Hello Everyone,

Thought this would be the best place to track my progress. I am on day 5 with the TSM and I must say that I am a little worried about the prospect of actually drinking away my problem. I keep telling myself to just go abstinent like I did in the past ( 9 years ) but not sure if I will be able to pull it off. My drinking patterns are basically in the evening after a hard day work or play. Since I began drinking again I have gained 30 pounds and the doctor told me I have high blood pressure...this has really put me in a state of depression as my drinking has started to affect me physically. I have always been a fitness and health nut but haven't put the work into staying healthy since I began drinking again. Anyway, today I feel like I should go abstinent for a while and work out and lose some weight to bring down my blood pressure, but I am not sure if that would be the right thing to do on TSM. My drinking has shown a slight decrease over the first few days...basically because the NAL makes me almost indifferent to alcohol. But last night I consumed 10 units within about 4 hours like it was nothing...not sure what that means. Anyway, just posting my thoughts and getting a weekly progress started....HT.

welcome houston! my understanding is that you can definitely exercise on TSM, the book recommends exercising especially when you don't have NAL in your system because the endorphin boost will reinforce exercising even more. early on joe12pack gave me great advice to help with the guilt associated with drinking on TSM-remember every time you take a NAL and drink you are helping to "cure" your physical and mental addiction to drinking. it's hard because it's so antithetical to every other "treatment" program for alcoholism, but i've found it to be true and I'm so happy to be free of the guilt and fear of relapsing.

Welcome Houston! Can I suggest a "diet" plan to you: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life ... 523487.ece Read this article, keep an open mind. Weight will drop of you. Its like TSM, its one of the world's best kept secrets, and its about the only thing that works.

Good luck with TSM, Be excited, the solution is in your hands.

ZN

Thanks for the advice! I feel a little better this evening...I just hope that this works...willing to give it a shot...I guess I was a little down on myself after drinking 10 units in a relatively short time last night after drinking about half that the first few nights on NAL...I guess I can't help but second guess myself and TSM but I do appreciate your support and hopefully it works for me....cured for me would be the ability to drink what's considered a safe amount among adult men and not need to drink more...( and not have these crappy NAL side effects the rest of my life ).

welcome ht!
strap in, the units can be really varied with this method. i find it interesting that you experience weight gain when drinking. i do the opposite. when i'm drinking i keep my weight down easily. my theory is that beer is a non fat carb, and when i stop that i CRAVE other carbs, and sugar, and they all have a high fat content.
zero_nine, i read your article that you posted here, and it inspired me to have a healthy dinner tonight, really yummy salad (butter lettuce with cucumber, red bell pepper and a lemon juice olive oil salt, pepper, dressing) with a pasta sauce i made yesterday (bison meat, tomato's, onion, bell pepper, wild mushrooms, zucchinni, basil,) without pasta. even tho i am having a few light beers, i am noticing craving something sweet. does it take a few days on a super low carb diet to quit craving the carbs? and what about if you are still adding al carbs to the mix??? i don't need to lose weight, just don't want to be carb/sugar craving.
thanks,
path

ps. sorry ht to hijack your thread. i hope this is of interest to you too.

Week One done...47 units 1 AF day. My initial impression with Naltrexone and TSM is that I can see how this will work for me. I went AF yesterday with little cravings...as a matter of fact Nal seems to have taken away the cravings all together...I can see myself going off AL for the most part as drinking with NAL just doesn't seem the same..not as enjoyable and I get really tired quickly. Don't like the hangovers...no aching headaches but tired as hell the next day. Hopefully those side effects subside SOON. Again, my goal is control...not abstinence. If I can regain control of my drinking I will consider myself CURED. Decent first week overall...thanks everyone..HT

Excellent first week HT! I have 100 lbs to lose directly attributable to alcohol (I used to prefer to drink instead of eat so really got myself to a bad state of malnutrition). I think most people find that AL makes them gain weight especially when it's associated with social events, unless they are "lucky" suckers like path who can keep their weight down when drinking
My goal too is moderation--although to me that really means AL is no longer the overwhelming primary factor determining every aspect of my existence. If I can ever get to a point where it's no big deal and I can take it or leave it (on a consistently regular basis), I'll consider myself cured. I hope you have a great week!

Thanks ST. Jude! Your comment is much appreciated...too many drinks this weekend...over 40..ugh...thinking about going AF for a few days...I can definitely tell that the NAL cuts down on the cravings...but not the habit of popping open a cold one in the evening or when watching football....

Hey Houstontexans - you are so new!! don't expect so much after such a short time. It is really hard to be patient but if you flip through the book again you will see that TSM takes time...even if it took the 3-4 months Dr. Escapa talks about you are way short of that!!

You are doing the right thing: Nal + drink = cure But you may be forgetting that we have added one little word to the equation. It now reads:

Nal + drink + patience = cure!!

Thanks BGH and everyone for your comments...much appreciated. I am probably going to post some big numbers this week...oh well. The one thing I'm worried about is having to take NAL everytime I drink for life...I know that everyone says you get over the side effects fairly quickly...but I'm about to finish week two and I feel like a freaking zombie the next day...definitely worse than with AL...kind of makes me want to just try to go cold turkey again...don't want to spend the rest of my life in some sort of pharmaceutical haze. I can see why people quit drinking when taking NAL...it's not worth the pain.