czaz

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!