It's day 1! Anyone else?

[Thepeppapigfanclub]

I'm 45. I've been drinking a bottle/bottle and a half a night for as long as I can remember with the odd dry January/ Stoptober along the way - but I always end up back on the wine again.

I'm a parent to a 13 year old and the shame that comes with this is crippling. It's not good and I know I HAVE GOT to stop. I am sick of the self-loathing, the fear, the anxiety and the money down the drain. Most of all, I'm worried about shuffling of this mortal coil leaving my child before I should.

So it's day one (again) for me. I just wondered if anybody else has picked this as their day one too for some support.

Any tips for the first week?

Many thanks - there's some seriously inspirational people on here reading some of the other threads - I'm in awe of all of those who've made it to six months, a year and beyond. It feels beyond my grasp.

Ps quick impressive thinking there with the wine refusal as going for a run @Thepeppapigfanclub 👍😂

Morning all.

Well done on refusing the unexpected offer of wine @Thepeppapigfanclub !

Congrats on 1 week @Cloudsclouds6 ! I hope your DH can be a bit more supportive.

Up early today- woke at 5 and went to the park to see the sun come up. I am a bit headachey though.

Morning all! @NewLifeHappyLife how lovely to get up for the sunrise. I bet you felt amazing peace.

@Cloudsclouds6 shame about DH. In my experience, people make others drink when they know they should cut down but can’t. So like to have company drinking. Do you think that is the case here?

Congrats on a week! Keep going!

I am on Day 6. Sunday is my biggest test as I always cook a roast pretty much and always have wine. I have no intention of breaking today though. I am another 1 lb down and my daughter said my face looked slimmer yesterday.

Hello @BoilingHotand50something !

oooh a roast! I might do cold roast chicken and salads today. I was wondering what to do for dinner. I could do with a bit of lowcarbing.

I am loving my low carbing but I have overdosed on cold chicken salad this week so I’m having roast pork and veg, no spuds!

My DH was out drinking last night and is suffering! Whereas I am Smug McSmugface, full of the joys! Feels good.

I'm feeling a bit smug too today.

I am also itching to get up and do 'something'. DH is still asleep as he has terrible insomnia and came to bed finally when i got up at 5 am. But I am about to make another continental extravaganza for breakfast- sans the croissant for me this time . Yesterday i had 12 serves of fruit and veg and ALL were raw so I am feeling pretty smug about that too!

Yesterday though when we went to the beach there were alot of people who had been in the sum and drinking all day and were clearly starting to feel queasy and out of it. I felt so glad I was not one of them. Taking my sober-validating joys where I can find them!!

Morning all!

Congratulations on week 1 @Cloudsclouds6 !

I too was up at the crack of dawn so went to see the sunrise @NewLifeHappyLife. Great minds think alike. 😂It was beautiful wasn't it? It was great having the earth to myself for a bit - it was so quiet and still.

I bet there are some sore heads this morning! Thankfully - not ours!

Well done for being determined @BoilingHotand50something. I might be coming to you for some recipes because I haven't shifted a pound yet and it will be three weeks tomorrow. Cruel! 😂

Hope you all have a great day!

@Thepeppapigfanclub I think the weight loss is
a) all water
b) because I am hitting it hard, fasting every day (not eating until around 1pm and then starting the fast after dinner) AND low carb

DH has been fasting too all week but now cooking bacon due to drinking last night. So I am double smug! Lol

Good morning everyone. That my first week done! I decided to take a photo of my face every Sunday morning. No makeup or anything. It's brutal! However after just one week I can see my eyes are more open and alert looking. My skin is still crap and I'm still bloated but there is time yet for that to change.

I need to now sort out my eating as I have been overcompensating and using food instead of alcohol. However I know it took me a long time to reach this point so it might take me a long time for major improvements.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone.

Good Morning!

Feeling a little flat this morning. I'm tired after waiting up for teenagers. Also, my period started so explains why I've not been chipper these past few days.

I have lost two pounds. So that's good.

I was invited out for spur of the moment drinks last night, but i made my excuses and stayed at home. Staying at home can't be a long term solution though as I am bored and part of my drinking was to escape the boredom of being at home most evenings. I've got an evening with friends on Friday and I don't know what to do. It will be hard to go and not drink, but also I don't want another boring stay in binge watching repeats weekend.

My DC have been nagging me to go and have a look around a car boot, ever since we drove past a massive one at the start of the summer. Have been putting it off because I couldn’t risk driving that early after a Saturday night wine binge. Not this morning! I actually woke them up to go out and they were super excited. We went to one not that far from us and then stopped off at McD’s for breakfast afterwards. It’s really nice to be up and out and not wasting my weekend feeling sick or anxious or too hungover to drive.

We are also having a roast dinner later. This weekend has not been good diet-wise but I’m just happy to be AF 3 weeks today. Like others have said, there’s plenty of time to focus on the diet. I’m not that unhappy with my actual weight, it was the disproportionately large stomach I was unhappy with and that has definitely gone down. My shorts today are hanging off, despite no actual weight loss!

@ReadySalty sorry to hear you are feeling flat. I am finding the days long but have started to buy some bits for my hobbies. Trouble is I am spending more than I am saving on the booze!

@MamaGhina the car boot sounds marvellous. My gang would love that!

Well done all - you are all doing amazing!!!

I'm still here lurking but been feeling sorry for myself all weekend as was feeling poorly Friday (started with a dodgy tummy which resulted in sky high anxiety & overthinking) and today got a bad migraine not sure if it's from cutting down the alcohol, the heat, eating salad everyday and exercising or a combination of all the above - either way I'm trying not to stress

I'm hoping to finally start my AF days from next week as down to only a couple of drinks a day plus the hot chocolate at 9pm is working good as a 'treat' (FYI hotel chocolat sachets are amazing!!)

Here's to hoping you have a great Sunday evening and ready to begin another week 😀

@BoilingHotand50something that sounds rubbish. Maybe it’s just you readjusting but the heat and exercising is probably making you a bit dehydrated perhaps.

I second the hotel chocolat sachets except the velvetiser does not get it hot enough. So last week I shoved it in the microwave for a top up and inevitably forgot milk boils over 😠

Yesterday was another bad day for me. I had what was lovely news from a friend which made me quite sad for my own circumstances (self centred eh?) and I really wanted to settle into wine and Netflix. But somehow I didn’t and today is better so I am feeling a bit proud that I sat with the uncomfortable feelings, as they say, and got through.

Still dreading tomorrow tho!

@ApolloandDaphne Great idea with the photos. I did some too. If I'm tempted to drink I should just look at day 1! 😯I'm starting to look better but this is going to take time. I'm definitely still bloated/wine belly but I think it's going to take a while to shift. I've decided not to worry about it for the time being - the most important thing is not to drink - for now.

@ReadySalty How supportive do your think your friends will be? Would it help to tell them in advance that you won't be drinking?

@BackToBasics1808 Very well done on cutting down - that's just as hard as stopping - if not more so. Hopefully if you've got it down to a few drinks it might not be as brutal.

It's great hearing about everyone's little wins. I think we all found Friday hard. I'm trying to think of what might be a good Friday night 'reward'/switch off for next week so that I don't end up in the mood I was this week.

I posted way back when and tomorrow is week 10 without alcohol. It will also be week 4 on a low carb/fat diet because evidently my cholesterol is also sky high.

In my 60s, still working, I think my problems are a combination of NAFLD, a rich diet, weight gain and too little exercise along with drinking regularly, but at half a bottle levels. Most of my liver tests are now normal except for one which is too high but it might be the effect of another health condition.

Anyway as encouragement and not smugness: I have lost 13lb, I feel fresher and have more vim and vigour and every ache and pain has disappeared. Also, despite the heat of the last few days my ankles have not puffed up which they usually do.

Tomorrow I have a fibroscan and am.hoping beyond hope it's just a reversible fatty liver but the NHS recommended the ultrasound and then pushed for a fibroscan with hepatology which is in itself worrying. I was probably drinking five units a day and it may have caused a lot of damage over a couple of decades. Typical middle aged woman, tough job, older dc, home to run and lots of socialising. Never, ever did I think a couple of glasses a day could be harmful.

Please all keep going everyone, I'd hate for any one of you to have the worry I've lived with for the last 8 weeks or so. Your livers are so vital so please look after them.

Thank you so much for posting @SpringNotSprung . I hope so much that you have good results from your scan.

As @NewLifeHappyLife said, thank you for sharing @SpringNotSprung, it is really encouraging to hear so many stories. Best of luck with the tests.

Day 22 here and I know I’ll be alright until Friday. I got an important job done yesterday that I had been putting off for ages. It made me realise how much I’ve wasted my weekends with drinking and hangovers, all the while telling myself “I deserve the time off because it’s the weekend”. The reality is, the world doesn’t stop and I’ve essentially lost 2 days a week. No wonder I’m so stressed mon-fri trying to fit everything in.

Then I went for a run in the dark. I went to our local park and didn’t enjoy it at all. No street lights so could hardly see anything and it was only 8pm. A bit annoying because I don’t like running on the roads (where there is decent light). I think if I go again in the evening I’ll take a torch and just look like a muppet.

On that note, have a good week everyone!

I really understand what you mean @MamaGhina about losing so much time to booze. It's such a time waster. And money waster. And health and sense of peace waster. Today i am struggling to see the point of alcohol at all which is a feeling Im am going to try and hang on to!

I am feeling very, very tired today as i didn't sleep well last night. I have felt really lively all week and today i seem to have crashed. I am glad i am not also a bit hungover as I often would drink on a Sunday evening. I don't know if this is a stopping drinking thing or if i am just weary as happens from time to time anyway.

Just out. I have a mildly fatty liver scoring 238, the cut off for normal is 220. The kpa score is 4.5 so no scarring or inflammation.

I have had a stern talking to about drinking more than 30 units a week and its impact on long term health.

I have got away with it. Please don't any of you go down this rabbit hole. It isn't a great place and most of you, I guess, are young enough to have had fewer decades than me to fuck up your livers.

Day 62. Hope to get to 100, especially as I feel so great after 62 off.

I may now go and buy a very expensive handbag as I'm in the West End :).

Hi everyone just checking in. So much inspiration on here. Thank you @SpringNotSprung for sharing your story.

Lets all try and stick at it - arg it’s so hard and so many triggers.
Does anyone feel like they have entered a new world?! It’s odd to think how humans can become so reliant on a substance and become so in denial about addiction. Very hard when it’s glamourised and beautified with fancy labels, vineyards and flavours. Sorry, being a philosophical here lol!

I seem to be choosing to break free from other old patterns too such as putting myself last. DH been out running at dinner time twice last week and yet was in disbelief when I decided to go to gym at 6pm on Saturday!!

@SpringNotSprung that is such great news. I’m between meetings so can’t post properly but just wanted to say how pleased I am for you. Go for the handbag!!

@Cloudsclouds6 indeed to the glamourisation, the wine fridge, the vineyard deliveries, etc..

@NewLifeHappyLife thank you - I cannot belive the relief washing over me. I may sleep tonight.

Positive vibes to all!