I ate better when I was drinking, but eating a bit worse and not drinking is a way better choice for me.
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Do you eat worse, or do you eat more? I have replaced 400-500 liquid calories with something like 0-500 snack calories. Sometimes that might be a piece of cake or some popcorn, but most days it might be some cereal or fruit and yogurt. During the day, I think I make better decisions on average with fewer cravings for junk.
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The reason thats the case is that we have engineered activity out of our daily lives. I go to the gym 1-2 times daily. But according to my fitbit the day of the week I burn the the
most calories by a long shot is any day I go into NYC where I have to stand on the subway, climb stairs, andā¦walk. Even the days I skip the gym. If I lived in the city I would be 50 lbs lighter
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Absolutely correct.
Itās like lifting your entire 200 pound body up several flights of stairs might require the same amount of energy as pushing up 200 pounds a foot or two a few dozen times with your arms.
Iāve ended up having the odd fermented drink lately with <0.5% alcohol. I didnāt originally think they had alcohol. Thereās some psychosomatic effect now that I do know, I donāt like it, will be staying away, I just donāt want the reminderā¦
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Completely reasonable if those are your feelings. N/A beers and similar are fine for some, not for others.
Personally I enjoy a good N/A beer after doing lawnwork in the sun, but no longer feel a need to have one with dinner. Even one of the low-cal ones is just 20 calories I didnāt need for a pricey $2-3 can of beer.
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I find that the <0.5% in NA beer is slightly noticeable, like I think I get more sociable and chatty after a few NA beers than I would be otherwise. It is very subtle, and perhaps just placebo and entirely just what happens once you settle in to a social situation. I have noticed feeling a bit tense the next day, like things bother/worry me a bit more than usual. No where near the levels of anxiety that I was getting from an actual evening of drinks, but its not 0. Again, it is very subtle.
I suppose my conclusion is that is all interesting, but for me, not concerning. Being a bit more social is something I can benefit from, because actuary, and the mild anxiety is completely manageable and usually short lived (and mostly triggered by caffeine if I have too much of that). It is a good reminder to go no further than the near beers.
Unless you feel the same way after eating certain very ripe fruits, itās almost certainly placebo. That being said, everyone should do what they feel comfortable with and not more than that. I have friends in the program and some would consider drinking an NA beer to be a relapse, and some would not. I consider myself sober and drink NA beers, and no one can take that from me, but I wouldnāt tell someone else that they have to agree with my definition. There are more triggers than simply alcohol content.
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The sociable aspects could be placebo, but the tense feeling the next day seems less so. And just to be clear, that anxious feeling is really one of the key reasons I decided to quit. I think I grew sensitive to it as I have gotten older (and likely have a higher baseline anxiety level more generally). That part makes me think the other aspects may not be as much of a placebo.
I made NA beer part of my journey to quitting, but can appreciate how someone who had a different journey views it differently.
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I agree, itās no where near enough alcohol to actually be intoxicating, but my brain can make it feel like it almost is, and Iād rather avoid that.
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I had a dream the other night that I had access to some wine, no one was around who knew I didnāt drink, so I had some, then some more, then decided to drive home drunk to cover it up. The details of the dream are fuzzy now.
I wouldnāt do that in real life, if I did decide to end my sobriety I would certainly not be driving anywhere, but those dreams still freak me out. And I always wake up extremely disappointed that my nearly five year sobriety streak is broken, before I realize that it was a dream.
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Dreams are weird. Seems like they are always about something dumb happening - could involve alchohol, or just about anything. I guess the point is you can experience the dumb and wake up with a better perspective.
Actual alcohol must have really blocked out a lot of rem sleep for me - Iād rarely recall having many dreams even with only a few drinks in the evening. Now its like every night I am wandering around for hours. I retain barely any of it longer than it takes me to walk 10 feet into the bathroom.
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That is almost exactly a jason isbell song.
It gets easier
Dreams dont respect the current status of the choices we are making in the waling world. It is weird for sure
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I didnāt like those dreams, but found my disappointment in myself in the dreams a somewhat useful reminder of how far Iād come.
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My dream last night - I was bar hopping with a friend in Sydney and was getting annoyed they didnāt have good NA beers, my phone broke and I ended up having to buy a 3 years old Iphone, and we kept missing the bus tour pickup points and had to walk to the next point.
I completely blame GoA and my prior post for all that.
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Could be a future business opportunity, the Sydney NA Pub Crawl tour (every participant gets a free burner phone).
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its a meet up! side trip to reef central?
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We went to a family baby shower for the in-laws recently. That side of the family drinks heavily, and there was a plan for an open bar, but apparently father-in-law was arranging for all the men to essentially skip the event and just drink while the womenfolk did female things, so mother-in-law canceled the alcohol. (We still donāt know why those two havenāt divorced.)
Even in the current political climate with far-right MAGA family, it was one of the nicer events weāve attended, because everybody was sober.
The night prior, however, for those whoād traveled to stay overnight was a different story. Iād say people averaged about 8 drinks that evening, some more some less. And it was a shitshow like it always is. People got angry over nothing, just a shitshow.
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