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Dry November

Fitness tips, Relaxation, Mind and Body
bungeejumper
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Dry November

#176535

Postby bungeejumper » October 27th, 2018, 10:18 am

I have a guilty secret which I haven't even told the wife about yet. So stumm, eh? :lol:

For the last two weeks, I've been surreptitiously off the sauce, swapping my usual two evening glasses of red for Eisberg zero alcohol Sauvignon that looks exactly similar. Plus the occasional can of Bavaria 0% beer, which is better than its reputation. (Thanks, Snorvey.) I'm a bit late for Sober October now, but I reckon I'll run it now till mid-November and then we'll see about whether I extend the abstinent month any further, or whether I switch to weekends-only, as some other Fools have done.

Why haven't I declared all this to the wife yet? Whereas the usual advice is to tell everybody so that they can collectively hold you to your commitment and cheer your achievement? I'm not really sure. I don't think I have a problem with alcohol (I drink 22-24 units a week), but I had definitely fallen into the "7 pm is wine o'clock" habit, seven days a week, and I could see that that wasn't a great way to be. I suppose I was also a tiny bit worried about it?

Maybe I thought it would be difficult after 30 years of dropping into the habit? If I did, I was wrong, it's been a doddle. I survived my first pub situation yesterday (drinking lemonade and lime in pints). A piece of p1ss compared with packing up the ciggies forty years ago. That time round, the first two weeks were the worst. This time around, just having a glass of something (anything) in my hand has been enough to keep the habit happy. So that seems to be the baseline established - I don't have a physical dependency.

I haven't lost any weight yet, or not more than a couple of pounds, anyway, but who knows? I'm not sleeping better, or worse, but slightly longer in the mornings, which is the opposite of what most people say I should expect. Not feeling any more or less energetic. Nothing! Weird. Will check the blood pressure (which is normally 130, so not terrible anyway).

And then I'll come out to the wife (who doesn't ever drink at all). Yes, darling, I've been deceiving you these last few weeks. Can you ever forgive me?

BJ

dionaeamuscipula
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Re: Dry November

#176909

Postby dionaeamuscipula » October 29th, 2018, 2:45 pm

bungeejumper wrote:I have a guilty secret which I haven't even told the wife about yet. So stumm, eh? :lol:

For the last two weeks, I've been surreptitiously off the sauce,


I gave up the grog for four months once, in the 1980s. I found the hardest thing about it to be the peer pressure, not least because everyone moaned that my in-pub soft drinks cost more than beer. So I can entirely understand the secrecy. These days we take February and November off and have done for several years, as well as having Monday, Tuesday and Thursday off. Although we kinda make up for it on the other days. :oops: I tend to tell everyone at work, MrsDM tends not to tell her pals; I just find it easier.

As to your unsuspecting wife, I rather suspect she may not be *quite* so unsuspecting, but I do find it slightly hard to understand why you would keep back the fact you were not drinking from someone who is not drinking.

As I have said before on TLF I do think that our children's children might gasp with horror at how much we drink.

Meanwhile I am on day 29 of a month worth of giving up on chocolate, cakes, and biscuits, which has been easier than I expected. I am *much* better at stopping things than I am at cutting down.

DM

bungeejumper
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Re: Dry November

#176917

Postby bungeejumper » October 29th, 2018, 3:22 pm

dionaeamuscipula wrote:Meanwhile I am on day 29 of a month worth of giving up on chocolate, cakes, and biscuits, which has been easier than I expected. I am *much* better at stopping things than I am at cutting down.

Aaah, there at least I have no worries. I don't have a sweet tooth at all, so I eat cakes and biscuits, jam or marmalade strictly under social sufferance - it wouldn't bother me at all if they'd never been invented. (Refusing people's lovingly home baked goodies isn't really allowed, worse luck.) As for chocolate, it always makes me feel heavy and very slow, so I'll do anything I can to surreptitiously get rid of it without having to eat the stuff. I'd be looking for a dog under the table to slip it to, if it weren't for the fact that it wouldn't do the dog any good either. What strange creatures we are.

As for the booze/abstinence thing, I suspect that there's a little bit of me that won't really believe it either until I'm a few weeks in. It's become such an ingrained habit to fill a glass in the evenings that perhaps I'm waiting for some negative reality or other to sink in. So far no sign of that, though. This is going okay.

BJ

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Dry November

#176921

Postby AleisterCrowley » October 29th, 2018, 3:55 pm

I'm a bit odd (no, really?)- I only drink Fridays and Saturdays and never in the day, but probably bust my allowance over those two nights!
If I have a reason I can give up easily - if I'm under a lot of stress and have something big to deal with I go the opposite way to some people and go totally teetotal. Most recently, dealing with my eviction /move I stopped for three weeks. I'm always glad to start again though :-)
I've never been able to have 'a' pint then stop, it's torment. I either happily have nothing, or have a proper session... probably means I'm a raving alcoholic.

didds
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Re: Dry November

#177037

Postby didds » October 30th, 2018, 8:26 am

Beer is sometimes termed liquid bread.

I love beer.

I love bread.

I find it far easier to not drink beer 3-4 days a week than not eat bread.


didds

feder1
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Re: Dry November

#177913

Postby feder1 » November 3rd, 2018, 7:17 am

Well I think you are marvellous as Brucie would say.

We left alcohol behind nearly 3 years and bread before that.

Alcohol is a poison and white bread is wallpaper paste. Sugar too is not helpful to the body.

There comes a time when you have to consider your health into the future - even if the realisation is a bit late.

bungeejumper
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Re: Dry November

#180234

Postby bungeejumper » November 14th, 2018, 1:11 pm

Well, I'm four weeks in and still sticking to the noble cause, and I haven't wavered too often. Although the fact that I've wavered at all is also useful information. ;) Mostly when I'm bored. Message to self: stay busy!

Sleeping better (and longer), a more comfortable gut, but very little weight loss. (A few pounds. Still, they all count I suppose?) It might be because I've got a bit of a cold at the moment, and that always puts three or four pounds onto me, after which it will melt away when the cold lifts. But who knows? We'll see.

Oddly enough, my driving has improved! Not because I used to drive under the influence (I didn't), but presumably because of the better sleep. I'm feeling more focused and generally more 'on it'. That's another plus, definitely.

I still want the placebo soft drink in my hand in the evenings, though. At present I'm relying rather heavily on those flavoured waters (lemon & lime etc), and conscious that most of them contain a lot of aspartame in place of sugar, which isn't that great. Although probably better than sugar?

I finally managed to get hold of some Beck's Blue 0% beer yesterday - it seems to be selling out in our local supermarkets. And I think I've figured out the secret ingredient that makes it taste so distinctive. WD40! :lol: Hmmm, think I'll stick with Bavaria 0% in future.

Still missing the real thing, and looking forward to a pint of proper ale with my mate next week. But yes, I reckon I can do dry Mondays to Thursdays in future, no problem. Something I wasn't completely sure about four weeks ago. That's all good.

BJ

mrbrightside
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Re: Dry November

#180282

Postby mrbrightside » November 14th, 2018, 3:53 pm

bungeejumper wrote:I don't think I have a problem with alcohol (I drink 22-24 units a week), but I had definitely fallen into the "7 pm is wine o'clock" habit, seven days a week,


Just curious, when you reach for this glass of wine at 7pm, is it a medium glass (2 units) or a large glass (3 units) ? Do you limit yourself to just one glass ?

If so, then you have more self restraint than myself, and I suspect you haven't got a problem. Otherwise I suspect you are under counting.

bungeejumper
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Re: Dry November

#180289

Postby bungeejumper » November 14th, 2018, 4:19 pm

mrbrightside wrote:Just curious, when you reach for this glass of wine at 7pm, is it a medium glass (2 units) or a large glass (3 units) ? Do you limit yourself to just one glass ?

If so, then you have more self restraint than myself, and I suspect you haven't got a problem. Otherwise I suspect you are under counting.

Fair question, and thanks. I don't hold with these supposedly "medium" glasses that go three to a bottle. Mine are 120 cl, which are six to a bottle. And which would cause a storm of outraged disappointment among my daughter's Manchester hen party friends, who reckon two glasses to the bottle. Hic. :o

BJ

Lootman
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Re: Dry November

#180348

Postby Lootman » November 14th, 2018, 7:49 pm

bungeejumper wrote: I don't think I have a problem with alcohol (I drink 22-24 units a week), but I had definitely fallen into the "7 pm is wine o'clock" habit, seven days a week, and I could see that that wasn't a great way to be. I suppose I was also a tiny bit worried about it?

It's interesting because I know a good number of people who have cut down their intake. I've done it myself, more than once.

But the only people I know who cut out alcohol completely were people who had a problem with it, attended AA and so on. And the message there is that you have to cut it out completely because there is no such thing as "just one drink".

So isn't it a matter of will power? In some ways, cutting your intake is harder than simply not drinking at all. If you really want to test your resolve, have one a day and then stop.

7 p.m.? My rule is no wine before 11 a.m. :D

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Dry November

#180371

Postby AleisterCrowley » November 14th, 2018, 9:23 pm

feder1 wrote:Well I think you are marvellous as Brucie would say.

We left alcohol behind nearly 3 years and bread before that.



I've left alcohol behind on several occasions, but I've always gone back to fetch it.

dionaeamuscipula
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Re: Dry November

#180529

Postby dionaeamuscipula » November 15th, 2018, 1:11 pm

Well the month off chocolate, biscuits and cake is over and went very well. Two weeks later I am having the odd thing but at a much lower level than I was before. Even though we are now into our annual NOvember. This has been fine apart from the agreed couple of days where I was away, plus there is a big night out coming and, hang on, I'm not doing very well here really.

Alcohol free beer is considered cheating, we drink line cordial and soda, mainly.

DM

TahiPanasDua
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Re: Dry November

#180719

Postby TahiPanasDua » November 15th, 2018, 10:42 pm

[quote="Lootman
But the only people I know who cut out alcohol completely were people who had a problem with it, attended AA and so on. And the message there is that you have to cut it out completely because there is no such thing as "just one drink".

. :D[/quote]

Well, not absolutely everyone who goes tea-total has an alcohol problem. I haven't touched the stuff for 10 years after being diagnosed as pre-diabetic. Dizzy fits, vision loss and numb fingers were a big encouragement. Medical advice suggested alcohol in such pathetically small measures that total abstinence seemed by far the easier option.

I found it remarkably easy to do as, like some people, I find total abstinence a lot more doable than other forms of self control. I genuinely admire people, like my wife, who can have one small glass of wine and be done with it. On second thoughts, maybe I did have a problem.

I don't miss it one bit and have lost masses of weight as I also have to eat a whole grain, no sugar diet which I enjoy. I have never felt or looked so good and enjoy life more than before.

TP2.

Dod101
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Re: Dry November

#180754

Postby Dod101 » November 16th, 2018, 7:26 am

TP2

That's great to hear because most people can avoid later onset diabetes with, as you have done, proper control and exercise. My first wife was insulin dependent from the age of about 4 and of course had a regime forced on her. She lived until just under 60 and so it infuriates me when I see people with a diabetic problem almost entirely self inflicted. Diabetes is a potential killer and yet people treat it very casually on the whole.

Dod


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