The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
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Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
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Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
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So just a quick note - I quit drinking alcohol daily, and my life has improved drastically. I would never have called myself an alcoholic, but I did like to have a few beers and/or a glass or two of whisky after the work day.
I quit drinking daily mostly on a lark, and partly because I was trying to cut back on expenses. I'm shocked at how many benefits I've seen.
It's far easier to write. Focusing in general comes to me much more easily, even things like focusing at work which I found difficult.
I've lost about 10 pounds and gotten to my goal weight without any outside effort (in fact I feel like I eat more to compensate for not drinking) but still.
On top of that, I'm much better able to regulate and feel my emotions. Despite not getting drunk very often, alcohol apparently still had a large numbing effect on me.
For any other casual drinkers who are thinking of stopping, I'd recommend it. I still plan to drink here and there with friends or at social events, but I had no idea how much of a negative impact my couple drinks a day was having on my life.
Now you make me want to quit drinking. The only problem is that I never started.
LOL. Well hey, there's always time to form the habit...
Nah, I mean there are plenty of other things you can do to function as 'training weights' I suppose, but it's definitely not pleasant to go through the process. Addiction, even the mild kind, is no joke.
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I think drinking and aging might be a bad combination, and the "aging" half of that really sneaks up on you. I have one drink on a typical night, 3 drinks on a wild night (once a week) ... but these days I have to be careful to stay well hydrated on a wild night or 3 units of alcohol is enough for me to sleep poorly and feel exhausted the day after. A decade or so ago I gave up drinking for a couple months to see if I noticed a difference, and I didn't, but maybe it's past time to repeat the experiment...
That’s a fair point, I am stretching into middle age at this point so it probably has something to do with the effects. Aging really is a bitch, isn’t it?
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Thanks for posting this. I could've written it word-for-word myself. Beer certainly adds to the waistline. A girl (well, woman now) I've known for years a month or so ago playfully whacked my belly a few slaps before I could do the requisite tensing up of my abs, and it became clear to me that I had started to form a spare tire around the midriff --I, skinny man since birth. That, along with asides about my beer gut, my sudden ability to recreate this scene with ease, and some weird inflammation issues that I suspected were related to chronic drinking, and I was inspired to give it a rest.
I was mildly irritable on day one, but after a few days I only noticed the positives. I haven't quit drinking entirely --I had a beer the other night and was quick to realize how low my tolerance had become (or how high it had been before). Anyway good for you. Let's keep this up.
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Damn, sorry you had to deal with the bar shit. I’ve never liked drinking at bars myself.
I’m curious though, did you like eavesdrop and hear them talking shit or catch it through the grapevine? (An incredibly apropos saying for this situation)
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Why?
I didn't see the above comment before it was deleted, but I will say that I've seen bartenders treat their customers with undeserved contempt before.
Recently I holidayed in a different city in my home country and between social engagements with family and friends I had a lot of free time on my hands. I spent a couple of hours on a weekday afternoon alone at an Irish bar near my hotel. I drank 3 pints of lager and had a good time browsing my phone and texting friends out in the beer garden. I was unfailingly polite in our interactions, but the bartender on duty seemed very contemptuous that I was day drinking alone. To be fair there were obviously long term barflys hanging around the pub by themselves so I guess I pattern matched to that.
The city I traveled to is notorious for it's isolationism and bad service though, so maybe it was all in my head.
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I did the same thing early last year. Tried it a bit again this year and quit again.
The thing that surprised me is how long the substance has its subtle claws in you. It takes weeks until the habit and its tools of coercion are out of the mind. It wants to sustain itself.
I, too, lost some weight and found myself with more money than before (high-cost country). I also feel a bit more "honest" than I did as a regular drinker. Like I'm not looking for excuses to get intoxicated anymore.
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I took up a 'mild' (at least by American stoner standards, half a smallish joint a day before dinner) weed habit some years ago for a year. During that year, I stopped drinking all alcohol except very occasionally at events. I've always been skinny but actually became clinically underweight (despite the munchies mythology) because I'd guess a moderate proportion of my caloric intake had been alcohol.
I did find that it dampened any drive or motivation I had to do things with my free time though, so I stopped after a while. Now, again, I like a glass of wine with dinner, and sometimes a drink or two with friends, family or coworkers. I tried a few other drugs in my youth, and none of them (even weed) made me feel good, maybe relaxed or energetic, but not 'good'. Alcohol, even in small doses, makes me feel happy (my family has some rare examples of Jewish alcoholics). That's a dangerous thing indeed.
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