LESS Alcohol ~ SEPTEMBER 2024 ~ One Day at A Time

AF = 7
A = 3

Canning chicken stock tonight. Have 7 quarts in the pressure canner now. And it looks like 4 more to go.



Work and life are very busy right now, and I just don’t feel like I’m getting a break. Tomorrow, I have to take my car to the shop because the check engine light is on. After work, I need to make a cheesecake, potato salad, and grill some hamburgers for a party this weekend at a my bestie’s house (they don’t have a grill). Thursday, my son has his 2-hour annual oncology follow up appointment and hubby and I are taking a retirement prep class together. And Friday we head to bestie’s for the weekend.

Maybe next week I’ll get a break?

Tip for consideration and I say this from experience (only been on here for about 6 years+), work on Confidence first. I was that person that every day at 5pm kept saying "I can't". I had zero confidence in my strength to do this. I freakin wasted a year saying "I can't". @MissMay gave me the confidence boost and told me I could do it. That was the turning point.

Plan:

1-Pick any 24 hour window. Say it's 6pm to 6pm next day for example.
2-Buy yourself a treat in advance for that day. It can be an NA drink, juice, smoothie, frozen yogurt, chocolate. Whatever can give your brain a short boost of "happy".
3-Distract yourself that day, keeping busy. Post during the difficult time of day if you need to, writing down that you will do this because you can and it's possible.
4-Tell someone in your household this is what you will do.
5-Succeed. You just didn't drink for a 24 hour period.

Repeat this again a day or two later, Succeed.

If you can do any 24 hour period, you can do a day. Now you've developed confidence you CAN do it. Pick a whole regular day and be AF. Discard all doubt (that's the alcohol talking nonsense). You can absolutely do this.

Soon you'll have the confidence to say you'll try 2 days in a row or whatever and you will be more likely to succeed because you Can and because you've developed Confidence and because you have a Plan.

If at this point, it's not working out, consider speaking to a professional maybe even online, if you need that extra support, why not. Life is too important to do all possible.

Still going AF. 10 days done. My challenge today is going without any "goodies" since my husband is AF along with me but he did a nice job of finishing my delicious black raspberry Yasso frozen yogurt bars.

Current:
AF days - 3
A days - 5
LA - 2 (under 8 oz. wine)

SurferGirl1982 wrote: »

Well, I'm about to give up. Every day I plan on being AF. But then I change my mind.

I can't give up though. I need to quit drinking for my health, fitness and my weight. And I don't want to become physically dependent again.

So I'll still be checking this thread daily. But until I have 1 to 3 days AF, I may not post my monthly tally.

AF - 1
A - 8 (disgusting!)

Take care everyone!

I know I'm posting kind of late on this, but please don't give up! You had a great streak last month and I know you can do it again. There have been a lot of good suggestions here, and I hope at least one of them helps you get through this rough patch.

I just want to say, not just to you but to everyone in this forum, I'm so appreciative of the sharing that goes on here. We all have struggles, we all have down days, and we all especially have those WOW days, or even moments when we're so happy with what we've accomplished, not just AF-wise, but in every area of our lives. Those WOW moments are the ones we should be focused on, not the yuck times we sometimes feel.

8 AF
3 A

TINKER..
Behave and be kind to your hooman...She haz issues you don't understand...and loves you with all her .

Head butts and nose licks,
Catpuccino 😻

@NonnieDorion holy cow you mean serious business with canning all that soup! Yowza! Hope your days get much less hectic very soon.

@SparkSpringtime69 its amazing what we say to ourselves. I wonder why it’s so common to beat ourselves up so hard instead of giving ourselves grace ???? I’ve struggled with that in the past, and totally understand.

@globalhiker, great ideas for a workable action plan!

I was AF today in about six weeks! I didn’t even want alcohol tonight. Absolutely no cravings. Last two nights I only had one glass of wine. It feels really great to meet and even exceed my goals.

@RubyRed427 alcohol absolutely kills my sleep. Guaranteed wake up at 4am with anxiety attacks. I've not measured my heart rate but I just know it goes up.

Yesterday, I decided to go back and try the Kendall Jackson low calorie/low alcohol Chardonnay wine…was better than I remembered. Planning on AF today and will likely have the rest on Saturday or Sunday.

Current:
AF days - 4
A days - 5
LA - 3 (under 8 oz. wine)

@Womona Woohoo on the AF day! Winning 🏅

@RubyRed427 thanks for sharing the info on how alcohol affects heart rate.
I know my sleep is much more restorative on AF nights - I want more too!

@NonnieDoiron love your pressure cooker for canning. I can the very old fashioned way with just a 6-quart cook pot. You are a pro! Hoping you can enjoy your upcoming social festivities and then relax.

Hi there, thanks for the welcome back! I am glad to be here again and I recognize some of the long termers. I like this group for the support and motivation even though I feel like I've successfully cut back on my own alcohol consumption. It's still something I like to track and work on improving. I have stretches of time (usually around a holiday or a trip) where I realize I've drank everyday for a week. It's amazing how it sneaks up on us. I also struggle with moderation a bit on the days I do imbibe. It's like, well, I'm having a day with alcohol in it so I might as well enjoy ALL the alcohol! Not where I want to be going with this, LOL.

So far in September, I'm at 8/11 days AF. I'm aiming for at least 25 AF days this month.

I wanted to mention I have gotten a lot out of the book The Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness, and Change Your Life by Annie Grace. I know, a lot of promises there in the title, but I found the perspective helpful. It provides an interesting and eye opening glimpse into alcohol in our culture and what it actually does to our bodies. It made me want to drink less. I mean, I already wanted to drink less, but after I read the book I found it a little easier to turn it down.

Have a great day all!

Happy Friday all!

So I know my self imposed rule is that I can drink at events, and tonight I'm going out to celebrate my bestie finishing her 4 year degree! I'm so so proud of her!

But honestly... I don't think I want to drink. The thought of being hungover tomorrow gives me anxiety. So I'm going to see what happens -will I cave in the moment?

AF = 8
A = 3

UGH!!! I am so far behind in reading all the posts. If I can get hubby to drive tonight, I may be able to catch up.

I did read some and @SparkSpringtime69 I used to do the same negative self-talk when I worked out years ago. I called it “my inner-Jillian”, the mean trainer from the Biggest Loser show. When I didn’t want to workout or wanted to quit early, she would tell me what a fat, lazy pig I was and that I need to get my big *kitten* moving! She’d cuss me out with f-bombs and everything. She was horrible. I told a very select few people about “my inner-Jillian”, and my bestie said, “I want to kick her *kitten*! How dare she talk to my friend like that!” I realized then I needed to find another motivator that wasn’t so nasty to me. 😂 I don’t do that anymore, but I will ask myself “Why am I being so lazy today?” I do that when I’m skipping my walk for no apparent reason. It’s not nearly as mean, and usually my response truly is because “I’m taking a lazy day. It’s ok.”

I like this conversation. We need to stay lifted, replace any negative talk with positive talk. Put a sticker on your fridge that says positive things. All that negative crap is just malfunctioning brain programming if you ask me (my negative parents still haunt me to this day). We need positive self talk to keep our motivation going. It's like mandatory.

Still going AF. Zero cravings. Sleeping great. I have Corona zero alcohol and limes in the fridge for the just-in-case. Coronas are pretty good, tastes to me like the real thing. I am not a beer person though, but way, way better than zero alcohol wines. Husband who drank this weekend was AF Mon - Wed but his planned Thurs AF didn't work out. Stress at work was the excuse. I reminded him, it's not him, it's those brain receptors or whatever the alcohol created. He may contemplate going AF for a longer stretch to get a good brain re-set. This stuff is science. We'll see.

I tried/succumbed to the negative self talk for many years, and all it did was erode my self worth. I'm not great at the positive self talk now, but I'm working on it!

2 glasses of sparkling wine over about 2 hours last night, then came home and switched back to water. Generally stopping once I've started has been my biggest hurdle, but I seem to be conquering that of late, so that's a bit victory. I did think VERY hard about grabbing something on the way home though, but didn't.

So September:

A - 2
AF - 11

And both A days were only 2 drinks.