Newbies Nest

[Petrelhead]

Newbies Nest

Rox and Ava, thanks!!!!! But easy on the bricks eh?

Ran tonight for the first time after the 10k on the weekend. Felt great. Something that did stick in my head ( probably those bricks from Ava) from reading when I first joined here in February was that exercise, I think aerobic, was beneficial in the recovery process. As I said, I'll report back anything noteworthy.

Well, bed time here in Oz! Night.

[available]

Newbies Nest

Congratulations Chero on 2 weeks a massive achievement and now your body can start kind of feeling normal. You will never ever regret getting to day 30 and beyond. As hard as stopping al is, the benefits are amazing. You are amazing!

[Lavande]

Newbies Nest

Good morning Nesters,

Rain here & I will be watching my grandsons all day - oh well

Congrats Cherokeer on your 14 AF days!!

MS, I had the same problem with my husband - thought I was reading my diary for a minute :H
Some of them just can't resist trying to 'fix' everything. I find that annoying as it's too similar to 'controlling' everything. I didn't want to be controlled, I'm sure you don't want that either. Stand your ground & stick to your thought out plan - you can do this

Greetings to everyone!
DD, keeping you in my thoughts today!

Wishing everyone a wonderful AF Hump day!

Lav

[Cherokeer]

Newbies Nest

Thanks Available! I never thought I could go without AL for more than a couple of days. I'm setting goals for myself. I got through week one, now week two and my next goal is 30 days. I also want to lose 30lbs. I didn't want to try to do everything at once because I tend to do that and drive myself into the ground. Onward and upward.

[Cherokeer]

Newbies Nest

Thanks Lavender.

[available]

Newbies Nest

Goals are great Chero and i was like you, if i planned too much then id have to drink to get over the plan. Not a workable idea really. Now i set myself no real plans or goals except not to drink. If i do something then great and if i dont then thats great also. I gained 6kgs plus from all the sugar i ate but now that has slowed down and the weight is coming off. You have such a positive attitude and you are accountable on here which equates to success for sure. I know it has for me!

[daisy45]

Newbies Nest

Ava, how is the non-smoking going?

[Mein Sonnenschein]

Newbies Nest

Thanks all for the responses. I'm glad that I'm not alone in this. I really do appreciate my husbands "want" to help fix things, but, this is just not that kind of situation. He did give me one piece of good advice... he suggested that I schedule a certain time everyday to do certain tasks and treat that like a "job". For example, 9-11am each morning for German homework, 11am-12pm for exercise... etc. That way, I have an organized "work" schedule that I must stick to, rather than sitting around feeling worthless and l like I have an entire day to "flit" away. Which... I'm beginning to think is a good idea. I've been trying to keep a to-do list but I keep losing my concentration and blowing it off. And I so easily think I have this huge free day to drink away. I've got to change that bad habit.

Which was difficult this afternoon. I had gotten into such a bad habit of picking up a bottle of wine on my way home from my German lesson, then spending the afternoon drinking. I went out of my way to avoid each and every store that I like to visit downtown, and when I passed gas stations along the road I looked the other way. Geez, it's so, so difficult to ignore the pull. But I did. Not feeling so great at the moment but I know I will feel better about it tomorrow.

I'm off to clean the house... without AL. Definitely not as much fun sober but I'm sure the house will look better when I'm finished.

[Kailey]

Newbies Nest

Cherokeer, great job on 14 days. And Daisy!! I know how long you've been working to get where you are today. 30 days is such a huge milestone! I'm so happy for you!

[Byrdlady]

Newbies Nest

Morning, All!
Thought I would check in this morning BEFORE I started with my work email! I'm sure to be in a better mood! Wish I was married to an IT guy right now, do you girls loan out?? :H

Mind and Chero, I tell you, something just clicked for me at 13 days and I knew this was something I could continue. I'd fallen twice before at 12 days and what a shame....I quit JUST before the magic happened. So proud of you all for pressing thru the tough times.

Mein, if you have a witching hour of depression you may be confusing THAT with AL cravings. Whenever I've had depression, it was never a scheduled thing, I was just drenched in it. As we have all been trying to say in our delicate way...getting rid of AL and the deprivation mode will most likely get that depression in check. You have to give AF a chance, too. It takes TIME. As Pav said, there is a flat spot around 100 days and then again at 6 months, but I'm here to tell you, after that, I FEEL NORMAL and NORMAL feels really good!!! Push those LONGING thoughts out of your head....it just makes it harder. If I told you to NOT think of a blue horse, that's all you can think about. Get up, get out and set yourself on a task. Put yourself into the service of others and you will be amazed! Maybe you can volunteer at a local day care, or something to fill the hours. Idle time is NOT our friend in the early days. I sense that you are in deprivation mode, please try to look at the glass half full side of this....you are otherwise healthy! You are young and you have a chance to beat this thing! There are 1000 other things you CAN do, drinking AL is JUST ONE you must not. Notice I didn't say CAN NOT...because we have all proven that we CAN drink. Think if it like the peanut allergy people, they CAN eat a peanut, but it has a very high cost.....that's US. You've been at this a while, the only thing you haven't tried is an extended period of AF! TRY IT, you will love it! Get on out of those dumps and let's roll. You can do this. Don't let AL win. No matter what.

I was watching the news this morning and Matt Lauer was interviewing the Goldman's and Cato Calin from the OJ Simpson Circus. He asked them, in the 20 years that have passed, what have you learned. Gosh, that is a GREAT question! No matter how much AF time you have, what have YOU learned? I put some thought into this and I can say that in my 1239 days sober and the year prior to that where I tried to moderate and the 20 years prior to that where I tried to control AL I have learned one thing: Alcohol ALWAYS wins. So pose that question to yourselves today, in your journey, what have you learned?

Hope everyone has an easy day today! Great posts overnight, as usual! Byrdie

[freeby40]

Newbies Nest

Hello all. Not much of a poster, but I've been reading and learning from these threads (almost) daily, and just wanted to say "thanks" to all of you for your wonderful words of encouragement and insight.

It's my Day 30 (along with Daisy...yay!) Originally, I was only going to go 30 days AF, then try to moderate... but... it didn't take me long to learn that that was definitely NOT the way to go! So my revised plan is to go 365 days (as recommended by this guy), and as he says, if I feel like my life still sucks after that, I'll start drinking again. It took him 8 months to realize that he'd never drink again - after the alcoholic fog finally lifted and he regained some clarity.

I wonder how long it will take for my "fog" to lift?

[freeby40]

Newbies Nest

"Originally, I was only going to go 30 days AF, then try to moderate... but... it didn't take me long to learn that that was definitely NOT the way to go!"

Just to clarify: I didn't finish 30 days, and then try to moderate, thus learning the hard way that "that was definitely NOT the way to go" - but rather learned by reading various posts on here (during my first week) that moderating simply. does. not. work.

Day 31 tomorrow...

[Byrdlady]

Newbies Nest

Freeby and Daisy,
What a privilege to present your hats today!!
:goodtime: :goodtime:

Wow, we are so proud of you! What a journey, yes? You had to reach WAY down to get er done, but you did it! Sometimes we surprise ourselves! Well done!! Speech!!! B

[Mein Sonnenschein]

Newbies Nest

Byrdie, thank you so much for your post. I don't know why I keep thinking of giving up AL as a negative thing, as if I am missing out on something. I guess I'm just scared to deal with all that the AL covers up. I would like to volunteer somewhere. I thought about offering to be a free dog walker in our village, since I enjoy being around dogs so much. Right now I'm going to get busy in the house and not let my afternoon fog affect me (it's now almost 4pm in Germany).

[Mein Sonnenschein]

Newbies Nest

Freeby, your post and the post from Byrdie is just what I needed this afternoon. Thank you so much for sharing your terrific news! :l