I sure would love to see us all use the same STANDARD units or drink measurements (US,UK,whatever) so we can all know what amounts each of us are progressing from. I also would love to see in people's signature when they started or even if they re-started so us newbies know what's going on with our fellow TSM'r's and how long they have been doing the Method. Since I am new maybe someone can suggest a STANDARD site we can all go to to measure our drinks, units or however everyone wants to calculate. Also maybe someone could show an example of a STANDARD Signature of how we can list our Pre TSM, Start Date, Weeks, Units etc. I am confused by some people's signatures, sorry as I said I am new and not sure of the protocol but would love a STANDARD on this site for Newbies to follow. I know so may of you have been on here for many months or years and would love to hear how it should be done.
Thanks everyone and so happy to have found TSM and have you all for support.

Hi Cheeto

You make a good point, I'm also confused. I will take your simple format and add to my next progress update. Q, is yours in UK/USA?

Hey thistime2014, it's US from the site
http://rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov ... ulator.asp
So do you see in my signature below I have changed it from Units to Drinks, way easier for me to understand.

The units vs drinks bothers me too .. mostly just gives my petty justification muscle the chance to flex when I see others talking about their 80+ units per week, when I was just tee totaling my 8-10 drinks per night. Seems that once folks have the notion to really try this thing and come to grips with their current condition, they figure out for themselves the best way to describe their drinking. I do agree that as a general practice and courtesy either in signature or just in posting to mention US drinks or UK units might be helpful. Typically one standard US drink = 1.77 standard unit. The Rethinking Drinking calculator is a good one that uses ABV% and volume ounces compared to a standard drink to come up with an actual number for a beverage. For example, a 16oz beer with 5% ABV = 1.3 drinks.

Cheers!

Wow triplab looking at your week 5 is totally awesome down 3.9 and 5 AF days in a week, good job!
Did the AF days come naturally or did you try with AF days during the week? I only had 1 the first day of TSM cause my
side effects made me feel too sick to drink. I am not trying just going with the flow so far on mid 2nd week right now.
Funny that last night I usually cannot help leaving any wine left in the bottle but after drinking 2/3rds of the bottle I did pour another
glass had dinner and ended up pouring it back in the bottle. So I did leave 1/3 of a 750 ml bottle last night. That totally never would happen in the past. maybe the honeymoon phase but hey my liver will thank me for it, lol!

I agree that it is somewhat confusing. Sometimes I couldn't tell where people were from, and with two different "unit" sizes it's difficult to sort out.

That said, even if you know which unit others are reporting, it's still comparing apples and oranges, since the only really meaningful calculation (for comparison) is blood alcohol. Without knowing others body wieght, there's really no way of knowing what their baseline was. So what we track is really only relative to your own behaviour and experience.

What I think is important in the numbers other people report is the extinction curve. That's what I find so encouraging.

Yeah, a standard would be nice. I used "drinks" during my TSM process, but ended up switching the .signature to USA units because people thought I wasn't really drinking all that much.

It would be fine if the units were internationally standardized, but with different units in each country it just spreads more confusion.

Hey Cheeto,

The AF days came fairly naturally oddly enough. I am also seeing an additiction counselor as part of my deal and he encourages AF days to maximize brain/body healing. I am replying to this a week after that 5x AF day week and this week I ramped up a bit. You might have seen my post about this. I think my need to 'people please' drove the AF days, but they did feel pretty good. I also took Nal every day but one for what it's worth. I have a prescription and insurance that covers so a month's worth only costs me a couple bucks. Back to the science and not forcing.

Applause!

Of course it will be great if everybody use the same kind of units in regards to comparing. But in the end what matters is the decline in ones personal units that counts, be it UK, US or other units. The extinction curve should happen no matter what kind of units you use to measure your consumption.