LESS Alcohol ~ September 2025 ~ One Day at a Time

Hi everyone,

Happy September! Yes, I'm calling a new "Do-Over". I've promised to remain accountable; so there it is. I had alcohol on both Friday and Saturday and therefore broke my latest AF streak. I have no choice but to accept and try again. I can't give up. I'm afraid about the blood pressure and pancreatic pain.

The first of the month is always a good choice to start, and September always feels like a new beginning for me; so... here I go again!

THIS time I lost my keys! Can't find them anywhere! Luckily, I have a spare set of housekeys, but I will need to replace my office keys. My only concern is if I left them in my door and someone might have taken them! The only item of value I own is my 32-inch, Samsung HD TV. That's it. It's still unsettling. I left a note by the mailboxes downstairs. No idea if I'll ever get them back. (Drunk people lose things!) My cat would hide; so she'd be okay. Even if they came in and said, "Give me all your money", or "We're going to the ATM", or "Give me your credit card" - they'd get nothing, because that's all I have. (Credit card maxed out, savings ~$50, checking $5.84 but will overdraw, once pending restaurant tabs clear (tips). Joke's on them, if they try it. (Plus, I fight back; so if they don't have a gun…)

On the plus side, my weight is down, but it might come back once I resume eating normally. We'll see...

I've got to get out together, and quickly.

I will keep checking in and will try to do better.

Best wishes for the week ahead!

💞Carole

Checking in for sober September! So far so good. The last time I did a full 30 days was last December. The weekends are the hardest for me. My body and brain just feel better when I don't drink. I have a beach vacation next month that I'd like to lose a few more pounds and feel good before I go. I lost 20 pounds last year and I can feel it creeping back on again. Not today, Satan! 😂

Hi there! I'm here because I need to stay on track. I am stopping the 5 pm cocktail, and then a wine while fixing dinner, and then a wine during dinner . . . and then "might as well put a few more ounces in to relax after dinner." Oh my! Summer is the worst time for me because it's fun to sit on the deck with the cocktail and enjoy the weather in the Northwest. And then there are the friends coming to visit from far away. It becomes a habit so easily. It's very hard to keep the weight off when I drink alcohol. But Summer is over!! Both literally and metaphorically.

So far 2 AF days for September.

Hope to get through to the end of the month and take the win and be inspired to continue…

@looneycatblue You've taken some breaks here and there. But, I've changed my username. I used to be SurferGirl. I'm the one that grew up in West Covina…not too far from you.

It's great to see you having some success. Keep it up! Your words are inspiring!

Our bodies are amazing at healing themselves, if we just take care of them, and let them do the job, and we just need to get out of the way!

This is so true. Before I had knee replacement surgery, I had to go through the wringer…lab work, EKG, cardiologist appointment (something was off with my EKG), stress test, ultrasounds of both the arteries and veins on two separate days (to make sure I wasn't at risk of blood clots). The ultrasound technician told me that if something happened to one our veins that our bodies would just produce a new one. Quite amazing!

@Walela617 I'm glad you found your keys. Maybe you should stay out of the bars 🤔 My husband lost his keys a week or two after we bought our new car. And, he wasn't even drinking. He just found them a couple of days ago. He set them down on his workbench. We searched high and low. Thankfully, he found them. Those key fonts aren't cheap!

@Michieb125 I haven't been keeping up much lately. I know your husband just had knee surgery. I'm assuming it was knee replacement. I had mine replaced seven years ago. It's not super easy. But, after a while, you don't even know you had the surgery. Best wishes to your husband and yourself.

@SparkSpringtime69 Don't feel bad. I haven't had even one AF day this month. I'm still grieving from losing my beloved cat, Tinker. We did adopt two new ones. It was probably too soon for me. But, we've grown to love these two also. We didn't replace her, we just added to the family.

Anyways, I'm sorry that I haven't been keeping up with everybody. But, I do think of you all.

Have a great day everyone!

@WestCoastGirl_7 It's nice to see that you are still here. I am very sorry about your kitty… I am a big cat lover, and it is always so hard when you lose one.

We recently rescued (literally rescued from a tree), a young female. We saw a notice through Ring, the poster said that there was a cat stuck up in a tree, they tried everything including calling the police and fire depts, no luck. My husband is tall, 6'3", and also a cat lover, so it didn't take much for me to convince him to go over and see if we could do anything to help, the tree in the park was only a 5 minute walk from us. Nobody was there when we arrived, except the cat. The tree wasn't very tall, and he was able to coax her down, put his arms around her, and we walked her back to our home. She didn't even try to scratch, bite or struggle at all. we put her in a spare room, and within 1/2 hour she gave birth to one baby! We are guessing that she gave birth to some earlier, and then was frightened up the tree by a coyote (we have many in our area).

She was very hungry and ate 4 cans of food within about 12 hours! Took her & the baby to the Vet the next day to get checked out, and scanned for any ID, nothing. She and the baby were fine, just some flees to deal with. This was 2.5 weeks ago. We have 3 other cats, and are keeping them separated for now. She is a sweet loving thing, doesn't act like a feral cat, we think maybe someone dumped her when they realized she was pregnant. The baby is a screamer!

Okay, back to work for me!

@itladyee glad your chosen method worked. I decided to stay up until 9:30 last night sitting in the dark doom scrolling again. At 9:30, I crawled into bed and was not tired at all. I started with the breathing, and it didn’t do much except make me yawn. So, I tried the alphabet thing, got through it backwards once, got through it forwards once, then tried to be deliberate about staying on a specific topic in my word choices and fell asleep trying to think of a sweet food other than a grape that started with G. Lol

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I’m back after a long weekend in the boat. The good news is I didn’t drink while sailing, which is a huge accomplishment. The bad news is that one day we had guests, and I had four drinks. Shocker, my weight is up and now begins the reset. Weekends are still a struggle because it’s relaxing time!

For August, I had 10 AF days, which is more than I’d had in quite a while. Having a goal really helped me.

So far for Sept., I’ve had only one AF day. I’m not trying to go AF but my goal is 3-4 days AF and cut back on weekends. The weekends are killing my efforts all week and it needs to stop.

I started up my tennis drills again this week. That first one -oh Lordy! I am not in tennis shape at all! I was winded and exhausted. And hungry!

Hope everyone has a great day, and a successful reset for September. I think we’re all in the same boat!

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Went for a walk on Tuesday and today, only doing 1 lap each time which is a little over a mile. I also pick up the litter. I have to build up to additional laps simply to avoid shin splints. I always get them when I don’t ease into it after an extended break. Next week, I’ll do more.

It was funny, I told a coworker yesterday about my weightloss goals. We had two meetings back to back, then I called to ask her a question. Before we hung up she asked, “you’re going on your walk now, right!?” 🥰 I just adored her making sure I was going. She’s such a great person. I love working with her.

Brats for dinner. No desire to drink. Really just want to take a shower and go to bed.

@itladyee I don't know what happened with NFL.com. But there used to be a drop-down menu showing preseason, regular season by weeks. But, then again, I'm about as blind as a bat these days. I did see that the Seattle Seahawks (my team) plays SF 49'ers on Sunday at 1:05. That will be interesting!

The new kitties aren't quite as photogenic as Tinker. But I will post a couple. I have a couple of videos, but I'm not sure how it works on MFP. I had to send the videos to my brother via Google photos.

The first day we brought them home. Rascal is the boy (on the left). I believe he is basically a tuxedo. But he only has the white markings on his belly. Muffin is the girl. She doesn't look very pretty right now. But I think she will be pretty when her hair grows out.

They aren't litter mates. But they bonded with each other and us immediately.

Have a nice day everyone!