Pre-TSN: nightly drinker; 6 tall cans of beer or a bottle of wine and a couple of small beers per night or 60+ Units per week.

How I count my units: 1 unit is 12 ounce or 355 ml beer (5%); 150 ml wine (12.5%); or 45 ml of hard liquor (40%).

For wine: 12.5% or less bottle is counted as 5 units; if bottle is above 12.5%, it is counted as 6 units.

Week is Mon - Sun.

W1: 22 U
W2: 33.5 U
W3: 46.5 U
W4: 50 U
W5: 35 U
W6: 5 U; 6 AF (ran out of NAL on day 2; decided not to drink)
W7: 0 U; 7 AF (no NAL; no drink)
W8: 22 U one day left in week; 1 AF (no NAL)

I had AF days solely because I ran out of NAL and decided I could handle not drinking while I waited for a new shipment to arrive, which it did earlier this week. I now resume regular nightly drinking on NAL. I intend to add AF days at some point in the future. I will most likely wait a few more weeks and then plan an AF day each week. As time goes on I will try to add more AF days per week. That's the plan. We will see how it goes.

That's a good plan. That you were able to drop consumption 2-3 times right away and even go 13 days AF simply by deciding to bodes well for your prospects. I am past one year now and I still plan AF days because they don't happen spontaneously. Still, even if Nal is only a crutch, my consumption is 6 times less than before I tried TSM and I felt infinitely better already after it dropped only 2-fold.

Good luck!

That ability to exercise self control and discipline is amazing--I 'm on my knees bowing down to you now as if I'm facing mecca

Thanks guys. As for not drinking for 2 weeks, I didn't really have much of a choice due to current living situation (so I had extra motivation and a different environment which made it much easier).

Update: I drank 3 1/2 small beers last night so 8 weeks of data is now complete:

Pre-TSM: nightly drinker, 60+ units per week

W1: 22 U
W2: 33.5 U
W3: 46.5 U
W4: 50 U
W5: 35 U
W6: 5 U (6 AF)*
W7: 0 U (7 AF)*
W8: 25 1/2 (1 AF)*

*AF days due to running out of NAL and were not natural or spontaneous.

I have decided to take out the two week AF period where I ran out of NAL and was not really doing TSM so

W1: 22 U
W2: 33.5 U
W3: 46.5 U
W4: 50 U
W5: 35 U
W6: 5 U (6 AF)*
W7: 0 U (7 AF)*
W8: 25 1/2 (1 AF)*

becomes

W1: 22 U
W2: 33.5 U
W3: 46.5 U
W4: 50 U
W5: 38 1/2 U
W6: 30 1/2 U
W7: 20 U and counting...

I think this way it will be easier to track and graph my progress going forward. W7 ends on Sunday night. I also add 3 1/2 units to W5 where I counted only 5 U per bottle of wine, but now realize some of those wine bottles were above 12.5%. I count 5 U for 12.5% and below wine and 6 U for 13% and above wine. Pre-TSM I was at 60+ units per week so I am seeing substantial benefits already.

Keep tracking
Keep taking NAL
Keep drinking (for now)!
Keep happy
Keep alive

Thanks pacificman! Onward and upward.

This past weekend I've been alone and free to do whatever I've wanted for the first time in several weeks. Normally this would be a major trigger situation for me to drink freely. I was planning to test things out a bit last night, let loose and permit myself to drink as much as I wanted (at home; no driving, etc.), but was pleasantly surprised that I couldn't get through a full bottle of red wine (finished about 80%). I had, in addition, a small bottle of beer half way through the wine drinking session. Total units, beer and wine, was about 6.

I've just finished off the remainder of last night's corked bottle and opened another. I am at about 31 U for the week and should end up around 35 - 37 U depending how much I drink this evening. (60+ U a week were par for the course pre-TSM.)

I will post my U for this week when I am done drinking for tonight.

Update for W7 ending Sun evening; Pre-TSM 60+ U

W1: 22 U
W2: 33.5 U
W3: 46.5 U
W4: 50 U
W5: 38.5 U
W6: 30.5 U
W7: 39 U

W8: 9.5 U so far

Had a few more units Sunday than I would have liked to. For the next little while I am going to try to limit my weekly units to stay consistently under 40 U and target 32 U per week (about a 50% reduction from Pre-TSM drinking levels for me). That's about 4.5 U per day. I won't sweat it if I don't meet the targets. I will just try to keep them in mind when deciding if I really need that one last drink each night. I will not plan any AF days for the time being.

Upper level of moderate drinking according to Eskapa is 24 units per week for men (p. 115). 32 units is 8 over that or about 1 drink a day too many.

Meanwhile: looking into aspects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy this week, which I may or may not add to the tool kit. Emphasis remains having TSM work more or less naturally.

My first graph. It's for the first 7 weeks:




The data so far:

Units on TSM: 260
Weeks on TSM: 7
Average units per week on TSM: 37

Pre-TSM: 60+ units per week

That is INCREDIBLE progress, something to be proud of as we know even on the Sinclair Method nothing comes easy in life and we need to celebrate all accomplishments