Thansk for posting. Was starting to worry.

Week 18 results S18, S,0, M8, T5, W9, T2, F16 Total=58 AF=1

Week 19 results S18, S,0, M18, T3, W3, T18, F18 Total=78 AF=1

Week 20 results S18, S,0, M12, T9, W9, T0, F12 Total=60 AF=2

Week 21 results S18, S,0, M0, T6, W0, T6, F12 Total=42 AF=3

Week 22 so far S18, S,12, M0, T10, W6, T, F Total=46 AF=1





That feels alot better. Not the best of times since I started, but I have been feeling bad, crappy, and guilty about not staying up to date on here.

I still am buried at work and home. But I need to take time and get caught up on everyone else. I will shortly. Probably not today or tomorrow.

I contribute my spikes over the last week, to the following,

1. Definitely not cured yet, and still week.
2. Dozen plus graduation parties. (Too many temptations.)
3. Fund raising planning and fund raiser. (Again too many temptations.)
4. Emergency work out of town, boozing nightly with coworker boozers. (Again too many temptations.)
5. Work being retarded. Way too many office hours. Grabbing that 2x4 on the way home still.

My silver lining. -> I will say that I still feel way better now than pre-TSM.

I still have not bought a bottle of vodka and stashed it our hid in the house to take extra secret slugs off it since TSM.

I have not bought a pint of vodka since 3-10-13 for my ride home. I have had a small handful of vodka cocktails "incidents" since then. (2 or 3 vodka cocktails at home using wifes flavored vodka, and shots one night with friends, using wifes flavored vodka.)

Funny how during my last few weeks and spikes, my lowest week was when my wife and oldest daughter were in Florida for a trip with several other senior grads and moms. I kept busy at home with the other 2 kids and drank less. Normally, pre-TSM, I would have been swimming in vodka that week when she was gone. Eliminate one graduation party from that week, and I may have hit an all time low. Maybe.

Took my Nal after work. Had my 2x4 on the way home. Went out out to eat had beers there. Then had beers at home afterwards. I'm counting 17. That was way too many. I really need to get some AF days back into my program. I have not been to the gym either in several weeks.

I've just completed 5 months of the program.

Months 3-4. Pretty damn happy with my progress.

Months 4-5. Pretty bummed out with my regression.

I know I've read about the roller coaster ride, and hope this is it.

Hey Chris, Sorry to hear you are bummed out. You have been a world of encouragement around here, so may I suggest you read some of the posts you've made to other newbies. It is sooo easy to get discouraged when the numbers go up, but if you keep doing what you are doing then I believe we will see your name on the "cured" list in the not so distant future. I hope the temptations diminish. You should pat yourself on the back for taking care of the kids while the spouse was away instead of using it as an excuse to get sloshed.......Keek

P.S. Nice graph...

Hey Buddy,

I feel like I know where you are at. Half a year in and progress has stalled or regressed a bit even. In my experience, now is the time to start "taking the reigns." You have an idea of what nal will do for you - it makes it possible to take it easy, it makes it possible to substitute in more low octane stuff, and it makes it so you don't think about alcohol nearly as much when you aren't drinking.

For a lucky few people, nal does all the work. Their numbers plummet immediately and all of a sudden, it's like they never had a drinking problem in the first place. For guys like me and you, it aint like that. The rush of adrenaline that you used to get from the bottle is now gone. Great. So exactly ONE of the TWENTY reasons that you drink too much has been solved. The good news though, is that that one reason was by far the biggest and most unsolvable problem and now it's out of the way. The bad news is that now you have work to do.

For me, I stalled at this stage for months. I was drinking almost every day, but never getting too belligerent. I'd take it too far from time to time, but things were undeniably better than pre-nal. I didn't move on to the next stage until I tried an experiment - I decided to try and go AF Sun-Thurs.

It wasn't exactly trivially easy, but it wasn't impossible either. I rewarded myself in small ways - good food, etc. 5 solid days without booze had me almost forgetting about the bottle altogether. It also FORCED me to start re-learning how to enjoy my life. How to have fun without being sauced. I have been at this stage of the game for a few months now and I feel a little better every week that goes by. I am writing for fun more, and doing more creative stuff with the time that I have on this planet. I am more productive at work, etc. etc. but I have to tell you... I am a drunk at heart. If there were no consequences, I'd still be drinking every night. Even on nal, I LIKE drinking. I don't know if that's ever going to change. It's an effort for sure, but NOTHING like the white knuckling that I used to go through.

Anyway we are different people, so I don't know if increasing your AF stretches will be the answer for you that it has been for me, but I feel like it was a crucial step in this process.

Best of luck amigo. Don't forget how far you have come because of this plateau. Keep us posted.

generic, you just summed up how I feel. Nal has made things a hell of a lot better, but if I don't use a little bit of self control, I am drinking too much. My units have gone up over the last few weeks too, but still no where near pre-nal.

Anyways, keep on keeping on!

Glad to be of help, Dave. for what it's worth I was never able to get my numbers down by exercising self control, while still drinking every night, or almost every night. Once I hit my plateau, increasing the number of AF days was easier for me than drinking less per session... Now that I (generally) don't drink on weekdays, my weekend units have come down a bit too, kinda magically. I think that's because nowadays my default state is sobriety, rather than drunk or hungover, so when I do tip a few, I notice it more.

Update:





UNFORTUNATE EVENTS STILL FIND ME!

3 - 60 Units in a row. Sucks, but is part of the plan I guess.

Ended last week trying/wanting a drink Thursday and Friday, but the Nal kicked in like a champ. Yesterday had none, zip on a Saturday.

Wed. on the other hand was going down the AF day path until I got a call for free tickets to a MLB game that night, which included unlimited draft/food. Nights like that kill my weekly count.

Fourth of July 4-8 weekend wasn't much help.

June 31-July 2, was a trip to Dallas that pretty much involved Daily Drinking with a large group.

I understand my environment does not help me much with my treatment. However, I am not ready to completely change my lifestyle. Come Friday, I will be at 6 months in.

I still have not replaced any of my Vodka stashes and/or made a Vodka cocktail for the ride home. This alone, at a minimum, makes the Nal all worth it.

I shall be continueing to Nal-on, to see what other treats Nal has in store for me to help with more AF days.

I guess I wish the last 3 days were all AF, but I'll take a 1, 2, 0 Thurs, Fri, Sat. anytime.

Later my friends.

Yesterday, after posting at work, I joined my wife at the gym. We drove separately and did the elliptical machines for an hour. Afterwards we were to attend a funeral/wake. I had been thinking about a 4th day without hardly any booze. Thur-Sunday, crazy talk. It doesn't take much to fall.

The funeral/wake was for a 62 year fellow volunteer fireman who had a heart attack during his day job. My wife informed me at the gym that we were going to go out for drinks afterwards with a few other couples from the firehouse. Thats all it took for me to get into that, I'm gonna need more than few drinks, and I'm gonna need to pregame. Amazed how week I can be.

I had to grab a 2x4 for the ride home and pregame at home before heading to the memorial. Than have 4 afterwards with friends, then fill my bubba keg with beer for a walk around the block with the dog once I got home.

From zero -16 in the blink of an eye. All that after a 1 unit Thursday, 2 unit Friday, ZERO unit Saturday.

Just talking out loud to myself mostly now, reminding myself how easy it happens for me.

Reading up today catching up on everyone else, and the new folk since I have been slacking most of June and July.

Self observation, I suspect my latest spikes coincide with my lack of posting and reading on our message board. I have been extra busy at work, way behind, and have been telling myself, I don't have time today to read/post. I even had gotten lazy updating my log for several days, making it difficult to be accurate.

Reading, Posting, and Accurate Daily Logging Need to be a steady part of my road to the cure.

So I have started my log week good with an AF Saturday, but not so good 16 Sunday. I am going camping/floating Friday/Saturday and I will have deal with that when Friday gets here, but I need to go AF today and go to the Gym.

Thanks for reading my random TSM thoughts for today.

From Yahoo news below.

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhe ... to-magnets

Beer drinkers beware

Swigging just one bottle of beer can significantly boost your risk of being bitten, according to a study published in Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association. The researchers reported that, “Mosquito landing on volunteers significantly increased after beer ingestion compared with before ingestion.”