Less Alcohol ~ JULY 2021 ~ One Day At A Time

@MissMay I love love love that glass! So pretty and vintage! The melon ball garnish makes it extra special.

I did well this weekend. Only one drink Friday and Sunday night. Saturday night I had a glass of wine with dinner and some Sambuca afterwards. While delicious, I was a little hung over yesterday. I really just can’t do the liqueurs and expect a good day. Something about how sweet they are makes me feel kind of lousy the next day.

Good news, I finally got on my boat! Too windy for the sail, but we were able to putt putt around the bay for a little while. Here she is, the Ancestrale!!!

Hmm. I could have sworn I checked in earlier today (I know I did) but I can't see the post now?!?

Oh Well. Happy Monday all.

I'm on 10 days AF for July as of Sunday night. I had drinks Saturday and Friday but I am noticing that even on the days I do drink I'm drinking less recently.

I loved reading all your posts over the weekend both positive and challenging. It give's me a sense of shared journey.

Welcome, @bionicrooster ! You've come to the right place for support to drink less--whatever that means to you? It's often easier to take baby steps--maybe cut back to 5...then 4...toward whatever your goal is.

@dethstar77 I hope this works for you! It did not for me, but all our brains are different. My therapist thinks that my brain receptors globbed onto my one drink after a 140 day break, and while I wasn't always looking for the next one, it was. :-)

@Womona Very nice boat!!! You look happy which I’d great too.

AF this evening. I was the only one at book club without wine at the restaurant. I was okay with this decision. One friend asked what was up … I said I drank last night enough for both nights and needed a break. Guess she didn’t notice that I didn’t drink last month either. It is easy for me to skip when we have such a talkative group and every is only drinking 1 glass with dinner.

I was AF yesterday so re-starting the count. The mild hangover from Sunday is still lingering (energy zapped).

When I stopped for a couple of months, I started thinking it was OK to have non-AF "days". Only a couple a month. Over time I thought maybe it was OK to introduce a "regular" drinking pattern, ie: weekends only. What happened is that gradually and insidiously, the quantity crept up, then midweek there would be a "stress" event that would trigger a drinking night. There is a fine line....and I've crossed the line and now need to reign myself back. May need to go back to zero drinking in the house.

3 AF nights in a row and feels great, especially in the morning. Not quitting altogether but cutting back was definitely necessary for my health and wallet.

My black lilies in the back and in the front are beginning to flower, although they are looking more like a deep burgundy.









The front one has grown so tall (less sun) so I have had to bolster it not to fall over. The one in the back (full sun) is bushing out over the years.

Love the lily pics! Thanks for sharing, @dawnbgethealthy.

@Womona Does Ancestrale have a swing keel? It's so trailer-able for being such a comfortable size! Fantastic pic of the two of you.

I'm really appreciating the thoughts on retirement. I am calling it "peri-retirement," like perimenopause. I can't count how many lake friends on the 4th of July were trying to give vision to what life after retirement would look like. They're not quite there, but they are feeling changes and know it is coming and are not sure exactly what's happening next. Not entirely unlike perimenopause, no? Anyhoo, I'm sorry you and DH are on different pages, @Lilylady3k. My husband wants to move, too, and it really stresses me out as well. We have so much crap in this house. Crazy thing is, the stuff I really don't know what to do with is stuff that was never mine in the first place. It's stuff my parents "entrusted" to me for "safe keeping." It ranges from furnishings they didn't want to more sets of china than I can count to old family portraits of people I'm ashamed to say I cannot identify. Oh, and guns in the gun safe that I'm not even sure are safe to fire. I feel like my own stuff has a pretty compact footprint, but I'm going to need a Marie Kondo intervention to handle the other stuff. It does not spark joy, I can tell you that. But I love where we live for a bunch of reasons (NOT storing other people's stuff ) so I try to enjoy it every day. If we find someplace more beautiful and uplifting, I would be happy to move. I thought we'd never get my mother out of her house, but she found another place she loves and never looked back.

I went overboard with more wine than planned Sunday night. It was the equivalent of emotional eating-- happy, sad, excited, worried.... just a tangle of feelings and loose ends. Worse, I was drinking alone because DH is AF (or mostly so) post-vacation. We were AF Friday, we each had a drink with lunch Saturday, I had one glass of wine after dinner Saturday night and I thought all was on an even keel. I guess it was until it wasn't. Just trying to get my bearings, here. (I'll ease off the nautical expressions. )