Brave Babes are boinging into Spring..Join us here!

[dementedma]

We are a bus load of Babes all battling alcohol and trying to resist, reduce and get our lives back under control. Whatever you have to say, we will have heard it before and no-one will judge you. This is a warm, friendly,supportive place with tough love when needed ( slap round the face with a wet squid called Barrie). Join us here.

It'll be random but Kanye west stronger, it's a good exercise song

Oooh Elba, I love this game! I'm going to suggest some songs I have on my running playlist, not necessarily my taste at other times but they give me energy when I need it!

This is what you came for - Calvin Harris
Survivor - Destiny's Child
Can't stop the feeling - Justin Timberlake
You've got the love - Florence and the Machine
Nobody to love - Sigma
Alive - Empire of the Sun
Runaway baby - Bruno Mars
Want to want me - Jason Derulo
Bulletproof - La Roux
Last nite - The Strokes
Shots (broiler remix) - Imagine Dragons

That last one is my ultimate running song, always keeps me going. If you're on Spotify the Nike Run Club playlist is good. I'm doing a 10km tomorrow, will be thinking of you, you're doing brilliantly.

Some songs I like to workout to:

The Greatest - Sia and Kendrick Lamar
Together in Electric Dreams - The Human League
Push It To The Limit - Paul Engemann
Major Lazer - Light It Up (feat. Nyla & Fuse ODG) REMIX
Erotica (Live at The Confessions Tour version) - Madonna
Fame - Irene Cara
Lucifer - SHINee

Morning my lovelies,
Hope everyone is OK.
Can't really help with the music Elba I'm a Smiths fan, so you'd be sitting on a park bench crying and hating the world instead of running. I would defy anyone though to not pick up speed listening to Madonna -Ray of light.

I have a very busy couple of weeks ahead so won't be around much though will be reading.
I did have a couple of drinks last night, nothing that concerns me but will always have to watch it and not get drawn back in.
Think I need a bit of a pampering night this evening, need to buy a face bomb, and do my toe nails now we've actually seen some sun!

Have a great day all.

Just checking in. Tooth ache and period pain. Grumpy

Elba my two favourites are Let Us Cling Together by Queen - seems very appropriate for what we do on this thread - and Rainbow Eyes by Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow. However you can tell that I'm not a runner because they are both crawling pace at best, and more like the speed of laying on the grass looking at the clouds or the stars. Let's see if you can run to them!

Hey Venus. Hows life?

Sorry to hear about the miserable double whammy of toothache and period pain Ma . Have you got some good painkillers?

All of you runners put me to absolute shame! I literally couldn't run 100m (too fat), however you did on your long run the other day Elba would be absolutely impossible to imagine for me.

Your holiday sounds lovely Made.

Hello to ALL other babes, wishing everyone a delicious alcohol-free day . Just ONE day without a drink makes you feel better the next day, I find.

I really fancied a drink last night ... Friday nights, always a killer .

elba
I have Goo Goo Dolls-Slide and Train-Soul Sister on my running list along with Depeche Modes Personal Jesus and Veronica Falls song Shooting Stars and The Primatives first album. Along with lots of Jesus and Mary Chain.
Nothing lined up job wise as yet as I need to know what the feck is happening and when I'm going to be punted. I'm so very very tempted to not go back Monday though.

I have a just giving page for my charity climb in June. It's dead easy to set up.

So my luxury today after my gym measure (2 inches off my tum and an inch off my bum) was to buy a new set of bathroom taps and some tomato plants.

dementedma
for you as tooth ache is a special kind of crap.

I know I don't post too often but I read this thread multiple times a day and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who offers support or comes to vent or anything else. People talking about the bad and the good help me feel not so alone. My anxiety has been almost paralysing recently but I feel like it wears itself out more quickly than it used to, if that makes sense.

Still feel like I'm still stumbling along in the dark a lot of the time but I hope I can be more supportive to everyone else from now on. Have a good Sunday all

That's a lovely message Carte, big hugs to you.

Elba Ooh –
Dog days are over – Florence the Machine
Rockabye – Anne Marie ft Bandit
Mickey – Toni Basil
Mr Know it All – Kelly Clarkson
Heartbeat song – Kelly Clarkson
Eye of the tiger (I forget who)

Margie how did the run go?

Lux hope you enjoyed your pamper!

Ma ooh tooth pain is a bugger. Do you have any painkillers you can take?

I’m being put to shame too bibbity, am terribly unfit and while previous experience has shown I can run away if needed I think it’s fuelled purely by adrenaline much more at home with a

Mint fab on the inches lost!

Hello Carte

Hello to everyone I’ve only namechecked since Friday to kind of get myself up to speed. It’s been a good day/weekend. In spite of eating and drinking (well, not hangover inducing drinking) for Wales last week I’ve lost a pound! Back with a bump, working a longish shift tomorrow. My back is still aching so I’m going to go doctors and see what he suggests – I don’t think taking co codamol is a very good long term plan. Dogs behaved today – unusually as it’s only me and her on a Sunday and so she drives me round the bend – and I’ve eaten quite healthily. Am bricking it for Tuesday though. At least I’m in work tomorrow so I can’t think about it. Been lazy tonight which means hair wash tomorrow after work and straightening Tuesday morning. I’m just a bit nervous of speaking in public, of saying ‘umm’ and sounding dull, of having her barrister twist my words and make me sound bad/unreliable/aggressive/biased (and of course I am biased but I don’t want to come across too biased do I?) and of course the irrational fear that she will attack me too (which is daft cos I’m assuming there’ll be coppers there)

I LOVE sharing songs! My running playlist is:

Red Alert - Basement Jaxx
Mercury (remixed) - Bloc Party (from the Intimacy Remixed album)
Organ Donor - DJ Shadow
Cough Cough - Everything Everything
Coleen - The Heavy
DVNO - Justice
Gold Digger - Kanye
Dita Dimone - Pop Levi
Witness - Roots Manuva
Sleep Deprivation - Simian Mobile Disco

I recommend Cough Cough by Everything Everything particularly. It says a lot to me about that eureka moment when you know a change has got to come.

I'm starting two weeks AF today. Been drinking too much, feel exhausted all the time, eczema's flared up, the twitch in my eyelid is STILL HERE A MONTH ON, and I'm just sick of it. No alcohol, no caffeine for the next two weeks. I need to remind myself how lovely it is being AF, and for that the be my day-to-day normality.

I've had my dad staying for the last few days. It is a salutary reminder of what might happen to me if I give up on living positively. He is a wreck, and he will not change. He deludes himself about booze and food, and I recognise the thought patterns, which is chilling. When I asked if anyone would like a drink, alcoholic or tea, at 6pm, he made a casual face and said, 'What time is it?' Then when I said 'It's about 6,' he said 'Well, I suppose a G and T would be nice.' And I knew that he was desperate for a drink, and had covered it by pretending he might not. Because I've played that game myself. Acting like I hadn't even been thinking about it, when I'd been metaphorically limping towards the booze since 4pm.

Sooooo . . . none of that for me. I've got to get some proper rest.

Margie good to hear that doc apt went well. I was briefly on a low dose of Citalopram (an SSRI like Sertraline) and found it helpful.

made Dog Days is a killer track

carte you are doing so well, especially if you're feeling so anxious every day.

Sorry not to NC everyone, but I'll delurk and chat more in future.

Hey everyone, loving reading all the song recommendations.

That's me attempting an af 4 days. No wine for me, I'm allowed to indulge in a cider as I won't go off and drink 2 bottles with that as it's too gassy. On the plus side we're packing for the move and I can't do that feeling shit at the end of the day. Signing the papers for the house tomorrow and keys a week today

Hope you can all send me strong vibes for the week cause I really need to kick this habit, I feel awful today so I need to remember this feeling

Morning. Boing! Another fantastic spring day here in London so I'll be quick. Day 34.

Can I ask, for anyone negotiating with themselves over days on/off alcohol and all the headspace it entails, how about just taking a good long break from it for a month or two? It is SO MUCH easier to say No alcohol than okay maybe a little bit of alcohol. Surely, every time you have a drink you are just feeding the addiction, meaning you have to keep going through the struggle that is Day 1 again and again and again?

After a proper long break you really get to appreciate the enormous upsides of not having hangovers, not spending loads of money on booze, not having anxiety and nightsweats and all of that.

This is a suggestion from me only and I don't want to annoy anyone by making it and hope I haven't spoken out of line!

Happy days to all

Hi Everybabe,

Hope everybody is well. Bit me, me , me today but I'm planning to ramp up the luxury thing again and like Cher, it's operation 'turn back time' so I have rejuvenating honey to sap on my face, oils for my nails and treatments for my hair. Am seriously contemplating a little drizzle of Botox - whaddya think?

Bibbity yes, I see you're point, I think everybody on here has a slightly different relationship with alcohol, some addicted some just heavier drinkers than they'd like. I did wonder if I was straying into alcoholic territory when I joined the thread, but if you think as I do that alcoholism is an addiction then I would class myself as someone who drank heavily but not addicted, I can now enjoy a sociable drink (not wine, never again wine) but will have to be mindful of how it can creep up. I don't want to be tee-total, but I don't want to be a heavy drinker again - 2 or 3 beers at a barbecue or party will suit me fine, 2 bottles of wine slumped in front of the telly, no.

Fierce low carbing starts again, I feel very motivated now the sun is shining!

Hope everybody has a great day

Bibbity that's a good point but I agree with lux it just depends on the relationship. I'm trying to stop using wine as a crutch but I still want to be able to drink. I went out with dh on Saturday and had a really good night but I could go out again and hit the tipping point then carry on drinking.

I don't want to drink every night but I do want to be able to enjoy a drink if that makes sense

Yes, I'm the same Flowery and Lux. I'm not in the market for giving up forever (yet!) and hope I never get to the point where I feel I have no choice but to do so.

For me a long abstinence is a great way to remind myself why not drinking is great! But I accept that's just for me .

I'm feeling a bit low and anxious now about tomorrow going to court seems so massive, so scary, I never thought I would ever step foot inside a court room, it'll be so official, what if I um or trip over my words, what do I wear, and I'm still convinced the defence will make mincemeat of me. Argh part of me wishes I'd never pressed charges now

Ah made I understand your anxiety my love. Just try to remember it's not a job interview or anything like that. You can only tell the truth and if your voice wobbles or your knees shake - so what? The court staff will be used to it, it's not an audition and you don't have to impress.

Try to get a sleep, hot relaxing bath this evening.
Have you a lucky charm? I always feel tougher wearing red lipstick ☺

Sorry been AWOL and struggling. Heard today I didn't get the funding I so desperately needed. I can't help my soldiers any more. They will have to sort themselves out.
I am done trying.

You said that with an affa sair heart quine. Xx

Thanks lux I just want tomorrow to be over, and I know (well I don't knowbut have convinced self) that the little cow will get away with it. Actually cow's not a big enough word, she made me leave my job which makes me angry and I need to reign that in. You are right though, it doesn't matter if I stammer etc - unless her barrister will try and use that to say Im lying? Have no clue what it'll be like, only experience is tv dramas which I know is dramatised anyway.

Have had a nice relaxing bath and cwtch with dog and feel a little better, not drinking tonight despite wanting to as dont want to feel shit in the morning. No lucky charm lux but am going to look good - trousers, flowery top,blazer jacket, black shoes, posh handbag, hair up,make up and perfume etc, will feel more confident that way.

And must remember not to get emotional over it. Though weirdly I've not cried over it - daft, I cried in nursery job when told I wasn't doing well enough, but something big and I keep it in - and I wonder why that is. I mean I did break down a little afterwards (asked supervisor in tears if I could go home, was told no) but managed to wipe away my tears, so I'm hoping that toughness will do me in good stead tomorrow. Is odd, I seem to cry over the smallest things but the bigger things I shut off from, don't know how. Anyway sorry for big, depressing post! Am feeling a bit more positive promise!

ma oh you poor thing, and after all your hard work too

Oh ma you sound totally done in, I am sorry x

made that's it, smart clothes and make up is your armour. I think our bodies can shut down big stuff to kind of protect us. We fall apart over small stuff and can go numb over the big - it's strange but quite helpful as it can let us step back until we're ready.

Dubh miss you darling🐶

I am done in. Defeated by the old boys network, the politics and the self-licking lollipops guarding their own jobs. I'm going back to the day job and leaving this to someone else. Hopefully, the men will get the advice they need from somewhere else..But I will bloody miss them!