LESS Alcohol ~ APRIL 2023 ~ One Day at A Time
Replies
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Congrats @dawnbgethealthy -having the fun job is where it's at. Plus, you'll meet so many interesting people having a social job.
Appreciate the tips about stress and black tea and Wegovy (I'll see if that is an option). I looked at a photo of myself at 112 lbs post-divorce and I look at myself today at 150 lbs on a good day. It is all stress. Extreme stress = I shrink. Prolonged high stress = I expand. Yet I eat the same!
Oh yeah- stress whitens hair and eyebrows pretty fast.
I snuck in a Deschutes IPA tonight since hubby fell asleep on me early and it's been a long week. Weekend is re-set time. Starts off with a hike with a friend, followed by an online meeting with another friend and then I will color my hair and figure out how to best whiten my teeth. No scale. No planned drinks. I want to run Sunday morning faster than I did last week so I want to watch a great movie and get to bed early Saturday to feel my best Sunday.
Starting off next week with a bit of glamour and confidence boost is what I need. Mindset needs a Re-Set first. I know AF and proper diet will follow.
9 -
4/1 - A
4/2- AF
4/3 - AF
4/4 - AF
4/5 - AF
4/6 - 4/7 - 4/8 - A
4/9 - AF
4/10 - AF
4/11 - A
4/12 - AF
4/13 - 4/14- 4/15 - A
4/16- AF
4/17 - A
4/18- AF
4/19 - A
4/20- AF
4/21 - 4/22 - A5 -
Hello all my LA friends!
I know I have been really MIA for a few weeks it seems. Unfortunately it has been too easy to slip into some old habits while we are doing this travel/house hunting trip. I can say we have had some good drives and bad, good hotels and very bad one.
I am currently staying with my DD in Ohio. We are house hunting. We saw one yesterday that looked good in pictures but after the visit...it is a no. Today we are driving an hour west to IN to look at a home and about 2 hours tomorrow to look at one in KY.
I have to give kuddo's to everyone for doing so well. I can feel the weight gain on me from lack of exercise (car sitting is not for the weak) and alcohol in the evenings. Never over doing just a few shots.
I know that has to stop soon and it will. I know me and my mental state and I go in phases. This will pass.
I will check in again soon.10 -
Happy Saturday all!
Each day I find more comments that I may have skimmed (only because of time) or maybe missed.
Lots of great food for thought here for us desiring LA, as well as any new habit we desire to change or incorporate, i.e., LS, and weight loss.
@MissMay (an accountability list)
@GaryM_25 (intentional choices)
@ahoy_m8 (being more present)
@globalhiker (personal self-care)
Being ‘mindful’ of what I eat and drink gives me more confidence and motivation than when I eat and drink ‘mindlessly!’
AF - 15
A - 6
Goals - 20-22 AF days total
Limit - no more than 2 glasses on A day
8 -
Goal: AF - Sunday-Thursday.
Max of 3 drinks per day on Friday & Saturday.
Apr 3 - MON: AF ✅
Apr 4 - TUES: AF ✅
Apr 5 - WED: AF ✅
Apr 6 - THUR: AF ✅ 🎉
Apr 7 - FRI: 5 Drinks ❌
Apr 8 - SAT: 3 Drinks ✅
Apr 9 - SUN: AF ✅
Apr 10 - MON: AF ✅
Apr 11 - TUES: AF ✅
Apr 12 - WED: AF ✅
Apr 13 - THUR: AF ✅
Apr 14 - FRI: 1 Drink ✅
Apr 15 - SAT: 3 Drinks ✅
Apr 16 - SUN: AF ✅
Apr 17 - MON: AF ✅
Apr 18 - TUES: AF ✅
Apr 19 - WED: AF ✅
Apr 20 - THUR: AF ✅
Apr 21 - FRI: 5 Drinks ❌ Date night.7 -
The scale said I gained a pound while on the week's business travels.
I'm going to call it a victory though. I got all my workouts, had no alcohol, and had good portion control.
This morning, I got to go to the gym with my wife. I adore her. It was four years ago today I asked her to marry me.13 -
@Michieb125
Excited about your greenhouse! I look forward to photos.
During the season I eat most stuff in my garden raw. At the end of the season I cover everything with clear thick plastic to let the sun in but the frost off. When it is going to go down to minus 5 (celsius) I pull everything. At that point I have giant bowls of peppers and tomatoes. The green tomatoes I put into a cardboard box, those are the ones that I cook with. I eat as much as I can raw, and then the rest I freeze. I take the stem and seeds out of peppers and cut them in a few pieces. I do not blanch. I have tried that and it didn't seem to make a difference after all of that work. I generally cook pretty much every day for a couple of months and portion for the freezers. I make: borscht, potato stews, jambalaya/gumbo, chili, etc. I roast beets, I also boil them - I do this the hard way by peeling them, I have tried doing them in the skins and slipping off the skins later but I find that I lose too much colour that way. I grow lots of herbs, so when I am roasting tomatoes I do batches with different herbs like oregano, thyme, basil etc.
I don't really cook again the rest of the year, more like just take a container out in the morning, or something to throw together with pre-roasted veggies. It is so great to have peppers in the freezer for nachos and stuff like that.
I let my potatoes sprout and then plant them the next year. I still have around 20 that haven't sprouted, so I eat those. I let around 50 sugar snap peas get very big and woody and those are the ones that I shell the next year to plant. I have already planted peas and potatoes, my spinach is up now.
I have quite a jungle of a garden, not manicured at all. I let pretty much everything go to seed and blow around, so I end up with lettuce, dill, cilantro popping up and growing wherever the wind blew them.
That was long winded lol. I will be planting carrots and beets over the next couple of days and not much else until May 24th except for a couple of things.
Garlic gets harvested in early August, and I replant that in October and put 4-5 inches of leaves over top of it. I braid my garlic. I am on my last onion now from last year. I will use the greens from my Egyptian walking onions. They are like aliens, quite weird.
It might be hard to tell, but they get bunches of what look like pearl onions at the top eventually, then tip over and plant those (walking)
The clusters that are beginning to sprout and plant themselves are from the tops of the ones that have tipped over.
I will post one in August or September when the clusters are still at the top of the stalks. These were given to me by a friend years ago, and I had no idea. The first time I saw a stalk with a bunch of small onion clusters on the top I didn't know what to think! Yes, I do eat those little ones also.
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I am Dawn, I live in South Eastern British Columbia.
I joined this thread in November of 2018, a daily drinker at the time
My primary goal with drinking less is weight loss.
My usual goal is 16-20 AF days for the month,
I had 17AF days in March.
I do this diary style, I normally post the next morning.
Thursday April 20 - AF - Really felt like having drinks, but I have another long day ahead on Friday. Glad to hit my 10, getting to 16 might be right down to the wire this month. Completely off of work on Saturday, planning on kicking back and maybe getting the carrots planted (if it doesn't snow lol). Likely going to have drinks tonight, Friday.
Friday April 21 - Drinks - I was absolutely knackered when finishing work last night. It was so mice to kick back with a couple of drinks and watch hocky and then HGTV off of my PVR. I am going to try my best to stay AF for Saturday, which usually involves Prosecco in the afternoon. Big dark clouds as I write this but hoping that they pass this afternoon and that I can get out, till up and plant carrots and possibly even beets. Running out of days to hit my 16, I am aware of this. Having a new job with a learning curve will help me with that since I will want to be AF the nights before those 4 shifts.
Rolling total: 10AF days out of 21 days.4 -
Hi everyone, I hope you're all doing well!
April: 17 AF, 6 A so far
17/04, M - AF
18/04, T - AF
19/04, W - AF
20/04, T - A – Still way over any government recommended guidelines (though more aware now than ever that there is no real safe limit, apparently), but I have recently been consistently able to write down how many drinks I’m having per session. My OH helps me keep tabs on the amount as well. We’re both trying to cut down.
21/04, F - AF
22/04, S - AF
23/04, S - AF
Our household came down with the flu this week, so since friday we’ve not been feeling like drinking. Not that I wish the flu on myself, of course lol, but I do find the alcohol and trigger suppressant qualities of such things interesting.
I’ve been physically and mentally journaling things for some time now that I do believe will eventually help me get to where I want to be, and one of those puzzle pieces has been these LA threads.
Thanks for everyone's posts and for these threads
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Hello LA community! I am Amanda, I’m from Michigan and excited for Spring to get here! This thread is my favorite bunch of people! I have been practicing LA since June ‘22.
My April goals are to be 99-100% AF,
continue healing from my cancer diagnosis and all the baggage from that and to work on my weight.
4/1: 1A
4/2-4/22: AF
I wake up pretty early, usually by 4:30 am. I don’t love it but I can’t get back to sleep. I’ve been doing chores and meal prepping all morning. While I was vacuuming I was thinking how a year ago, I took Saturdays and Sundays to do the bare minimum and drink as much as possible. I would usually pass out by 5 pm and wake up at midnight thick headed and wooly tongued and stumble to bed and wake up with a hangover. Today I have the whole day ahead of me and I am not even remotely planning to have a drink. I have some shopping to do, I have 2 art projects to work on and a special saved from PBS. Oh and job searching of course 🤪 I got a ton of things done this weekend and I feel good about it. I am so grateful. MFP and this thread have helped so much.
I just wanted to share how much things have changed in a year.
I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!
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@joans1976
I wake up way too early too, I had the same second job for so many years that I used to do in the morning before my other job. Now that I have an evening job as my second I really need to learn to sleep later!
Your weekend sounds perfect!
I really hope that you find a new job soon.3 -
I am Dawn, I live in South Eastern British Columbia.
I joined this thread in November of 2018, a daily drinker at the time
My primary goal with drinking less is weight loss.
My usual goal is 16-20 AF days for the month,
I had 17AF days in March.
I do this diary style, I normally post the next morning.
Saturday April 22 - Drinks. I held out many times, but kind of caved at 6pm. Carrots and Beets are planted in a few places, I have to repair one of my other beds before I can plant the rest of them. Planned AF now until Friday.
Rolling total: 10AF days out of 22 days.3 -
It has been really lovely here and quite warm the last few days. My DH and I worked on the backyard yesterday for about 6 hrs. After the winter (and long rainy season this year) it looked pretty sad. We always have to do a major spring clean up but looks so nice when we are done - will definitely have another weekend of weeding to tackle. We washed my car and his truck out front, planted strawberries, put up my shade canopy over my small patio table, layered the mulch we made with another organic brand into one large raised bed, picked up some amendments that were on sale at Home Depot and ordered a storm door for my greenhouse. Then I was ready to call it quits! Had a mini Prosecco while cooking dinner followed by planned white wine for Saturday night. Planning AF until next weekend as we round the corner towards the end of the month. I might challenge myself to do more AF days in May and will give it more thought.
AF - 15
A - 7
Goals - 20-22 AF days total
Limit - no more than 2 glasses on A day4 -
@dawnbgethealthy - thank you so much for answering my question and sharing how you work hard to reap the fruits of your labor by harvesting and eating your plants from your garden! You have a ton of experience to offer. These are cool pics of the cute little onions too! This year I will bottle some tomatoes and also use your tip of incorporating herbs before roasting to prep them for Italian or Mexican dishes. I love beets too but the ones I grew last year were teeny, tiny. Might try again in fall.
@joans1976 wow your energy is coming back. It is so telling what a difference a year makes. Happy for you to feel so great!3 -
4/1 - A
4/2- AF
4/3 - AF
4/4 - AF
4/5 - AF
4/6 - 4/7 - 4/8 - A
4/9 - AF
4/10 - AF
4/11 - A
4/12 - AF
4/13 - 4/14- 4/15 - A
4/16- AF
4/17 - A
4/18- AF
4/19 - 4/20 - A
4/21 - 4/22 - A
4/23 - AF
10 AF so far this month - not great - the extra alcohol is showing on my belly - ugh3 -
Today marks four weeks of this twelve-week challenge.
My plantar fasciitis is doing well enough. Last week, especially with the conference I went to, I put thirty miles on my feet. Right foot is great. Left foot has lingering issues but doesn't exceed pain level two very often. I am delighted with this progress, especially considering the total walking and running miles and that I can do cardio intervals running.
Concerning alcohol, I've now gone four weeks completely alcohol free. While that wasn't really the plan, I continue to enjoy the benefits. My belly isn't distended, my skin is clearer, my face is less puffy, I wake much more rested, and my head is clearer. I would guess that the last time I went completely alcohol free for a month was three decades ago.
Diet continues to be "good." The program I'm doing has one free day a week. I've logged everything I've eaten for the last four weeks. I got remarried four years ago. Three years ago, my wife's daughter came to live with us. She is probably 150 pounds overweight. She is nice, well intended, addicted to bad food, and has a messed up relationship with not just food but food shopping. In prior years, my primary line of defense was between the store and the house; there simply was very little unhealthy food in the fridge, freezer, or pantry. Now, I'm having to build a harder line of defense between "house and mouth." That I also have a very strong ethical aversion to wasting food, especially meat, and that my daughter-in-law has such a dysfunctional relationship with food and food purchases has made "willpower" in this area very hard for me. I've made huge progress here in learning how to live with an overeater despite letting so much food go to waste. Ensuring I limit sodium intake is especially difficult. For me personally, sodium is a substantial issue concerning heart health.
Strength training is going well. I'm enjoying it. I love that the Y is so close and that I can go with my wife as an exercise partner. While we do different weights and differing numbers of reps per set, we can stay in a good cadence together. We're enjoying supporting each other. Two years after a gastric sleeve surgery, she is committed to a healthy lifestyle with very healthy attitudes toward it.
Cardio is going well too. I'm getting in about eight cardio sessions a week. During work days, I take advantage of the treadmill below my work-from-home office desk as well as do intervals a couple times a week. Yesterday, I hit 8.5 mph on the treadmill during the peak interval. This slightly faster than a seven-minute mile. That felt really, really good. Once a week, I'm also doing some sort of outdoors workout. This weekend, it was simply a three-mile walk with my wife and the dogs around a lake.
Results are good enough so far. I've lost fourteen pounds in the four weeks. While I don't completely trust my older "smart" scale, I suspect I've lost about three percent body fat. I have to cinch up my belts a notch or two tighter.
In a few days, my wife and I will take measurements at the one-month mark.
Looking ahead, I'd like to lose another eleven pounds before my wife and I take a planned anniversary trip in July to the Dominican Republic.6 -
Congratulations to everyone in the thread. We're in the last week of the month! April showers have hit New England, and everything is in bloom!
I am still adhering to once-a-week imbibe. Keeping to the 2 drink max per day is still eluding me. I seem to prefer 3 weaker drinks over a longer time. (E.g., a lager beer rather than a double IPA.) I still would like to get it to two at max.
I found that Friday was a nice day to go to our favorite restaurant and have a fancy cocktail. Might as well splurge on it since it's a special occasion. I was perfectly fine with not drinking Saturday night, which is an improvement.
Best resolve to everyone!6 -
Goal: AF - Sunday-Thursday.
Max of 3 drinks per day on Friday & Saturday.
Apr 3 - MON: AF ✅
Apr 4 - TUES: AF ✅
Apr 5 - WED: AF ✅
Apr 6 - THUR: AF ✅ 🎉
Apr 7 - FRI: 5 Drinks ❌
Apr 8 - SAT: 3 Drinks ✅
Apr 9 - SUN: AF ✅
Apr 10 - MON: AF ✅
Apr 11 - TUES: AF ✅
Apr 12 - WED: AF ✅
Apr 13 - THUR: AF ✅
Apr 14 - FRI: 1 Drink ✅
Apr 15 - SAT: 3 Drinks ✅
Apr 16 - SUN: AF ✅
Apr 17 - MON: AF ✅
Apr 18 - TUES: AF ✅
Apr 19 - WED: AF ✅
Apr 20 - THUR: AF ✅
Apr 21 - FRI: 5 Drinks ❌
Apr 22 - SAT: 5 Drinks ❌
Apr 23 - SUN: AF ✅7
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