Alcohol 2013

Haven't touched alcohol in years, but my strategy to get here isn't a good one that I'd recommend to anyone.

I binge drank so much as a teenager and young adult that I would drink until I was sick (literally).  It got to the point that my body started to reject alcohol as if it were some kind of poison.  To this day if I drink a beer I'll be gagging and nauseous before i get half the can down.

So I never consciously stopped drinking, but I just literally can't drink anymore.

I guess it's not the worse problem in the world to have. 

Well, I don't have a year under my belt yet but I do have almost 5 months sober.  What I have noticed is that I am much more available for my family.  I don't have to worry about passing out/blacking out every night and wondering what happened when I wake up the next day.  I have saved a huge amount of money since I am not restocking my keg or wine rack every other week or more often.  There are many more things as well but I think you get the picture.  I have not noticed any fitness gains but that is because I haven't been training.  I have been trying to get my life back on track since it was derailed so badly by alcohol and my own poor choices.

I wish you good luck in your quest to find balance!

are you saying you'll go dry for 2013 and then start up again? Looking at the quotes I underlined, I'm curious if you think you can go back to drinking if moderation doesn't work for you??

I'm the son of an alcoholic and my brother is in AA for 20 years. so I keep a close eye on my drinking.  I think I'm okay, but want to make sure I control it, not the other way around.  Most of the time I have 2-3 beers at dinner and don't ever feel the need to go out and get drunk.  The only impact that drinking has on my training is that I tend to eat more than I would like. I wish you luck and commend you for dealing with this.  Beside my father, I have seen some friends absolutely ruin their lives and families with out of control drinking.

My last drink was February 15th, 2012.  At first I just wanted to take 2 weeks off until my birthday, but then my birthday came and I had no desire to drink, so I decided to make it a year.  The first month was the hardest.  The only other thing that sucks is all my friends telling me "just one wouldn't hurt," but after the first month that all stops and you start noticing that you really don't need to drink, and the extra cash in the bank account is nice as well.  Especially since a week after my last drink I picked up my first road bike and started training for this triathlon thing everybody here likes to talk about so much, and having extra cash around for bikes/clothing/etc was definitely worth it.  

Now I'm sitting here with only 44 days left and I'm not even sure I'm going to go back to drinking again.  Part of me wants to just become a social drinker, but I'm not sure.  Oh and one more thing, being the full-time DD is pretty nice.  Get to drive other people's cars, don't have to pay for gas, and get to watch drunk people all night.  

10 years sober

Nothing good has ever happened to me while I was drinking. To this day, i do not see why people think it is so important to drink a beer!

I would say there is good reason to stop if it is affecting your goals. I've had to do this, but not for alcohol. I don't exactly know what a moderate drinker is, but I would call myself one. I like wine with dinner, and I'll have a beer when I'm out with friends. I also enjoy a good scotch and a cigar. If you were to quantify, I'd say:

Wine - A glass 3-4 nights a week. Beer - usually 2 when I'm at a bar, so every couple weeks. Scotch and cigar - once a month??

I would say I sill get hammered about once a year to the point where I am hung over the next day. Almost invariably at the first post-season tri or running party, but then again 90% of the people there are in bad shape before the night is over, too. Takes about 4 beers. Otherwise, I fall asleep before I can drink too much, which I count as a blessing.

Good luck with your goals.

I've been sober almost 3 times as long, but I can say that I did have some good times drinking. There were just way too many horrible things.

something i've noticed when giving up something that is very prevalent in your social circles is the strange sense of pride when saying no thanks.  there's something about having the will power to not do something when everyone else is that's so rewarding. 

i'll echo those that say it gives you a different view on things while your out with people that are drinking.  you realize, or at least i did, how sad it is to see how people plan their lives around one thing. 

i may get hate mail for saying this, but i compare it to watching football for some people.  i've got some friends that plan their entire weekends, every weekend, around watching football on TV.  they don't care if their wife and kids want to hang out with them or not, they just want to be on the recliner with the remote in hand.  it's almost an addiction.  same thing can go for training for triathlons, really.

on the other side of that, i also noticed how arrogant and prissy i acted sometimes because i felt like i was better than someone else for not doing something they enjoyed doing.  that's no bueno either.

so…if you feel booze is keeping you from meeting your goals, then quit if you can, but keep it in perspective.  if self control against moderation is the real problem, then quitting the booze may lead you to training too much, which may cause to you to not meet a different goal. 

best of luck!

I know this thread is in the spirit of quitting/limiting alcohol. But it IS possible for people to enjoy a drink or two for a variety of reasons that do not involve bad things happening. Everyone is different, reacts differently. Congrats on your 10 years.

Agreed.  I enjoy alcohol.  We all know it's not good for you in excess but neither is watching too much TV or eating fatty foods or lots of other things.  And some people can handle the amount they drink better than others.  I applaud those who realize they maybe they cannot and do something about it.

But to say you don't understand why people would want to drink a beer?  Ever had a good Belgium beer? 

Part of the reason I got into cycling is my club meets at the pub after a hard ride.  The social aspect of having a few beers is what makes us all so close.  We just burned off 3-5,000 calories.  I think we can tack a few 100 back on.