BDTL

My wife has seen a huge change in my physical, mental, and spiritual self. In fact so much that she has joined my gym and is hopping on the exercise wagon with me! Just think an old alcoholic encouraging a non drinker to a better healthier life. Also my friends at the golf course have made several comments about how much I have changed for the better. One of the guys saw how fit I was and also joined my gym. It makes me feel great to encourage folks through my actions. I've dropped from 226 to 205 lbs and will be going down in waist size. Getting healthy can cost money. At least I will be buying some fresh new clothes and not pouring poison down my body. Life is good and although I'm in pink cloud territory at only 71 days, I'm working hard and seeing awesome dividends. I working hard with my sponsor on the 12 steps and I really pumped about having the opportunity to pass this knowledge to a person in need one day soon.

Hevyn

You're going to look sharp in those new clothes - a 21 lb. weight loss is great. Very cool that MrsBDTL has joined the gym.

I can't believe all the empty calories we gulped down. I'm so glad we don't live that way anymore.

Not everyone has the pink cloud thing - I never did. Maybe you won't, but it's wise to be wary.

Anna

I'm so glad to hear you're doing well, and it's great that your wife has joined you at the gym.

BDTL

Me too Hevyn. If folks only knew what they are missing by leaving the bad stuff behind and really living life as it was intended, they would be amazed. Life is good!

BDTL

Thank you Anna! Yea she is so pumped to be going back. She was a member a few months back but dropped out. With my consistency and love for my gym plus the results my body was showing, she said I can't let you be the only healthy person in the family!

Dropsie

Good for you!

rascalwhiteoak

Congrats on the results, BDTL! You're already passing along knowledge with an inspiring update like this

Lizajane

That is great BDTL...my hubby is sober 8 years this summer. He has become a runner. First half marathons and now marathons. He is so healthy now that his Dr wants to take him completely off his meds for type 2 diabetes. Like your wife, I am following him to the gym BUT I don't think running is my thing! We really can transform ourselves at any stage in life. It is so awesome that you are pulling others into your happiness!

least

That's cool that your wife joined the gym too. I'd say you're a good influence on the people around you.

MindfulMan

Waist from tight 36 to a comfortable 30/31.

Shirts from XL to medium.

Chest from 40 to 41, flexed bicep from 11 to 13 and growing. New trimmed beard and nice clothes.

It’s been noticed and people are asking for diet and fitness tips.

Yay me.

MissPerfumado

Folks who know me now ask me if I was always an athletic sporty type. Hahahaha...

BDTL

My running days are over unless a grizzly bear is chasing me. lol

I've three surgeries on my right knee so it has tons of scar tissue. The elliptical machine at my gym is my form of running. Less impact on the old knees. I have come off of blood pressure medicine from exercise so I highly endorse folks to hop on the feel good train and join a gym!

Gottalife

[QUOTE=BDTL;6937385. Life is good and although I'm in pink cloud territory at only 71 days, I'm working hard and seeing awesome dividends. I working hard with my sponsor on the 12 steps and I really pumped about having the opportunity to pass this knowledge to a person in need one day soon.[/QUOTE]

This is great news. The 71 days is not as relavent as the hard work you are putting in on the steps. That is what dictates the progress of recovery.

Given that everything is relative, God's grace, sometimes called the pink cloud, is obviously an amazing improvement on where you were 72 days ago. But as you progress with the steps and get a better developed relationship with the God of your understanding, as the Power begins to flow, it just keeps getting better.

If I was to go back to the "pink cloud" I experienced in the first 90 days, it would be a bit of an anticlimax compared to how life is today. It has less to do with our external world, which nearly always gets better in the early days of sobriety, and has much more to do with how we will be able handle whatever life throws at us in the long term. Bill W summed it up as the ability to meet calamity with serenity. Something to look forward to

Lizajane

Buying the gym membership is the easy part, going to the gym takes some doing and then you have to stick to it! There are a lot of parallels to getting sober in there.

August252015

You sound like you are doing awesome!

I don't exactly believe in the pink cloud, because the majority of my life since I quit drinking 890 days ago has been pretty much that. Kinda like Gottalife says, the continued grace keeps flowing if I am doing my part.

Life does change, we get to deal with "stuff" just like normal drinkers and now you have a way to keep learning how to live with it, deal with change or ups and downs...best to you to keep at it! It really does keep getting better- if only because things become clearer, decisions are much easier (even w angst or anxiety like I have around some, it is still way better than handling them drunk!) and finding joy is much more feasible.

And, go you on the fitness- I was direly ill when I quit drinking, and once I was able to begin baby exercising around 100 days (a 1mile race series does actually exist!) I kept at it till I was running a 5K by the end of 2016, my husband (also in recovery) and I did one every month during 2017 and I added a 15K this past Jan, hot yoga almost a year ago and love it. A recent back injury was a real wrench bc it was the first "jolt" in my healthy life, but being strong enough to handle PT and healing, and next wk continue on to Pilates - I would never have been able to handle this new situation if I still drank.

NessunDorma

Sobriety has certainly made me a good influence on my kids who are now grown up. My parents taught my brother and I to drink from pre teen ages with disasterious results for us both in later life.

I had to stop when my kids were young or would have lost the family, and exercise was a big part in staying sober. This was in some ways the gift of desperation.

Children do what you do not what you say. My children are now mid 20s, both happy and successful. My daughter has always been totally abstinent, my son is like my wife an occasional drinker.

I have run a few marathons and a couple of triathlons with my daughter and we continue to do events together. It’s for me just the best feeling.

Had I carried on drinking I would have been estranged from them at an early stage. Now while generally just a normal bloke it is clear that my kids have adopted the healthier lifestyle that my wife and I modelled, initially because I was forced but in time because thats how I now am.

Sadly we don’t see my brother any more whose continued drunken behaviour served as an illustration to the kids of what the alternative looks like.

Ken33xx

I hate you.

Just kidding....

BDTL

I talked to my brother yesterday and although he has yet to attend an AA meeting, he informed me he will be going asap. The meeting schedule in his hometown was posted for three days per week and when he arrived on one of those days, there was a sign that said meetings now on the first Sunday of the month. That doesn't make sense to me? Are they running out of alcoholics

SoberCAH

I think I am a good influence.

I certainly try to be.

I talk to everyone I see and try to lift them up.

I try to be a good example in what i do for a living and in the recovering community.

I fall short of these ambitions from time to time and i have to make an amend or amends and get pointed back in the right direction.

I try to be an example of what recovery can be.

skyfullofstars

@BDTL, I have read in quite a few places that the younger end of the scale millennials are drinking less and less. I am a middle mil, born in 1989 from the UK. It does seem that getting sloppy drunk is seen as uncool and old fashioned to teenagers.

Plus nearly all of them have smartphones and social media accounts and maybe they are scared of making a fool of themselves to the entire world. They have less money and seem more focused on having a career and saving their money. We didn't care, at eighteen all we wanted to do was party, drink, screw and dabble with drugs like the world was ending tomorrow. Every night.

I've even noticed in my town and nearby cities that nightclubs seem to be dying out. There are more trendy bars with a dancefloor than an actual club compared to ten years ago. Not entirely sure for that reason, but that seems to be the case.

Hopefully the tide is turning for alcohol. It wasn't so long ago nearly everyone smoked and it was socially acceptable. Now I know hardly anyone who smokes, and a lot of ex smokers like myself are vaping as a stepping stone to quitting. Smoking is seen as absolutely disgusting and a social faux pas now. Maybe when I am old and doddery booze will have the same stigma as tobacco does now.

Will be interesting to find out.