Moo's Plan

[mooderator]

Moo's Plan

Successful

is how I feel at the present time. I have now completed another 2 week AF period. It gets easier as time passes to do it. I think for me it is a matter of breaking the routine. The new routine of not drinking (most of the time) is starting to feel like the norm. I am really pleased.

I am following through with the plan to have a mod night on saturday even though there is absolutley no special occasion to celebrate. Thus there is no adjoining excuse for having those couple of extra glasses of wine. This is an important lesson. I live in hope it might go perfectly the first time out. I also know it might not and I am ready for another two weeks after this of AF/reflection time.

Just as I had a plan for not drinking, I intend to have a plan for modding nights. I learnt on my short break with Mr Moo that it appeared that as I upped my dose of kudzu before drinking that evening, the quantity consumed reduced. So, this time, I will use this tool. I dont take kudzu at all generally on AF days now. So I will remember to take two tonight, two on saturday morning to build some up in my system and then take 4 before I drink saturday night. (nb, I am taking Kudzu from my health store, so I dont think its as strong as kudzu rescue).

I am going to go to the gym tomorrow (have been today too) as I find if I feel healthy I want to spoil it less.

I will also make sure I am especially well hydrated throughout the day and then have lots of water on the table with dinner, thereby not guzzling wine because I am thirsty.

I will drink slowly and enjoy what I am having.

I will also take a mutli vit (extra strong ones) so that my body doesnt feel so put out by a blast of poison.

That is the plan. Christ I am exhausted making the plan! IT really does help me though. Perhaps that says a lot about me. I respond well to plans and deadlines etc in the work place and life in general, so why not apply it to this?

Regarding the result; I will be pleased it I can fill in 2 or 3 on drink tracker and wake up hangover free and guilt free. That will be perfect for now. I will think I have started to crack it then.

Well I am off to start implementing my plan!!!!!

Thats all folks...wish me luck...

LOVE MOO oo

[scrubbly]

Moo's Plan

Good luck Moo! I'm sure you will be successful with such a well-thought plan in place. I'll look forward to hearing from you Sunday on how things went!

I'm just hoping that I don't cave on Saturday. Saturday has been my downfall for the last couple of weeks and although I'm ok with modding, it is really important to me to get some AF Saturdays under my belt!!! I'm gonna do it this week!!! I'll think of Moo doing such a nice modding job and I won't cave....

[mooderator]

Moo's Plan

It worked.

Feeling free to tune out...just blogging...

Well I can report that I had three glasses of red wine saturday night. I remembered to take Kudzu as and when I said I would. I have drunk lots of water this weekend and in particular lots with dinner on saturday. I sipped my wine, enjoyed it and did not go over the limit I had set for myself. So all in all a success. From the point of view of consumption, sticking to my plan etc, I am delighted.

The mistake however was drinking RED wine. It is not usually something I ever have as historically it has never agreed with me. I dont know whether its the tannins or sulphates or what, but even though the quantity I had was ok, I woke up in the night, with a mild headache, went back to sleep then woke up with a very mild headache and feeling a bit tired. Dont get me wrong, I would not call this a hangover, I did not have to take meds or fail to get up and do what I wanted to do. I just felt a little disappointed that after getting the quantites right, I felt far a bit crap.

So it was a double edged sword, drinking RED was successful in that I didnt guzzle and didnt go over my limit, but I dont wish to feel negative effects when I dont deserve it!! LoL.

So, I think I will try something else next time or stick to my ROSE or WHITE!!

Well I am AF now for another 2 weeks. So, focussing back on that for now. Am considering whether to drink when me and Mr Moo go to his parents in 2 weeks time. Will concern myself with that much nearer the time.

Off to enjoy my sunday now......

Moo

[mooderator]

Moo's Plan

The focus for me this week is on eating REALLY well. I am always very food conscious and pretty healthy, but for the next two weeks, I am having an extra drive. I really want to loose another pound or two for summer. I havent got much left to loose, so it is getting really hard to loose anything now. But I am not yet defeated! As I know I am definitely AF for two weeks this an especially good time to focus on general good health. So heres to lots of good food, exercise and feeling great.

Love Moo

[DeeBee]

Moo's Plan

OOOh I'm terribly jealous that you "don't have much left to loose"!! Stop bragging Moo! LOL
Have you tried Cycles' spinach and strawberry salad recipe -- I'm going to make a huge bowl for the daughter and I tonight.
I really am trying hard to shed this tyre around my middle..... please share your secret......

[mooderator]

Moo's Plan

Hey DEEBS

I havent tried it but it sounds lovely....let me know whether you and your daughter like it.

The secret! Well largely salad actually! I shed about 2 stone over about a year. It was mostly about dedicatiion, sticking to a healthy eating plan.....salad and salmon eaten many nights of the week...lots of porridge for breakfast and veggie soup for lunch...boring but it works! Oh yeah and lots of time spent in the gym! Also I started to try and limit my drinking to once a week when I started dieting...(all well before MWO) ...double edged sword as it cut down my overal consumption for sure, but put even more emphasis on the once weekly "binge"/lid off session, which I am now trying to break! LOL Hey Ho.. Its all a learning curve.

Hope you love the salad...Moo x

[mooderator]

Moo's Plan

another AF bank holiday.

I am going to be AF this bank holiday. It will be my second one AF since I started. I am definitely finding this easier as time passes. There is no two ways about it. I would go as far as to say I have cracked the AF thing. I feel confident now that when I say I am not going to drink for a specific period of time, then I will not. This site is still giving me more and more confidence, however I will never be complacent.

I have lots planned for the bank hols in terms of projects in the garden and a few nice things, like a family BBQ and a Curry out with Mr Moo. These would both have definitely been reasons to drink before MWO and now they are not. I simply will not allow the beast his fun this weekend. He is starting to hate me! I am not much fun anymore! LOL.

I have decided to allow myself a drink or two when we go away next weekend. I will worry about times and quantites nearer the time. I will most certainly not be drinking RED wine...its evil.

Heres to a successful weekend without......

[mooderator]

Moo's Plan

THE BEAST.

Yesterday (friday) I noticed that the beast was on my shoulder asking questions as he does sometimees. He knows he is not allowed any AL this weekend at all. He was asking would it be so bad if we had some wine, would it really? After all it is a bank holiday etc. He puts up some good arguements I will give him that. BUT what he hasnt counted on is if you want to win an argument, dont challenge a lawyer to one!!!! So, I put my professional skills to work and gave the beast all the reasons I did not wish to comsume AL this weekend, told him he was not in charge and I would be deciding from here on in when we drink and when we dont. He gave up quite quickly. I guess he still gets his friday feeling. He wants to come out and play over the weekend because its fun to him and he loves it. But he is learning that he has to curb this behaviour now!!!

Whats great about all this is that although there are still moments and they are the same old times (the beginning of the weekend, bank hols etc) when he starts to nag, whinge and argue, I have developed the power to win the arguements whereas I never did before. It is quite liberating and each battle I win makes me more sure of winning the war.

HappyAF bank hols...sorry beast!

[mooderator]

Moo's Plan

I had a completely AF bank holiday and a perfectly pleasant time without. I intend to be AF until thursday. I will be away with Mr Moo for 4 days visting family thereafter and I plan to allow myself some scope to drink. Again I am not going to set targets and limits and all the rest of it. Instead I stand by my motto of "enjoy the nights, but enjoy the days to the full too". I would plan to be AF on at least one of the days, even better if I can do more.

In terms of a plan, on the days where AL is involved I will seek to drink lots of water, and remember my six kudzu! After that I will do my level best to be very aware of what I am doing. When I get back I will fill in drink tracker honestly (as I always do).

Once I am home from this trip I am going to commit to three and half weeks AF before a mini-break with my very close friend. This will help shift a few pounds and keep me on the straight and narrow!!

thats all folk....

Moo

[DeeBee]

Moo's Plan

Thats FAN-TAS-TIC Moo!!

You sure told the beast off LOL!!

[mooderator]

Moo's Plan

It's working!

I had my four days away with Mr Moo and can report great results. I drank on 3 days out of the four I had allowed myself the option (last time I took full advantage of all the days I had allowed!). I drank 3 drinks, then 4, then 3. This is within what I am happy with, and on every occasion it was over a good deal of time. I got a little buzz on the friday which was our special celebration day out in london, which I enjoyed but I did not feel the urge to go on and get drunk. Although we had 4 drinks that day they were spread over most of the day. I had absolutely no symptoms of hangover whatsoever. So, I am really really pleased with myself. I feel that not only am I winning the battle to be AF most of the time, but I am also learning how to drink sensibly. I think this can be done (for me anyway).

I stayed away from wine on two of the days I drank and had beer instead. It made a huge difference. I didnt get the "wine head" on. I didnt drink it so quickly and got a different kind of vibe from it. All in all, it was a very successful weekend. I enjoyed the evenings and the days to the full. Despite good results, I promised myself 3 and a half weeks AF after this weekend as an attempt at losing a couple of pounds and just generally being in optimum health. So here I go now, lots of AF time ahead....thats the easier bit still....but the moddings getting there too.

[mooderator]

Moo's Plan

Bump in the road.

Having promised myself 3.5 weeks AF and with all great stuff behind me, I was feeling really confident. However, for some reason on friday last, the beast started to nag. Not just the AL beast, but the Food beast and the "Going out beast!". I had been really really excellent all week with everything, food, gym, the lot. All set for 3 weekends AF. Then Friday came. It wasnt as if I had a bad day or week or anything. I just wanted to go out, eat pizza, drink beer and let my hair down. It was sort of a generic willpower meltdown. I didnt even really seem to want to fight the three beasts, for once I decided to go with it.

So, I went out with Mr Moo, eat pizza x lots and drank beers x too much ( for me) and had a great night, no memory loss, no feeling to drunk, no guzzling, no arguements, no hangover, nothing bad at all, except binging.

It was however, a general binge of all bad things. I sort of just needed to do it. There was no rhyme or reason to it. I didn't fight the battle this time, which is really unusal.

I have noted that the last time I drank more than I wanted to was 2 days into my monthly cycle last month. Interesting, me thinks. Very interesting. I have a theory that this might be a time I need to be really vigilant. I wonder if having had a week of PMT, 2 days of pain (headache and stomach ache), when I start to feel a bit better, my resolve is really week. It would explain a lot.

I am off course disapointed in the quantity I had mainly and the fact I had meant to be AF and very low calorie. But otherwise I dont feel too bad about it.

It just made me think, "right nose to the grindstone now". I was AF the rest of the weekend and I am totally on the ball for the next two weeks AF. I also realised I had been away from here for almost a week due to work and being away. I think that may have been an issue in the decision making process. If I had been here all week, I woulld have remembered to come here and post and try to talk myself out of it. Hey ho. Two very valuable lessons learnt for the future I feel and still overal the results here are cracking from my point of view.

So, today is monday, I am feeling great and off to the gym. I have planned really good food for the week and planned dinner with my mate tuesday evening (i am driving) and a nice meal at home with Mr Moo saturday (sushi, so low cal). I am just going to stay close and blog a bit more frequently this week, esp as the weekend approaches.

[mooderator]

Moo's Plan

On track.

Its half way through the working week (wednesday lunchtime). I promised myself more contact with this site this week and I have been true to my word and checked in everyday, filling in DT and reading mod squad stuff.

Since friday night, I have been absolutely fine again. Better even. It is almost as if, letting the lid off has improved things for me day to day. Its a weird dichotomy. Still to be finally worked on and worked out. Still what matters at the moment is I am doing great with my really healthy. low cal food and exercise this week, the beast has abated completely and I feel that I will be through this weekend trouble free. Things are so good I book a session with my personal trainer (who I only see on occasion) yesterday for friday morning. I am having my hair done saturday and am able to see that as my treat instead of AL.

I was really pleased to go to my friends for dinner last night and have a lovely time, a lovely talk and not drink (ps she drank couple of glasses of red wine) I was not at all bothered by this. This is a big shift for me. I am also trying to arrange to see another friend for a cinema trip for next week as I am set to be AF for another week. I find it automatic to arrange fun things that are AF now much more often. And also be happy to do things were I used to drink without it. Overal, things are vastly improved and I would never want to go back to where I was when I came here in mid february. I continue to learn more and grow more with every day that passes and errors happen, but even these are much more controlled by comparision.

thats all folks

[mooderator]

Moo's Plan

Really really on track!

It is sunday evening, and I have just got back from the gym having started my new training program as worked out by my personal trainer (i only see him on occasion). I am just about to get into a lovely hot aromatherapy bath to end a lovely AF weekend. Its moments like these that I cherish as they just show me how far I have come. Its not just that I am doing these things, as I have been doing them for a long time, it is that I enjoy them so much more. I look forward to different things instead of just the 2-3 hours on a saturday night when I would drink to get pissed. It is not that I never ever do this now, there is the odd occasion where i still allow myself a drink or two too many, but I am happy to do so. From where I stand, that is ok. It was the needing to do it every saturday that I was not able to bare. The needing to drink at every social occasion or dinner out or it would not be fun. Things have shifted so much in just four months, that I wonder what 6 months or a year will bring. Still learning, still room for inprovement. But I am delighted with everything at present. The world is at peace for me. I am happy. I am excited about going away with my mate the weekend after next (where there will be some wine, but much more vigilance on my part) yet at the same time delighted to be AF until I go. So I will have had a run of three weeks without a drink at all before I go. That is a good place to be in. Best of all. I am happy being AF. I see more benefits that negatives and the longer I do it for there is no doubt, the easier it gets -YAY.

Moo

[Blue Sky]

Moo's Plan

Hi Moo!

thanks for the update, good to hear how happy you sound. If MWO gave prizes for encouraging others your thread would be my nomination. You tell your journey it how it is, warts and all.