Motivation for giving up the grog - my experience!
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Western Australia
Posts: 14
Motivation for giving up the grog - my experience!
I've been alcohol free for 9 months now. I've found Sober Recovery a great place to read about other peoples experiences and found it both informative and supportive about what I have been going through. So to give something back, I thought I would pass on some of the improvements in my life that have happened since giving up the wine.
- Dropped 7 kilos in first 2 months. At 57, I'm now the same weight as in my early 20's and about as fit (though not as flexible)
- Have dealt with so many things in my life through not spending 75% of my non work / exercise / sleep time drinking. My work, health, relationships have all improved drastically.
- Am right on top of my finances, all tax returns completed in first month, rather than dragging it out 9 months as usual. Actively marketing my business and really enjoying and excited about work and the opportuntiies arising.
- Wake up feeling great every day and have energy, and when I am tired I am able to enjoy just being tired.
- Really look forward to, and have an appetite for tacking problems, whether its home maintenance, business, fixing cars, improving my skills in my activities, family.
The first few months were sort of hanging in there, but now I look back and can see how it really was an addiction, not just a "lifestyle" choice.
To people wondering how you can have pleasure in life without booze (as I did) I look back now and think, **** if I knew then how good I feel now, I would have done this decades ago.
- Dropped 7 kilos in first 2 months. At 57, I'm now the same weight as in my early 20's and about as fit (though not as flexible)
- Have dealt with so many things in my life through not spending 75% of my non work / exercise / sleep time drinking. My work, health, relationships have all improved drastically.
- Am right on top of my finances, all tax returns completed in first month, rather than dragging it out 9 months as usual. Actively marketing my business and really enjoying and excited about work and the opportuntiies arising.
- Wake up feeling great every day and have energy, and when I am tired I am able to enjoy just being tired.
- Really look forward to, and have an appetite for tacking problems, whether its home maintenance, business, fixing cars, improving my skills in my activities, family.
The first few months were sort of hanging in there, but now I look back and can see how it really was an addiction, not just a "lifestyle" choice.
To people wondering how you can have pleasure in life without booze (as I did) I look back now and think, **** if I knew then how good I feel now, I would have done this decades ago.
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 3,109
That's great Dave! So true about how much better things can be without drinking bogging us down and blurring the edges of our lives. I call it addition through subtraction. Take away that one thing and all these other things get added 
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Western Australia
Posts: 14
Originally Posted by Renvate 
Congratulations! May I ask how many drinks were you consuming? And for how long?
I did have a 3 months break a couple of years ago but I sort of white knuckled it waiting to get back into it after the 3 months. Thought that would help me moderate, or prove to my family I was on top of my drinking. But of course not, back to full consumption levels within a couple of weeks. This time has been different.
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Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Australia
Posts: 171
That was so incredibly helpful, and motivating. Thank you! I'm only two weeks in, and it's still pretty hard at times. I feel quite bored a lot to be honest. I've left behind the drinking, but haven't yet worked out what to fill those hours with. I'm not really ready for lots of socialising or hanging with the old crowd, so I'm at home alone most evenings. I do know that will change, but it's especially good to hear exactly how it changed things for someone else in the same situation.
Thank you again.
Thank you again.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Western Australia
Posts: 14
Originally Posted by Kachal
That was so incredibly helpful, and motivating. Thank you! I'm only two weeks in, and it's still pretty hard at times. I feel quite bored a lot to be honest. I've left behind the drinking, but haven't yet worked out what to fill those hours with. I'm not really ready for lots of socialising or hanging with the old crowd, so I'm at home alone most evenings. I do know that will change, but it's especially good to hear exactly how it changed things for someone else in the same situation.
Thank you again.
Thank you again.
You're not shackled to not drinking, you're free from drinking
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: MN
Posts: 1,406
Great job Dave. I'm a little ahead of you in age and two years sober. It keeps getting better. And like you I'm down to the weight I should be and in great shape again. That flexibility stuff really bites though, doesn't it?
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