What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

[aprilmoon]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

I love me. That's great because I have hated me for so long.

[YogaBabe]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

Day 8

I like this thread! It helps to give me the many things to look forward to! As for myself, I begin Day 8, waking up with the awareness that I am sleeping through the night, not having to fumble my way to the bathroom in the middle of the night to go. So, my first thoughts were, wooo, am I going to find that I haven't been resting properly all these years of drinking?
I wish all of us a great day, filled with the promise of a new life vision that isn't dominated by the use of alcohol!
Namaste'

[Seacailin]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

When I am AF, I am employable. I have a job interview today, and one tomorrow.

[DeeBee]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

I have stopped asking myself "who am I?" and started discovering WHO I REALLY AM!

[lilmea]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

I am loving living life. The good and the bad. I love that I am handling stressful situations like "normal people" instead of hiding in a bottle

[Joanna]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

Good things

1. Falling asleep straightaway and not waking up dehydrated at 3am.
2. Waking up after a full night's sleep
3. Saving money
4. Not having sickness and headaches
5. Reminding myself every day I am one day further away from drinking
6. Not having AL dominate the evenings

Honestly, there are parts I still find really really hard. It's almost like a kind of grief but I won't put that here on this post as it must be about things you like!

[Doggygirl]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

Joanna;563166 wrote: 5. Reminding myself every day I am one day further away from drinking

Joanna, I like all of your list but this one stood out to me as it ties in with a mental image I have been keeping in my head lately.

I imagine a line - like a continuum. At one end of the spectrum is the old me - drunk before noon and not able to accomplish much of anything. At the other end of the spectrum is a perfectly happy, healthy and AF me. I am somewhere in the middle between these two extremes right now. I tend to think about what I do (or am considering doing) and how my actions always move me foward or backward on this continuum. I'm always moving either further away from the drunk me toward the happy me, or away from the happy me toward the drunk me. It's dynamic.

By thinking of this ever moving target, I feel like I am more aware of how each little decision every day fits into the bigger picture and my goal of moving every closer to that wonderful happy place. While life will probably never be perfect, I want my decisions and actions to always be moving me in the right direction - not back to the dark place where I came from.

DG

[Joanna]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

HI DG You've been AF a long time (compared to me). Is it temptation, desire to drink you are feeling when you talk about moving towards the old you on the continuum? Obviously it's not actually giving in! I ask cos it ties in with another image Sausage gave about noticing when you have a run of good days ( not noticing you're not drinking) compared to bad
(frantically counting and wanting a drink). Does that make sense?

Up to now I haven't really had a serious urge to relapse. I am still in my first flush of head down, gritting teeth (44 days). I acknowledge there will come a time when I get seriously tempted though. i like the idea of the temptation causing you to move back along the continuum but only a little bit. Even if you were to have a drink, you wouldn't be back to where you were before. That's encouraging. I dreamt about having a drink last night. In the dream I was disappointed that I'd done it . My doctor told me to motivate yourself into not drinking by 'protecting your investment' (i.e number of days you haven't had a drink for). Yours is a different way of looking at it which I like. Thanks:l

[Doggygirl]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

The more my daily activities are different from my old drinking life, the further I am away from serious urges to drink. As the easiest example, right after exercising the last thing on my mind is smoking or drinking. (I quit smoking 2 years ago)

However, this part is incorrect:

Even if you were to have a drink, you wouldn't be back to where you were before.

For me, ONE DRINK and I would be RIGHT BACK TO SQUARE ONE. Been there, done that. Starting on July 11 2007, I did a 60 day AF stretch. Then I fell for the mind trick of "now we're better - now we can have just one..." It took exactly 3 days to be back to my daily, excessive drinking habits. And it took me 8 - 9 months to finally get back on the wagon. I can't drink. I will never kid myself again that I can "manage" one or two drinks. That just doesn't work for me.

When I say I move farther away from drinking - I mean moving away from thinking about drinking all the time, and any real possibilities of making a stupid decision to drink. I LOVE when I've had a stressful day, and realize later that I never even thought of drinking over it - it never occurred to me. I'm starting to have days like that. I don't particularly like the stressful day of course, but when I realize that it didn't occur to me to drink - that is a victory for me and I've moved a step further away from my drunken self with a day like that!

I used to entertain fantasies of being able to drink moderately. I'm glad those are gone because that's all they are - fantasies.

Hope that clarifies my little "continuum!"

DG

[july232007]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

DG,

Starting on July 11 2007, I did a 60 day AF stretch. Then I fell for the mind trick of "now we're better - now we can have just one..." It took exactly 3 days to be back to my daily, excessive drinking habits. And it took me 8 - 9 months to finally get back on the wagon. I can't drink. I will never kid myself again that I can "manage" one or two drinks. That just doesn't work for me.

You are still doing it! Just a fly by to say hello!

July

[last call]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

I just did 28 days, fell and it took me 11 days to come around. I KNOW I can't have any at all.

To get back to the thread:
I like being able to eat dinner with my family
I like having my face look normal again
I like not shaking
I like having an appetite
I like caring what I look like again
I like having more hope and confidence in myself

[peacenik]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

last call...NORMAL FACE!!!

YES!!!

no more puffy red yuckyness!!!!!

[last call]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

You got it Peacnik. As normal as I can get anyway.

[Doggygirl]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

July!!! :yougo::yougo::yougo: It's always so good to see you. What's new??

HERE HERE for the "normal" face. When I look at the "before pictures" and see that bloated, blotchy old face of mine I want to throw up. Great point last call!

DG

[july232007]

What do you love about your AF Life? (Inspired by Cindi)

DG,

Just checking in to see the progress on the monthly abs threads. I enjoy reading the posts. I am continuing to build on the foundation we set down in 2007 July for a 30 day AF challenge.

For me it is around 580 days AF, I think. The point is still the same. Live each day fully and AF.

Keep it going DG and way to keep the troops motivated.

I'll check in again soon.

July