need?

General tips regarding hangovers: if you're getting a hangover despite drinking at a slow pace (1 drink per hour or less) and you're hydrating properly, take a look at what you're drinking. Mass-produced wine and cheap liquor are usually the worst offenders. Most of your big-name grocery store wines (Barefoot, Yellow Tail, etc.) do everything possible to make sure their wine tastes the same year to year no matter the growing conditions, so they put in a ton of additives. I'm very sensitive to them, and a single glass of Barefoot will make me feel like death the next day. Cheap liquor may not be as purified as higher-end liquor, or it may also have additives.

I don't mind laundry, but I also tend to forget about it, and it ends up taking me 3 days to do four loads. My husband? He puts on a four-hour sports car race and bangs it out. He's amazing. He also does the dishes every single night, even if he cooked. He hauls the trash to the dumpster. He cleans up after the cat. I'm so bad at all those domestic duties, and he just takes care of all of it without ever complaining. My tip: train your husbands

globalhiker wrote: »

@dethstar77 great progress! and I see you mentioned "reward mentality" which I can relate to....in fact, it's human nature for people to reward themselves with something they enjoy. Drink rewards are easy, cheap, and accessible too.

In cognitive-behavioral psych, one of the principle keys to mastering any dependency including alcohol is giving oneself periodic rewards that are not alcohol related. This is how the brain gets re-trained to expect a different type of reward.

I myself am working hard at rewarding myself weekly with a small purchase or a special outing. This week it was a new mascara. If I don't do this routinely, I could start to feel a sense of deprivation which could lead me to a danger zone. So weekly rewards for me it is....

On the topic of alcohol in the house, I have beer in the closet and a huge bottle 18% asian rice wine that could send me to the moon but neither interest me. My weakness is around "specific" brands of wine and if I had those in my fridge, I could get very tempted, so yep, I don't stock any. Creating the right environment for success is also key.

@globalhiker That is very interesting and inspiring. I should think of another reward on the days that I feel like rewarding myself. I need to figure that one out. But a really great idea... Thank you.. Also have been keeping super busy at work and otherwise so that I dont have a lot of time to think about missing that drink..

Another thing I have noticed is that nowadays when I am a little down, I no longer think about getting a drink, I am thinking of what can I do stop feeling down or get occupied with something I like. These small changes that I am noticing are making me more optimistic about the path chosen.

@chocolate_owl
When I began this journey I was a daily drinker. Not many drinks per day because of my puke level, but still a couple after work each day.
Until I cut back, my "normal" felt, well, normal. I only realized how alcohol affected me after beginning to take some AF days. Be it just a little fuzzy, upset tummy, a bit of anxiety or other things - I really feel it now when I have drinks. (I also weigh a lot less)
Again, I never have many drinks. When I do lemon water and a good sweat sesh in the morning followed with some granola and oat milk, it usually fixes me up.
I had never thought about the quality of the alcohol. Food for thought. I stopped being able to drink any red wine about a year and a half ago - now that was a hangover. These were good wines, and even 3 oz (an experiment) made me very sick the next day, nothing that lemon water and a workout could fix.
I guess that if we are all going to have drinks once in awhile we have already saved lots of cash, so better to buy more quality stuff.
Always love your input.