tenK

Not what ya think! I've been trying to come up with interesting thread titles.

Anyway.. my point is, how on earth did my body survive what I've done to it? Pouring poison into it day after day, week after week (months.. years..) not even drinking water some days.. just soda or coffee or whatever catered to my hangover in the moment. Shoving fried fast food down my gourd, and going weeks without raw vegetables.

My god. I should be dead.

I'm 42 days sober and most of that time, I've been really working on my health. I've been eating incredibly well.. doing a detox diet that focuses on liver and digestive health (buckets of water/protein/vegetables, no suger, no caffeine, no gluten). I've also started running again. Ok I feel really good, and I've lost 10 pounds, but shouldn't I be able to, like, fly by now? I admit, I'm a bit impatient for more dramatic results. (Considering what my body was capable of while I systematically destroyed it for so long.)

Anyone got any personal anecdotes about their physical recovery? I'm curious for info like "At 3 months xxx happened, and at 9 months xxx happened."

tyler

Talk to NoMoBeer, he's running triatholins now!! (hell, I can't even spell it, let alone think about running one!!) As for me, I'm trying to do better but I do have a tendency to binge, the way I'm looking at it now is that it's better to binge a bit on food than booze. Kinda like some people don't try to quit smoking while they are trying to quit drinking. I'm working out more and am starting a physical job (grounds work) on Monday, so that should help. I'm just drinking a protein shake for breakfast, fruit for lunch and trying to have a normal dinner, eating serving sized portions. Snacking at night is what gets me, that was my prime drinking time, some nites I do beter than others. But at least I am being conscience of what I am putting in my body now as opposed to the human garbage can I used to be!! One step at a time, not all better, but getting better!!

FunWhenDrunk

While very depressed and drinking heavily about 2 years ago I packed on 30-40 pounds in just a month or two and I have the stretch marks to prove it unfortunately. I'm only 5'4" so this was an especially huge weight gain. I had the most fattening food I could find and lots of it. I would drink drink drink and then eat a huge fattening meal like at midnight and then pass out. No exercise whatsoever -- I was too busy drinking. It was an awful time.

This year I've been much better and though I've gone through drinking binges I am much healthier in general. I have lost 23 pounds so far this year -- I was barely fitting into a size 12 at the beginning of the year and now I'm in an 8. I keep a food journal and work out for about an hour a day. I even managed to work up to my 8 lb weights and I can jog 3 miles without stopping. I still have a way to go but am very delighted with my progress and I too am shocked at how I used to treat my body and that it's resilient enough to be healthy again.

Rimmy

Yeah, we are amazing vessels.

I've gone many a day drinking nothing but beer.. even skipped the morning coffee. Now I'm a seltzer freak. In 3 days, lost 4 lbs. (I'm sure it's just water weight from drinking less). Gheeze, I even had breakfast today.. I can't remember the last time I did that.

keep up the good work.

michaelj

TenK,

Your recovery just gets better and better. Congratulations on six weeks sober, it's a great landmark and you should be proud of yourself. I started a diet about three weeks before I became sober five months ago and I have lost just over 50 pounds. I feel healthier now than I have done for years and I am getting back on my bike for the great work-out that gives. I can run up stairs again, all this thanks to sobriety. When I was drinking I took little exercise apart from walking.
One thing that does surprise me is that people assume I am unwell because I have lost weight. One acquaintance last week urged me to have a drink so that I would put on some weight and "be happy". Nobody ever told me that my drinking was a problem and a threat to my health, it clearly was, yet they will blithely tell me to put on weight. Is that not strange?

Best Wishes
Michael

NoMoBeer

Quote: "...but shouldn't I be able to, like, fly by now?"


I think the same thing when I'm out there grinding away. I have to remember my favorite recovery phrase -- "progress, not perfection."

Great job on all those changes!

I can't give you specific benchmarks, I'm really lousy at keeping my workout journals (much less food journals -- WTG FWD!)... BUT -- I do know that for years I tried the drinking and working out thing. Didn't work. Oh yeah, because I was creating some lactic acid while working out, then washing it down that night with more poisons.... good plan Ken.

So, for me -- my ultimate high weight was 252. When I was drinking, probably a year ago I was around 238. I am now 202 last check and dropping. I actually saw my ribs this morning...

I can also tell you that back then I was not consistent, now I workout 6 days a week, some days twice. I try to eat cleanly (yes, I have my sugar moments) and try to not be obsessive with any of it.

I have completed 1 sprint distance triathlon (450M swim, 20K bike, 5K run). I have another race next month at altitude (640M swim, 20K bike, 5K run). I am stepping up the distances in October with an Olympic distance race (1K swim, 40K bike, 10K run) and hopefully will do a half marathon in January with some of my AA buddies... Not too shabby from this beer swilling alcoholic couch potato!

As far as the "at 3 months xxx happened...etc." you just have to take it as it comes. It's really all about God's will for me. I do the work, He decides the results (gee, sounds like my program). Remember, you can plan the fishing trip, just don't plan the fish fry...

Great job though! I have those days, too where it's like -- "shouldn't I be able to do XXX?" But again, it's progress. I'm also 41, so I don't lose fat and gain muscle/speed/endurance like I did when I was younger!

Stay with it!

Ken

michski

I look back at my recovery as if I were peeling something like an onion. The first 3 months I was just losing the papery stuff.. around 8 months I started to really come around and feel pretty stable (no ecstatic pink clouds but no depression). I thought I was cured at about 18 months. I'm an artist and it was then I started to get back to making stuff with the same excitement I had when I was using/drinking (and still not psychotic) and the promises of AA began coming true for me.. now at over 3 years I only know one thing for certain...

It just gets better and better and for the life of me, I have absolutely no idea why I did all those crippling drugs and poisoned my precious life force with booze!

tenK

I have to admit, I've had a few binges too. The wierd thing is since I'm going without a bunch of stuff, now it's a treat to drink, like, coffee. But y'know what happened.. last weekend we had a dinner party and I ate and drank whatever I wanted (except alcohol) and the next day I felt like I had a hangover! My body couldn't handle copious amounts of caffeine and sugar any more.


gurl, your before is my after! I'll keep at it though.. maybe I'll catch up. I'm just happy my shorts don't cut off the flow of blood to my upper part any more. (Or lower part.. whatever.)


One Christmas, every member of my family gave me drinking paraphernalia (wine glasses, martini shaker, etc.) I thought WTF! I guess they weren't too concerned. In their defense, I had really distanced myself.


It would be hilarious to get a transcript of people's inner dialogue when they work out. Me -- ".. just to the lamppost, just that far, no? how about this piece of sidewalk, c'mon you're not about to barf yet.." The funniest thing I ever heard was once a friend and myself convinced another friend to run a 5K. After we all re-grouped and asked her how she did, to which she replied to us "At one point during that run, I hated you, and I hated you, and I hated everyone around me." That's it in a nutshell for me.

Time2Surrender

Congrats on 42 days.

KarenOskie

Hi tenK,
This has been a very inspiring thread, thank you! Tomorrow will be four weeks for me! It's hard for me to believe. But I haven't been working out or really changing my eating habits much, other than I do eat oatmeal and a grapefruit for breakfast every morning now. About my fifth day of sobriety I came down with a terrible cold and am just now getting completely over it. It just hung on and on forever. The first few days of it I ran a high fever and felt so sick I couldn't hardly move. It's been upsetting because one of the first things that should happen when we get sober is that we start feeling better, and instead I've felt pretty bad the whole time. It is getting much better now, though. When I was drinking I was working out at the gym about three times a week. Now I'm not doing that at all. But I will! Hearing everyone elses accounts of how they're getting better is so inspiring. One good thing about it all though is that even though I haven't really dieted or worked out, I've still lost about 5 lbs. just from not putting that 1,000 or more calories into my body every day.
Being sober is wonderful!
Happy Father's Day to all you daddies out there!
Karen

Rimmy

yeah, I'm so waiting to get a couple of 12 packs for Father's Day from my Uncle's. Well, the wife can have'em... it'll save me a few bucks

I've only stopped since Wednesday, and as of this morning, I've lost 5 lbs. I havn't really done "exercise" per say, but fixing the hole in the deck after 3 months of plea's from the wife... pulling out the TV to fix the reception finally... just doing so many little things I never got to before keeps me moving.

I can't wait.. I got my bike ready, so I think I'll take a ride to the bluffs today and look over the Long Island Sound and ponder my life. Once I start working out again, I'll feel even better.

Congrats to all of you who are losing weight, toning up, and feeling better about yourselves, and Happy Father's Day to all whom it applies!

Aaron

tenK

Meeee too! I got sick about a week in. And, I'm not one to get sick ... My whole (mostly drunk) life, I dodged so many viruses etc. I always thought that maybe the alcohol killed them off or something. But right away, I got a nasty virus, then I had a weird sore and swollen throat right after that. I was falling apart there for a while.

Right now my big beef is for the amount of water I'm drinking and how I'm watching the intake of toxins/crap, my skin should be clear and glowing, but I'm breaking out a lot. I hope this passes soon.

mikee

Lots of water tenK, get well soon!

In my whiskey bend days, i could not tell a virus/illness, from alcohol poisening.

Keep on keepin on! God Bless.

Cathy31

Great thread Tenk and everyone! I am back to about 16 days again now, it feels good! my exercise is about 3 - 4 times a week tae-robics mixture between aerobics and tae-bo/kickboxing...I've been messing about a bit lately....sober...little binge..back to AA sobner, happy, little binge start again....still trying to work out why I choose to binge when I am actually ALWAYS so happy when not drinking...I guess, for me, it's about step 1...thinking that this time it's gonna be different..I'll control it...and I neevr do. Anyway! I feel back on track, took a self enforced 2 week holiday to re-group and re-focus on AA...I LOVE my exercise now, and to be totally honest when I am back in Ireland on Thursday it's not gonna be too difficult to rather to go to gym and see my friends and do my class than sit at home on the couch and get drunk...YUCK!!!!!!!
love
Cathy31
x

GshizzleA

ya the body is an amazing thiing, which you learn when you are sober.
i started to feel bad about abusing it with 2 many cocktails and i feel like its taking the body G'd gave you for granted. Most of us are lucky to be in relatively good health and its up to us to keep it functioning properly from now on.

quercusalba

Love the thread title! And... just a great thread overall.

"Me -- ".. just to the lamppost, just that far, no? how about this piece of sidewalk, c'mon you're not about to barf yet.." " (from TenK) (no, I don't know how to use the "quote" function...) - I love this! I play these head games with myself all the time! "Pick it up just to that tree. After that, you can slack for a little while. Ok, pick it up again... to the telephone pole. You're not dying, for heaven's sake." It's great to know I'm not the only one with this internal dialogue going on!

I'm trying to train for a half-marathon in the fall... I had a set-back about 3 or 4 weeks ago when I sprained my ankle, so my mileage isn't where I had planned for it to be. However, I'm regrouping now & back on the road again... the ankle still swells up at night, but it's not unstable anymore so I should be fine. It is a priceless thing indeed to have sobriety, and also incredible how much crap our bodies dealt with... and came out the other side.

Thank you for this inspiring thread... so nice to hear how you all are doing with exercise & nutrition improvements!

--anne

chemist

Hey tenK,

Here's one you won't hear too often....I gained weight when i quit drinking.....but that's a good thing because Im an avid weightlifter/bodybuilder.

For several years prior to this February, I drank 6-8 beers on 5-6 nights per week. After some introspection in February, and miserably failing the online 'Am I an alcoholic test', I rightly concluded I had a drinking problem. From February to May 14, I averaged about a 12 pack per week.....a significant cut back but not total abstinece. However, since May 15, I havent had a single drop of alcohol.

Here is the kicker......after only a few weeks from stopping drinking altogether in mid May, I gained 10lbs while at the same time my waist shrank from 33" to 31"! In other words I quickly added 10lbs of lean muscle in only a few weeks after totally quiting alcohol....this is a bodybuilder's dream come true. In that same time frame my abs popped out and became visible for the first time in years.

I had been lifting the whole time I was drinking, but after quitting in mid May my body has made some truly astonishing gains. This is a very exciting time for me. I can't believe how much alcohol was holding me back.

And this only one facet of my success story. I haven't even mentioned the postive changes in my sleep, cognition, sex life, finances, time management efficiency, etc.

Tangible positive changes are the things that empower us to defeat alcoholism.

I wish you and everyone here continued success.

NoMoBeer

This is truly a thread of Hope!!!!

Chemist, so true -- you just will not make the gains you want while drinking. Lord knows I've tried... I used to get to the gym at 5:30, hungover as he*l, and do my body for life weight training.... ugh.

OK, how funny is everyone's inner dialogue? I do the same thing. I try to "meditate" while I'm running, and listen for God, but that annoying workout voice pops in there. How much time? Where's my heart rate? How come I'm not making progress. I swear, the alcohol-ISM and the workout voice get together upstairs in the sh*tty comittee and set out to drive me crazy.

I had (for me) a breakthrough run on Father's Day. I actually was able to keep my HR under my Z1 limits for the entire 40 minute run. That was an accomplishment. There's my progress, heck with perfection I'll take it. I also broke my 200 lb. barrier, and weighed in at 197. Been a long time since I've been on the south side of 200!

Q -- half marathon is great, health comes first! If you have access to a gym, try an elliptical machine -- running motion without the pounding...your ankle will like it!

This thread is just proof positive that there is such a brighter, fuller life on the other side of sobriety. I wouldn't trade it for anything, and I'm just getting started!

Hey, I thought Music would be chiming in on this thread, I think he spends a couple of minutes a week in the gym....

Ken

lulu70

Unfortunately, I gained a boat-load of weight in my first year of sobriety (only have about 16 months now). I have stopped gaining, but I haven't started losing. Of course, I used the fact that I wasn't drinking as justification for eating what ever I wanted whenever I wanted. Not good. I am slowly, but surely, working up to working out. Usually my inner dialogue goes something like, "I hate this. But you have to do it. Can I stop yet? Not if you want any results. Isn't ten minutes of walking better than nothing. Yeah. But you are still a wuss." LOL Do you think it is a bad sign that I actually talk to myself and answer myself? Anyway--I know I am much more healthy now that I am not drinking or using drugs. When I went to see the doctor at about 4 months sober, my blood pressure and heart rate were lower than they had been for about 6 years. Yippee!!

Time to go get lunch. Hmmmmmm...a salad or a cheeseburger......I let you know what I decide.

Hugs all!!--

tommy79

Good to hear from all you weight-gaining alcoholic types. I could never understand all this stuff about rake-thin alcoholics...to me drinking and binge-eating are all part of the same package - escape! I've put some more weight on recently and it's always an incentive to put down the bottle and be healthier. Maybe vanity is a useful recovery tool...