(03-31-2019 01:57 AM)scotian Wrote:  Checking in at six months, half way there!

Good work, my man. It may get harder in the next six months as the ice melts and the spring torrents start flowing; just keep that in mind, especially if you find yourself headed to warmer climes. All you need to do is to remember, in the right moment, that you made a decision and that the point of that decision is that you stick to it no matter what. Remember that and you'll be all right.

(03-31-2019 05:06 PM)PrimeTime32 Wrote:  I just passed the two year mark on March 28th and life has never been better. Just three years ago I was a homeless acloholic with very little hope and not much desire to live. Thanks to this forum and the inspiration I get by reading these posts, especially in this thread. Iam most definitely signing up for year 3 of the wagon.

PrimeTime32, that is wonderful to hear. The deuce is such a big deal, and the trey will be an even bigger deal if you can believe that; the deuce consolidates, but the trey cements. Please keep it up -- I cannot promise you there will not be more ups and downs in your life, but I can promise you that through all the ups and downs, the wagon will always do you justice and reward your commitment.

Welcome back aboard for year 3 as of March 28, 2019 and I look forward to hearing more from you in this thread as time goes on.

I made it to a year in December.
I did a couple shots (about a third of a pint) on my birthday in February and felt awful. I think I'm over alcohol. My only complaint is I really don't go out to the local spots at night anymore but they were not "target rich" places in this city anyway.

I am a little disappointed in myself as I had no real reason to drink except being at my small birthday get together but I was only committed to a year (based off the thread) and a couple of drinks in a year is not the end of the world.

This month I'll be half way through my second (non consecutive) wagon. I've got two fellow riders with my exact same date, one on and one off the forum.

This wagon is easier and more enjoyable. During my first one I thought about drinking, thought about the end of the wagon, thought about how to get through parties or events all the time. This time, it's different. It does not come to mind that I am on the wagon, and I don't think about the end date. I don't worry about having a heart attack because of not drinking wine because my body tells me that story was alcohol industry bullshit.

My other health goals are coming along nicely. I don't stress over getting into keto, I find myself looking for carbs to slow it down. In business, my first wagon helped me lay the foundation to get through some serious heavy business, legal and financial problems. Not drinking let me write all the problems on a single sheet of paper and the paper no longer weighed more than another sheet. On the second wagon I look deeper into the future and have the patience to plan bigger things then getting out of emergencies.

The second wagon is more like having a slow speed camera that you can use and operate live in real time. The thoughts, words, micro-expressions, deceptions and sincerities are played in real time in front of you at a speed that makes the hummingbird's wings single motions, and you can think and act on them without the blur.

(04-03-2019 07:28 PM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  

(03-19-2019 11:24 AM)Kentemo Wrote:  I ended up breaking my wagon today/yesterday. It all started in a party hostel with a girl. I thought I deserved a beer, rationalized it. Was happy about it, ended up having the worst night in a long long time while spending a week worth of money in one day. If this isn't a sign, I don't know what is.

I'm back on the wagon from 20 March 2019. I'll keep this misstep in mind as well.

Kentemo, thank you for this post. Welcome aboard as of March 20, 2019 and I hope to hear more from you here over time.

Thanks Lizard. I have to restart again. I had a birthday party and there was a new bar opening in town that had free drinks until 11 pm. So yeah. Couldn't resist again.

Not drinking anything just isn't fun for me personal. Seems like I have to go out of my own way to order water, instead of a beer (probably the point) . I'm getting good in drinking less though. But a glass of wine with dinner or a glass of scotch/whiskey after a 10 hour day once a month feels good.

Maybe I get back on the wagon later.
Also having another challenge of running a marathon in 2 months, so will at least cut back a lot.

I passed the 3 month mark recently. I'm too stubborn to drink at this point. I save a lot of money because I basically don't spend it and I'm working all the time. Having more cash is probably the only tangible thing I've got to show for the wagon though. I've been a lot more pissed off than I was before the wagon, but I guess that's just how it works.

My alcohol tolerance is so high that I need 5 strong Long Islands to feel buzzed. I spend serious cash on this shit and I am sick of not addressing the issue. Once I went 3 months without alcohol, smoking, and masturbation, so I am sure I can do it again and this time for a longer period of time. Count me in as of April 16, 2019. Zero alcohol, zero other substances, zero masturbation, zero porn, and zero starbucks and other crap.

That's gonna take a lot of will power to quit ALL of that at once. Maybe just quit the booze first and allow yourself coffee and jerking off for a while, and then eliminate those later?

Logically didn't read through the whole thread but I'm doing a month without alcohol and have some observations on why it's hard for me in particular.

-I'm doing no sugar as well and I live in Africa. Going to a club here and asking for water will make you extremely suspect and strange. There is no culture or concept of abstaining from both alcohol and sugar drinks here. Just general health concepts and concerns do not exist here. Some bars actually do not have water. Since I was a strong drinker, but just a social one, not too problematic, but a true sugar addict, I feel the No sugar is more important for me in my life. Doing both long term will be hard and if I have to choose now I will keep the No sugar going.

-My game is very much reliant on asking a girl to come and have a drink at my place, usually wine since girls love that. In almost all cultures, 'let's go have a glass of wine at my place' is a very acceptable and efficient way to get a girl back. Not having that tool in the box makes it quite a lot harder. Wine shows class, romanticism and can easily translate to escalation and bang. Another tool of mine has been hosting the after party for a select small group with at least one girl that I can bang. Can't do that when you have no alcohol at your place.

-Unknown girls here have bought me drinks in bars as a way of hitting on me. Refusing it will probably end the interaction.

So, I will keep doing this month of no alcohol and then probably install a regime of limited units of drinks per week, then I can't get fucked up hard anymore and will have to plan drinking strategically. 2 times a week inviting a girl for a glass of wine will not be an issue then, nor accepting a drink in a bar, but drinking 10-15 beers on a binge night will not be allowed. It is a recipe for disaster some nights since once you start drinking it is harder, but I will give it a try anyway.

Anyway, you guys are beast, good luck!

Year four is finished.

Remember being a kid? Four years was a lifetime. That's an entire high school career. But now it goes by in a blink. Scary.

I'm signing up for year five as of April 20th, 2019.

Once again, thank you Lizard of Oz, and everyone else that has encouraged me to keep it up over the years. I appreciate it, gentlemen.

(04-15-2019 02:24 PM)speculator Wrote:  My alcohol tolerance is so high that I need 5 strong Long Islands to feel buzzed. I spend serious cash on this shit and I am sick of not addressing the issue. Once I went 3 months without alcohol, smoking, and masturbation, so I am sure I can do it again and this time for a longer period of time. Count me in as of April 16, 2019. Zero alcohol, zero other substances, zero masturbation, zero porn, and zero starbucks and other crap.

speculator, are you in for a full year as of April 16, 2019? If so, please confirm and I will officially welcome you on board.

I concur with etwsake: trying to quit all these things at once may not be the best idea. One can glide through 3 months on mere enthusiasm, but for the long haul more than enthusiasm will be required, and one step at a time is best. There is also a kind of anxiety and impatience in venturing to solve all of one's problems, supposed and actual, in one blow -- the same anxiety and impatience that are characteristic of many hard drinker types; and there is a useful discipline in contradicting this impulse and taking an unglamorous one step at a time approach. I hope you will consider it.

(04-19-2019 09:28 PM)etwsake Wrote:  Year four is finished.

Remember being a kid? Four years was a lifetime. That's an entire high school career. But now it goes by in a blink. Scary.

I'm signing up for year five as of April 20th, 2019.

Once again, thank you Lizard of Oz, and everyone else that has encouraged me to keep it up over the years. I appreciate it, gentlemen.

That is wonderful news, etwsake. I know you've had some hard times along the way -- maybe as hard as anyone here -- and I greatly respect and admire your perseverance with the wagon. Four years is not, in fact, a very long time -- but it's not short, either; it's a good thick chunk of time and to have that wagon mileage is like having a deposit in the bank made of solid gold. You may not be able to cash it in just yet, or for a while -- but you know it's there, and every nugget of the time you've put in counts.

Welcome back aboard for year 5 as of April 20, 2019 and I look forward to hearing more from you in this thread as time goes on.

I'm almost at the 4 month mark. I've decided to recommit myself to the wagon and stop fucking around.

This past friday I DD'd for a friend, we hit some bars and I drank club soda. I wasn't tempted to drink, but I was tempted to punch a few people in the face. Being around drunk, obnoxious barflies was hard enough when I was drinking. Sober? Fuggettabouttit.

The rest of the weekend i spent working at my bartending job. Some might think that I'd be tempted to drink there but that's never been an issue for me, even when I was actively drinking. What gets annoying is drunk customers wanting to buy me a shot.

I have had to accept the fact that I need to temper my expectations for this wagon. I won't be in a good mood most of the time and I won't be having fun. But that's the breaks. I'm slowly learning how this works.

As for socializing, going out, ect...I had already seen diminishing returns on that when I was still drinking. I had already grown sick and tired of drunk idiots, barsloots, bullshit conversation, ect. That shit has played itself out. If I'm to have a social life at this point it's going to have to re-invent itself, and the only way out is through. Finding new ways and means and all that. I think I've made things more difficult on myself thus far by having the expectation that this would somehow be 'more fun' or easy, or that I would see immediate results that would reward me for my abstinence. Well nothing in life worth having is easy, why would this be any different?

Changing behaviors and expecting to reap the benefits of the shitty behavior you were engaged in beforehand doesn't make much sense, does it?

This thread has become like my personal AA meeting...I don't go to AA meetings in real life because they're gay as fuck, and full of crybabies.

Thanks everyone, keep up the good work.

Hey Rhyme

Way to go, man. Keep it up. A month or so back, you were pretty frustrated. Glad you’re sticking with it. It’ll get easier and you’ll find your stride.

Awesome that you had the willpower to stay the course even with tending bar.

I agree with you about AA meetings. I went to one meeting many years ago and it was a downer. This thread is much better.

I set my old quitting date as 4/11/2017 even though in hindsight it was probably a bit earlier since a wakeup call at a doctor's office in that month served as the impetus to quit. I unwisely keep no daily ledger to mark a particular date so its set at 4/11 since its easier to remember.

I didnt go into a lot of details in my one year sobriety post on this thread last year partly because the risk of being "found out" on the internet is always there and my medical diagnosis is not extremely common (it might even be a self doxx) and would likely affect future employment. Some day I may comment in far greater detail but not until I dont care if I get fired or quietly prevented from advancement.

That being said its safe to say I'm glad to have been sober the last two years. Its been an eye opener for sure.

If you suffer from a serious drinking problem you may never know exactly why you drink as heavily as you do until you quit. For me it was partly a coping mechanism for misery, financial problems, medical problems and serious sleep problems. Getting shitwrecked made all those nagging chronic worries and problems go away for a little while and made me feel great for a few hours (and able to "cure" insomnia temporarily by passing out blackout drunk) but it was no lasting fix and always created more problems in the end. Like all chemicals, the party is going to be over some day and you alone have to decide when and how its going to go down.

Since quitting drinking I notice nothing but benefits. Even half assing a gym routine I have gotten stronger and more muscular, like nutrient partitioning works better for no apparent reason. Getting out of bed regularly and actually enjoying a day of labor or leisure happens regularly instead of infrequently.

Sleep quality is better overall. I have less generalized anxiety, theres always a lot of money in my checking account to buy healthy things like nutrient rich food.

The year I quit drinking I made the most amount of money I ever made in my life. Last year I made even more yet, by nearly 25% increase and i may go further this year.

While doing so I dumped nearly all the difference into investment accounts and towards debt, so soon all my serious problems may be completely over and done with. I'm slowly digging myself out of this hole and might get my goal accomplished of being debt free and even prudently invested several years ahead of schedule and on an income some of you guys might think is chicken feed, and quitting drinking is one of the biggest reasons why.

Granted its not all about money as I have regained control of life in other ways but paying off massive sums of debt is what Im most proud of.

Seven months and grateful every day!