Alcohol free to 20/12/2012

[Peter]

I, too, will be raising the occasional glass to wish them well!

[shyumu]

Support noted and appreciated!

Now, must resist cheese too.  No beer today but loads of cheese.  Must stay on target.

[Basil]

On the price of tap water which appeared somewhere upthread, I've noticed that my Brum local will happily provide a pint of that for no charge at all, provided that it is part of a round or food related spend.
The round does not need to be more than one other chargeable item nor does it have to include any alcoholic drinks.

[shyumu]

Okay - so far so good.  Cheese appears to have replaced beer and if this alcohol free thing is going to have any effect on my waistline then I'll have to forbid cheese too.  I just don't seem to have a "moderate" setting.

Off to Gerry's Autumn Brevet tomorrow.  It's not often I ride an Audax without stopping for beer.  Looks like I'm going to have to find a new paradigm of Audax riding.  One in which I'm sober. 

[LindaG]

I miss beer too.  And wine.  A lot.

What do people do with an evening off without a drink?  It's rubbish 

Shyumu, part of me wished that your post would say you'd caved in and had a beer, so I could have one too 

[Kim]

I miss beer too.  And wine.  A lot.

What do people do with an evening off without a drink?  It's rubbish 

Same thing we do every night, Pinky.

_(Chocolate)

[Ham]

I'd actually started a month ago, not actually TT, but near enough, and for exactly the same reason. the profile of my weight loss graph is proof enough of its effacity. Worst luck. 

So I'm with you unless my fingers are crossed.....

[Butterfly]

Ok, I'm with you. I don't have a lot to give up since Clarion doesn't drink and I usually only drink when I'm camping or on a ride that stops in a pub and not always then. I didn't want to commit to it before as it was my friend's 40th Birthday Party this evening and I wanted to drink if I felt like it. I didn't, although I had a sip from a glass of champagne for the toast (I've never liked champagne so I had a sip and put it down). So I'll join you. You never know, it might help!

[Toady]

The biggest challenge is the response of friends and family.

At first people don't understand:
Are you an alcoholic?
Do you have a problem with alcohol?
Is that why you are stopping?

It can be defensive thing sometimes - coming from people worried about their own intake. 

You can of course just make some shit up if you're with non-friends - ie work people. I've never had anyone give me any shit and I'd just tell them to fuck off if they did.

Nicely put, I could have written that myself.


Finding a nice drink that's not cloyingly sweet can be a challenge.  A lot of pubs are selling alcohoh-free beer like Beck's blue, which is quite nice.  Somebody up thread mentioned Barvaria, which is nice, and you can get a lovely alcohol free Erdinger Weissbier.  I make my own jucies - love dat beetroot and ginger too. The dynamic of drinking non-alcoholic drinks is different (drinking one doesn't make you drink two ...) so you won't down the same quantities (and calories).

Another problem you might find is that drunk people can be rather tiresome.  You have to be tolerant.  Chill aht. 

If you're a car driver you might end up doing a lot of taxi duty - I actually quite enjoy that, and it's always appreciated.

[why1040]

WRT the taxi duty, when I was younger and not drinking, we had a rule...if I drove us all to the pub, the drinks were on them.   

The only time I got uncomfortable about that was when one particular friend wanted me to stop at a local (well-known) park so he could go cottaging for half an hour...that was NOT sufficiently paid for by two pints of coke

[shyumu]

Ok, I'm with you. I don't have a lot to give up since Clarion doesn't drink and I usually only drink when I'm camping or on a ride that stops in a pub and not always then. I didn't want to commit to it before as it was my friend's 40th Birthday Party this evening and I wanted to drink if I felt like it. I didn't, although I had a sip from a glass of champagne for the toast (I've never liked champagne so I had a sip and put it down). So I'll join you. You never know, it might help!

Thanks for joining in Butterfly.

Yesterday was Gerry's Autumn Brevet and I cycled past several pubs without stopping.  And saw several audax steeds parked outside said public houses... but wasn't tempted.  Well, I was tempted - but I had my batfink "shield of steel" to protect me.  I was also riding with daisyhill and enjoying every minute of the beautiful sunshine and conversation.  I'm finding the "just one drink" voice is pretty weak at the moment, it is having very little impact on my decision making process.  So far so good.  On the subject of whether this abstinence is doing me good...

when I started I weighed X kg
After 1 week I weigh X+1.3 Kg

[mrcharly-YHT]

Okay - so far so good.  Cheese appears to have replaced beer and if this alcohol free thing is going to have any effect on my waistline then I'll have to forbid cheese too.  I just don't seem to have a "moderate" setting.

Can I introduce you to Belvoir cordial and fizzy water?

Big range of types and flavour, from ginger to elderflower. Add ice, mint, lemon, whatever. It's as interesting as you make it.

Low in calories.

[shyumu]

Bit of an update.  Mrs Shyumu went away for the weekend and I felt the urge to drink myself silly, stay up until 3am, watch Withnail & I, Bladerunner and The Adjustment Bureau.  Was I feeling like indulging in morosenessness?  Yes.

But I didn't.

I thought of this public announcement.  I thought of the list of names updated in the OP and I stayed my ground.  I drank fizzy water instead.

It seems odd to me that when I made a conscious and free will decision to give up alcohol until the 20/12/2012 I find myself "wanting" to undermine myself.  Wanting to say "sod it".  I can't explain the source of the thoughts because my mind was made up.  It was like an urge towards hedonism.  Anyhue I survived the temptation to let myself go.  I stayed on target and this week it's back to business as usual.  No alcohol and no problem not drinking either.

Oh and the really good news.

Start weight = X Kg
This rose to (X+1.3) Kg in the first few week.
Today's weight (X-0.1) Kg
Woo yay.

Does anyone else have an update?

Shyumu.

[tiermat]

I am joining you in spirit, if not in practice.

This is not assisted by:
a) a couple of truely shit weeks at work (much improved by leaving the current job and starting a new one next week)
b) Mrs T buying me 12 bottles of my favourite lager at the supermarket the other day.  4 went missing rather quickly, much too quickly in fact but now there has been 4 resting in the fridge for the best part of a week and a half.  I did cave in last Thursday though and had 3 pints of Copper Dragon at the pub on the pubbe run.

I am trying my hardest to make Thursday night the only evening I drink, it is working at the moment and I have no idea what it is doing with my weight (as I never weigh myself)

Keep it up all those that are doing this, I have, in the past, managed a whole 3 years without a drink (then made up for it by falling into a job where heavy drinking on an evening was part of the culture)

[simonp]

My PB is 8 years. Current run is about 2 years, save for one drink to celebrate my Brevet 25,000 back in April - before I then discovered 2006 counted for nought and I had to get another 18 points.

[Ham]

My update is there:  http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=28731.msg914628#msg914628 (two weeks are missing, sure Simon will be updating with the tomorrow's week as well, soon)

Works for me, though to be honest cutting out the booze is only part of it.

[hellymedic]

Still alcohol-free...

[LindaG]

Me too.  But I could murder a glass of red now.

[CrinklyLion]

Go shopping instead, LG.  You know it makes sense

[Butterfly]

Still alcohol free, despite finding a can of gin and tonic had smuggled itself into our camping panniers last weekend. I shall drink it in January at the Early birds meet, assuming it isn't snowed off.

[Jules]

Still on the wagon. The weight's dropping off nicely so I've not been tempted.

[why1040]

I was out with a group of friends last night and all the others were having wine with dinner.  Since I'm neither allowed alcohol nor caffeine, I had a couple of lemonades, which were really lovely (though almost as expensive as the wine!).

One of the guys was doing the drinks order and was about to assume that I wanted wine-though why he'd do that I don't know since I've never had an alcoholic drink when out with them before.  I had to cut in and say no, I wasn't, I'd have a lemonade instead please in the middle of the order!  It's been a while since anyone's made that sort of assumption and it bothers me.  Why would it be automatically assumed that I'd have alcohol just because we're eating?   

In any case, I'm still on the wagon, both for alcohol and caffeine, and it does seem to be affecting my energy...I am feeling better and starting to actually be able to get stuff done! 

[hellymedic]

Diet Pepsi with Wetherspoon's curry last night.
Ate too much though...

[DrMekon]

I've barely drunk since August - once to celebrate getting my new job and once when I went back up to my new dept and they insisted again. I'm loathe to commit because I suspect I'll get roped in to drinks when I go back up again, but other than that caveat, I'm happy not to drink until the 20/12 too.

[Gus]

A bit late, but I'll jump on the alcohol free wagon too (Until 24/12).
I need to train a lot over the next months and use this as an extra motivator.