Giving up the booze

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  • Hi all - well done to Gettin'better and Pink Daisy on the GNR - I watched with great interest the other Sunday, what a great event - well done on just the 2 beers aftewards GB - I reckon thats still pretty disaplined. On the booze front I am doing OK - have had the odd blip but pretty much been off it - do feel really well and feel just about ready for Henley Half marathon on the 10th. Have to be honest though - I will be enjoying a well earned pint of cider in our local afterwards and I have to admit I don't wont to give up drink completely I just wont to keep the disapline going after Half so I can enjoy a drink now and again without going completely stupid!!

    Eggy hope you enjoy Whitby - went there with hubby many moons ago, pre. kids - but still remember the fish n chips - best we've ever had! - well hubby away for a week, so its a quiet night in front of telly with kids tonight - ginger ale alround - oh and a Bounty ice creams too - cant be bad!
  • Hi Leg - sounds a pretty healthy attitude to drinking to me - if you can enjoy drinking - by which I mean have a couple and enjoy the being a bit giggly - then that's a good thing if you want to do it. I must admit that I doubt I'll ever be able to keep to a low limit so I am going to plod on with none.

    Yeah - am really looking forwards to Whitby. Cos sis is so close we often go if I'm up that way. Might even get her to take me to the church on the hill - never been but often wanted to have a look at it.

    New world this non drinking lark!

    I bet your getting excited about the half? I would be! I'm gearing up to start training again next week - think I might do less mileage in the week - say max of 4 to 5 miles each run and then go for 8-9 at the weekend.... what do you think of that? What's your pattern been?

    Anyhow enjoy the weekend - and the bounties!!
  • Hi Egg, GB and Leg - thanks for GN congrats. Legs totally recovered but have corking cold/cough/sore throat... think run will be out this weekend.

    Back to runnin next week and still not drinking... dont actually feel like it due to cold tho so not too tough at the moment!

    GB - thanks for info re GNR 05 - have registered but i think next year should be about improving pace and PBs - the GNR is not the place for that!

    Egg - spotted you had entered the Brass Monkey - spurred me on to get my appliction off so I now have a new goal - assuming i get in - will let you know. Used to live in york and dont live too far away now. Enjoy your weekend and whitby is just fab for fish n chips!

    Happy weekend to all
    Helen

  • Hi Egg... not sure what mileage you're doing at the moment, but getting used to a longer weekend run would definately a good thing to aim for. Later on you can add more miles during the week, or build some speed work in (but only one at a time!)

    I've had a knackering first week on my MSc course and the commuting for 1.5+ hours each way is tiring by the end of the week but I guess I'll get used to it.

    Still unable to run - the knee doesn't seem to be improving at all despite doing all the physio exercises and stretches - but have set a turbo thingy up in the garage so that I can blast away on my bike for the odd half hour, and am off swimming with a triathlon club at 9pm this evening, so am keeping busy and battling against the depression I seem to sink into when I stop to think about my running. I think alot of it is that things seemed to have started to come together and I could see a sub-40min 10k and 1:30 half in my sights if I'd carried on training well. Ah well, I s'pose it means that I'll have something to aim for next year now! ;o)

    Have got a party on tomorrow eve, but will try to drive so that I'm up early Sun morning for the next tri swimming session!

    Have a good weekend everyone...
  • Mornin all - I'm on the early shift this week - get a few mins peace first thing!

    Had a great weekend in York, the fish and chips at Whitby were superb... need to do a few runs this week to brun the cals off!

    Went for a run with Sis saturday morning along the river in York, we were out for around 1hr 15... I struggled I must admit, hadnt been for a week. Then did LOADS of walking - into town, round shops back home dobbled around Whitby.... phew I was pooped!

    Anyhow yesterday I get up and OUCH! Have really done something to my foot. Was so angry! Knee was also dodgy as hell so Vanilla I sympathise! We've got this 8 miler cross country at the weekend - my foots not right today - is like pain in the bones.... :(

    I do hate it when you get injuries.

    Pink daisy I'm also feeling coldy today - aarrghh!! Plans will be dashed - is not fair - think I'll go have a kiddy tantrum in a minute!

    I heard that Brass Monkey is already full.. I am praying that we get in. They cashed my cheque so I assume that means I got in. My sis did it last year but wants to do it again to support me.

    So I'm planning a week of running (injuries permitting) and getting self back on track eating wise.

    DRINK WISE - nowt again this weekend. Helped by the fact that sis isnt bothered so we only went in a pub sunday for roast dinner - yum yum! Pints of blackcurrent and soda I was on. Enjoyed it - but it still feels totally alient to me that I am not bothered

    How's everone else?

    HAVE YOU SEEN THE WEATHER??!!!! Not sure I'd be able to run tonight even if I wanted to - is gale's up here
  • Hi all
    Had good weekend aswell. Stayed off the wine and had a good 10K run. It was only a local small village run but managed to come 4th. That's the closest to a trophy I have ever got. Very pleased with the result although keep thinking one more place and I would have got a trophy.

    Oh well back to the training, must do better!
  • Well done on that Nuts - I'd have been smirking with that one! Doesnt matter how small it was 4th is groovy!

    I am gutted today - totally gutted. Had a bad training week last week - cold etc and started back at it on Staurday morning with Sis in york. However, last night big toe area started to swell and now is limp worthy... want to cry. Think (hope!) it's a sprain. Is easing as the day goes on but is very painful. Will have to see if is better by end of day otherwise I think I'll need to pop into A&E see if it's a sprained joint or broke... gutted. Wanted to start half marathon training this week... sniff sniff booooo!!

    On a positive note have started to turn enrgies into looking at food. Have decided that if I can crack binge boozin I can crack binge eating......
  • Sorry to hear about toe probs Egglet. It is so frustrating when injuries come just at the time when you want to get serious with the training.

    I was/am chuffed with the 4th place, mentioned it a lot today, really bored the pants of people at work. Actually the medal they handed out to everyone was enormous, not received anything like it before and was very tempted to wear into pub as a bit of a laugh, but thought better of tempting fate, so stayed true to the cause and stayed off the booze.

    Hope your toe gets better. I've got another 10K this weekend and then a half M two weeks after, so building up the training.

    All the best.
  • Hi egglett, long time no see (used to be melikins)

    I got married and had the party....with booze, but am now going to enter a marathon which will require serious training!

    Have always had the ambition to do it so fingers crossed. I know I will though!!!

    Hope the binge eating is cured.....

    Mel
  • Morning all - I am soooo envious of the half's and full marathons!! I cant wait to do mine in january - must start serious training asap.

    Toe is better!!! Not so sore and swelling gone - still a bit tender though so going to see how I feel later and either risk a small run or wait till Thurs.

    Hi Cookie - marathon - good for you!
    My sis is doing the prague one next year afetr saying she'd never do another!! It's a bug - it get's you!

    Glad the wedding went well... I think that's one occasion where it's hard not to drink.

    Marathon training will kick the need for drink anyhow - I think my half training will help me maintain my non-drinking habbits nicely

    Binge eating is still a problem... am starting to look at it - trying to tackle, but studying why at the moment!

    Anyhow gotta dash - flood at work - peopel going bannana's wet computers!

    Nuts get that medal on!! Bore people silly - I would!

    :)

    Eggy
  • Lunchtime now - busy day here, I wanted a nice calm day! No such luck!

    Thought I'd share this with you. In my bid for keeping off the grog over xmas I text'd one of my oldest pals and suggested that while I am down at home I'd drive us on a night out. We normally dont get out but stay in at hers, she lives in the sticks so taxi's etc too expensive to worry about... anyhow I thought she'd jump at the chance but no she says I must come off the wagon for one night!!

    I dont think I will be doing... am starting to think about what I will be drinking over xmas. Good for me that I have the half marathon booked cos what that means is if I dont drink while at home I can go trotting off for long runs in the country most days.

    Am aiming for the healthiest xmas ever. I keep thinking in my mind that I told myself I couldnt live without drink for so long but have now proved that's a complete loads of tosh.... so with that in mind I am going to turn my efforts to junk food and overeating - I dont need that either do I? I can still enjoy xmas without totally going stupid? I think that's my new challenge...

    Very quiet this week - where are you all? busy bee's like me or drunk and unable to type?! hee heee
  • Egglett,glad to hear you are still off the booze,you are doing really well proud of you.

    if you can get through xmas teatotal you have beaten it.

    as you say use your half marathon as your gideline over xmas,which half are you doing?

    i am doing the Liverpool half on sunday then Helsby half in january.

    when are you out running again.
  • Hi Kippers - good luck for Sunsay - I'm going to see how I feel and if I cant do the run I'd planned am gonna try and do a long road run....

    Am toying with quick run tonight - foot feels better but have still got a cold so might squibb and have one last rest day. I always rush back too soon!!

    I think I will just keep picturing non-drinking over xmas and feel chuffed about it! If I keep training that will be a bonus and something to be pruod of instead of hangovers and overstuffed xmas bellY!!
  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭
    I remember the first time I ran on Christmas Day. What a fab feeling. I had a glow about me all day, instead of breakfasting on chocolate and slumping slack-jawed in front of the telly all day.

    Who needs drink?
  • Greetings all,
    I'm still on the wagon and rumbling along nicely. Did a 10k PB (42.02)in wet and windy weather at Swansea Bay last Sunday, so it is paying off. (Even though the official timings says 42.14!) I feel better in training too. Glad to see your all doing so well. I'm definitely going for a short run Crimbo morning to make me feel less guilty when I eat to much! (It's Christmas after all!!)
    I've got a week away next week return on theSaturday, 1/2 marathon on Sunday, (Tour of Torfaen.) So a good excuse to stay off it all week.
  • AvalafAvalaf ✭✭✭
    I really need to climb on your wagons. I've been reading this thread pretty much every day since it started, just havent had the nerve to post. I have acknowledged to myself that I do have a problem and have to do something about it. I don't have blackouts and fall over and I don't get into fights or anything like that or even get that silly, in fact it's mainly the drinking in the house I want to stop/cut out. I just want to stop the drinking when I'm not out with friends.
    which would cut my drinking down to about 2 nights a month.

    I stopped smoking for new year and used that as an excuse for about 6 months for why I shouldn't stop drinking just yet, the reality being that smoking pretty much repulsed me from 2 months after stopping.

    I've used the "well as my running gets better I'll get the motivation to stop" but knee problems from starting to quickly has put rest to that. I know I'm not going to get my non beer 6 pack if I don't cut it out thats for sure:)

    Why do I think I've got a problem well, in a month you can count on one hand how many knights I don't drink and I wouldn't have to use my thumb.
    I tend to drink 6 bottles of beer and maybe some cider or sometimes its maybe 2-4 litres of cider a night.

    Why am I posting this now, well it's wedensday and so far this week I've had 24 bottles of beer,2 bottles of red wine and 2by 2 ltr bottles of cider and Wed isn't even over. It doesn't really fit in with all the other lifestyle changes I've made and it has too stop.

    I just need some nagging and motivation and if thers something you lot are good at its motivating people.

    That was suprisingly hard to write
  • brave lad
    brave lad


    well done
    first step is admitting theres a problem






    x
  • this is well over the recommended limit set out by the government . with this amount of intake i would recomend that you speak to your doctor for help cutting down/stopping . you said very occasionally you havnt drunk ?what did you feel like on those nights
  • AvalafAvalaf ✭✭✭
    If I don't drink the only side effect is I have problems sleeping but if I don't drink for a couple of nights or maybe 3 in a row that goes away. Other than that I feel fine. I have had a couple of weeks this year when I have done that. I don't think I have a physical addiction that I can't overcome myself but certainly a mental one. Thats why i feel I possibly need the motivation to stop and tbh that motivation is possibly from failing here so publicaly and the general feel good factor i get from reading these forums.

    I've not had a doctor for the last 2 years as I forgot to register when I moved house, but registered last week and did admit the extent of the problem to him. I would like to deal with this myself rather than with professional help if I can. I gave up smoking after 20 years.
  • bloody join the club


    tee hee

    youre ok, you can kick it
  • Avalaf, I know how you feel. I similarly found it very difficult to cut out the ‘home-alone’ drinking. I do like a drink with a meal but couldn’t open a bottle of wine without finishing it, and then there was no reason not to open another and so on. I said to myself so many times to cut down but that wasn’t a definite enough goal, so if I couldn’t cut down it had to be cut it out completely.

    The motivation for me was; 1. the amount of money I was spending; 2. the way I felt the next day and 3 finding this thread knowing I wasn’t alone. A consequential motivation has been the improvement in my race times.

    So set yourself some goals. The occasional drink of twice a month with friends can be excused if you cut out the home drinking.

    Good luck and keep in touch
  • Avalaf - quick responce - will look again and type in full later.

    First of all you should be chuffed that your recognising and wanting to deal with what you see as a problem

    Drinking is so easy to a: hide and b:hide behind!! I've done that for years... for all sorts of reasons. When I started this link it was a pretty hard step - admitting that you think you've got a problem is the hardest bit.

    This links proved supportive and has allowed me to think about why I wanted to stop drinking... for me cutting down wasnt the answer... I feel much better in myself for not drinking at all. Drink robbed me of the real me and now I feel like I am able to start exploring who I am and what my real problems are - and there are some core issues I need to address....

    anyhow what I wanted to say was have a think about what you want to achieve, and then go for it!!

    Drinking at home was always my worst habbit - easy to so, I have a local shop 3 doors up and that was always bad news. When I got fed up you'd find me in there damaging my bank balance!

    When I gave up I was at the lowest point in my life I've ever been at... I dont think I could have got any lower. I had t o change something. Without drink I am slowly starting to wake up and I've got a life to get back! It's been a funny year for me, a culmination of a lot of things that have happened in my life... anyhow slowly I am dealing with things and making changes - drinking being one of them

    I had a problem, I dont drink anymore and you know what - I like it!!

    Go for it - please write whenever and whatever you want - everyone gives a damn on here and is very very supportive... and keep running!! Running's great for letting out demons

    By the way Kippers - I did it! 3 miler last night. Went ok. Foot a tad sore but ok. Tried to squibb... did my best effort of girly sniffles all the way home and "Oh I dont feel well" - but thought "Easter, get your arse out of that door" so I did!
  • Well said Eggy - very wise girl! - just to echo some of Eggys points, Avalaf, although I can't claim to have given up completely I have dramatically cut down.

    The main incentive for me was a half marathon I have coming up but now I feel so much better I really don't wont to go back to the way I was before training. Drinking at home was my main weakness too. You know the thing, hubby at pub - Mrs at home with kids etc... Tesco across the road, pop in for wine box! my weekends were just a complete booze-up from start to finish. Like Nuts - when I opened a bottle at home I would always finish it and more often than not open another. Breaking the routine was the hardest but once you do - going back is actually quite a frightning thought - am sure Eggy can relate to this? - now I have conditioned myself into less booze I would like to be able to drink socially rather than just because its the weekend! - give it a go, the thought of doing it is actually worse that actually trying it. Keep in touch - the support here is great.
  • Totally - I actually feel sick when I think about drinking!! Can you imagine - a couple on months ago I would have laughed at that comment - I also agree that I dont want to go back... not to where I was!
  • I was in a similar boat up until the beginning of this year. I'd always get 4 cans of beer on the way home and a bottle of wine a few times a week too. I can't count how many times I fell asleep on the sofa with the tv on and woke up at 4am.

    I gave up completely for a month every so often just to make sure that I wasn't dependent on the alcohol and frankly it didn't bother me. The kicker this year was that I wanted to lose weight which had bumped be up a couple of stones over the years. I just gave up at the beginning of Jan and barely drank anything for three months. I lost the weight and also the desire to drink every night. Now I can have a drink every so often, but probably average 4 pints a month or less.

    Saved a truckload of money which I've spent on running clothes and running gadgets and have never felt better in my entire life. Good luck!
  • Hi everyone
    I've cut down a lot too and feel a lot better. Have changed my training routine so my "hard training day" is a Saturday to avoid binge drinking on a Friday!
    Feeling positive
    Well done everyone else who has changed their habits! Lets keep it up!
  • I must admit the benefit of being able to train at the weekend is well worth it. I too changed long run to Saturday to help me initially.

    I'm going to shift round this week - scary!! Am going to run tomorrow night, do long gym session saturday morning and then do long run Sunday. I'm crap at sunday runs for some reason but as my half marathon will be a sunday I'd better get used to it!! Also a good incentive not to go back to bad habbits and also to exercise over the weekend when I am less tierd and stressed....

    I'm managing money wise this month - I couldnt afford to drink! I had a 5k loan on my house last year - and guess who's blown at least 3.5 of it on going out and drinking... ok there were a couple of holiday's but the cash has gone on over expensive alcohol treats like (I hate to admit!) £45 bottles of champers for the hell of it... now how big and clever is that??!! Complete madness... I'm aiming to get better at budgetting my money and start saving again.

    It's very much like smoking - when you realise how much you spent on fags it's horrifying... same with drink.

    Am still planning xmas in my head - I want to run every day - even if it's only 1-2 miles!! Just to keep self on right track..

    Regards food - am doing ok this week - still studying behaviour!

    Am turning mind - eating lots of apples this week - immediatly after run, and also nuts.. better than loads of bread and butter or chocolate or crisps from the shop!
  • AvalafAvalaf ✭✭✭
    Thankyou for the responses.
    I'm stopping today, made my mind up about that last night.
    Seeing it in black and yellow, really brought it home and was actually quite upsetting which to my mind backs up my assertion to myself that I have a problem.

    After thinking about what I want to achieve after reading your post this morning. I can't actually come up with a reason to drink other than I have done it every day practically of every year for 15 years+.

    I have a good life with lots and lots of positives, I would be hard pushed to come up with a true negative.

    I am concerned for my health at the level I drink.

    Reasons not too drink.
    Daughter/damage too body/exercise/money I guess/the list could go on/hopeing to get as close to a 3 hour marathon in 2 years time(everyone needs a pipe dream).

    This year I've stopped smoking/started eating healthily/started exercising after a 12 year break/. I've made a lot of life style changes this year, It would be good to take out all the rubbish this year.

    Thanks again. heres to day 1

  • Well done Avalaf and good luck. I'm sure it will change your life.

    I must admit, obviously I knew there would be benefits in giving up, but I didn't realise just how good I would feel in myself. And I think this is a very common theme amongst all who write here. The benefits of saving money, general health etc are all good, but improvement in my 'mental being', if you know what I mean, has been immense.

    I still find it hard some nights when I quiz myself on why not buy a bottle. But I know if I can overcome the craving just for that night I will benefit greatly later.

    One day at a time!
  • Nuts - I totally agree... I still think the hardest part is the pure fact that our society (or should I say those b*****d booze companies who fill our minds with how much pleasure we'll get from not knowing what the hell we've done with most of our evenings since we were 17ish... ooooooh eh - bitter 'n twisted hee hee!) anyhow - our society is made to believe that if you dont drink your weird... I used to think that!

    Most of my mates have been great and supportive, some think I'm now a social lepar... some of andy's mates cannot deal with me not drinking, they just cant handle someone being sober near them. That's their problem

    When you reach a certain point AValaf you know the time is right. That means go for it - deal with it and you see how you feel after a while.

    I still look up the wine isle - now Ijust think "Do I really, really really want that?" Mostly the answer is no.

    On times where I miss the whole idea of it I get out my wine glass and fill it with substitute.. cranberry and blackcurrent does the trick.

    One day at a time is an excellent idea... so is forget what happened yesterday, start again....
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