LESS Alcohol ~ SEPTEMBER 2024 ~ One Day at A Time

@SurferGirl1982 I hope Tinker starts eating better and gets healthier, hugs to you and her.
@RubyRed427 and others regarding heart rates: I don't track overnight, but I've taken my BP and heart rate on numerous occasions when I get up in the morning and found the same pattern. The BP doesn't seem to fluctuate much, but the heart rate sure does. I averaged out around 20 mornings after a drinking night, and about the same amount after an AF night. Average after drinking was 83.77, average after an AF night is 74.36 - almost a 10 beats per minute difference, and that was first thing in the morning upon waking up. Yikes!!

@SparkSpringtime69 Thank you! Tinker got her new food today and enjoyed it. So much so that she's currently napping 😺

We gave her her first dose of the new medicine this morning with no problem. But I had to mix it in some wet food. It's honey flavored and the tech at the vet clinic showed me a video of a cat just licking it from the syringe (seemingly liking it). But that didn't work for me.

I'm still not back on a roll yet. But soon! It's hard to get started. But pretty easy after a few days AF *weird* Maybe now that things seem to be settling down with Tinker, I can relax a bit and get back on track.

I was told that drinking does increase heart rate and blood pressure. I had a fairly serious problem with my right eye this spring (major floaters that looked like the room was filled flies, later it turned to orange half-moons and very wavy vision). I saw an optometrist. She then called in one of the ophthalmologists to confirm what she was seeing. I had had a hemorrhage in the vitreous of the eye. They referred me to a retinol specialist (MD). I first saw him in an office by where I live. He had me go to his other office 60 miles away where they injected a dye in my vein and took pictures of my eye to check blood flow (I guess). He said that he wasn't positive what had caused it. But he felt it was caused by hypertension from drinking. My vision is slowly improving. I have another appointment with him next month.

Have a good night all!

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.

8 AF
6 A

September:
AF=6
A=7
My A days have taken lead over AF for the first time this month. I was going to be upset that AF isn't ahead anymore, but it's the first time A days are higher and it's the middle of the month, so that's a small win for me! Usually I'm trying to play catch-up with AF all month long.
I have a very busy day today but will try to check in later to chat.
I love the conversations that are happening, and the positivity is very inspiring!

I realize that most of your goals are to drink "Less Alcohol". Which is probably fine for most people.

But I have to be honest with myself. I am not most people! Moderation just doesn't work for me. Many of you have read some of my posts. But some of you are new or returning to this thread.

For those that didn't read my post. I've had some really wacky plans for moderating my drinking. Actually they were pretty good plans. But I just couldn't stick to them. Several years ago I really liked drinking in the afternoon while I was working in the yard. At the time it actually gave me more energy. So my plan was to only drink on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (Tuesday was lawn mowing day). And I had many other plans too. They all looked good on paper. But I couldn't stick to any of them.

Yesterday my husband and I were out. And we stopped at the liquor store. It was a little earlier than I normally would have gone to the store. After I got home, I realized that what I had bought (a pint) might not be enough. So I went back and bought another 1/2 pint. I ended up drinking more than I should. And I didn't throw out the rest before bed. So here I am at 10 o'clock in the morning drinking. I'm going right back to my old habits. And that is not acceptable!

So tomorrow I am quitting for good! I will be posting tomorrow after 5 pm when the liquor store will be closed. The positive part of this is that the scale will start moving in the right direction again 🙂

Have a nice rest of your weekend everyone!