Less Alcohol ~ ☘MARCH 2022 ~ One Day At A Time
Replies
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@Lilylady3k I love the picture of the tulips! And of course the errant daffodil!
It is hard to go AF, but that’s great you’re supporting your hubby during Lent, especially being around other people!3 -
I was on another thread, and just had an epiphany.
I’ve never, ever been an emotional eater. I don’t have a “relationship” with food. It’s an inanimate object I use to survive, and that’s it. I know a lot of people have a relationship with food, eat to combat boredom, stress, loneliness, etc., but that’s not something I’ve ever been able to relate to, as much as I can try to empathize.
Well guess what. I have a “relationship “ with alcohol! I am an emotional drinker, especially if I’m stressed. I find the flimsiest excuse to have wine every day- my hubby cooked a nice meal, it’s a random Tuesday, etc. Going forward, I really have to make it a choice, and not a mindless habit or because I’m trying to feel better. Going AF tonight really brought that home. I know this craving will pass after a few days of AF, but it was eye opening for me!
Dang it! I thought I dodged the “emotional consumption ” bullet. Guess not! 😡6 -
@Womona Wow great of you to recognize the connection. People like me have a double whammy food and alcohol.
I have to say all the pictures are fabulous. Do I want more snow this winter...nope. I think here in PNW we are done. We may have a few more freezing mornings but the worst is over.
AF tonight so yeah.
I am working on another painting plus that crazy 31 day challenge painting outside our comfort zone. Today's picture I painted?....well that would be a drunk bucket (actually tipsy) holding a very much dead sunflower.
back later4 -
Wow @Lilylady3k SIX WEEKS!? Why did I think it was only one week???😳
Well I must say your husband sounds determined. I am keeping my fingers crossed for both of you.
@Womona I am very excited to hear you have made a connection between emotions and alcohol. It will help you know the triggers when they start to surface. It is a break through.
I have always considered myself up until a year ago a stick figure type of drawer/painter. Then I began going outside the comfort zone. Some days for art are glorious, other days......well I dumped all my project in the trash one day after a multitude of attempts. Enough said!
I'm very thankful @lmlmrn is backing me up on this 31 day adventure, still life is new to both of us. I gave up with everything on the canvas yesterday except for the main focal point. I am very lucky to have a gallon of black paint to cover my failed attempts.
Husband still ill, and he has not wanted alcohol in THREE DAYS. This is a first since I have known him
during the past 10 years.
AF last night for this girl.
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@MissMay - I hope that your DH pulls out of his illness and feels better soon! Love your art challenge. I keep thinking I'm going to paint and then don't. Bought water colors when I retired in 2019 and still not opened them ... shame on me. I need to put it on my personal challenge list to do something with them at least once per week or month. I love sketching trees and flowers ... want to push that love into water colors.
Oh and my DH ... yes it did shock me when he said he wanted to try for 6 weeks of Lent. There will be some bumps but I'm really enjoying this break from nightly alcohol exposure! Our budget is liking it too
It was getting to where he spent $150-280 on 6 bottles of wine and wipe it out in 3-4 days in Jan & Feb this year. I think that he is considering pulling the plug on working and dive into retirement with me might have a little something to do with his personal challenge. I track expenses each month and the alcohol line items really stand out. It is something that is totally discretionary. This does not include alcohol consumed with dinner at restaurants/bars when food was consumed or bought at the grocery store or the alcohol bill for our children's weddings ... primarily our SPECS liquor store bill ... so you get the picture.
2019 - $2319
2020 - $4784
2021 - $5583
2022 - $1261 (Jan-Feb only)
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I am Dawn. My ongoing goal is 16-20 AF days per month. I was a daily drinker when I began on this thread in November of 2018.
Diary style is how I keep track.
Tuesday March 01 - AF - Day 2 of a 7 day cleanse heavy on brown rice, almonds, and allums, so no alcohol or anything fermented amongst other things like fungus, sugar, wheat, grapes etc.
Wednesday March 02 - AF - Easier to be off of alcohol than the cream in my coffee in the mornings
Thursday March 03 - AF - My 5th AF day in a row, so not my usual, but the cleanse.
Friday March 04 - AF - My usual day this year so far (because of my newest schedule) of kicking back and having a couple of drinks. A Grand Marnier sounded like a nice idea. It can wait. My mouth was salty and dry this evening, although I haven't had any salt or anything with salt in it for 5 days. Perhaps the cleanse is getting rid of stuff?
Saturday March 05 - AF - I usually post in the mornings when I post my weight and stuff into other forums. Weekends are different. Got up for an hour walk around Jimsmith Lake today. Finally had some time. It was joyous and glorious. Photos to come
Sunday March 06 - AF - Basically finished my cleanse, but it will go on for a few days more but with the addition of coffee cream and bananas. No plans for alcohol until later in the week.
Monday March 07 - 2 drinks. I hadn't had any plans to have drinks. It had been 8AF days in a row which is unusual for me. Coffee cream in the morning resumes Tuesday morning. Delaying the re-introduction of other things, although I suppose my 2 drinks included ferment and sugar. I enjoyed them.
I was getting escalating night leg cramps for the past 4 even though I continued with Magnesium and had potassium in the way of potatoes. Last night (after drinks) was even worse. The heating pad works, but only covers a certain space. This started in February of 2020 and I remedied it with bananas (googled) and it worked after a week. I will be starting back on bananas for sure! I truly do think that the alcohol only made it worse. Hmm
Rolling total: 6 AF days out of 7 days5 -
Wow I guess I should do a break down but I would have to get it from the app off my phone. But it would be interesting to see. Six week congrats on the commitment!Lilylady3k wrote: »@MissMay - I hope that your DH pulls out of his illness and feels better soon! Love your art challenge. I keep thinking I'm going to paint and then don't. Bought water colors when I retired in 2019 and still not opened them ... shame on me. I need to put it on my personal challenge list to do something with them at least once per week or month. I love sketching trees and flowers ... want to push that love into water colors.@Lilylady3k It's time to bring out those watercolors! I started with watercolors. what brand did you purchase? Did you purchase some watercolor paper? You really should follow along with @MissMay and I. She can tell you still life is not my forte!
Oh and my DH ... yes it did shock me when he said he wanted to try for 6 weeks of Lent. There will be some bumps but I'm really enjoying this break from nightly alcohol exposure! Our budget is liking it too It was getting to where he spent $150-280 on 6 bottles of wine and wipe it out in 3-4 days in Jan & Feb this year. I think that he is considering pulling the plug on working and dive into retirement with me might have a little something to do with his personal challenge. I track expenses each month and the alcohol line items really stand out. It is something that is totally discretionary. This does not include alcohol consumed with dinner at restaurants/bars when food was consumed or bought at the grocery store or the alcohol bill for our children's weddings ... primarily our SPECS liquor store bill ... so you get the picture.
2019 - $2319
2020 - $4784
2021 - $5583
2022 - $1261 (Jan-Feb only)
AF last night the stretches between drinks is tending to get longer and less likely for me to chase. this is a good feeling.
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March 1-2 AF
March 3- wine 3 glasses (almost went for a 4th but switched to water and very glad I did because I feel good this morning)
March 4 - wine 3 glasses
March 5 - overdid it and threw up 🤢
March 6- AF
March 7- AF
March 8 - AF6 -
@lmlmrn - I have all our credit cards, checking etc dumping info into MINT (mint.intuit.com). It is easy then to sort everything by category. I dump/export 6 months to a year of data out of Mint to Excel to document the trends. Really enlightening.
I won't mention how much my "gift" budget has gone up with grand babies this year LOL5 -
Lilylady3k wrote: »@lmlmrn - I have all our credit cards, checking etc dumping info into MINT (mint.intuit.com). It is easy then to sort everything by category. I dump/export 6 months to a year of data out of Mint to Excel to document the trends. Really enlightening.
I won't mention how much my "gift" budget has gone up with grand babies this year LOL
Sounds really cool, I no longer have any intuit software and then there are times when we pick up alcohol along with other non related items so it would be difficult to separate out unless I did it after each purchase.
I keep a detailed spread sheet of all our monthly expenses but I have never really tracked our 'excess' it is just there to use or not use. I may have to give that a go in the next month or so. Thanks3 -
@lmlmrn - I'm using the free version of MINT ... and it works well enough You can split out your grocery bill if you wish to capture something like alcohol but I just don't bother.
Tonight I went to a sorority alumnae dinner ... Mexican food. I stuck with water!!! While my entire table had margaritas or wine. Well there was one other that had ice tea out of the 25 of us. DH & I both chalked up another AF evening.
March accountability: 6 days AF
Alcohol: 2 days (4 drinks)
Goal: Limit 1-2 glasses per day; 12-16 AF days per month. Aim to drink no more than 2 nights in a row.
DH gave up alcohol for Lent and asked I support him. 6 weeks! He is skeptical that he can do it but I'm all in with him ... and said I would make the same commitment.
3/1 - 3 wine Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday
3/2 - AF Beginning of Lent
3/3 - AF
3/4 - AF
3/5 - 1 wine w/ dinner before baseball game
3/6 - AF
3/7 - AF
3/8 - AF6 -
Still on track with staying AF. Getting on the scale did it for me. Now I look at a bottle of wine in the store and my head says: 605 calories or more. Like good Sake like me? 989 calories. Drink that regularly, do the math and EEK!
Numbers don't lie. Same goes with the money spent. My eyes popped out my head when I totaled our "liquid" spend in restaurants about 2 years ago. We dramatically reduced that.
@tmbg1 nice AF streak you have going on there. I'm doing the same. It's probably one of the best things we can do for ourselves.
Off to make today a good day!5 -
I'm still doing well, 7 days out of 9 AF. You all are inspiring: struggling, owning, and checking in often.4
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Good morning,
Well I knew March would be much different than February due to the rodeo and family visiting, and sure enough, I’m at 4 AF/ 5 A days (although one of those days I had only 3 sips of a margarita when trying to make them taste right for the family, but still counting it as an A day). ☹️5 -
I am Dawn. My ongoing goal is 16-20 AF days per month. I was a daily drinker when I began on this thread in November of 2018.
Diary style is how I keep track.
Tuesday March 08 - AF - Working a split Wednesday, may have a couple of drinks after that...in the tub watching HGTV. We'll see.
Rolling total: 7 AF days out of 8 days5 -
Greetings, all. I'm relieved to be having a somewhat better week. Super anxious about world news and daughters' travel last week. Stuck to my goals until Sunday when I stress ate then stress drank. Although my head is in a better place subsequently, I do cry about something in the news every day. At least once. But my family is ok and I'm super grateful for that. DH traveling for a couple days so I will have alone time which I always like. In retrospect, DH drank a lot more than normal last week and I held up all week but caved in with him on Sunday. I think my inner reserve was just too depleted for better choices at that point. Hoping to recharge that inner reserve.7
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Well AF these past few days, but during the week not much of a problem. We are going on a mini road trip Friday afternoon and come home on Sunday. No real destination in mind other than things we want to do. Where we do them we really don't care as long as it is not near "home".'
I plan to paint (either using watercolor or acrylic). DH will do some target practice and maybe some rock hounding.
@MissMay Your F/B group is sooo hard. I now know it is official I can not paint/draw a still life object. They are always leaning to the right like they want to tip over....kinda like when (in my past) had a bit too much to drink to walk down the hallway without leaning on the wall before falling into bed.6 -
Went to Strong & Fit exercise class this evening and came home about 7pm. DH had not poured any alcohol while I was out. So we are both AF once again this evening.
March accountability: 7 days AF
Alcohol: 2 days (4 drinks)
Goal: Limit 1-2 glasses per day; 12-16 AF days per month. Aim to drink no more than 2 nights in a row.4 -
I am Dawn. My ongoing goal is 16-20 AF days per month. I was a daily drinker when I began on this thread in November of 2018.
Diary style is how I keep track.
Tuesday March 08 - AF - Working a split Wednesday, may have a couple of drinks after that...in the tub watching HGTV. We'll see.
Wednesday March 09 - 2 drinks. Planned AF for Thursday
Rolling total: 7 AF days out of 9 days4 -
Another evening AF ... special kudos since it was steak night. First one in years without a nice bottle of red.
March accountability: 8 days AF
Alcohol: 2 days (4 drinks)
Goal: Limit 1-2 glasses per day; 12-16 AF days per month. Aim to drink no more than 2 nights in a row.5 -
Well doing good today.......except we went out for a late lunch early dinner. I had 2 beers, came home and took a nap and will most likely be awake for most of the evening.
We are taking a 2 1/2 day weekend and just going on a mini road trip. This will involve alcohol in the evening, in a hotel room. No drinking and driving. We tend to travel/site see/ explore all day, have dinner out AF. Then pick up some snacks for later with a bottle of wine. Once in our room it is there if we want if not we pack it up and take it with us. This has been our travel habit for years.
Ok will check in when I can over the next 4 days or so..I just hate reading on my phone. Old eyes and all7 -
March 1-2 AF
March 3- wine 3 glasses (almost went for a 4th but switched to water and very glad I did because I feel good this morning)
March 4 - wine 3 glasses
March 5 - overdid it and threw up 🤢
March 6- AF
March 7- AF
March 8 - AF
March 9 - wine 3 glasses
March 10 - AF6 -
I'm doing good so far but I know it's because it feels like Spring here and I am getting my exercise in.
I lost 2 lbs this week! I replaced some foods with others, didn't drink and voila!
About the "news", I watch France24 on youtube now as it seems to show pure reality with no fake sensationalism (my impression). I'm past the 5pm news crying hour and will actually take action by donating to a legit charity and if the local ukranian church needs volunteers to pack medical supplies, I will sign up. This is not a political thing, it's about helping children and women and seniors who need the help, period. It helps me channel my stress to do something good.
Goal for the weekend - do good, exercise, relax and expect to be AF6 -
I am Dawn. My ongoing goal is 16-20 AF days per month. I was a daily drinker when I began on this thread in November of 2018.
Diary style is how I keep track.
Tuesday March 08 - AF - Working a split Wednesday, may have a couple of drinks after that...in the tub watching HGTV. We'll see.
Wednesday March 09 - 2 drinks. Planned AF for Thursday
Thursday March 10 - AF - Planned drinks over the weekend.
Rolling total: 8 AF days out of 10 days3 -
Happy Friday, MFP friends. Hope everyone has a fun, relaxing and safe weekend.5
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Skipped the church fish fry to avoid the temptation of wine & beer while in line ... well that and didn't feel like that for dinner.
AF at home eating tunafish sandwich! DH is doing well on his challenge but is really dealing with missing the evening drinks ... distractions are the best medicine.
March accountability: 9 days AF
Alcohol: 2 days (4 drinks)
Goal: Limit 1-2 glasses per day; 12-16 AF days per month. Aim to drink no more than 2 nights in a row.5 -
THANK YOU MFP for getting rid of the disagree button.
I had always thought it was a terrible idea to have a button that would not be a supportive feature in a community where people need incouragement, not negativity.
😇🥰7 -
Tried posting the last few days and both times I lost my entry before hitting the post entry.
Ok, still AF. I had for sure thought I would have a least one last evening. Then found myself needing to paint the daily reference material that I had not gotten to earlier in the day.
I thought, as I lifted up the rum bottle to make a drink. I wondered IF a drink would give me a creative edge, or give me an even worse disaster on my canvas.
Chose to skip a beverage all together. Also what I learned last night was.....I can't munch on junk food after dinner if I have to paint/draw with my hands being busy. THAT is a positive.
@Lilylady3k you mentioned fish fry. That sounds like a good thing for me to put on my menu planner for this weekend. Your DH is being very strong during his commitment to Lent. 👍 which means he is being supportive for you as well.
@globalhiker yes the news is extremely sad. That is a wonderful plan you have to help out the church, and it will help with your own emotions to. ❣
A big wave to everyone else out there that is following and drinking LESS.
Remember....one day at a time.
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THANK YOU MFP for getting rid of the disagree button.
I had always thought it was a terrible idea to have a button that would not be a supportive feature in a community where people need incouragement, not negativity.
😇🥰
Same.
Such a pointless feature, and I often saw it really set people off.2 -
Big wave back to you, @MissMay! I'm also impressed with DH efforts, @Lilylady3k. I hope he learns a lot in the process.
Watched my 2 favorite basketball teams (DD & my alma maters) win very close, exciting games last night, and felt the excitement of March Madness descend on our house. Well, on me. DH got bored after the first game.
Also tried out my AF tequila purchase from a couple weeks ago, and it was very interesting. Definite tequila aroma/flavor on the front end with a capsicum kick on the back end. Very clever and inventive. I poured it over crushed ice with fresca and hibiscus tea left over from jamaica enchiladas I made earlier in the week. It made a vibrant red interesting drink. And 0 calories so I didn't feel guilty having 3. 
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