AL Detox Time

[rubywillow]

AL Detox Time

Meech, I LOVE my CD's. They are such a great tool.

[techie]

AL Detox Time

So happy you made it through meech. I seem to get the craving most strongly after a heavy workout. It's always beer. I mainly drank vodka when I was out socially. But now I just crave beer after the exercise. I'm winning the battle too though it is troublesome.

[papmom3]

AL Detox Time

hey Meech-I think you might have hit on something with the CDs. They worked for you before so it's time to get back to them. Great job on once again riding the Crave Wave. It's bound to get easier. It has to!!
I'm still blown away by all the physical activity you do every day. If I can get in the habit of doing 1/8 of what you do I'll be very fit and healthy indeed!!

[Hippy Chick]

AL Detox Time

Wow Meech - A 25km bike ride..... I think I have done well on the treadmill for 30 minutes... you put us all to shame!!!
I totally believe that phone call for your daughter was the universe's way of intervening and keeping you on track. Fate!
I too love the CD's although last time I listened to them I was so tired and just wanted to go to sleep and the man's very annoying voice was keeping me awake so I turned it off. (He has got the worst accent ever).
Start doing your daily plan in this journal Meech. You seemed to stick to it when you were doing that. Unfortunately we have to put in a bit of extra effort in all areas to keep that beast at bay.
I went to the movies this afternoon to watch a bit of mindless trash (the Back up Plan) and something jumped out at me. When she was in labour someone said to her to breath thru the pain. I have heard that a million times however it jumped out at me that what we need to do when we are having a craving is to breath thru the pain and like a contraction, we will get thru it. At the end of the contraction is a brand new life in the shape of a baby and at the end of a craving is a lovely new life too.
It does get easier with time. I am five months sober today and I can honestly say that the cravings are not as frequent or intense as in the first few months. I often go for days without even thinking about AL. You will ge there Meech, just keep riding that crave wave.
Hippy

[Meech]

AL Detox Time

ThankYou great tips and great reminders. :thanks:

Hippy - I have always been very sportsminded and competitive. Don't ask me to sew or knit... could be ugly and dangerous. Lol. You are right. I have quit writing in my journal "daily plan" lately. And need to find time (yikes time) to listen to CD's. I had good intentions last night when I went to bed to listen to CD's but I was so tuckered I just fell asleep and didn't move for 9 HOURS.

Feel very rested today and feeling FANTASTIC because I came so close last night but DIDN'T. I could have been one sick hungover puppy. :happy:

Thanks Papmom - must do the CD's. Hope you are feeling better. Are you back to work?

Techie - Yes nothing like an ice cold beer after a workout. That's when I really CRAVE it. I know exercise is important (think I got that one down pat) but I have rewarded myself with BEER after workouts for 20 years. They were like best friends. So that's been tough to break that cycle. But I am usually hungry after a workout too so I try to block out the AL and got straight for the food. As in the past I would TOTALY ignore the hunger so I COULD get straight to the beer. The cycle is starting to get easier to break although some days I swear I am salavating for a Budweiser.

TODAY'S PLAN:
Morning - 6km tempo run DONE
Late Morning and Afternoon - housework, errands, pick up kids after school, give a little play time to my youngest (4yrs) who's here all day.
6pm- Swim Workout (2400m of drills). At least it's in a warm pool not the freezing lake!
7:30pm - Get home EAT IMMEDIATELY and ride any waves, or breath through the craving pains!
8:30pm - Get kids to bed
9:30-10:00pm Get me to bed, sober head on pillow!

Have a great day!

[papmom3]

AL Detox Time

Hey Meech, I wonder if you might be a candidate for the non alcoholic beers? I know that isn't "kosher" when you're trying to be AF but if it's truly non AL, then maybe the yeasty taste, coldness and carbonation will be enough to satisfy you. I think it might work as long as that's what you are craving, not the actual AL and if you only drink one after exercise as a reward and NEVER anytime else. But you have to do what is right for you. I almost cringe to be suggesting this.
Yes, I am back to work today and it was wicked busy. Blah.

[Hippy Chick]

AL Detox Time

Hi guys.
I have wondered about non-al wine, but I know it is the buzz I crave not the taste. So cant see the point.
Glad to see your daily plan again Meech. OMG you do enough exercise for me and PM3 put together!!

Keep riding the crave wave and will catch up with you again tomorrow.

Hipster

[Meech]

AL Detox Time

Hello all what AF day is it?

Hello Everyone,

Well after I hit 30 days Af I stopped really being anal about keeping track. Although I will be happy when the 6 week (42 day) goal gets here.

Lately it's just ODAT. Although yesterday I didn't give AL hardly a thought. Boy I love those days. Wish I had them all the time. Oh well at least I have them more now.
Where in the first week or so it was FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT! For those just starting out, it does get easier. It's a long road. But SO WORTH IT. Get help, supps, CD's and meds too. I didn't do the meds because I didn't want to "fess" up to my doctor.

It may have been easier with the meds. but I'm doing it - some days very smoothly and other days 1 minute at a time.

Papmom - Nonalcohol Beer. I have pondered the idea. I absolutely have no hang-up about the .05% alcohol that is in it. I would have to drink my weight in beer for the buzz. 10 beers to equal one real beer - I would explode! I can honestly say the first one tastes pretty refreshing as long as it's super cold. But I don't go past 2 because I get tired of the taste. So maybe I'll give it a try. I just have to find one I like the taste of. And use it only as a last resort.

Some have said it may taste like the "real thing" and possibly tempt me back into old habits. So that is a tiny bit of a concern. But not that much. I am a very picky beer drinker. Even in my big beer drinking days I would settle with about 2-3 kinds. If that's not what was around I wouldn't touch it no matter how much I wanted it. I don't care for wine and almost never touch hard liquor. So the good thing is most alcohol isn't tempting to me. But a cold Budweiser in a bottle with the condensation dripping down the side. Yikes stop it I'm salavating again.
Must think that Budweiser everywhere is now making their beer with rat urine. Yeah that's it!!

Anyway, enough about that. I have a garage to clean!!!!

Have a great day.
Meech :h

[Meech]

AL Detox Time

Meech's plan for tuesday

Oops got carried away in the last post and forgot to put the "daily plan in"

Missed out on the CD's again yesterday. Grrrrrrrr.


Morning - 40km bike
Afternoon - start organizing garage (very very scarey - much worse than closets)
Mid-Afternoon - pick up kids on bike from school, continue with garage nightmare
Early Evening - get super on and EAT! Take son to soccer
Evening - Bath * fizzy AF peach drink in a wine glass (to avoid going to beer store). Listen to Clearing CD, the entire thing.
10:00pm Lay SOBER head down on pillow

Well the only thing I've done so far is the bike ride. Giddy up Meechie!

[Doggygirl]

AL Detox Time

Just wanted to pop in and say congrats on a great job!

Budweiser makes beer out of rat urine!! You heard it here first!!!! :H:H:H

In the first 6 months or so is this current (and hopefully final!) sober stretch, I drank AF beer on the few occassions where I had little choice but to "hang out" while others were drinking. I wasn't much of a beer drinker since college though, so 2 of those O'Douls or whatever and I was done.

I'm happy I don't feel the need for AF version of the real thing any more. I'm fine without them and for me, I think that was a milestone of sorts. I think that's an individual issue, but there you have mine FWIW!

ETA: Our garage is WAAAYYYYY scarier than our closets too.... have fun.

DG

[Hippy Chick]

AL Detox Time

It's good when you loose count of how many AF days you have. It means that you are concentrating on other things rather than how many days of AL you have missed.
Hope your garage cleaning was successful. I had to finally sucumb and enter my daughters room today. Why is that 10 year old girls are so messy? She is having a sleep over for her birthday on Friday and because I dont want to loose any of her friends in there, never to be seen again, I thought I had better get in there and actually clean it. It only took one (huge) garbage bag and three hours, so that is not too bad.
I am having a battle of wills at the moment. My kitty Jimmy is a thief and is constantly getting up on the kitchen bench to try and steal my little morsel of food around. So I have a water bottle ready next to me to squirt him when he gets up there. Needless to say he is drenched! Just doesnt learn!
I gotta run my daughter to training so I will just bye for now.
Hip

[Meech]

AL Detox Time

Hello All,
Hi DoggyGirl - thanks for the post. Yes rat urine...can you believe it. And to think I use to drink that stuff. :H

Well I don't know if I will go the non-AL Beer route. I just have to keep exploring other AF drinks for now I think. Don't want to chance the vulnerability of my beer cravings. maybe when I've got a lot more AF days/weeks/months behind me. And by then maybe any kind of beer won't be desirable.

Hippy Chick - Yeah maybe I am moving to the next phase? Where I don't count the days but maybe weeks or months? Or just focus and get use to my AF life.

Papmom - I'll swing on over to your journal and see how the first of the week is going.

Not much exercise planned for the next 4 days. My group hike Thursday night and I may take one more dip in the freezing lake before RACE DAY on Sunday. Forecast looks sunny - thank heavens. First triathlon of the season so the rest of the week is taper time.

Garage - Wow it sure looks different. You can actually walk around in it without falling over something. I'm 3/4 way done it. Lots of stuff to the junk and to Goodwill yesterday. The rest is just organizing I think the clutter is getting under control a bit now.

It's amazing how much calmer and peaceful I feel when my house isn't overwhelmed with clutter. Still have some rooms and cupboards to attack but at least now it's not "every single room" that needs attention. thanks for your inspiration Papmom and JC.

Plan today:
1) Listen to CD's for 1 hour
2) Cook supper
3) Read, have a bath and early night.

It's cold and rainy today. Blah! Good day for rest. Take care all. :h :h

[Doggygirl]

AL Detox Time

Wow - a triathlon???!!! It must be SOOO much better preparing for and doing THAT sober!!

Sounds like a good plan. I think I'm going to follow your lead on the early to bed thing.

On counting - I just kept counting "whatever" until I just naturally stopped. It's different for everyone it seems. I count years now. One of my AA friends has 34 years of sobriety and he can tell you EXACTLY how many days it's been. He gets a calendar every year and that's the last thing he does when he goes to bed at night - marks off another sober day. He's got all those years of calendars. I think that's pretty cool.

DG

[papmom3]

AL Detox Time

Hey Meech-I can't wait to virtually cheer you on in the Triatholon!! I wish they had a web cam or something so we could watch it live!! Anyway, I find it facinating how you train for it, both physically and nutritionally. Don't let the taper time fool you into thinking you need to fill it with AL. Get your plan ready for the rest of the week and make sure you fill the down time with things to do.
Yes, clutter can cause all sorts of problems-depression and anxiety being one of them. It can be vicious cycle. You are putting me to shame. I never got to the shed on my vacation!! It will be done by the end of the summer tho and hopefully my The Freecycle Network friends will be happy beneficiaries of the cast off stuff!!
Have a great nite-It's almost time for bed here.
:l

[Meech]

AL Detox Time

No AL for me leading up to race day

Just checking in before beddy-bize!

The next 4 days before race day will be lots of hydration, carbs and keep my iron levels up too. The hardest day will be Sunday evening when I'm done and thinking I can reward myself with the dreaded "Rat Urine" as I now refer to it! :H I must reward myself with a really nice meal or some kind of treat.

New Idea for Changing the Way My Mind views AL:
I should say 50 times before I go to sleep and again when I wake in the morning; "Budweiser is Rat Urine with bubbles, Budweiser is Rat Urine with bubbles"...

Perhaps I could suggest that in the next "Sleep or Subliminal CD's by Roberta." :H:H


Goodnight!