Very good. Wish I could run a 10K.

 

And 4 weeks without drinking. That's is a victory in itself.

 

Keep up the good work

Hi Patsyelle,

 

Congrats on running in the 10k! Good on ya, you finished that is the main thing, you did not give up! Yay for 4 weeks of no drinking! I am glad you were able to hit up your friends cottage and still stay sober! Great work!

 

You can reply to a discussion or start a new one it's totally up to you!

 

Ray

Patsy,

What a great achievement!  Good for you for being prepared and doing some exposure work!

 

You can start a new thread if you like or continue to post in other threads.

 

4 weeks quit and a 10km run under your belt..wow fantastic!

 

We are very proud of you and thanks for sharing your success with us!

 

I've been away and am now just catching up on the postings.  Since my last posting I run the 10K in Ottawa . It was hot and hard going - I finished but not a personal best.

Today is 4 weeks since I stopped drinking and I got through some of the situations I thought might tempt me (e.g just spent a week at a friends cottage where cocktail hour on the beach is a ritual) - I took non-alcohol beer and was OK with that.    

I must confess I'm a bit of a dunce when it comes to posting because I'm not sure how these forums work - do I just jump into any posting or should I stay with the thread I started?? 

Thanks all

 

Good idea Hors. Changing your routine.

 

I seldom drank alone at home. It's certainly happened, but I preferred to be out in a pub. I have friends that work from home but I don't know what their drinking patterns are. Some over do it in mixed company, some don't.

 

I have to start shopping at a new market that isn't near my old pub. I know of a nice one not far away, and ironically, a few blocks walk from that AA meeting that meets at 1 pm Tuesday through Friday. Bingo!

 

I shop a little every day or so. I like to buy fresh and it's one of few domestic chores I am responsible for. Also, I can't carry alot of groceries at a time, so I shop often. It also gets me out of the house, which seems to close in on me when my head wanders off to the dark place........

 

Eh hem, anyway, it's a rainy day today but I don't care. I feel good!

 

You all rock!

I can see a pattern of women working from home and drinking alone. I work from home also and drank alone, starting around 4 or 5 in the afternoon.

 

I've decided to rent an office a few months ago and try to go now a few days per week. I think it helps, sometimes

 

Good luck with that marathon

I'm just thinking out loud about your 4 o'clock situation, and I like the idea that you get up from your desk and run awhile. After all, if you worked in an office away from home, you'd get up at closing time and head home or shopping. I worked in an office for years and during my last years there, I'd stop at the pub on my way home for a few. I guess it's essentially the same thing without the mileage. I'm now making plans for my afternoons - things that help me instead of destroy me. Tomorrow, I'm going to an AA meeting at 1 pm. I'll tell everyone here about it. Then, I'm going for a haircut. I always feel good when my hair is neat, I don't have alot of it, but it still feels good to look good. A little shopping and then home. Not stopping at the pub tomorrow. Not on the list! I've neglected so many darn things over the past few years that there's always something at home that needs to be done. I think my most difficult decision for tomorrow is what music to play while a attack some waylaid task.

 

Re: your upcoming visitors from abroad: Do you have to host them or is there an alternative? Do they pour their own or do you as their hostess make the drinks? Can you entertain without alcohol? Frankly, I don't know what I'd do if heavy drinkers were in my house and boozing it up. Maybe we can get some input and figure out what it is you need to do, other than not drink yourself, of course.

 

Have a great evening!

Thanks to everyone for the encouraging words and good suggestions.  I'm training for a 10K run and keep a running journal but I can also add thoughts about my feelings and progress. 

The bad time for me is around 4PM - I work from home and usually stop at 4PM and have a drink and relax etc. etc. and so forth.  We live in a small town where everone knows you so I didn't go to the few pubs in town, I did most of my drinking at home and often alone.  One of my strategies is to change that pattern so today I went out for a run at 4PM and came back feeling happy with myself and the craving was gone.

 

In my intro I said I'd stopped drinking for 5 months. I got started again when we had overseas visitors who drink a lot.  These same folk are coming back in September - I'm hoping that by not drinking for the next 3 months I'll be stong enough to avoid making the same mistake again. 

 

Best wishes to all my new palls.

 

 

 

 

 

Nope, but, that chapter is for every one. Believers/Non Believers/Agnostics. But there is a great paragraph within this chapter:

 

 

Also there is a great article at the end of the book on Spiritual Awakening/Experience:

 

The terms “spiritual experience” and “spiritual awakening” are used many times in this book which, upon careful reading, shows that the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms.

Yet it is true that our first printing gave many readers the impression that these personality changes, or religious experiences, must be in the nature of sudden and spectacular upheavals. Happily for everyone, this conclusion is erroneous.

In the first few chapters a number of sudden revolutionary changes are described. Though it was not our intention to create such an impression, many alcoholics have nevertheless concluded that in order to recover they must acquire an immediate and overwhelming “God-consciousness” followed at once by a vast change in feeling and outlook.

Among our rapidly growing membership of thousands of alcoholics such transformations, though frequent, are by no means the rule. Most of our experiences are what the psychologist William James calls the “educational variety” because they develop slowly over a period of time. Quite often friends of the newcomer are aware of the difference long before he is himself. He finally realizes that he has undergone a profound alteration in his reaction to life; that such a change could hardly have been brought about by himself alone. What often takes place in a few months could seldom have been accomplished by years of self-discipline. With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves.

Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves is the essence of spiritual experience. Our more religious members call it “God-consciousness.”

Most emphatically we wish to say that any alcoholic capable of honestly facing his problems in the light of our experience can recover, provided he does not close his mind to all spiritual concepts. He can only be defeated by an attitude of intolerance or belligerent denial.

We find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program. Willingness, honesty and open mindedness are the essentials of recovery. But these are indispensable.

“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance?that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”

?Herbert Spencer