Lascaux

I've been sober about 3 1/2 weeks. I haven't started any sort of health regimen yet - I told myself after a month sober I'd start eating more healthy foods, but for now anything (in moderation) goes as long as it's not alcohol. That said, I'm not eating cheesy spicy foods or pizza every night just because they make it easier to drink. I'm still sleeping a lot (8-9 hours a night) but am not spending an additional couple of hours before that sleeping off alcohol.
I checked my blood pressure today and it's down 31 points. It was on the hypertension borderline before I stopped drinking, now it's back to normal range. Definitely an unexpected bonus! It's amazing how our bodies can forgive abuse and start healing.

tekink

Our bodies are strong.

Contrasting this with the mental side that can happen is interesting. Honestly having my brain feel like it's short circuting for 4.5 months straight has me kind of freaked out.

I was frying my brain!

Zombie79

I'm on day 12 and my heart rate is down by 25bpm!
It used to freak me out looking at my fitbit readings of sleeping and my heart rate being in the 90s whilst I was unconscious. I suppose my heart rate was so high because my body wasn't really resting but working off the booze.

PippoRossi

I'm over two months in and I haven't started my health regimen, either. I know I should, but I am taking it slow this time. Even though my last bout with sobriety lasted for over 4 years, there were a lot of things I didn't do right and this time I am determined to not repeat that. I will start my health regimen when I am good and ready and not rush into anything and possibly stress myself out.

rainyengland

Funny enough I just posted about health before reading this

It took me a few weeks after quitting to make a concentrated effort as head was a mess -- now can't stop working out ..and I'm watching what I eat as well

My sobriety is still my number one focus though - I loose that I loose everything again and I've worked too hard last few months

Lascaux

Wow! Nice to hear everyone's stories, and I appreciate the point about not rushing things. My first step is just going to be adding a food log to my daily journal / morning pages to start being more mindful of food, and maybe some stretching a light regular exercise. One of our other SR members mentioned getting some yoga DVDs, which sounds tempting too!

PippoRossi

I have a couple of this woman's DVDs and just found her on YouTube. Her stretches are super easy and totally no-nonsense. Check her out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lzaZQP26pQ

joandmelandhan

Hi Lascaux. I'm 2 months in and up until about a week ago my mantra was "as long as it's not booze I don't care". Getting to bed sober has been the only real thing that mattered. However I was growing increasingly aware that I was doing all sorts of other things diet and lack of activity wise which were not good at all. So I've made out a bit of a plan to address that. Nothing too radical I'm reluctant to push myself too much and have a big melt down! So Im incorporating more fruit and veg, making my own lunch for work, 3 coffees a day limit, no sugary pop and no bed time snacking! Plus I now do 2 yoga classes a week. That's enough for me for another month or 2 now.
Generally I am slowly feeling better. Lower BP (I've had a monitor from the doc for 2 weeks as I went about anxiety), better sleeping, less lethargy in the daytime, stomach issues reduced too. Still far from where I'd eventually like to be but the longer I am on this journey the more I realise that it is a long road but I'm okay with that. Small steps for me!
It's great that you're seeing some benefits already and I'd say it's fine to not rush in to an all out health kick just yet.

saoutchik

Hi Lascaux, congratulations on 3 and a half weeks.

I found walking was quite a useful way of burning off a few extra calories and taking my mind off of any cravings as well.l

I second what others have said about not overdoing it, attempting to do too much can put you under too much pressure.