Anyone in the First Week of Their Unpteenth Quit?

[briseus]

Lizann, I definitely understand..home alone and anxiety for me is dangerous as well. You must persevere as difficult as it may seem.
I am having a bit of a hard time this AM too...first time my partner has gone to work on a weekend in a while...and there is a beer store across the street. My anxiety and OCD is coming back around...and I have wicked stomach pains (the booze always made the pains go away funnily enough)...
BUT...WE CANNOT drink...
I wish I had a pool. I love being near/in water...very soothing and calms me instantly.

Daisy I get it...and my weight is also what oftentimes led me to slips...because I thought to myself "well, I am not losing any weight after cutting all this crap out so what gives??"...but I know that our bodies are trying to adjust...after having all those excess calories...and then now how many thousands have disappeared??
I mean...I used to drink a litre of wine (probably around 800-1000 calories) a night...or 6 tall cans of beer...which would be around 1000 calories as well...and then during this time I would eat like CRAP...HUGE HUGE HUGE bowls of pasta (did you know ONE serving of pasta is the size of a tennis ball?? WHAT?!! I probably had a tennis court sized amount of pasta when I was drinking...LOL.
So...between huge portions and booze...my bodies probably like, WTF!?! And holding on to everything so I understand it might take time but it is still infuriating when that scale doesn't BUDGE!!! > Grrrr....

ADDY - I am totally down for being gym buddies!
I dislike sweets...so I don't have that problem...well, usually...the first week or so of sobriety I crave weird things (well, weird to me!) like chocolate bars and cherry blasters or fuzzy peaches. Lol. Or even pop...and I never drink pop.
Out of 13 days I've gone to the gym 9 times...not too bad...maybe I should aim for 10...but will see how I feel later.
What do you do at the gym Addy?? Cardio? Weights? Classes?

[NoSugar]

This is a legit and very informative website: http://www.dietdoctor.com/how-to-lose-weight

If you sign up for the subscriber's free trial, there are some excellent interviews and presentations. One of the best is aimed at kids and clearly explains why calories in/calories out doesn't work for weight loss. Or look up Dr. Jason Fung's series on the aetiology of obesity on YouTube.

[Lizann]

Daisy,

I thought the weight would drop the minute I gave up the sugary alcohol but am finding my sweet tooth has increased so am now eating more desserts! My drink of choice was wine so it feels like I'm substituting one sugar for another and have actually gained a little bit. Not happy either. NS come around and give us some advice. I have also been enjoying a near beer or a glass of tart cranberry juice at night so I'm sure that's adding to the calories count as well. I'm off to the gym today too. Maybe we can be gym buddies Bri! :-)

Addy

Makes sense that you would crave sugar. When the body breaks down al in the liver it is sugar. Sadly my daughter shared with me that 70% of out weight is diet and only 30% is exercise. Ugh!

[blue1]

Thanks Bri....I got two more from my sister yesterday....I just want to get some different pencils or pens...

[NoSugar]

Sadly my daughter shared with me that 70% of out weight is diet and only 30% is exercise. Ugh!

yeah, the catch-phrase is "you can't outrun a bad diet". Did you see all the media stories last week when it came out in the NYT that Coca Cola was funding researchers who were willing to say "it is ok to eat (drink!) whatever you want as long as you move more"? Everyone is back-peddling quickly now!

This is a clear explanation of why exercise is great - just not for weight loss:

http://youtu.be/x7FK8noIc5I

[briseus]

I definitely know all about the "you can't outrun a bad diet"...
And it's 100% true that it's 70% diet, 30% exercise...actually, I would go as far as saying that it's more...
I am studying holistic nutrition and natural medicine right now...and I can't believe all the crap that we are being fed (haha, pun intended) through the media..
Sure, you can eat McDonald's everyday, exercise and STILL lose weight if you watch what you're doing...but your body is starving from not receiving all the proper nutrients that it needs to function optimally.

I *REALLY* want to train super hard and get crazy fit...so this is my goal right now (and finish school)...so am going to look into supps like BCAA's and whatnot...going to buy a craptun of tupperware and prep my meals this afternoon...and kick ass in the gym.
Although I just ate a cookie...
Don't know where the heck that came from, but it had to be done. LOL.

When I quit for 8 months last year, I lost 50lbs.
Then I began drinking again and I gained 30...
I lost about 7lbs the last two weeks...will keep at it. Maybe I'll start a thread so that we can all hold one another accountable...as well as motivate each other too.

[ToMyHealth]

I agree Bri, more like 80% diet, 20% exercise. I just feel better though if I move. Today may only be 9 holes of golf. Back to your thread idea.....think you would have lots of interest. I would sure join you!

TMH

[briseus]

Thanks TMH! That settles that then! Going to go and ponder up a title and create it up.
Have fun golfing! I might go into my dinky gym where I live...try running (I can't run for the life of me). I'll try and move somehow today. :P

[All done drinking]

Well, you can tell by my name what I think the first step is, Addy :wink:. For me, the drive to consume alcohol and 'sugary carbs' are tightly linked. Eating real, unprocessed food and avoiding bread, pasta, etc. (the obvious things which are themselves highly processed) makes the difference. I eat a lowish carb, modest protein, highish (good) fat diet (how is that for vague??). This is an interesting blog post on the subject (although the writer consumes AL periodically and I personally have no interest in that experiment - why drink poison?).

Hi NS,

We got into ridding our diets of as much processed as possible about 4 years ago after reading a book called "The Science of Skinny". The author was a chemist working in a lab with dirty water and realized she cleaned that dirty water with an ingredient she saw in her Angel food box mix one day. She was 100 pounds overweight at the time. So, this led her to making a change in her diet and it all changed from there. Hubby and I have actually gone to one of her cooking classes (lives locally) and shop at Sprouts which has a lot of organic and better quality food. I am finding that eating out isn't quite as appealing to me when there is no wine involved as I think a lot of my suggestions to eat out were based on wanting a drink more than wanting to eat...sadly! It has been more fun to stay home and cook organically.

Bri,

Hubby works out much more than I do but I try to go 3x a week and I do cardio and some weights as we lose muscle when we age and no longer the 28 year old that I am in my head. LOL!

TMH,

My dear old friend. I just read your thread and I LOVE the idea of you starting your own thread for healthy eating. I will definitely visit there. I think what I have personally realized with wanting to quit and making things work (because relapse is so high for folks) that one really has to WORK the program to be successful. One book I read stated that to sustain recovery, new behaviors and reinforcing experiences must become a way of living in the world. -Carlo DiClemente: Addiction and Change:[I] How Addictions Develop and Addicted People Recover. I have been coming here every day to read about other's experiences. It seems that whenever someone quits and then thinks they can have that occasional drink or maybe fit one or two in weekly after they've abstained for a while, they are back to where they were and often times worse. I was the person who said I would moderate a thousand times, I want to be different and say I quit only once. Focusing on other things will definitely help. And why not trade poison for healthier eating, a better body, etc.

Bri, very proud of you for going back to school! I did that a few years ago but never put that particular degree into practice. I can teach with a Masters though so keep thinking maybe a community college needs me for a class one day. I would love to learn through you regarding healthier eating so very up for brainstorming and following a new thread re that. I think NS had one years ago on exercise and diet but it must have died out. Rather than try to revive it, it would probably be more successful with followers to post a new one as lots of people here come and go so folks would be drawn to names of people posting that we know. I for one will definitely support it.

abcowboy and I started a thread entitled "Dedicated to the quit you love". We discuss a topic every week and it's always geared toward keeping strong in our recovery. Lots of threads to peruse here but that one is totally focused on trying to be successful in our commitment to quit so please join us (everyone please join us) over there whenever you have a chance. We post a new topic every Monday and are always welcome to comments on any topic we've discussed to share good information with each other. I also post on The Newbie Nest Roll Call. Like the old days of the drinktracker, you post each day that you are AF. I find it makes me so accountable and I want to keep adding days and not start at 1 again. Although people do relapse and everyone learns through it, relapse can be hard for folks and I'd like to do everything in my power to prevent it.

Hi to everyone else here that I haven't addressed. The same author listed above stated: "Recovery does not become a permanent state without continued efforts by an individual. The challenge of human behavior change is to make change permanent." Here's to making that change last!

Addy (All Done Drinking...Yes!) :love:

[NoSugar]

I *REALLY* want to train super hard and get crazy fit...so this is my goal right now (and finish school)...so am going to look into supps like BCAA's and whatnot...going to buy a craptun of tupperware and prep my meals this afternoon...and kick ass in the gym.

You sound really motivated, Bri. One of my mistakes was linking goals together so failure at one gave me an excuse to give up on all of them. I hope you can keep your AF goal separate.

Like you, my post-graduate education is in nutrition so your idea of adding BCAAs kind of raised a red flag. Many drinkers are insulin-resistant, thanks to the effects of alcohol on the liver. The last thing they need is to increase their blood insulin levels further, which is what BCAAs (and their sources such as dairy foods, whey protein isolate, etc.) do. If a person is in great shape, insulin-sensitive, and building muscle, the anabolic effects of insulin can be desirable but in most people, insulin drives fat gain rather than muscle gain. That is one reason why some people have to reduce dairy foods even on a low carb diet to lose weight. I am pretty sure my insulin issues stem from the years of drinking b/c no one else in my biological family has a problem and none of them drink. That is definitely one of my regrets but the only thing I can do is deal with the consequences now and be glad I have the chance.

Good luck with your health and fitness program!

[NoSugar]

Addy, I agree with you on cooking at home - so much better and more of what you like. I've not heard of that book. How great it got you going in the right direction!

[briseus]

NS, I feel like I could go back to drinking if I burnt toast and got pissed off enough at it - so am really working on my sobriety as a whole. And continue working on my own steps and recovery so that it would never happen. Everything else are small lifestyle changes to support my sobriety. So maybe it is linking them together. But then if I were to think that way then I would put things like eating healthier, or going on daily walks as linking them together too. Does that make sense?
I don't necessarily think that if I were to "fail" at one that I would say "to heck with it all".
I hope that makes sense. Lol. I guess it is different for everyone.
Fitness helped me with my sobriety last year. Incredibly so. But it wasn't what lead me back to drinking. Or any other goals that I might not have followed through on.

Thankfully I am not insulin resistant and have no underlying health issues (other then anxiety!!) so have been given the green light to kick ass in the gym however I like.
I really want to get fit and healthy and am totally motivated to do so! Especially now that I quit drinking.
I know that if I continued the boozing I probably would be on the couch eating bowls of pasta and chocolate and packing on those pounds.
But with sobriety it gives me a whole new fresh perspective.
So definitely will keep that fire within stoked and bright!

I hope everyone is doing well today. I came back from a nice long walk with the pups and SO. Now off to do some bubble bathing and reading.

Thanks for the words NS! I will definitely be mindful of the goings on and make sure not to veer off the path.

[NoSugar]

Wow, all I can say is you sound great, Bri, and you know what to look out for and be careful about. Keep on doing what you are now and I bet everything will be fine.

[briseus]

Thanks NS! I definitely am trying to be more aware this time around but I definitely am no expert...and definitely do not want to slip this time...I really want to be and stay sober...I know it's hard...hard like hell. I know I can't become complacent and I know that I have to watch for this little pitfalls...and large and even little things that happen in life that won't lead me back down that dark path.
The last few weeks of drinking before I got sober were very dark..I know that it only made my anxiety/ocd worse...
I know I have my work cut out for me...but I also really want to make a difference...especially since I've wasted so much time before...and been totally sticking close to here. Which has helped immensely.

[open halo]

Anyone want to run the Spartan sprint race in Phoenix Arizona this Feb???