A year later

[drinkingal]

Hi everyone, It was almost a year ago that I posted here that I was going to try modding/harm reduction. My progress has been slow but as I look back I have made some fairly big improvements.

I used to drink 7 days a week, now af sundays are the normal for me.
I used to start drinking as early as 1pm, now I never drink before 5pm and lately I delay it a bit longer to 5.30-6pm with no problems
I used to drink 12-15 drinks a night and wake up with a hangover from hell, now I've tapered down to 5 drinks a night
I used to get so drunk that I would stumble off to bed and pass out, now I don't get that drunk

I'm being completely honest here and I know some people might gasp at how much I still drink and think why am I trying to mod but I like to think I can continue to improve over time and this year I hope to do that.

I have now decided my next goal is to go Sunday, Monday, Tuesday AF, I did it last week, and if I can do it once I can do it again right? (here's hoping!)

[choice]

A year later

Hi drinkingal,
Those do sound like big improvements. I'm glad you came and posted your success with moderation. Best of luck to you getting your goal of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday AF. You can do it!! Take care and I hope you post more often.

[mightymite]

A year later

Welcome drinkingal,
It does sound like you are improving and I hope you continue to do so. If you would like to join us under the Fitness thread we would love to have you. We concentrate on our fitness mostly and are a group of modders. A small group but a friendly one none the less. We support one another in our modding goals and talk about our fitness goals as well. It says Fitness for Feb but we are just continuing the thread under that.

My goals are to be AF M-F and to have 2 glasses of wine Sat and Sunday. My struggle now is to keep those munchies away. I have a weight loss goal that I want to reach. 1.2 lbs to go! I am on this site because of my problems about controlling my drinking at social events. I am doing really well. Haven't had an "incident" since 2 weeks before Christmas. Good luck and hope to see you around.
MM

[drinkingal]

A year later

Thanks for the encouragement choice. Extending my AF sunday to 3 days will be a big change for me and a challenge too, I need to remember your words "you can do it!" when it comes around.

mightymite, it sounds like you are doing great, going af M-F and keeping your drink numbers to a few is huge. I may join y'all in the fitness thread although I don't really have any fitness goals right now.

[Lila]

A year later

hi drinking gal - welcome! hey, you don't need to have fitness goals, you can just be on the fitness thread anyways. I haven't been to the gym in 2 weeks!

[mightymite]

A year later

I want to echo what Lila said drinkingal. You don't have to concentrate on your fitness to join us on the March thread. We support each other with modding as well there. Come on over. It is a bit more active. And that goes for anyone else who may be out there wanting to join us. Hi Lila.
MM

[Trixiebelle]

A year later

drinkingal;1272384 wrote:
I used to drink 7 days a week, now af sundays are the normal for me.
I used to start drinking as early as 1pm, now I never drink before 5pm and lately I delay it a bit longer to 5.30-6pm with no problems
I used to drink 12-15 drinks a night and wake up with a hangover from hell, now I've tapered down to 5 drinks a night
I used to get so drunk that I would stumble off to bed and pass out, now I don't get that drunk

That is an awesome result DG,

You have cut your drinking by over half - you must be so proud of yourself (I would be - I still gloat about when I gave up smoking :H)

Excellent progress :goodjob:

[drinkingal]

A year later

Thanks trixie, it's good to have these things down in writing because it really helps to look back and see your personal progress. I'm doing a bit better than the post above now so things have kept moving forward but I'm so glad I turned this around because I was probably killing myself slowly by drinking that much, not to mention the affect it was having on my day to day life.

[Trixiebelle]

A year later

It's a great idea to be able to look back.

I'm going to follow your lead, by starting to do 2 x AF days per week and keep the drinking down to a manageable level on the other days.

Weekends can be tricky.

Starting this weekend:

*Sunday - AF
*Tuesday - AF

*On the other days I will not start drinking before 5pm (I take my L-Glut and other supps about 4.30pm, so need to give that 30 mins to soak in)

That's a good start.

(BTW, I didn't gasp at what you still drink, I marveled at how you were able to gain control) :goodjob:

[drinkingal]

A year later

HI trixie, I'm so glad to hear you are going to do some af days! delaying my drinking to 5pm was the first thing I did. It really just meant I had to keep telling myself "no, it's not 5pm yet" and now I don't even think about drinking earlier than that, but I usually postpone it to 5.30-6.00pm instead. I didn't stick with my sun, mon, tues goal for very long, because I think I just wasn't ready for it but that's ok because I changed it to sunday and thursday af which I stick with now and it means I only drink 2 or 3 nights in a row before I take an af break and I feel much better than when I was drinking 6 days a week in a row.

Good luck with your goals, I'll be af-ing on sunday with you so you won't be alone!

[Trixiebelle]

A year later

drinkingal;1327315 wrote: HI trixie, I'm so glad to hear you are going to do some af days! delaying my drinking to 5pm was the first thing I did. It really just meant I had to keep telling myself "no, it's not 5pm yet" and now I don't even think about drinking earlier than that, but I usually postpone it to 5.30-6.00pm instead. I didn't stick with my sun, mon, tues goal for very long, because I think I just wasn't ready for it but that's ok because I changed it to sunday and thursday af which I stick with now and it means I only drink 2 or 3 nights in a row before I take an af break and I feel much better than when I was drinking 6 days a week in a row.

Good luck with your goals, I'll be af-ing on sunday with you so you won't be alone!

:thanks: DG, we can celebrate on Sunday with a glass of ice cold water

[drinkingal]

A year later

or, OR we could get really wild and crack open a bottle of the hard stuff, I'm thinking lemonade? :H

[Eve11]

A year later

Drinking Gal,
The main point of the moderation board is to make an attempt at harm reduction and you certainly have done and are doing that. I guess we could look at the standards set out by the National Institute of Alcohol and Addiction and say no you are not drinking in moderation per their rules, but we come to this site to create our own rules. I think a lot of people fail miserably because they emotionally have trouble with the thought that they can never drink again. So, many try to abstain and then relapse horribly. So, for many of us here, we continue to drink, but hopefully less than we did before, with experiences that are less severe than they were before (no drunk dialing and telling people off or waking up wondering what we said or did the night before, etc.). Some people realize after a long time here that modding doesn't work and then they choose to be AF but they do it at a time when they are ready and I think they have a higher success that way. And some choose to continue to moderate and hopefully this site can help keep people in check with their moderation goals and successes. Thanks for your honesty and keep it up!!
:l
Eve11

[FarfallaP]

A year later

Hi Eve11,

I concur with everything you have just said, harm reduction is good in & of itself, and one of the wonderful things about MWO is that it gives us tools to start WHEREVER we happen to be in the journey to living according to our own goals...and our best health! Thanks...F

[drinkingal]

A year later

Hi Eve, oh your post made my day! I hope you hang around and share some of your wisdom. This is what I love about the modders board, no one judges here and the support is always there. :l "So, many try to abstain and then relapse horribly." yep I was one of the ones who failed miserably at giving up al but I just couldn't bear the thought of standing still and doing nothing about my drinking.

I've never really known where my modding will lead, but I'm so glad to not still be back where I was with my drinking. Maybe one day I'll just feel like I've had enough and be done with it and I think you are right that if that day comes it will be much easier to deal with because of modding and what it has taught me.

Hi Farfalla, it's so great to read comments like yours. I love what you said about no matter where you are on the journey, because it is a journey isn't it, and along the way we get to learn more about ourselves and why we do the things we do.