AF Daily Saturday 22nd November

[retteacher]

AF Daily Saturday 22nd November

Hi Everyone: I just got back from a volunteer stint at my g-son's school. I enjoyed the tough love vs. soft love discussion. There isn't anyone who can be tougher on me than myself. I hold myself to a very high standard. For me, the success of WIP & Doggy Girl (& others who have achieved multiple AF days) are such a huge incentive to keep working. I will never give up on my "abs for life" goal. That said, I might need a little of both:
-I need someone to ask why I slipped & what I'm going to do about it in the future. (tough)
-I also need someone who will say "get up & start over." (softer)

I am NOT going to slip, lapse, or relapse. I'm totally committed to being abs from here on into the future. I just hope that nothing I've said or done has given anyone w/long-term success a reason to leave this thread. I count it tremendously.

Please have a wonderful day today. I'll try to check back later. We're going to lunch w/my dog-walking friend (non-drinker) who invited my puppy Buddy as well. After lunch a brisk hike.

Mary

[Janice]

AF Daily Saturday 22nd November

Janet, welcome back, I've often thought about you................and good for you - and well done - on your 70 days AF!! love Janicexxx

[Determinator]

AF Daily Saturday 22nd November

Top of the Weekend ABerooooos!

DG huge congrats on your half year! that's fantabulous dear.

Vinophobe LOL great to see you back Janet and thank you for sharing those experiences that have most recently helped you.

thankfully my jiu jitsu class is at 11am on saturdays so I can usually talk myself into going so long as I'm not travelling for work. so I'm off to get ready!

has anyone seen the movie 'sideways'? about a wine enthusiast and his increasingly depressing adventure in wine country.

be well friends,

[Doggygirl]

AF Daily Saturday 22nd November

Hello again! It's great to see so much action here especially on the weekend!

WIP - on your recipe. I'm no master chef and am just a beginner at recipe conversions myself. Instead of any type of real sugar OR Splenda, I currently try to use a combination of Stevia and Erythritol (a sugar alcohol - but without the side effects of Malitol or Xylitol). When a recipe calls for brown sugar, adding a small amount (very small amount) of blackstrap mollasses (sp) seems to work. The challenge is that there really is not a good ratio of these things that works the same way in every recipe. Erythritol only has about 70% of the sweetness of sugar, so generally speaking if a recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar, I will start with 1 cup of Erythritol (granular) and enough Stevia to equal a 1/4 or so of sweetness - this varies by the type of Stevia you have so very important to consider the sweetness equivalent and not just go by a specific measurement unless you know exactly what type of Stevia is being talked about. For a 1 cup sugar measure I might start with 1/2 teaspoon of black strap if I'm doing a brown sugar conversion.

Then there are issues with bitter in chocolate recipes, crystallization in dryer recipes like cookies v. something like cheesecake, etc. etc. I will NOT get bored experimenting that is for sure!! Hope something in there somewhere is helpful to you.

Another thing you might consider is something like Whey Low Gold as a straight up replacement for brown sugar. I think the GI index is much higher than the fine folks at Whey Low would have us believe, but I do think it's better than sugar. IMO it tastes good (no artificial sweetener type after taste).

Speedster, I got distracted and I don't think I thanked you for the agility updates over the last few days!! Congratulations on your progress. I always wondered about those weave poles - that must take some AMAZING patience to train. Best wishes to you on your upcoming event! Thanks for sharing the story about the border collie. Those dogs are typically SO high energy that they can easily get in LOTS of trouble if they don't have something to not only burn energy, but to keep their minds busy. German Shepherds are like that too - they get in trouble if left to their own devices. I'm interested in hearing any good tips from the organic gardening seminar! (I'm jealous!)

Tom 3.0 - I was LOL when I read your description of upgraded operating system the other day!! I think I forgot to mention that as well. And I LOVE you "better" list from your post today. I think lots of us spent a LOOOONNNNGGGGG time fighting AL in other places before we started fighting AL here at MWO. You are doing great!!

O2M it's good to see you here!

LVT I with Days of Wine and Roses was available as an Instant Play movie on netflix. Once I get the Shepherd's pie put together (low carbed of course) I'm wantint to watch a movie!

VINOPHILE/VINOPHOBE!!! (LOL on your new name! Perfect!) CONGRATULATIONS ON 70 SOBER DAYS!!!! I'm so glad you stopped by to share your experience. I think it's important that we all keep an open mind about the many programs and methods out there to get sober. I don't think there is one that is perfect for everyone. We can't be afraid to try new things, or combinations of things to find what works for us.

Mary I think of you a lot because I KNOW you are serious about stopping the madness. Is there anything new you are adding lately? I have no idea if this is an issue or not (it would be for me which is why I'm going to mention it...) It seems like you entertain a lot where booze is served. I know you don't keep AL in your home and the booze only comes in for the event and then goes. But is that somehow problematic in a way? Just trying to come up with ideas. I know for sure that I could successfully host parties and serve AL, and not drink myself, at least to some degree. But I'm wondering if I would harbor a sort of jealousy or resentment about those who "can" drink when I "can't" especially when I'm doing all the dang work to host the party!!! Just something to think about that may have zero relevance in your situation. All I can say is that I'm glad I don't have to be hostess and serve AL to others on any sort of regular basis!! (which includes dog training which is hosted somewhere else now, thank goodness!)

Deter - have fun at your class!! Thanks for the movie suggestion - I've put that one in my Netflix queue too!

OK - off to get dinner put togethr so all I have to do later is stick it in the oven. The figure skating attire was eye popping as usual today!

DG

[SAUSAGE]

AF Daily Saturday 22nd November

Hi again everyone

Since I started off this thread this morning there's been lots of responses - I do like the Af daily thread - as someone said earlier, it really looks at the whole picture of developing and improving your life without alcohol in many other ways and I feel this "wider picture " is essential to achieve happy and succesful sobriety.

DG and WIP - you have much to be proud of today - have left you comments on your own threads

Tom - I too love your list - will make a note of this to go in my "tool box" which is full of quotes and lists and things, for when I feel weak.

Janice - I too love the menu - hope it all goes well

Janet / Vinophile - we've not met before, but I was really interested to read your post and many many congratulations on your 70 days. Pleased to hear that AA is working well for you. I am very interested in AA but it is difficult to get to a meeting at the moment with my young children. Your approach "take what I need and leave the rest" is very much how I view MWO ( we were debating the other night how we find the site / people's responses). This thread, for me is a good one to come to.

Apologies to everyone else, whom I've failed to mention individually, your input and support and comments really help and re-inforce that i'm not alone in fighting this

Have a great AF day - and weekend everyone

[Miss Behaving]

AF Daily Saturday 22nd November

Congrats to you WIP, DG, and Janet!!

This is another flying visit - I have to deliver a paper to a conference on Tuesday and I'm only just writing it! And another thing next Monday that I'm ill-prepared for ....... but then 90% of my work for the year is finished, so I'm just telling myself that I've only got one more week of long days, and then I can relax and focus on things like filing the big pile of papers that occupies one corner of the office, and planning our holiday!

Have been interested in the "mind, body, spirit" - I totally agree with the need to tackle all fronts at once, but it does take a lot of energy to get into and stay in the groove. I'm about half way there on the food and exercise thing, but have spent a lot of time divesting myself of various responsibilities and extraneous pieces of work so that in 2009 I will have more time to devote to me and my health/recovery. Me and Uncle Mame have also been working on a plan for the whole year which involves really scaling back on a whole lot of "consumption" activities (not hard as we have no money!!!) and doing lots more to be self-sustaining around food and transport (ie; getting rid of the car entirely). Also scaling back on chocolate ....... which seems to have replaced wine in our house as the drug of choice:H:H

I just bought some quinoa yesterday for the first time and have just cooked some up for a greek salad. I'm not sure whether I've got the consistency right, so I'm about to head over to the recipes thread where I know there is one that will hopefully give me some clues!!

Probably wont be round much this week - away for conference for next three days, then off at the end of the week for a family occasion - which I'm not looking forward to very much but which at least will get me out of feeling obligated to do the Xmas thing!!