Sobtober

its just the feeling of us all loosening up together after an hour or so and having a real good laugh. how do i replace that?

Ecstasy is quite good

I found it helpful to finally accept that some percentage of the pleasure derived from drinking alcohol is just my body consuming a substance that, at some level, it is addicted to. I pretended for a long time that I only drank because I enjoyed the taste and being a little bit ‘fresh’ but accepting the reality of some level of addiction is making it easier to ease consumption down in a controlled manner. I was drinking every night, probably 40-50 units per week. Hardly ever more than 4 pints but rarely less than 3. 660ml glasses don’t help either, when you consider a 330ml 6.5% craft ale as ‘basically a half’ you’re on an arseing to nowt.

As for sobtober, I managed to just drink one last night which for me was a win.

I completed Stoptober successfully a few times, and quite enjoyed it.

The dear wife is away this weekend, so just me and the dog at home. I’ll try sobriety for the rest of the month, from Tuesday.

Day 4 and first weekend incoming.  Went to the pub last night with a neighbour, he had 3 pints of Guinness, I had 3 bottles of Peroni Zero, I feel hungover this morning !

I’ve not had a drop of booze for 2 weeks

I really do not feel any different. My sleep has not radically improved, my mood is still curmudgeonly, my weight is the same, I don’t have more energy.

How long do you have to be off the sauce for all the much talked about magical benefits to arrive?

Well el shalimo it’s the same for me, so it’s longer than 32 days apparently!

However tonight marks the end of a break for me, so I’m currently enjoying a cold crisp Morreti Sale di Mare.    Yum, and refreshing ahhhhh

I might do Snobtober and just look down on you other STWers with distain.

I honestly don’t think the non alcoholic are any better for you than normal ones. They all taste like they are full of chemicals and the Guinness zero I’m currently ‘enjoying’ is making me fart more than Newcastle Brown ale

For the rest of the month I’m going for herbal tea as my tipple of choice

I’ve managed 4 days but it stops tonight.

I’ve now not had anything since August 29th, but I didn’t drink much anyway.  I’ve noticed no positive difference. If anything, I now sleep less and less well and my Apple Watch backs this up.  Previous to this, averaging 7.5h/n of sleep.  Since stopping, 5.5h/n of sleep.  I’m tired.

I’ve also just bought 15 bottles of wine (they arrived last week)  so there’s additional temptation…sort of.

So, 4 beers over 5 hours last night.  I feel absolutely shit with a raging hangover, banging headache, dehydrated, slept very badly.    I can’t even look at the empty beer bottles.

As usual, stopping drinking either a) complete ruins the experience for the future or b) is something I might continue with…..

Had a couple of glasses of vino but early in the evening and my sleep monitor plus how I feel, tells me I had a good sleep. Oddly, what seems to affect a bad night’s sleep is a lack of exercise.

Daffy, for me I started feeling better within a couple of weeks, definitely sleeping better anyway. I’m now 19 months dry. Have lost over 4 stone in weight. In that time I have also eaten low carb which has helped with weight loss and with feeling better in general. Maybe look at the nutritional aspects of what you’re eating?

I eat pretty healthy.  Fresh fruit and a croissant for breakfast with a coffee and no sugar.  Drink water and decaf through the day, usually a salad or sandwich at lunch regardless of if I’ve cycled in to the office (30km each way) and then predominantly vegetable based meals.  When not drinking in the evening, I drink a shedload more milk.

Daily vitamin sups and gut bacteria pills.

Just had blood work, done at the doctors for something else and everything is bang on.  My BMI is slap bang in the middle of the healthy range and my body fat percentage is 9-11%.  Blood pressure is 110/60.

I’m guessing the sleep problem is mental (work and home stress) and the bad sleep related to my using alcohol as a wind-down crutch since, well, pretty much ages. (end of PhD, through Covid to now) and that one was compensating for the other.

I never had more than 1 cider or two small glasses (125mm) a night.  Ever.

This photo I took about half an hour or so ago shows how much attention I pay to all these…dry …sober …whatever

I honestly don’t drink that much, on a regular basis, to think there’s any point in them, they’re largely meaningless, frankly.

Well, thanks for your totally pointless addition to what, in your opinion, is a pointless exercise.

You need to drink more water that volume and colour would indicate dehydration.

@northwind – that’s never a good idea, embrace Gork & Mork and live forever!

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I’m actually still kinda doing Dry January! Apart from a couple nights on holiday I haven’t drank all year, whereas a few beers at the weekend was de-rigeur for me before. I still don’t consider myself teetotal for some reason though.

I am sure I am considerably healthier than this time last year, and I’ve lost maybe 11Kg or so over the course of the year. Didn’t change diet otherwise  so it’s kinda mad how many calories from alcohol I was taking in. Biggest positive for me is increased motivation (leading to better performance when exercising) and better better / more stable mood overall. I don’t miss the Saturday mornings where I would wake up and put off going out on the bike for like 4 hours from general lethargy.

I’m not gonna lie though, “nights out” are not really a thing anymore, and generally are kinda crap when I do go along. I end up just tired and wanting to go home after like 2 hours which is annoying. I do miss the fun side of having a few pints and talking pish with your mates, or having a beer or wine with a dinner out. I was on a stag do earlier this year and getting up at 8am feeling normal, whilst everyone else was stinking in bed until 10 was a weird experience and hard not to feel smug about. However they still certainly had more fun that I did.

First week just about ticked off. Been easy here, can’t say I’ve really missed it.  Had a few zero beers to keep my brain fooled, all good !

I’m not gonna lie though, “nights out” are not really a thing anymore, and generally are kinda crap when I do go along. I end up just tired and wanting to go home after like 2 hours which is annoying. I do miss the fun side of having a few pints and talking pish with your mates, or having a beer or wine with a dinner out. I was on a stag do earlier this year and getting up at 8am feeling normal, whilst everyone else was stinking in bed until 10 was a weird experience and hard not to feel smug about. However they still certainly had more fun that I did.

thats my problem too.  friends are telling me ‘you only live once’ which is true, i want to actually enjoy my nights out exactly as you describe.  i also enjoy the odd relaxing evening in with my wife watching music on youtube and talking sh1te.  she’ll just get on my nerves if shes getting slowly sloshed whilst im still sober 😀

im usually a black or white kind of person, either all or nothing (ive totally given up coffee cos i wanted to cut down).  am i able to just have the odd night out with alcohol, or will it slowly creep back to before?

ho hum

I have 0.0 or AF beers on a night out. Still talk pish but I do find myself tempering what I say as sometimes it used to push the boundaries, as it does with friends and sometimes with work folk. Don’t have the “oh no”‘s as much now.

I’m doing  Orctober instead, spending the month making sure short people don’t throw stolen jewelry into volcanoes.

“friends are telling me ‘you only live once’ which is true”

One of the many reasons I quit booze.  I felt I was missing out on living by spending too much time in the pub or feeling lethargic the next day.  I’d had enough of that kind of living, I’d enjoyed it for a long time but the enjoyment had fizzled out.  30 years of drinking is plenty, 30 years of doing other stuff without alcohol seems like a fair deal to me.

I went for a walk yesterday with the possibility of a pint at the end.

The potential cost of the pint put me off calling in at the pub.

I’ll be far from not boozing this October but I might save a few quid by cutting back on the pub visits.

I went for a walk yesterday with the possibility of a pint at the end.

The potential cost of the pint put me off calling in at the pub.

I’ll be far from not boozing this October but I might save a few quid by cutting back on the pub visits.

A local bar is advertising “£5* a pint” for October.

*selected draft ales only

One of the many reasons I quit booze.  I felt I was missing out on living by spending too much time in the pub or feeling lethargic the next day.  I’d had enough of that kind of living, I’d enjoyed it for a long time but the enjoyment had fizzled out.  30 years of drinking is plenty, 30 years of doing other stuff without alcohol seems like a fair deal to me.

+1

On holiday or at Christmas when you’re expected to  drink with every meal, by about day 7 I feel like crap and sleep  quality is suffering.

Or a few drinks at friends houses on a Saturday night, it’s great, except it ends up writing off the entire weekend because you can’t really fit in any other plans  from Saturday lunchtime onward, and a couple of beers is enough of  a marginal  loss to my meager FTP to have me launched out the back on the first climb of the Sunday clubrun even if i do wake up for it.

“except it ends up writing off the entire weekend”

Getting old sucks doesn’t it?  It was never a problem when I was a younger man.

I had a glass and a half of wine on Sunday night. Slept awfully, felt tired, sluggish and had a headache until tea time. Time is catching up with me and it is simply not worth it to me anymore. I still love a few beers and I hope to keep alcohol out of the house.

Used to drink quite a bit. 3-4 bottles of wine over a week with 2 of them over the weekend. Sometimes more. Years ago I used to drink a lot more like 8-10 bottles of shit wine. Didn’t drink from early December till August. Figured I was on holiday so could get a bit loose. Found it didn’t add much to the evening and was a bit disappointed in myself. Over next month or so had the odd bottle of wine, pint and vodka lemonade. Missed the red wine the most. Forgot how much the mornings after suck. Had a bit much last weekend and spent the day feeling rough. I don’t want to fall back into the rut of drinking too much over the weekend and then just not really doing anything I want to. Think I’m going to pack in the drinking again. After spending so long sober, booze definitely wrecks my sleep and ability to concentrate at work the next day. Bit of an eye opener about how it’s clearly affected how I feel about work in years past which I was a bit blind to. Sounds obvious now. I feel like any encouragement to drink that my head gives me is just the booze talking. It’s a parasite that wants you to consume as much as possible and it’s never satisfied for long.

Sobertober, surely?

Sobertober, surely?

Not for me, I’m been crying constantly, sobbing like a baby. (tearful emoji)  However, on a more cheerful note, I’ve just created a new bandwagon for people to jump on.   ( 0:

how we all doing, that’s the halfway point now.

Possibly sleeping a little deeper here, not much different.  Have managed a good few PB’s on Zwift in the past 10 days so maybe linked !

Wife reckons general mood and grumpiness better than average too !

just had the one ‘few drinks’ on the 5th at a mates 60th, but id always planned to do that anyway.  nothing since.  we’re off out for a meal and drinks saturday and wife has stated that she’s going to drink and ive been getting ‘dont be silly, youve been good so far, its been 2 weeks since you had alcohol, have a few, it doesnt matter’.  this annoys me, id prefer support.

i may well succumb, but i want to test myself in a ‘night out’ environment.  at least start on cokes/AF beer, and if i start wanting a beer then i probably will, YOLO as they say.  i do admire those that are ‘x years sober’ tho, but i just dont have anything to drink that id enjoy enough in its place.

also trying to lose a few lbs, so im well aware that every pint is a (small) hiccup (no pun intended) on the way.

3rd weekend of the month incoming. Staying true to the cause here, kinda used to it now. My dilemma will be on Fri 1st Nov when we have some folks round for dinner, and the norm would involve a few gins, some nice wines and possibly a dram or 2 to close.  I anticipate that after a dry month that will cause me significant weekend activity negative impact, which I now really can’t be bothered with….. very tempted to stay off it for that night  (and maybe longer…) as moderation given the group company of the evening may may be difficult..

off to the pub shortly, mainly cos i dont want to be a party pooper for wife/daughter/friends that we usually meet up with on a friday.  ive told them im going to test myself by starting on cokes or orange and seeing if it does my head in.  if it does ill have a pint or two but im hoping it doesnt bother me.

As I’ve discussed in other threads on here I drank heavily from the age of 13 (now 64) and was employed in a job for 32 years where drinking to excess was the norm, home brewing started in lockdown didn’t help. I virtually stopped on St Patrick’s day 2023, only drinking when I went out (limited amounts) or on holiday. My consumption dropped to a fraction of my usual, I dropped weight straight away (even though not too bad anyway), started going to bed earlier and had a much better mental state. I had my last alcohol on May 7th this year and don’t intend drinking again. I feel free and liberated from a demon – I have more money and I’m not using devious methods to ensure supplies. I didn’t make a big thing about it, I don’t think setting an end date helps, it’s a different mindset needed. Initially I was drinking several alcohol free beers a night as it’s the glass to mouth memory that can scupper things, I’m now on one, maybe two alcohol free a night. The dreams that I have (which was probably one of the reasons I drank to block them out), are amazingly weird, frightening, fun! I can sleep a good twelve hours, easy. @sadexpunk if you’re under pressure to drink when you really don’t want to then it can be a problem. I recognise you can’t change your family but if your friends don’t understand then it’s time for a change, they probably are addicted too and are frightened to stop, I was frightened of a future without beer. Excessive drinking is embedded in our society and is the business model for a lot of pubs and clubs. Stay sober tonight and have a good look around, I find it very sad and I was one of those people. Have a read of this article, it explains some of the mechanisms involved, good luck! https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/may/24/the-truth-about-booze-how-alcohol-really-affects-your-body-from-first-flush-of-happiness-to-hangover-hell

@wheelsonfire1 thank you, ill have a read later (unless im p1shed of course 😀 )

@sadexpunk if you’re under pressure to drink when you really don’t want to then it can be a problem. I recognise you can’t change your family but if your friends don’t understand then it’s time for a change, they probably are addicted too and are frightened to stop,

no, they dont pressure me, the pressure comes from myself.  well not pressure so much, just the ‘what can i drink instead without getting bored’ conundrum.  theres only so much diet coke you can drink without blowing up, or orange without getting that sweet sickly taste in your mouth.  AF?  maybe.  ill ask him what hes got tonight and see how i get on.

plus….. i actually like having a few and ‘loosening up’ at the same pace as others.  another conundrum to resolve.

i may just have to settle with ‘drinking less than before’ but we’ll see how i get on.

thank you

*double post…..

A local bar is advertising “£5* a pint” for October.

*selected draft ales only

Had some very nice alcohol free beer on draught at a local this week (Clear Head?). Was £5.80 a pint though!

well i did it.  4 diet cokes while the others were on wine and beer.  didnt mind it tooooooo much.  wifes tottered off to bed so ive just sat and read your guardian link @wheelsonfire1, very interesting.  i should keep reading it before every night out 😀

out again tomorrow for an indian, ill try to do the same as tonight but……. you never know.  cant see it lasting forever tho, got a workmates leaving do mid november so its just a case of being sensible, im not about to go teetotal.

cheers

I am in the club more by chance than design. Bike crash on the 3rd Oct resulted in a broken collarbone. So first week, no booze with the painkillers. Second week no booze due to not wanting to have to keep getting out of bed to go to the toilet 🙂

And now I have decided no booze until I am healed up enough to get back running. So that’s November.

So sober October it is.