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Question for old timers

Old 11-27-2014, 10:41 AM
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Question for old timers

Since food is a focus point today, I was wondering about worrying about what you eat in early sobriety. I used to be very cognizant of what I ate before I became an alcoholic. When I drank, I ate really crappily (is that a word? lol) Salty, greasy high calorie, low nutritional value stuff. You know bar food. So now as I enter sobriety should I even worry about what I eat as it seems another stressor. I hope this post makes sense.
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Old 11-27-2014, 10:53 AM
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In the first few months my goal each day was to be Sober, that was as much as I could deal with and so I ate what I craved, sugar, chocolate, an extra biscuit with a cup of tea, I had a sole focus and that was not to touch alcohol.

As time goes on though and Sobriety gets "easier", temptation fades and Sober muscles are developed, less of my time and energy was spent worrying or being consumed with thoughts of drinking and I was able to sort out my diet/exercise etc.

In my opinion at the start, do what you need to do to remain Sober, if that doesn't happen, then what's the point of being healthy in other areas of life? alcohol was going to kill me if I didn't get that bit right, all of that can wait until you have some Sober time under your belt!!
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Old 11-27-2014, 11:02 AM
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Thanks PK...that makes a lot of sense. How long did it take for you to be able to address your diet after you quit drinking? I suppose everyone is different in this regard.
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Old 11-27-2014, 11:11 AM
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Sober muscles...... I don't know why, but that hit me in the head. Thanks. N
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Old 11-27-2014, 11:13 AM
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The context of my drinking was in the space of 7yrs I had never gone more than 2/3 days without a drink, and so Sobriety needed to be the main priority!!

It took 2/3 months of solid Sobriety to give me the confidence and reassurance that I was finally making it happen to start to address other areas of my life, I turning around my diet, started to do more exercise, more sleep, more fluids etc etc.

The phrase Rome wasn't built in a day is very appropriate, a life can't be turned around overnight, but the keystone and the linchpin of it all was not letting another drop of alcohol pass my lips, if I could do that then I knew I could do anything, I could start to rebuild a life that I could be proud of!!
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Old 11-27-2014, 11:57 AM
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I may not be the best person to comment on this but perhaps you find something useful in it. First off, I completely agree with everything PK said.

I am not an old timer for sobriety, but I consider myself that way regarding recovery from the eating disorders I suffered from in my teens and early 20's. When I read posts here on SR from people claiming being "recovered" from alcoholism, that's how I feel about my eating disorders in the far past. So that sort of recovery involved learning, for the first time in my life, how to eat a normal, balanced diet. It took maybe a couple years to get where I wanted to be with it and where everything became effortless and I no longer felt any fear or doubt about it. I've kept my diet pretty good ever since, even during my drinking (with the occasional pigging out in blackouts) because of this history, so eating was not a concern for me after getting sober.

I personally don't cherish any sort of extreme or restrictive diet unless it's necessary due to allergies or other illnesses. I basically eat what I like, and the "like" is a result of learning how to live well with food and enjoy it in a normal way in my past. I had to re-train myself the same way we change habits in early sobriety. With time, it had become automatic and I rarely crave crappy foods excessively. Sometimes I do allow myself to indulge in certain foods that I like, eg. the gelato/sorbet thing I just posted about on another thread. Or generous slice of pizza (or two). I don't like sweets much (except specific kinds, like the above sorbet thing or a bit of chocolate here and there, or Coffee Mocha drinks). The thing, for me, is that ~80% of my eating habits are pretty balanced and healthy, and I do allow a little bit of deviance in it. I personally don't like the idea of excessive restriction and forcing in anything except no alcohol no matter what now. My philosophy is that if we starve ourselves too much, it'll bite back (our brains will) when we don't want it... so again, balance.

I am lucky not having any food allergies so I eat mostly everything, but as I said pretty minimal amount of non-natural sugar, I also don't like fatty stuff much because it makes me uncomfortable afterward. I enjoy salty snacks, though, sometimes.

So back to early sobriety. My first line suggestion to everyone would be not getting into new extreme eating habits, because that will be yet another thing to fix later. But if that's the only way we can stably maintain sobriety and get some solid time under our belt, then I'm all for comfort food initially. One thing that can possibly make the trick is spices, if you like spicy food (I do). That can give us the satisfaction our brains desire to some extent and we can use spices on many different things in creative, varied combinations.

Don't worry too much about this right now, AF, focus on sobriety for a while
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Old 11-27-2014, 11:59 AM
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While I don't agree with "eat whatever you want and however much of it you want" in early Sobriety, I wouldn't try to change your entire diet/health habits all at once. Your focus should be not picking up, but overeating to avoid drinking can lead to a whole new set of problematic behavior. Change things little by little, an added serving of fruit and veggies here, substituting a healthier protien or carb there. You'll be surprised how much your body will begin to crave nutritious foods as you get further into Sobriety. Good luck

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Old 11-27-2014, 12:42 PM
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Over 3 years sober. I found i craved chocolate and sweets- nothing crazy. It settled very , very slowly. In time i made and continue to make changes in my diet. I am now in the healthy weight range (was in the obese range).

I made not drinking my sole focus for the first year (ie no fitness kicks or other "passions"). I did Not want to trade my addiction for an obsession. I just did more of various things , got my affairs in order, caught up and it worked out.

I now ride my bike to work and play in a band- bit these things came to the fore when i was sober over a year.
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Old 11-27-2014, 01:28 PM
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Yeah, it takes time and things evolve AF. For me, I have always eaten fairly well and always exercised so things didn't change much. But, when things were busy I would use 'convenience' food, such as packaged rice, jars of pasta sauce. That has evolved into spending more time grocery shopping and in the kitchen and making more things from scratch. But, I just done what felt right at the time.
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