Becoming Sober (Page 25)

 Congrats on your decision Red. Those hangovers just seem to get nastier and longer as you get older don't they? I couldn't imagine dealing with one now.  Welcome and good luck!

Welcome, and all the best to you!

Hope all are well.

I'm off to work though my day . . .hmm . . .that might be too ambitious.  How about I just do the best I can for an hour.  I'll check out the next hour when I get there.

Nice! Keep it up

Annie - great way to approach it.

I'm tired as anything, but doing well... hope everyone else is good - for Today. 

ebshot - 2012-11-16 6:45 AM My grandfather passed away yesterday and I am struggling with the emotions I am feeling.  I've never had to deal with death while sober.  All I know is that drinking won't help and I won't pick up a drink today.  But geez, I'm not feeling so hot right now. 

Very sorry for your loss, Erica

Very happy for your approach to it.  Life will be life, the difference is in how we grow to handle what comes at us, instead of hiding/sheltering from it inside a bottle.

Hey Erica,

How you holding up?

Very cool. Getting on a training plan not only gets you thinking positively about today, it also gets you looking toward the future & helps us realize that tomorrow is only a day away. It'll get better. Eventually you will miss your grandfather less, and feel joy for having shared a part of your lives together, but that's probably a ways off right now.

Just a thought:

I'm not sure if you're up for it, but maybe to help you look forward, and to give you a target for your training, you might want to go on the Race List and put a race in your Race List. It may be too far away to be able to sign up for it now, but at least it's there as a target to train towards. I know I'm garbage at training if I don't have a race to train for.

Hang in there. It does get better.

I've also read a book by Allen Carr called The Easy Way To Control Alcohol. It helped me a great deal.

Keep on keepin' on, Erica.

@Danger - every time I look at your profile pic, my eyes don't see the bird at first and I think you have a gnarly ZZ-Top beard going on.  It's kinda awesome, hehe.

Ha!  I thought that was just me that saw that....

Me three

Erica, I love you. {MELON PRESS}. See your inspires for more details

It's amazing what the body can do when you aren't poisoning it and you can actually stay relatively hydrated

Just thinking of you. Holidays are coming up and that can be a hard time for anyone. Loosing someone you are close to does not help. I know you can't see it right now... but it will get better. Your Grandfather is going to give you a gift... the gift of knowing you can get through anything and you do not have to get loaded.

We don't just get sober and all of a sudden life is all great. I'm the same guy I was before I got loaded, while I got loaded, and after I got loaded. The only thing that is different is that today I KNOW I have a choice I never knew I had. The choice to do something different, and the help of others to show me how. And I can live life on life's terms.

I'm not one of those types that call bad things blessings. And no I'm not saying a loss is a gift. I would rather they still be with me. But you will come out of this a stronger person. The person your Grandfather would want you to be. You don't have to believe me, just know that I believe it, and you can borrow mine till you get your own. I have plenty. Just do the next right thing, and stick close to your sponsor.

And ya... training is a good thing.

Ironically, that shot was taken at a wildlife rescue shelter near Capetown, South Africa.

They rescue cheetahs and birds of prey, as well as working with local farmers so they'll stop shooting the cheetahs. It's very cool. I was going to do the Capetown Eleven tri but I've injured my calf muscle (again) and won't be ready in time. Besides that I don't think it's the best place for my first open water competition. For info on that check out the Shark Tracker app for iPhones.

Any ideas for a March tri? Erica, you interested?

Here is a story about a guy replacing his drinking addiction with distance running...  Check it out if you want.

 Happy Turkey day tomorrow everyone!

Great story and I read further about Phoenix Multisport. I would dearly love to see them expand to my neck of the woods.

That article on Mishka Shubaly is interesting.  In addiction to combating addiction, exercise often seems better than medication for fighting depression.

Erica, I hope you are hanging tough through the grief.  The best book I ever read on grief was How to Survive the Loss of a Love.  It is a very short and helpful read if you are a reader at all.  Also I just drafted off of your gutsiness (is that a word) and got a 20 minute run in - thanks.  The power of the Courage Peloton!  Please hold on and break that hour down to 15 minute bits if you need to.