Hi Chrissie

You've had a great week. I like the sound of that Chocovine! Good on you for setting some goals and mostly sticking to them.

Cheers
Sticky

Hmmm...the week is getting away from me, might as well post.

Reading the New Cures is always an upper, but also a kick in the pants: what can I do to move along my progress??? As a daily drinker, it seems to me my obvious goal is to QUIT that s**t. Recently, I've been aiming at - and mostly achieving - AF's every other day, cool! I admit, I still look forward to the "on" days, but I'm not over doing too badly. Still, I must admit that I feel a little SAD when I know I'm on my AF day. It bothers me that I should feel sad about that, at this point (7 + months into this). I think the sadness must reflect lingering addiction (as well as long-term habit). But then, so what? Last night I quantified my sadness/discomfort level at about 20%, big deal!!! Pre-TSM, an AF day would be probably 80% discomfort: sad, stressed-out & MAD. So I'm going to just keep making myself do my AF's and just observe and see if the 20% drops...goes away. Maybe this is how this particular Daily Drinking TSM Tortoise Type progresses...

Chocovine sounds....odd I'm not much for sweet things, though lol.
It looks like you've been having a couple of good weeks, may it long continue. Thanks for your support and cheery atmosphere on the board. I really needed it these past couple weeks. But things are looking up!
EL

Hey! Those last week numbers are looking good!!!

Thanks for the smiles Chrissie. Mr Happy Turtle would put a smile on anyones face!

After a pretty heavy weekend of celebrating feeling a bit green this morning. No drinks for me today! I would be happy if I could consistantly keep my numbers in the teens. Being honest I am enjoying the drinks, I don't see myself ever quiting completely. I do not enjoy the hangovers!!! Pushing forward and trying to like myself today regardless.

Smiles, Zip

I've only been doing this for just over a week, however, as a fellow daily drinker I identify with your sadness about not drinking. A former therapist of mine said that alcohol had become my best friend. Now I'm working on getting rid of my best friend. Even if it is not a living, breathing thing, I think there's still a grieving process whenever we have to give up anything that's been a part of our lives, everyday, for so long. The first example that comes to mind are professional athletes; once they have to retire, they go through a "what's next?" phase, they go through a period of mourning for having giving up something that's been a part of their lives that they can't do anymore. These are just my thought/ramblings.

Hey Chrissie, sounds like you are doing great. A trick that I used successfully even in my pre nal days was to try and develop hobbies that I genuinely like, but that are incompatible with drinking. For me, drinking often involves sitting and watching TV and so sometimes just sitting AF and watching TV is depressing if I don't have a drink because something is missing!

Instead of that, I learned to love yoga. Everyone is going to be different, so that may not be your thing, but if you can find something to really look forward to on your AF days, they might not seem so sad.

Keep it up!

Yes, I DO feel like I'm reaching a good place: it was a big revelation to me to realize my AF evenings "discomfort level" was 20%, which is NOT too much to ask myself to endure at this point. And the discomfort on AFs is intermittent: I have an impulse about 5 o'clock: "boy, a beer sounds good!" followed by "no, not today, AF, remember?" followed by a tiny, tiny foot-stomping tantrum, which quickly is forgotten. This cycle repeats a few times through the evening, but I had 4 AFs last week all with that pattern, and feel very empowered at this point!

Generic, interestingly, I have changed up my evenings very recently: I now watch TV, which I never did before! I know it sounds funny, but I was raised in a very TV-limited home and never developed much of a taste for it. DH & I watch plenty of movies, but the little TV I watch as an adult has strictly been tied to exercise: in the winter I exercise inside and watch various series, like the Shield, Breaking Bad, etc. The end of this winter, I got into Sons of Anarchy and decided a few weeks ago that I would allow myself to just sit and watch some at night, and man! I really look forward to it and enjoy it, plus it has no ties to drinking for me. Sounds funny, but this 20 or 30 minutes has really added something to look forward to and given more structure to my evenings. Just think, I'm assisting my TSM cure by watching a debauched, violent, murdering, gun-running misogynistic soap opera about a bunch of bikers... indeed, to each his own!

Hi Chrissie - I thought this was a very clever, interesting approach. The idea of being able to look forward to something pleasurable during your witching hour that ISN'T booze-related seems like it would be a pretty big help. When I was reading through the Game of Thrones novels late in the fall, I would find that they also gave me something structured and non-drinking to do during my weeknights. I didn't even really think about it - it just became routine. I went through the same thing watching Breaking Bad.

The problem for me right now is that baseball has started up, and I always used to get good and saucy while watching Red Sox games (as baseball can be a slow and tedious, so alcohol was a excellent supplement). So unfortunately this type of tv does have ties to drinking for me, but I guess I never really thought about it this way until I read your post.

You are doing awesome right now - keep it up!

-H

Way to go Chrissie! Nal + TV = control!