Hi Sticky - I live in Colorado. Lovely state with lots of mountains.

I sure couldn't limit myself to two drinks a day right now so I'm with you. Sounds like an impossible goal so if you don't make it don't kick yourself. You do have a habit of doing that.

I had an interesting night last night. For the last several weeks I've been able to limit myself most nights to one bottle of wine. Last night I didn't finish the bottle. I find that very promising. Granted there wasn't much left in the bottle but I didn't sneak into the dining room like I would have in the past and down the rest straight from the bottle. I just went to bed. So, I finally made it under one bottle of wine for the night. That made me very happy. I would really like to keep my units under 35 for this week. That may be tough though as I had 6 units on Wed and 6 on Thurs. It was a stressful week for me at work and lots of triggers. I use wine as a stress reliever a lot so next week should be better as I don't have anything super stressful going on. We shall see.

Hope you are having a good week Ms. bag lady! You are forever etched in my memory for that post. I will be laughing when I go to my grave about that.

Hey HG!
I have discovered it -- the foolproof way to have an AF day! Get a colonoscopy. Works like a charm on that prep day beforehand. It is crazy to say, but now that the sedative has worn off from the procedure, I feel like a million bucks and I do believe that is partly because of yesterday's AF day, even if I spent most of it in the bathrom.
I don't know if you are 50 yet, but that's why I got one.
Just a suggestion.
Amy

You made me spit hot tea through my nose. Thanks for the chuckle. It's always good to be able to laugh at yourself and laughter is the best medicine. Congrats on the AF day and just think by not drinking you didn't make an ass out of yourself. Ok, sorry I couldn't resist.

You both made me LOL. Yeah Amy, I need to schedule a colonoscopy. I'm overdue!

My week last week went well in that I had many triggers and did not drink to excess or make an "ass" out of myself. In the end the week was a lovely week even though I did drink more due to the extra triggers. I'm on vacation this week and my graph is on my work computer so I won't be posting it until later but my numbers for week 17 were 37.

I had lots of work stress triggers the first part of week 17 that took my nightly units above my usual 5 units. I then had an extra stressful trigger of family coming over on Saturday night which means I drink earlier and more than usual. It was surprising that I ended up drinking only 5.5 units on that night even though I started at 4:00 and didn't end until 11:00. During the night I had at least one hour where I was drinking water only and it didn't even bother me. I poured another glass of wine later after the family left only out of habit. This next week I want to bring my nightly units down to 4 a day. AF is still really tough for me. As I mentioned in an earlier post my alchy brain keeps telling me that if I go AF even one day I will probably quit drinking forever and it just isn't ready for that! Stinkin thinkin cause that's my goal on TSM anyway. Alcohol doesn't have much appeal to me anymore. I drink purely from habit now. It is what I've done for so long that it is hard to change the habit. When I drink now there is no real effect. I don't get high or even buzzed. I drink my wine like you might drink any beverage sitting in front of the TV after work. In the past I would have had to have a certain number of units in me before I could even start cooking dinner and if I didn't get there I'd order take out. Now, I go to the store after work to get something for dinner to make as I live only a couple blocks away from Whole Foods and I prefer to eat clean and healthy food every day. Sometimes I don't even start drinking until 6:30 at night and will have had only one unit before I have to make dinner. So, now I need to cultivate new habits and that shouldn't be hard since wine has not much more appeal to me than a coke would have. I guess I'll buy some healthy coke-like beverages and give that a try.

Hope everyone is having a good week.

Naltrexone is gradually making you fall out of love wit alcohol. This is part of the process! You'll get there.

My best,

Nick

Hi All - I seem to be stuck at 5 units a day. I know that I can get it lower because there are just so many signs that the cravings are gone. For example yesterday I was out shopping late in the day with my daughter and we stopped for an early dinner at a Mexican restaurant. She wanted a virgin margarita so I had a non virgin margarita. We then went home. I didn't have another drink until 6:00 with that being a glass of wine. No craving for anymore alcohol between the margarita and that first glass of wine which was a period of about 3 hours. I can tell my brain is stuck. I am at that cross roads.....do I want to stop drinking or not? My alchy brain wants to keep drinking my bottle of wine a day but my human brain does not. There are no ramifications for me right now....no consequences on my 5 glasses of wine a day. It is sort of like I'm drinking water as I'm not having any significant effect from the wine. I don't get high. I don't get drunk. I can be in the middle of a glass of wine and leave the house with no other thought for wine until I return home! (I don't drink and drive unless I've had just one glass of wine) I can remember when I started TSM I had to be home every single day by 4:30 to start drinking wine or I would be insane! Now, I will sit at work until 5:30, run to Whole Foods for dinner, and get home at 6:00 or 6:30 and then have a glass of wine. A lot of weekend days I will get really involved in something around the house and forget that I haven't taken my Nal and it will be 5:00 or later. So, I pop my Nal and then wait until an hour has passed before I pour the wine. I'm hoping this is part of the process of TSM and someone besides me has gone through this. I am getting so frustrated with my alchy brain right now.

Part of the problem is the routine I must keep. I have to go home and cook dinner for my kids. They have homework. So I can't leave the house and that is where my drinking has always been. It has always been in my chair and in front of the TV. The only thing that has changed in that routine is that I start drinking later and I drink less. So, any thoughts would be appreciated. I am finding the habit part of this the hardest to break. I still like alcohol but I don't feel much like an addict anymore.

Thanks for listening and letting me vent. Maybe once the kids are out of school I can change up the routine.....at least I hope. I will be at TSM six months then.

It's time to put your alchy brain to the test. You say you are no longer drinking from craving but habit. Let's find out. I want you to have four glasses of wine a night; not five, starting today. You should leave one glass in the bottle. It should be relatively effortless. If you can't do it, you are still drinking from addiction. If you can do it, next week try three glasses a day.

In other words, time to apply a little effort to your routine, to make sure you aren't just drinking out of habit.
And by the way, there are negative, long-term ramifications to chugging one bottle a day so it's time to do something about it. Sooner rather than later!

My best,

NIck

Okay Dr. Nick, I will take one aspirin and call you in the morning!

Seriously, you are right. I will do 4 glasses of wine a night the rest of this week and if not then I'm still dealing with addiction. It was an interesting day today. I'm not working this week. Instead, my kids are on spring break and so I'm home doing stuff with them. We decided today to start painting my 17 year old's bedroom. I poured a glass of wine at 5:30, drank a sip of it, and then got busy finishing up the clean up from painting today. It is now 7:10 and I just poured my second glass of wine. No craving! It's my chair and that's what I do in my chair. Drink wine.

Thanks for the reminder Nick to apply a little effort. I just love you! You are such a great inspiration to all of us.

Thank you and God bless.

HG

Looking forward to see how the 4 glass experiment goes! I totally get the whole habit thing. For years, I'd sit at my kitchen table in the evenings, fart around on the computer and drink. I don't own a television so the computer was my sole distraction. Right up until I started my hcg diet end of Jan, @ that was still my habit every Tues/Thurs/Sun. I didn't even think of trying to break it because I was still drinking so much less than I had been.
I find that now that I'm going to work out at the gym in the evenings it has completely snapped me out of that habit and I have zero desire to drink. I know it's different for you because you have to come home and cook dinner, but I wonder if some sort of shift in the routine will somehow shift the habit. I know people recommend silly things like drink a cup of tea/coffee before that first glass of wine, but I think something small (some sort of an action or change of a step of the routine that works for you) might be a gamechanger, we truly are such creatures of habit!

Hi HG

Well done on your change in attitude to alcohol. Good luck with the 4 glass experiment. I could benefit from giving that a go too.
I loved Amy's comment about the colonoscopy. I asked my GP if there were any tests I should have done at 50 and he suggested a colonoscopy.
I hope you're enjoying the break with your kids.

Cheers
Sticky