Newbies Nest

[Lavande]

Good Sunday morning Nesters & Happy Father's Day to those celebrating

Tony, I agree with Eloise, distraction works like a charm!
Letting go of 'how I should feel' thoughts helped me a lot. Now I just recognize a thought or mood & distract myself by doing something completely different. Taking a short walk is a great idea. Your emotions will settle down after a while. You're doing great!

Sky, sounds like you are already reaping the benefits of being AF, very nice!
I hope your husband chooses to continue on his plan as well. Life is so much better without AL.

Wishing everyone a wonderful AF day!

Lav

[Matt M.]

Happy Father's day to all the Dads out there! Hug your Dad's neck if you can, what I wouldn't do for just one more day with my old man.
As I'm looking across the room at my three boys today, an overwhelming sense of pride and emotion blanketed me, because it hit me just how grateful I am for my sobriety. If you would have told me 2 years ago that every day I go without that poison in my body, would make me despise Alcohol even more, I would have called you a liar.

Stay Hard my friends

[Byrdlady]

Matt, Happy Fathers Day to you!
I never thought that AL was as big a problem as it actually turned out to be. I thought I could stop if I wanted to, I just didnt want to. Then when I tried my best to stop and realized I couldnt, it was scary. To a normal drinker, the thought of going 30 days without it is no big deal. To me, it seems like The Impossible Dream. That was my FIRST clue. Quitting was HARD because I am an alcoholic. Make no mistake, just because I have been able to quit for 1978 days does not mean Im cured. It is only in remission and it does take effort to stay there! I dont think (or I cant foresee a time) when I have outgrown the need for support. Getting to this point was a real accomplishment and I do not want to get complacent!
Tony, eating really did me a lot of good in a lot of ways. I hope your low mood in the mornings passes. I had a weird jumpy leg thing that went on my first week. It was nuts, like spasms or something, especially when I was trying to sleep. Our bodies are used to burning ethanol, so it's no wonder that we have some real changes/strange feelings as we detox. When I thinknof all the abuse I put my body thru, it just makes me sick.

Tomorrow is my first day at the new job. We have an appointment tomorrow at 2 so it will be a full day of driving. I still havent recovered from my 2 am on Thursday. UGG! Maybe I can get some good sleep tonight.
Hugs to all, keep up the great work! Byrdie

[tonyniceday]

It's gone midnight here in the uk so I'm just into day 7. This time last week I was so so drunk that I could not even begin to count how many drinks I'd had. Now it's day 7 alcohol free...and for the first time I'm really tired already so I'm going to get to bed and see how many hours I sleep tonight!

If anyone had told me this time last week, "next Monday you'll be 7 days AF" I'd probably a) not remember them saying it and b) if I did remember, I'd have told them they were nuts!!!

An alcohol free Sunday as well! that's not happened very often. I have had a few attempts over the last 3 months or so but never one where I wasn't already planning the next session. So thank you to all the Doctor and Psychiatrist; thank you to the meds that have helped me cope; thank you to my wife for standing by me; but also a HUGE thank you to all of you here in this forum for the support and understanding.

Someone said somewhere that only another alcoholic can truly understand what this is like and I believe that whole heartedly.

Sky, thank you especially for being able to bounce things off each other when we both quit on the same day. Hope you've had a fantastic weekend and that your husband is also still on track.

Catch up again later in the day but goodnight, and once again, THANK YOU ALL.

Tony:love:

[Justme Again]

Great going Tony! It is great to read your posts.

I agree. Only alcoholics truly understand alcoholics. Listened to 3 Bubble hour pod casts tonight and they mention each time how important a community is.

Sleep is still an issue over here... But it is still better than waking up with a hangover!

[Lavande]

Wonderful to see the positive posts

I'm sure you are a happy & grateful Dad today Matt!

Tony, I hope your day 7 is perfect, you deserve a prize, Congrats!!

Justme, the decent sleep will come. Keep doing what you're doing, saying NO to AL!

Byrdie, I wish you a wonderful first day on the new job. You'll be fine, just be yourself!!!

Wishing everyone a safe night in the nest!

Lav

[Eloise]

Well done Tony! Distracting yourself is key in the beginning I found. Well, I am still distracting myself to be honest.
I took up horseback riding after 100 years of not riding last year. Talk about a distraction, it became my new raison d'être really. You can't be thinking about planning your next drink when you are with the horses. You have to be entirely in the moment, no day dreaming. This really helped me to relax.

I have to make a follow up on my 'evils of housecleaning' tirade. I came up with a new plan this week-end. I tried to clean on Saturday and made a pretty big mess of the apartment. Then i got up Sunday morning and vacuumed again and washed the floors a 2nd time and now it is actually clean in here. What a miracle. See, you can figure anything out really if you don't flip out in the middle of it.

:beast:

[Byrdlady]

Good Morning, Nesters!
Tony and Justme, 7 days is just incredible. I may be stealing Eloise's thunder, she is Prize Patrol for folks up to 30 days
I KNOW what you mean when you say 'If you'd told me a week ago....'. Heck, if you'd told me 6 years ago I'd be extolling the joys of being AF on an Alkie site I would have redirected you to the Looney Bin. AL was a BIG part of my life and my day. Funny how things change.
It is scary to think that we will never ______ again, but when you take it in small bites it is much more do-able.
I'm starting my brand new job today after 28 years with the old one. Interestingly, my first day on that job was in Greensboro also! I'm meeting my new boss for a meeting at 2 so I will leave shortly and make my way over there, it's a little over 4 hours from here.

Ok, my new boss just texted me, he is in Greensboro for his son's soccer tournament and has his wife and two other children along. His youngest daughter was up all night sick so they are going to drive back to Pittsburgh so I am on my own for this meeting! This is my FIRST DAY! Jeez O Pete's! I hope I know more than I think!! Wish me luck! Byrdie

[Lavande]

Good Monday morning Nesters!

Good luck today & travel safely Byrdie!

Congrats to our 7 AF day achievers InTheSky & Tony :welldone:
Life just keeps getting better & better so keep moving forward!

Eloise, come help me clean my house, ha ha!!

Have a great AF day everyone!

Lav

[Eloise]

Haha Lav... it would be more like 'come help me wreck my house!'
That I am pretty good at.
Let me give you an example: we rented a carpet cleaner and 'somehow' some piece of furniture had metal on the feet. I cleaned cleaned cleaned (oh my word!) and never touched the innocent looking piece of furniture. The metal on the legs turned to rust overnight, so when I finally moved it (days later) we have rust stains on the otherwise perfectly clean carpet.
Beige carpet I might add. In the middle of the entrance, hard to miss.
I tried everything to get it out, and it does improve, but with time the stains darken. Lovely. All I can think of now is to cut out the little rust marks?

[Inthesky]

Good Morning everyone,
Day 7 wow we made it Tony! First dreams last night they were so vivid and real. Now I know what you all were talking about. As with you also Tony my stomach isn't in its happy place so I did what was suggested and picked up some Greek yogurt and some probiotics hopefully repair some of the enzyme damage. But mostly I have been keeping myself busy and outta trouble. I think the saying goes "Idle hands are the devils playground" that totally holds true to me.
I was at a BBQ yesterday afternoon to evening. I was kinda dreading it but it was fun and I didn't need a drink. I did have a root beer lol and a slushy banana and milk drink my host was trying to make me a virgin monkeys lunch. It felt good to be helpful and to be in control.

As for hubby he isn't ready to do sober socializing, he came later than me and was handed a cider as soon as he arrived. But to his credit he only had 2 then we came home where there is no AL. (He used to drink a 26oz vodka a day) as of 4 days ago sooo that is still a big improvement.

If anyone would like to come clean my house .... I make a mean ICE TEA and would welcome you with open arms lol

Today I'm greatful for another day AF and to all of you for your insights and companionship on this new adventure.

Inthesky

[tonyniceday]

Hey Sky - YES WE DID!
Eloise mentioned the greek yoghurt thing the other day and I've tried it and (always a bit sceptical about these things) it works!!!!! I swore to myself a few days ago that when someone suggested something to help that I would try it because I figure I've put that much crap down my throat over the last 22 years in the form of alcohol, that trying pretty much anything once can hardly do any harm!

I got a full 7 hours sleep last night which is a positive first, unfortunately the dream was like a 7 hour drinking session - but hey it didn't happen in real life.

Off to work now - check back in later.

Well done Sky, proud of you

Tony

[KENSHO]

Back in the swing here after an amazing vacation. I did drink on this trip, after nearly 6 months without. To be honest, I felt relaxed and loosened up - but the reasons for drinking here would be very different. I'm not a daily drinker and will never again turn to drinking to solve life's issues. I learned more about myself in the past 6 months than in 10 years, so today is day 1. I am not afraid of being AF, I look forward to it. Now, to learn ways to "loosen up" more without alcohol. I wish there were lessons on this.

Birdie, congrats on the new job and for diving in head first - they really are tossing you in the deep end (only because they must know you can handle it).

Eloise, I love your description of horse back riding - being in the moment and appreciating that.

[Eloise]

Glad the Greek yogurt helps Tony. You can jazz it up with fruit, cinnamon, a dash of honey? I eat it before bed as it keeps me feeling full until the morning & I sleep better.

[tonyniceday]

Eloise... My additive to the greek yoghurt is demerara sugar but don't expect you'd want that with the SF status! We got some today with a strawberry compote corner that you add in or dip into. I'll have one of those before bed to see what that does for me!

I'm going to add one more thing to the plan that I put on the roll call... I've been 22 years drinking every day until March this year with the only exceptions being 2 separate (and non alcohol related) stays of 1 week each in hospital (I've read the "where did you hide it?" thread and don't think "in the bed pan" would have gone down to well!!!

So I had one period of 2 weeks in March/April when I didn't drink but my head was in a different place to now so the final item on the current plan will be to hit 15 days. Once again it's now after midnight here in the UK so it's officially day 8 so I'm just over half way to that interim target!

Sky...I don't know about you, but I've been really impressed and grateful at the way people have responded to posts on here but I notice that NO-ONE has responded to your offer for them to come and clean your house... Guess you can't win them all!

Goodnight one and all

Tony