By this I mean, what is your list of things that you wore on the outside which motivated you to change and give up AL...the physical things like blood shot eyes and bloat. The things on the physical surface of our bodies that were signs of heavy drinking. I felt like I wore my addiction on my sleeve like a Girl Scout badge, minus the pride. That, even though I was a high-functioning alcoholic, people would know I was a heavy drinker, just by the looking at my face.
Here's my list of attributes and how I've seen them improving after being off AL for almost 2 months:
Starting with...BLOODSHOT eyes...every day. The cliche, "eyes are the windows to the soul" is true, because what was going on inside my red, burning eyes was addiction and pain. I wake up now with clear eyes and I don't go through a bottle of Visine a week, using it as a crutch to clear up the ugly red threads in my eyes every morning. After a while, you get immune to Visine and it doesn't do squat anymore, just rolls down your face like tears. I haven't used eye drops since the day I vowed to never drink again because I wake up with refreshed, clear eyes.
Puffy face, due to the state of chronic dehydration I was always in. Now the water I drink goes to hydrating my cells, not wasted on getting AL poison out of my body. My face is back to "normal"...not swollen and puffy.
Dark circles under my eyes from the poor-quality, interrupted sleep I had after a night of heavy drinking (ie: every night). Heavy concealer was just as much a part of my morning routine as Visine and black coffee. Now I'm just down to the black coffee...lol. And no circles under the eyes, because now I get a full nights rest without the 3AM wake up call from overdoing it on AL the night before.
Lack of glow-I'm talking about dull skin, zapped from the vitamins that AL took from my body. Now I retain the nutrients in my food and my daily multi-vitamin so it can be used for good things in my body, not squandered on getting AL out of me.
Dry, brittle hair, another attribute of poor hydration since my kidneys were robbing every drop of water on excreting the AL, there wasn't anything left to hydrate the other parts of me that need water to thrive (hair, skin, nails, lips...well, everything, really!). With the help of some kick ass hair products and giving up AL, my hair has its sheen back. It's growing in stronger and thicker.
Bloated belly-no matter how many sit ups I did the morning after, my belly was always bloated due to excessive wine drinking. I had the "beer belly" of the wine drinking club. I hated that...what was the point of doing sit ups if you are destined to bloat yourself with booze? Now I've got a much flatter (and flattering!) stomach. It's getting better with time and I know that when I go to the effort of doing ab exercises, they will actually DO something!
Broken blood vessels-the ones that appear on my face. If hardcore alcoholics were teenagers, these would be the pimples that pop up out overnight out of nowhere! I noticed them creeping in around my nose and checks. They have subsided now that I've stopped drinking, thank goodness. It's amazing how are bodies bounce back quickly after we stop killing ourselves with drink.
I'd be curious to hear what others, both newbies and senior members alike, have to say about what physical motivators you had and how they have improved without AL.
Here's my list of attributes and how I've seen them improving after being off AL for almost 2 months:
Starting with...BLOODSHOT eyes...every day. The cliche, "eyes are the windows to the soul" is true, because what was going on inside my red, burning eyes was addiction and pain. I wake up now with clear eyes and I don't go through a bottle of Visine a week, using it as a crutch to clear up the ugly red threads in my eyes every morning. After a while, you get immune to Visine and it doesn't do squat anymore, just rolls down your face like tears. I haven't used eye drops since the day I vowed to never drink again because I wake up with refreshed, clear eyes.
Puffy face, due to the state of chronic dehydration I was always in. Now the water I drink goes to hydrating my cells, not wasted on getting AL poison out of my body. My face is back to "normal"...not swollen and puffy.
Dark circles under my eyes from the poor-quality, interrupted sleep I had after a night of heavy drinking (ie: every night). Heavy concealer was just as much a part of my morning routine as Visine and black coffee. Now I'm just down to the black coffee...lol. And no circles under the eyes, because now I get a full nights rest without the 3AM wake up call from overdoing it on AL the night before.
Lack of glow-I'm talking about dull skin, zapped from the vitamins that AL took from my body. Now I retain the nutrients in my food and my daily multi-vitamin so it can be used for good things in my body, not squandered on getting AL out of me.
Dry, brittle hair, another attribute of poor hydration since my kidneys were robbing every drop of water on excreting the AL, there wasn't anything left to hydrate the other parts of me that need water to thrive (hair, skin, nails, lips...well, everything, really!). With the help of some kick ass hair products and giving up AL, my hair has its sheen back. It's growing in stronger and thicker.
Bloated belly-no matter how many sit ups I did the morning after, my belly was always bloated due to excessive wine drinking. I had the "beer belly" of the wine drinking club. I hated that...what was the point of doing sit ups if you are destined to bloat yourself with booze? Now I've got a much flatter (and flattering!) stomach. It's getting better with time and I know that when I go to the effort of doing ab exercises, they will actually DO something!
Broken blood vessels-the ones that appear on my face. If hardcore alcoholics were teenagers, these would be the pimples that pop up out overnight out of nowhere! I noticed them creeping in around my nose and checks. They have subsided now that I've stopped drinking, thank goodness. It's amazing how are bodies bounce back quickly after we stop killing ourselves with drink.
I'd be curious to hear what others, both newbies and senior members alike, have to say about what physical motivators you had and how they have improved without AL.
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