Calling Time on Wine - 100 Day Reset | Thread 2: One Day at a Time - Together

[therockingbird]

Welcome to Thread 2 of Calling Time on Wine 100 Day Reset 🍵

If you’re here, you’re doing something genuinely brilliant. This reset isn’t about perfection, shiny lives, or pretending it’s easy. It’s about choosing ourselves one day at a time, even when life keeps lobbing chaos our way.

We’ve already proven we can sit with hard evenings, bad days, stress, boredom, celebrations, and still not reach for wine.

Thread 2 is about keeping the momentum going, supporting each other, being honest when it’s tough, celebrating the wins and remembering why we started when motivation wobbles. Clearer heads. Stronger bodies. 💪

So pull up a chair, grab your tea, water, or AF alternative, and keep going. You are not doing this alone - and you are doing so well. 💛

I feel surprised, happy, hugely relieved and like I’ve had a lucky escape, but also like I shouldn’t take it for granted as my liver and my health are precious! I KNOW that there will be points down the line though where the voice in my head will use this as a reason to convince me to drink. I have to make sure I don’t let it! Even if my liver is okay (this time), there are so many other awful side effects that I had from excessive drinking (dreadful sleep and bad digestive issues being just two of them).

Another thing that crossed my mind… it feels sooo great to be looking after my health finally. I’ve had a long overdue smear test this year, this blood test (which I’d also put off for ages) and I’m working on my weight. None of this would have happened if I was still drinking. Next I need to make a VERY overdue trip to the hygienist as my teeth really need a clean. I am hoping to do that next month.

@freshstart2026 interesting as my ferritin is almost the same as yours but serum iron dropped from 27 to 10 hence why I felt so tired. It’s common apparently when giving up drink and means in simple terms thst iron is in the warehouse a plenty but there’s hardly any on the delivery truck!
saying that I have so much more energy this last week so I am looking forward to seeing if my iron has increased

@SwiftyFifty how do you increase serum iron? Glad you’re feeling more energized!

Goodnight all after another sober day.

Day 70 tomorrow!

Evening everyone, glad to hear about the reassuring blood test results. I've been having another wave of tiredness and general apathy. I've also been getting some low level anxiety, work has been a bit stressful. My new boss has all of a sudden started micro managing (the honeymoon period is over) and I've been the victim this week. It's upset me a bit but I'm coping much better with it than I would if I was hungover everyday.
I could have really gone for a bottle of wine tonight after work but my stubborn streak thought I'm not going let a bad day ruin my 64 day sober streak plus I'd already put my teacup on the try dry app.

Day 70 in the bag. My OH did something really fucking stupid this morning and I was still mad after work. My usual go to would be rage drink. I was so tempted to hit the fuck it button, but in the end I decided that I refused to end my streak for such a shitty reason, on a Tuesday no less! So I sat with my thoughts instead, which was a new experience. It gave me the chance to consider what drinking would have added to my evening in this scenario and the answer was, well, nothing. Feeling good about having navigated that.

A huge well done @Icecreamhelps and @Raindancer101 for not drinking in those stressful situations! @Icecreamhelps I feel your pain - I had a micromanager boss for a while and it made me feel very anxious. I was relieved when they left.

To everyone feeling tired - the one thing that was an issue in my blood test was low vitamin D (very common in the UK apparently). I looked up the symptoms and it can cause fatigue. I’m now taking a supplement so it’ll be interesting to see if I notice any differences. Something worth exploring?

@freshstart2026 I will try the vitamin D though never been low in it before. Re increasing serum iron, if your ferritin and haemoglobin are fine and within range you can’t take iron tablets so I’m hoping it sort of firsts itself out the longer you don’t drink.
Happy Day 70 to all of those on this group ( blip or not) we are all still here and still trying, that’s what counts

@SwiftyFifty if you have a full blood test coming up I think vitamin D should be one of the things they test for.

Can’t believe it’s day 70 - that is huge! Well done all!!! 💥💪💥💪

Also, 10 weekends done, 4 more to go!

Morning everyone, just checking in as I haven't for a while. I now hardly think about alcohol and just enjoy other things instead. It's a bit of a test currently as I'm away on a city break type holiday. Usually I enjoy trying local wines and relaxing after a day sightseeing with a glass is all part of it, but we ate out last night and I had a local mineral water which was lovely and I was so hungry I barely noticed. It's a place famous for pastries and cakes so I'll allow myself those as a treat (usually I'm strict on no cakes) so I don't feel at all deprived. Waking up feeling fresh and ready to go sightseeing is also worth it.

Day 70 - I can't believe it. Not only that but I had to tot it up today to check what day I was on so I have relaxed into not drinking rather than counting it day by day.

Well done on the test results @freshstart2026 . I will say that I had years of drinking and years of great blood results - until I didn't this time. So you being alcohol-free/doing the 100 days will definitely be a very healthy thing to do. I am going back for repeat bloods/review in early May and really really hope and pray my results will be closer/at normal by then.

Our very elderly dog had a couple of seizures late on Monday night and we had to bring him to the pet ER. A year ago I would have been ... frankly ... drunk when that happened. Instead I was clear, able to make decisions, could have driven instead of dh if needed.

Dog is ok now but vet is coming soon. I know something will have to happen soon (he is 16) but I love that dog so much - we all do - that it is scary to think about. One of the things I do worry about is if I would stay sober if anything happened to him. On top of that dh left for a work trip early Tuesday morning and is not back until Friday and my one dd who lives with us is leaving to go away for the weekend on Thursday so I am on my own on Thursday night. Having an empty house is a big trigger for me. Far more so than going to a pub or to a social event. Most of my dysfunctional drinking happened in secret and at home. So this week is another one where if I get through it alcohol free it will be a big milestone for me.

Thank you to everyone for helping me get here so far.

Really?? That sounds very achievable doesn't it!

@anewyearthisyear thanks for the reality check. I needed to hear it because I absolutely do not want to take these results for granted and go back to drinking at the levels I was before.

I’m so sorry to hear about your dog - I hope he’s okay. It sounds like a very stressful week for you 💐

@anewyearthisyear so sorry to hear about your dog, I hope they are feeling better. I had the house to myself last night too massive trigger for me. On my way home from another stressful day at work the internal chatter started. "Grab a bottle you deserve it" "nobody will know it can be our secret". The thoughts were really strong. I didn't go to the supermarket made egg and chips for tea with a cup of tea and watched TV for a bit before bed.
I was up early this morning so relieved that I didn't have that bottle of wine.

Hello still here and going strong. Question, whilst I don’t think about drinking at all really going about my day to day business, I’ve started to occasionally dream that I’ve had a glass/bottle of wine! The dreams aren’t good and I absolutely beat myself up about it in my sleep (which is shocking at the best of times, I really don’t need disturbing dreams!).

Has this happened to anyone else?

Just a quick check-in on day 71 to say I’m feeling great. Happy, in control and content. I haven’t felt this way for years (if ever). Wishing everyone a great Thursday.

Day 67 here. Dd arrived back from Dubai last night so very relieved.

Great news @Hedjwitch

Quick check in for me too!

Just awaiting the results of my blood count to come through and then I’ll post them. I had a DEXA scan yesterday though - figured I was at the age (54), where bone density matters more and there’s still plenty of time to mitigate any further damage. I believe alcohol can affect bone density too - another gift of the booze that keeps on giving!

As it happens - my T score is 0.4. I have bone density higher than a healthy 30 year female at peak bone mass! My fat mass is super low too - well into athletic ranges - but that’s more diet and exercise related (I’ve leaned out further since moderating early last year to the point I probably need to keep an eye on it, although lean muscle mass is good). It was the bone mineral density I was concerned with.

More motivation to keep going. I’m lucky that genetics are on my side. Why I thought I needed to spoil this good fortune by glugging down a bottle of wine every night I do not know.

Great news @Hedjwitch re your daughter.

@anewyearthisyear - how is the dog?

Sorry for a speedy post - I’ll be more considered later!

Hi all,
Great to hear positive results on blood tests. May I ask - id be quite interested to get tested, is this just something you can ask GP for?
Im actually in need of a call to the GP anyway - for years I have put down my snoring mainly to alcohol but I've recently used an app to detect snoring and sleep apnoea and im measuring high for snoring and mild-moderate for sleep apnoea. Sigh... explains why im so tired much of the time despite kicking the booze - kind of suspected I had it but quitting the booze has given me the kick up the backside to do something about it!

Day 5 again, or day 11 of the last 12 depending on how you look at it.

Really craving

1. Wine
2. Dairy Milk, M&S Bakery Cookie, or Haagen Daas Strawberry Cheesecake (oddly specific and I'm guessing it's due to the lack of wine in my diet anymore!)

The thing is I'm trying to lose weight and save money, plus the weather is absolutely vile. I know I could order in any of the above and it's taking me so much willpower not to, so any help or advice would be really useful!

I'll probably be WFH on the laptop until late but have been known to drink wine alongside when it's out of hours (just sipping, it doesn't impact my output). Stressful week at work and I also have a trial shit for a second job from 1-4pm tomorrow!

@BitOfFun2026 Congrats on 11/12 days. Personally, I opted to lean into the sugar cravings. I thought I'd outgrown my sweet tooth but when I dropped the booze my sugar cravings were raging. Wine is packed full of sugar though so it makes sense.

I would like to lose weight but I felt if I was feeling deprived from too many things, I was more likely to fail. Alcohol was the higher priority for me, so if a bar of chocolate will stop me reaching for the wine, then that is the lesser of two evils. Plus it's cheaper than wine. Perhaps not what you want to hear, but if I was you, I'd treat myself to something I fancied that wasn't wine.

I also find replacing my drink helped. I've tried various 'adulty' AF drinks and really enjoy the ritual of sitting down with a nice drink in an evening. Water just doesn't do it for me. Stay strong, you've got this!

@Raindancer101 Thank you for responding! I think I will have to distract myself in other ways for this evening as it was going to cost me £11 for the ice cream and delivery! I'm newly menopausal after a hysterectomy last August and already really struggling with my weight and body image (despite the 3 types of HRT) so not sure replacing the wine calories with other types of sugar is going to be much help in the longer term... hoping that an extra 3-6 hours a week on my feet in my second job will help burn something off!

Back to Day 0 I'm afraid, getting a summons for a police interview because of harassment (which I absolutely am not guilty of) will do that to a person