I fit in my old jeans again!
 

It makes me so happy! I have this old pair that I love so much that I've held on to them even though they haven't fit in at least 6 years. I kept putting them away in the summer and pulling them out again in the winter all these years.... Well today I tried them on and they fit perfect, just like they used to! I'm wearing them right now :)

Putting on weight from drinking was one of the worst side effects for me. In fact, I found SR after an internet search over alcohol and weight gain. I hated how drinking ruined my looks. Good news is that in not even 2 years I'm back to what I weighed back in my 20's before drinking took over my life.

For all the folks sitting on the fence and still "trying", just DO it! Quitting is a non-activity, it's something you just never do again. It's a head game about stubbornly sticking to your guns, no matter what. Anytime the thought pops up it gets slammed back down with NO. There are literally infinite other things you can do with your life and your time and your consciousness. All kinds of things open up - but not if you drink. And it's not that you can't drink - it's that you won't drink - because EF that. You are here because of how much it is costing you. IT doesn't get to take anymore.

Take your life back. Fitting in my old jeans feels like a victory!

Congratulations!
I too have lost weight in sobriety ( another nice reward for abstinence). I am amazed at the changes in me inside and out. So worth the struggle.
Bonnie

Feeling good and looking great are such bonuses in sobriety.

I've dropped a size too on Day 15

Loving that--unpacked the size 9, and also the 7 and 5's in hope of a thinner tomorrow :)

I lost the last 20 pounds I needed to lose after I got sober, too.

And I was/am smaller than I've been in decades. Not only that, I'm a good cook now. Shopping for good wholesome food, cooking, eating and cleaning are some of my favorite self-care practices these days. Add some daily exercise and I'm healthier and happier than I've been in...oh...forever? Or at least since I was 12.

Congrats on the smaller jeans! Great post, and happy to hear from you. :)

I feel like I've come out the other side. The first year was all new and at times it was stressful. There was a lot of change and self reflection and healing.

This year I settled in. I've started to reap the rewards of the work I put in with my family, and my health, and work. Quitting was the foundation I built upon.

Took awhile with the weight loss though. I remember being frustrated during the first year because the weight held on even though I was doing all the right things. I think it was about my body healing. I had underestimated how I'd damaged my liver. Gradually over time my body started running better and I didn't need to try anymore, the weight just started slowly melting off. Food was never the problem.

Much love to SR! This place helped me turn my life around.

Yeah, that first year is tough in every way isn't it?

I didn't even try to wrangle my eating in the first year. I figure I was probably malnourished after four years of daily drinking. I ate lots of sugary stuff and didn't lose any weight in the first year, either.

Definitely a victory! Congrats! This happened to me too and it is such a great feeling! I also agree with your mentality - it’s not that we “can’t”drink. It’s that we “won’t” because we don’t want to. Why would we want to drink and feel fat and bloated, have red and puffy skin, and never sleep?

And wake up hating ourselves and having to apologize to everyone and go to work to try to endure your day all the while obsessing about getting home to start the whole cycle again?

Nope. No thanks. Never again.

Congrats! I gained weight from drinking too by the end but was actually so in denial about it I never connected the dots. I just thought my "metabolism had slowed down." Once I quit and the pounds started melting off without even changing my diet it was a real eye opener. Still my diet and exercise routine is far from perfect but respect for my physical health has become a great added benefit and something I hope to continue getting deeper into.

That's awesome! The jeans test is a big one for me too. Right now I can't exercise because of a back injury that has worsened again. Back in the spring when it first happened, I gained a lot of weight and lost it over the summer. Not doing that again and def using my skinny jeans as a barometer.

There are so many victories in sobriety!

I put on most of the weight I've had to lose after getting injured back in 2014. I was laid up for 4 months and I just drank and gained so much weight. Ugh. It's so easy to gain and hard to lose, especially as a beer drinker, a zillion extra calories that totally slowed down my metabolism. So glad I don't treat myself like that anymore. I was making myself so sick but I couldn't fully appreciate it while I was in it. It took time and healing to be able to see it. My mind had a way of twisting things around back when I drank so it never seemed as bad as it actually was.

Hope your injury heals up for you August.

Day Two. Glad I found you all, actually feel physically worse today and don't trust myself to leave the house...glad I don't have a hangover, just grateful to be saying NO.

Hi Eve. Welcome to SR. Glad you found us too!

I think our bodies get an inflammatory response from drinking, and our cortisol levels go up due to that and other drinking stress, which makes us get the secondary condition of insulin resistance--that and the booze metabolizes as sugar, which is why we crave it.

Getting away from sugar all together, eating well and keeping carbs down has really accelerated my weight loss and my body letting go of the extra water it was carrying from the inflammation.

I still have plenty more to go, but alcohol really does damage our bodies as a whole, not just the liver. Time and care and staying sober will work their magic.

Congrats!! Great post! And yes, it feels great to fit into old jeans.

I was sober for 4+ years (over 10 yrs ago) and I was the thinnest I've ever been. I never noticed I was thin/fit until I started looking at old pics. I used to try to eat healthy and exercise (while still drinking) and wondered why I couldn't get back to that size. It's taken me 10yrs to finally throw in the towel. (I'm stubborn! :15: )

I'm only on Day 4 but I've already lost 5lbs. I'm looking forward to getting back to my true, sober weight.