Originally Posted by
MissPerfumado 
I did something interesting last night. I went through all my previous SR posts and copied and pasted them into a separate file to create a sort of journal. I've been wanting to do this for a while.
It was pretty powerful to look back on early posts from December last year. It really reinforced my current resolve - especially reading how worried about my health I was just a few weeks ago. It brought back vividly how emotional and scared I was when I decided to quit.
Also very powerful: reading back on posts from my first time here in November 2014. That attempt lasted something like 8 days. Those posts showed me that my issues / fears / triggers didn't change at all in a year. It was exactly the same stuff - career concerns, hard-drinking colleagues, networking functions, business trips, addictive problematic relationship etc. etc.
Today is my Day 50, so this attempt has lasted longer. I did some things different this time - went to see a doctor on Day 1, got a counsellor, got honest with my family and close friends, educated myself a lot better with the help of SR and books, and took the time to think about and write down a proper plan.
A really eye-opening exercise. I think it's going to help me a lot.
Good luck on giving up the smokes, Steely and UB.
What a great thing to do to take all your posts and put them all in one spot. I journal a lot so it has been interesting to go back and read through some of my struggles in the beginning and current struggles now.
Having a plan is great and writing out that plan is even better. Somehow when I write something out it makes it feel more real. While I was drinking I used to never write down that I thought I had a problem even though inside I felt it. If I didn't write it down it didn't mean it was real to me.
I feel like I've been doing really well lately. My marathon training has been going great, I've been eating better, lost 10 lbs already, and started personal training 2 days a week. Mostly just trying to keep my time occupied. The only thing that is difficult for me is that I don't have many real friends, I had so many drinking buddies who I could always call up but it's definitely gotten a little lonely on the weekends. I'm really close with my family and I do a lot with my sister but I feel I need to reach out to some friends that I kind of ignored while I was drinking.
37 days sober
