quit drinking

Wow, this place has surely changed! Oct 17th will be three years without a drink for me. I pretty much quit on my own with some motivation from this board, I think we had a good group of active people on here which was a godsend for me. I counted days for a long while and am glad the days of counting are behind me as well. I don’t consider myself “sober” but just that I don’t drink. I don’t think much about drinking aside from thinking it would be fun but I remember how that fun turned into not so fun.

Since I quit drinking my wife and I had a baby who is turning 2 next week. He was born three months premature and, boy, if I were drinking through that I can’t imagine where I would be. It was a real testament to how serious I was about quitting and knowing I could get through anything without it.

In January of this year I started running and in June I did my first 1/2 marathon. On Sept 12 I raced in my first Olympic Triathlon (1 mile swim, 25 mile bike ride, 6 mile run) and it was amazing. I am going to start training for a half and full ironman next year which I definitely couldn’t do if I were drinking.

To all of you struggling and on the fence about it… hold on to the feelings that got you to where you wanted to quit. I think about them a lot, down to the last swig of vodka I had and pouring the last little bit out. I think more about how much I hated being hungover than how much I loved being drunk and how my life had spiraled out of control and just kind of sucked in general. Today I am inspiring people through not drinking and doing things like triathlons, etc.

Hang in there, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better but either way you will feel much better in the end.

Good luck to everyone and congratulations on everyone who is happy with where they’re at today!

Hey everyone, not sure who is still here and who isn’t but I just wanted to check in. I’ve got the flu something fierce so this will be short. Oct 29th will be two years without a drink. Pretty crazy! I think about the fact that my son just turned one (after being born three months premature) and how blessed I am that I’ve never been around him (or didn’t want to be around him) due to drinking. Perhaps time will tell, but I feel like I’ve broken some kind of cycle in my family. Drinking to me is such a non-issue (aside from thinking about it the same way I think about how college was more fun than this sometimes). Being sick reminds me of how I felt just about every single morning for who knows how many years.

I’m not really sure how I weathered the storms present and past but I have been able to and cope rather well. The storms of the future are merely but speculation and I see no need in worrying about them now.

I wish the best of luck to all of you, old or new, and hope that however you go about doing it, you find some level of accomplishment in your goals.

Cheers!

I start my 13 week running program tomorrow. I will let you all know how it goes!

Been trying to pop by and post a msg for ages but haven’t had the time with the baby and all. Things here are good. Our son was born three months early and has had a myriad of issues that are all slowly going away with hopefully no long term issues, but we shall see. He is doing so well and I am thankful I am not drinking right now. It’s been well over 500 days for me, 18 months or so. Quitting drinking has really changed my life in a lot of great ways, but has also made me become more honest with myself, which is a good thing. I still think about drinking, but more in the sense of “I’m glad I’m not drinking through this…”

So happy to see everyone doing good. I hope you all continue with your success. To the new people here, it’s a great network and a great place to unload when things get rough. I’m back on 43 because I’m going to start running on June 1 and want to have something to discipline myself and check in on a daily basis to keep me going.

Good luck and hope for continued success to everyone!

Been trying to pop by and post a msg for ages but haven’t had the time with the baby and all. Things here are good. Our son was born three months early and has had a myriad of issues that are all slowly going away with hopefully no long term issues, but we shall see. He is doing so well and I am thankful I am not drinking right now. It’s been well over 500 days for me, 18 months or so. Quitting drinking has really changed my life in a lot of great ways, but has also made me become more honest with myself, which is a good thing. I still think about drinking, but more in the sense of “I’m glad I’m not drinking through this…”

So happy to see everyone doing good. I hope you all continue with your success. To the new people here, it’s a great network and a great place to unload when things get rough. I’m back on 43 because I’m going to start running on June 1 and want to have something to discipline myself and check in on a daily basis to keep me going.

Good luck and hope for continued success to everyone!

just checking in, seeing whats going on. I’m doing well, busy as hell with the baby. Just bought a new TV so we can watch the Cardinals in the superbowl (We live in PHX and my wife is a fan, I just like big TV’s).

Baby is doing good but wow does he poop a LOT!

Sounds like everyone is doing awesome, I check the boards all the time, just never have time to post…

Keep it up, everyone!

As I’m sure most of you know, it’s been about 400 days for me… pretty amazing. I’m sure most of you also know that my wife and I had our first kid on Sept 28th and he’s been in the NICU ever since. That’s been 58 days. I’m sure other people have been through equally traumatic and stressful situations so i don’t want to seem like I’m making my situation seem any worse than anyone else, but it really gives me a fresh perspective on what counting the days means. I feel pretty petty counting the days I haven’t drank alcohol like a castaway on an island when now I am counting the days until my son can come home for the first time. He is doing well, but it’s been a really difficult time overall. I can say I’m very, very glad I am not drinking today as I’m sure it would be 10x harder. I am also glad I was not drinking the night my wife had to go to the hospital… or the mornings I had to wake up at 3am to go to the hospital. I’m glad I didn’t have to go through quitting drinking sooner because my son was early or I ended up in jail from a DUI. The only real advice I can give outside of the “hoorahs” and fluff is that life is too short and you can never fully plan for everything. If drinking is a problem to, and for, you today, you’re cheating yourself. I never look back and regret drinking, mostly because I did have a lot of fun, but I also never look back and regret quitting as my drinking wasn’t “fun” anymore.

In my opinion, drinking is selfish and I don’t want to have any priorities over my family anymore. This still doesn’t mean I will never drink again, but it sure makes it easier to think of how many things could go wrong if I were drinking today. Even the thought of drinking when my kid is just at home scares me… too many things can happen and my wife and I are his only advocates in this house, the last thing I need to do is put myself first.

I hope everyone is well and that you all enjoy your holidays!

Hey, just popping in for a sec. I didn’t get a chance to do the “whoo hoo, 1 year!” dance, but that was back on Oct 17th or somewhere right around there. Things have been crazy busy with the new baby. He’s still in the NICU but doing really great. He will be in the NICU 7 weeks as of tomorrow. Hard to believe he still wasn’t due until Christmas!

Needless to say, things are pretty good, still not drinking. I don’t even think about it much, unless I’m bored. Getting over the “thinking about it” part took me a good three or four intense months, wondering “will this ever go away?”. That was after I had quit for six months. All in all, I would say for anyone that drinks more than a few drinks a week and you want to quit, you gotta give it a good six months to a year before you can really see the changes. That’s just my experience, though.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Good luck to everyone and have a great weekend!

I’m still here people, been a crazy few weeks! Our baby boy was born 9/28 at 1:03pm. He was so excited to watch the economy collapse that he decided to come nearly 3 months early! It has been a lot to deal with having him in the NICU, traveling daily back and forth to the hospital, going through the motions of having a baby but not having him home, etc. We’re on a “baby” schedule, but it’s sad that he’s there. He’s amazing, though!

I think these past three weeks have solidified my non-drinking status. I think i’ve had every excuse under the sun to drink but it’s just not worth it. Oct 17th(ish) is one year. I’m just so glad to meet my son sober knowing we are being the best possible parents we can be.

My dad comes into town friday for five days, I’m sure he’ll ask me if I want to go to an AA meeting. I think I’ll go for the coffee.

Hope everyone is doing well. Keep on keeping on and remember that you can do it.

Hey all, just checking in. This is a pretty tough time for me but I think I will be able to manage. As some of you know my wife is pregnant and we’re due in December (Christmas day to be exact). On Thursday morning at approximately 1am my wife woke up bleeding. There was a lot of blood so we rushed straight to the hospital not knowing what was going on. We are 10 weeks premature from a normal 37 week term so this was extremely frightening. Right now my wife and the baby are stable, they’re focusing on keeping the contractions down, and keeping the baby stable and happy in the womb so he doesn’t want to come out early. My wife has been put on hospitalized bed rest until she gives birth. This basically means that I’m living at home alone for up to the next two and a half MONTHS. I don’t think I will have a problem, but you may see the frequency of my posts increase. It is ironic that this happened on the 11th month of my quitting, so these next 30 days are imperative not only to our baby, but also for me to somehow maintain my sanity, her sanity and hit that one year mark. I do wholeheartedly appreciate everyone’s support, comments and comments (in case I forget to mention it later).

I hope everyone is doing well.