Was kinda hoping I’d lose more weight doing this. Five pounds, woohoo. I thought I was fat from drinking beer but guess I’m just fat
I’m pretty annoyed I have any remaining problems. Was kinda hopin this was a cure all. I guess I just have flaws? Shit.
One more weekend to go. I honestly started thinking about it more today than I have all month. Last day of a week long vacation where everyone else was drinking, pretty proud of myself for not caving. We got this.
I’m not at strong as you. I was in the Bahamas and Florida a couple weeks ago and I drank. Never got drunk but I couldn’t not drink at the beach/in a pool. Had a few here and there. Haven’t had any since and plan to stay sober till I go to Roatán next month. Another beach so ya drinks.
Five pounds in under a month is pretty good progress tbh. A lot of weight loss plans aim for 1-2 pounds a week.
A few different ways. Onset basically lined up perfectly. It is a known adverse effect from the vaccines. Went to ent to get diagnosed and he confirmed he is seeing it pretty commonly. some good news is that if you can get to an ent within 90 days if the onset they can give you a steroid shot in the ear drum that should help. Bad news for me is it was way after 90 days that I did it so it only helped reduce the volume of the ringing by about 10%. moral of the story is listen to your body and go to the dr
I'm breaking my dry January tomorrow. It's my birthday and my wife and I have a sitter for our four kids all day friday and saturday. We're going downtown Friday for lunch and staying downtown until Saturday evening. It's going to be the best. Down nearly 10 pounds this month. That's with no alcohol, a pretty consistent diet, and working out 5-6 times per week.
So I lost 7 pounds and had no real cravings or desire to drink outside of the fact that sobriety is pretty boring. I'll have some drinks Saturday night and get off the dry January thing. I do think this experiment will curtail my habit quite a bit. Also have to say there's a clarity you have when you're sober that I kind of like. If I'm being honest I don't think it would have been as successful if I wasn't partaking in the edibles which is probably another issue in and of it's own.
I only did a few day trips to Sedona but I don't think I would ever go there with the intention of drinking a lot. Weed and other psychedelics though....
Not drinking made me realize how much I was drinking and how much my mental health was impacted. I didn’t have any cravings that couldn’t be solved with an NA drink. I don’t know when I’m going to have another drink but I’m definitely going to try and keep it under 7 a month when I start again. My favorite drinks are a cocktail before dinner at a restaurant, wine with the wife before sexy time or a great bottle of wine with a great meal. I think I can limit to that and stay under 7.
Dunno, seems like an skewed world view and cause for further thought — especially in a thread dedicated to the exercise of attempting to redefine relationships with alcohol. Not trying to be judgey or preachy but just encouraging folks to make good choices and think about behaviors. My dad has been an alcoholic for the majority of my life and it’s an accumulation of small choices to get there.
Yeah I broad stroked the shit out of my comment. Yes, some things are better if you have a buzz like watching a game or whatever. I wasn’t trying to say that being sober 24/7 sucks. That’s exactly what it sounded like I was saying though.
Covid vaccine didn’t give it to you. More likely the stress of life during Covid gave it to you. Mine started when my second child was born. ENTs are nice, but go to a proper audiologist, one with soundproof booths for specific testing, if possible. And for the love of god, download the Resound Relief app and start sleeping with it on.
I'm glad you speak with such certainly about this... We're fairly certain of the cause. Audiologist was part of the process as has been an immunologist and neurologist. Still a supporter of covid vaccines though despite my adverse effect
I’m not saying this is me during these last few days of “dry January”, but also I’m not saying it isn’t me
Wife is like "can we go ahead and call this Saturday?" I'm like you don't even want to drink normally!
Yay. Almost there. I feel weird though. Combined with my layoff last week and not drinking it’s been a trip. On one hand I feel proud that I, of all people, did it but then I feel shamed for drinking that much to begin with. And I allowed it to run most of my adult life. I dunno, just a weird feeling, personally. I know I should be happy about this but I’m not. Maybe I should go post in the depression thread. Congrats though to everyone that did it. Seriously. We should all be proud. Back to lurking for me.
I’m proud of you! No shame. The past is the past and cannot be changed. The only way I progress in life is to be the person I want to be right now. I only have so much focus and energy. If I spend that on the past or the future, I’ve got nothing in the tank for right now.
I can relate with the weird feeling of it. I'm both looking forward to my next drink and pre-judging myself for it. I'm not spending too much mental energy on it, but that thought creeps in from time to time.
I’m two weeks in and have reached the “I need to blowoff some steam with beer/bourbon” phase. I feel a million times better but need to find an outlet for my self destructive behavior.
It me, except the kids part. Chiefs tailgating last week made it really difficult. Same thing today but gonna hold strong.
Went out to a celebratory dinner last night with my wife. That would normally be a wine pairing dinner. I had even rationalized with myself before we left that it was ok to cheat for the night but stuck with water instead. I want to hit that goal of making it until next Saturday and I’m glad this morning that I didn’t cheat on myself. Also reinforced again that I don’t need to drink to enjoy a nice meal
Good job boys. Made it through the last weekend. I plan to have some drinks this weekend and then shut it down the rest of February again.
Wife's down 5 pounds. I'm down maybe 1lb but I've been eating more desert type stuff at night. I'm used to getting sugar from booze and still have sugar cravings at night. Noticed a big difference in my exercise routine. Was less shaky and heart rate was lower doing the same thing I normally do. NA beers are coming in clutch at dinner and with friends. They totally satisfy the craving for a drink which is super surprising to me. I've got a work offsite in a few weeks and I've decided that I'm ok having HH drinks at that event but I'm going to see if I can avoid them. Appreciate you all in this thread. I would have never done this without all the knowledge posted here. The links to supporting articles/podcasts were a huge education and I shared with my wife who has had an eye opening dry January as a result. It kicked off a daily conversation she's been having with a college friend of hers that was an alcoholic and quit drinking a year ago. If you're looking for more inspiration, recommend talking with a sober friend that used to drink.
My wife's sober friend that quit drinking a year ago talked to her about something called the "pink cloud". The euphoric period of time after you quit drinking and feel great. She said it ends for everyone at some point and you hit a mental state you're describing for 2-3 months and then you start accelerating out of it. She started jogging in the mornings, started seeing improvements from that and then it kicked off more self improvement/feeling better about herself. She was a bartender for 15 years after college and black out drank every night from 18-40 years old before she quit drinking. She had the exact same feelings as you when she initially stopped drinking. She has a 10 year old daughter and had a lot of guilt about being drunk for 9 of those years. She still has some of that guilt but it's shifted to more of an optimism about the future than regret of her past. I'm not qualified to give anyone advice but you might be in a great place to talk to a therapist that specializes in this type of thing that can give you a roadmap with a light at the end of the tunnel.
This scene is pretty thorough in its presentation of the social challenges of sobriety Understand that some people will poke and prod because they know they have a problem and lack the motive to confront it on general demoralization during sobriety: someone told me sobriety is more likely to reveal problems than solve them but at least solving them will be easier.
Think I drank 9 days out of the 31 days in January Still better than probably every month of 2022 Want to keep up the moderation
I did a mostly dry January which is what I was aiming for. Mainly wanted to focus on continuing that through the following months. Had a few beers last Saturday at a hockey game and a few more with friends at my place afterwards. A cocktail and glass of wine at a nice dinner on Thursday. That’s about it for the past two weeks. Looking like it may be my first sober super bowl since high school?
My rule going forward is no drinking at home during the week. Weekends are open, or events out during the week. a good compromise for me so far
Been on vacation the last week. This used to be drink from breakfast until dinner. Now, I’ve been keeping it to one drink during the day and one at dinner. Not only saving myself hundreds of dollars, but also feel much better and I don’t feel like I’m “missing out” on anything. Going to also give up alcohol for lent, and hope that really sets the stage for a good year for me.
No alcohol for me since 1/16. Tomorrow will be four weeks. Lost about 10 lbs so far and my blood pressure is down 10-15 pts.