Thanks, Newlife! I can understand you feeling envious right now, but I think you will make it there. And before TSM I would have been incredibly envious of you being able to "only" drink 20-25/week haha.

@jackson, I think that's well put. We are definitely having similar experiences. And I do find that sometimes I want it to be super fun even though I know it won't be, but then I can have several days in a row with almost no thought or desire of drinking, so it's very occasional for me right now.

Thanks for the update je3625 - you seem to be doing pretty well and I too am envious of your AF days. I will get there though - eventually.... thanks for the update,

Hugs, Maggie

End of week 11 update!
Total number of drinks - 14.5. AF days - 4. Average # drinks / session - 4.8. Daily numbers were 0, 0, 9.5, 2, 3, 0, 0.

This past week was kind of similar to the previous week in that I had one "bad" day and the rest were "good", meaning either no alcohol or a small amount. Again, the one bad day was one of those things where I just had the idea in my mind that it would be fun like the good ol' days, but then as I was doing it, it wasn't any fun at all and I felt awful and it was so nice to back off from alcohol on the following days. I just hope I can make that realization stick in my mind that I really don't like getting drunk anymore! I know reinforcement is powerful but it takes time. Still extremely pleased with my progress. I'm going to keep trying in the upcoming weeks to remind myself how much better I feel when not getting drunk and really try to avoid having that occasional bad night.

Still jealous but also extremely pleased for you. Keep showing us the way!! Newlife

good on ya! keep it up! zontar

End of week 12 update!
Total number of drinks - 0. AF days - 7.

A perfect week. Most important though is not having any heavy days. I may continue to have some light to moderate drinking days here and there, but my goal at this point is to eliminate heavy days as much as possible. I should note that going a period of time without drinking isn't anything spectacular for me in itself. Before TSM I would go weeks or months at a time, even over a year once, without drinking anything. But I would inevitably always relapse into excessively heavy binging. I see almost no chance of that happening anymore. And another difference now is that I know I'm allowed to drink if I feel like it, but I honestly haven't even wanted to for the last 10 days or so. And I've been focused recently on morning exercise and trying to get in better shape, which seems to have priority in my mind right now over drinking at night, which is fantastic.

That's great!

I suppose it's true that since alcohol isn't forbidden, you don't crave it. That makes the whole process that much easier.

Keep reporting good progress, that will encourage others on this for him.

I think the lack or "forbiddenness" really helps some of us. I think it's empowering to feel you've been a part of the choice to not drink.....

For sure the lack of forbiddenness is the only way for me. With my personality, if I thought alcohol was forbidden, I'd be dead already.

I'm still jealous, je3625, I want to be where you are!! Keep posting!! Newlife

End of week 13 update!
Total number of drinks - 1. AF days - 6.

Another highly successful week. I've been travelling the past week and same for this upcoming week, so it's been interesting to see how my progress would go in a different environment. Didn't have too many temptations to drink this past week, but this coming weekend there will be significantly more and I suspect that I'll have at least a couple of evenings of going out social drinking with friends. Going into this situation I'd like to avoid having any single night where I have more than a few drinks, but I don't know exactly what the people I'm around will be doing. If I can keep the daily numbers relatively low as well as keep my weekly total within the moderate/healthy range that will be another big success. It has already become a lot easier to have zero drinks most days and to reserve the days of having one or a few as just occasional events.