I try and work out as a fence to separate out m y drinking.

The longer I can postpone the workout the later I will be drinking. That said, I stay up late and work late so its kind of moot.

I think that working out has helped me in the sense that I am losing weight and when the Mrs. drills me about drinking, I look her in the eye lift up my shirt and say "this is not a drinkers belly". That kind of pisses her off because as most women are obsessed with their weight, it gives me some ammo to fight back all the jabs she gives me regarding my drinking. I would not do it if I didn't need to defend myself.

So to answer your question, move on with life and work out as much as you can. I have not felt at all diminished in terms of wanting to work out. Again, only more committed as I want to be in great shape once cured and just leap off into my new life 100% so as to be a soldier for the cure. Spreading it high and low and being an example because people have sure seen me the other way. Puffy, drawn, beat up looking. I can confidently say, I look OK,...not great but way better than 2 years ago. BEst, Jim

PS some people say I look great....so for sure the NAL is working

Thanks, Tito and Jim! I am full speed ahead into working out, esp. after your comments.

Tito, you are right P90X is semi bananas! Let me know when you get started again, it will be fun to have a buddy following the same crazy program. I have done the first two days, and I am already so tired. I am sure that is partly because I am not in elite athlete shape, partly because the workouts are insane, and partly because I had 5+ drinks the night before each workout. With 500+ extra alcohol calories a day, I won't see the results I want ... you would think that in itself would be a deterrant. But, as we all know, addiction is addiction and logic falls by the wayside.

It is already 4:40pm today, I have no alcohol I like in the house, and I am contemplating an AF day. But my kids are upstairs screaming and fighting, as they have been all day. TRIGGER TRIGGER TRIGGER TRIGGER! Can I overide the impulse knowing I have another killer workout in the morning? We'll see .... I might have to load them in the car for a trip to the wine store, something I try to avoid because I feel so pathetic walking in with a 3 and 6 year-old.

UPDATE: I did load the kids up for a trip to the wine store. Oh well, at least I took my Nal an hour before the first glass of wine.

I had such an unusual experience last night. I took my Nal and waited about an hour and a half for my first glass of wine. When I started drinking, I noticed that I did not get that buzzy feeling I used to get on the first sip. I have noticed this since day one.

The unusual part was, the wine didn't taste good at all. I think mostly out of habit, I kept drinking. On the second glass, I noticed that I was forcing myself to finish the glass and that is was giving me a stomachache. Any normal drinker would have stopped there. But I kept going, all the while, noticing that I was not enjoying it much at all. I got to 5 glasses, a pretty typical night for me, and went to sleep.

Not a big breakthough or anything, just interesting to notice the subtle change. I am a little repulsed by the idea of drinking tonight, but not in that "I'll never drink again!" hellish hangover way. More in a simply disinterested way. I'm curious to see how I feel at 5pm today.

Does this sound familiar to any of you cured or improved people? This experience gives me hope that something is happening!

This sounds very typical, and is a great sign of progress.

sounds about right.

Yep Ive had the same thing happen. Sometimes I think at this stage a little bit of effort would go a long way. Last night I had two glasses of wine in a restaurant with diner. I was a little bit revolted at the idea of drinking more but was still afraid to go home without buying any in case I wanted some later. I comprimised by telling myself that if I really wanted to drink later it was only 3 mins walk to the shop. I went home without any wine and forgot about it as soon as I got home. Ive no doubt that if I had bought a bottle I would have forced myself to drink at least half of it.

Thanks for the comment about effort, Mario. I tried that, and ended up with two AF days at the end of this week! Earlier in the week, I had a similar experience to yours, having two glasses of wine with dinner at a restaurant and feeling like I didn't need to drink any more. But in my case, I had an open bottle of wine in the house and had 3 more glasses anyway.

At first I had a typical week, about 5 glasses of wine per night. Then I went to a daytime wedding where I saw an ex-boyfriend that I had not seen in 10 years. It was extremely awkward at first, so of course I dealt with that by drinking (I assumed that the Nal I had taken the evening before was still working at 11am the next day, hope that was right!) I had 5 glasses of wine/champagne at the reception. It was over many hours, so I never felt out of control.

When I got home, I fell asleep for a while. When I woke up, people in the neighborhood were drinking outside so I took my Nal. I ended up drinking 5 more glasses that night for a total of 10 in one day ... a lot for me, but spread out over 11 hours.

Anyway, the next day I didn't have any alcohol that sounded good in the house, so I didn't drink at all. Next day, same thing, I didn't drink at all. It actually wasn't hard at all on either day. It crossed my mind both days, but when all I found was Bud Light and tequila (and I had not taken a Nal), I decided those didn't sound good enough. This feels like real progress!!

I was discussing the past month with my husband and sister, and they both noticed something about my drinking. Although my units have not gone down significantly, my behavior has changed. I (and many in my family) have this awful slurring problem when we drink. It is embarassingly obvious when I drink too much, because my mouth just doesn't work. Interestingly, since starting Nal, I have not slurred at all.

And even when drinking a lot, I seem to have more control, I am not sneaking more and more and more. I get to about 5 drinks and quit. Now, that may be partly because I am being above board with my husband and not sneaking ... taking the sneaking out of the equation may be helping me to moderate a bit. But the drive is less too, I seem to make a more conscious decision that I have had enough.

Anyway, long story long, 31 units this week, 2 AF days. Tuesdays begin my new week and I may just try for more AF days to see how it feels. Usually when I go a few days without alcohol (like when I have tried to quit before), by the third day I go crazy with craving, get super irritable, get shaky and end up frantically running to the liquor store. We'll see what happens now. If I get that craving, I'll just keep following the rules .... take Nal one hour before drinking.

I just returned from my one month checkup with my doctor. I reported the subtle changes I am feeling, and the slight decrease in units (all desciribed in this thread) and she was very encouraging. She has seen many patients using TSM, and said the fact that I am responding at all leads her to believe that I will see positive results over time. That was nice to hear! She did caution, however, that it will be a long and bumpy road and to be patient (hmmmm, I think I have heard that before!)

Another thing I asked the doctor was how much she thought exercising more, placebo effect and tracking units affected the overall results, and if the medication really has anything to do with it. She said, of course all of those things come into play, but she said she is a "true believer" in TSM and that the subtle changes I feel (losing the "drive" to drink more and more, less obsession with starting immediately at 5pm, etc.) are most definitely a result of taking Naltrexone. Also good to hear!

Since I am tolerating the Naltrexone well (all side effects are gone, even at 50mg), she increased my dosage to 75mg (1.5 tablets), one hour before drinking. So I will start that today. We are meeting friends for dinner and drinks, so I am interested to see how 75mg feels.

For anyone just starting TSM and working without a doctor, here is the dosage my doctor recommended:
Weeks 1-2: 25mg
Weeks 3-4: 50mg
Week 5+ : 75mg

Onward and upward!

YG, what is the rationale behind 75 mg? My understanding of Nal is that after 50 mg, it's like sunscreen -- higher "spf" just means it lasts longer. Is there some thinking that 75 mg may have a stronger overall effect?

Actually, I don't know the rationale for 75mg, I should have asked that question. I had not heard the sunscreen analogy before, so I was thinking that a higher dose would be more protective, rather than just working longer. I know some people play with their dosage and seem to get better results at higher doses (ToxicGirl just reported a huge difference when she increased to 100mg.)

When I asked my doctor why she had me a 25mg for two weeks instead of the two days recommended in the book, she said that is the protocol she uses and has seen work with other patients. I am guessing that would be her answer in this case, but I promise I will ask next time I see her, and will post the answer.