guywithpie

At the end of day one I'm going to need a little action plan to keep sober. It's a good thing to start on a Monday because the weekend is when I drink the heaviest. I'm concerned about after work. Hitting the local pub for a brew on the way home or having a glass of wine as soon as I get home. I think I have some pretty good ideas.. Nothing new I'm sure but, new to me..

For the drive home, I'm going to start yapping on my mobile like a 13 year old with a crush. I figure if I call my friends / family, I won't be thinking about my favorite little pitstop.

When I get home, I need to stay out of my office. Even though I have thrown out all of my stash, this is where the "guywithpie party of one" takes place. Here are a few things that I'm going to try and occupy my time with.

1. Play with my kids more. (which I do a pretty good job at.. more couldn't hurt)
2. Play some guitar in the evening.
3. Jump on sober recovery and lurk / post.
4. Drink a coke.
5. Start a project. (more on this to come).

This is about all I can do right now. I have had 2 suggestions to attend AA meetings. I'm not ready for that yet. Probably make things easier but my pride is bigger than my wine glass, which is pretty damn big.

I'll check in tomorrow. Thanks for the support community.

stone

I wont mention AA!

Those are all good ideas. What are you eating habits like and do you excercise? Do you do any kind of relaxation techniques?

Keep busy and learn all you can Guy, reading the stickies at the top of the alcoholism forum is a good start.

guywithpie

Thanks Stone.
My eating habits.. fairly healthy. No breakfast, I eat out everday for lunch and a home cooked meal for dinner. No junk food.. I don't like sweets.

My excercise usually consists of the 12 ounce curl.. other than that, not a whole lot of physical activity going on in my life. I chase my kids around a little but no formal excercise routine.

Relaxation techniques .. gotta read up on that. The only relaxation technique I know comes from my friend Johnny Walker and I'm trying to part ways with him. So any links to other threads that discuss that would be appreciated.

Dee74

sounds like a good basic plan to me GWP - at least you'll get an idea of how hard the hold of booze is for you and, if you have to, take it from there and change stuff to suit.

Keep it flexible cos you may find the cravings, excuses and opportunities to drink will hit at the weirdest moments and for the weirdest reasons.

In the end, I just try always to keep my eyes on the...pies...
er...prize

D

indigo

Welcome it looks like you're getting off to a good start there GWP.

lostmdboy

Hey Pie. I think you need to bust that routine up. Drive home a different way. O rdo not go home right a way. Go to a meeting, a friends house. When home stay busy. Go for a walk, exercise. any thing you can do to change your old habits ehich included drinking. For me even driving buy the store where I bought a lot of my beer was hard, and brought on anxiety. I had to change every thing.

gurujake

Welcome Pie. Even though you are not ready for AA yet, I would still recommend getting the Big Book and reading the first 164 pages. You can simply order it on Amazon if you would like. Reading it for the first time helped a great deal to launch my current run of sobriety which is approaching 2 years now. Trust...I had sooo many "plans" of my own...some of which worked briefly, most of which didn't work at all. For me, in MY mind, I always knew that I was doing something different to fight the obsession of the mind...all it did was kept me focused on it even as I was trying to avoid it. Once I started working on myself, the obsession lifted and it didn't matter how I got home and what I did on my ride. Stick around..there's lots to learn here. I'm sure others will be by to share about their "plans" and how effective they were.

Octoman

Hi GWP
Sounds like you really have the determination to get through this. Good luck!

pointmagnet

Your plan sounds very good. I started my not-drinking without a plan and I'm just making it up as I go along, which can be difficult.

Go for it! Add exercise if possible - that really helps with the relaxation later in the day...

guywithpie

Thanks for all of your words of encouragement. I woke up this morning and I feel great. No head ache, not groggy. I like this.
I've got a business trip coming up next week and I typically drink a couple on the airplane. Can't get around not flying, but I'll be bringing movies, games, books etc..

I'll need to figure out the excercise thing sooner or later.

GlassPrisoner

And therin lies the problem. I was the same way. Life had a funny (well, not funny really, it sucked) way of deflating my ego and showing me some humility. When it hurt enough, I went to AA.

AA is not the only way, but you will need a recovery program of some sort (IMO).

I had plans too. I once heard that if you want to hear God chuckle, tell him your plans....

guywithpie

Whoa Glass, that hit like a ton of bricks. I have prayed a few times asking for help but not with the humility that I feel is necessary. A lot of things need to change in my life, no booze, faith etc..

GlassPrisoner

Good

The reason I pointed that out is you can stop NOW. You don't have to lose the house/car/wife/job & self-respect that it took ME to realize that my way doesn't work.

I don't want you to go through what I did if you don't have to. But, if you're like me, you'll find out for yourself.

I used to be a jobless (lost my job of 5 years coz of drinking) , 24 x 7 go through withdraw if I didn't drink drinker.

Today, I've got a good job, really good job actually. And I've been sober for nearly 10months. I don't hate life anymore. It was all AA and my HP who I call God. Well, I did do a lot of footwork.....