http://www.refinery29.com/quit-drinking-for-a-month?utm_source=mindbodygreen.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_twitter#slide
Then I found this one:
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-23077/i-gave-up-alcohol-for-31-days-heres-how-it-transformed-my-life.html
And this one:
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-16932/quitting-booze-for-a-month-has-some-awesome-benefits.html
Then there was a Dry January segment on Dr. Oz and I was like "Well now I wanna do it." But I told myself there was no way I'd be able to do it this year. My body was way too addicted.
There are many who say I'm an alcoholic. No seriously. They actually say it. To my face. All the time. The numerous men who've dumped me because of my drinking, not to mention all the fans who come into my chat room and say I need to go to AA. It's the ONLY hope for me. People don't think twice about shaming an alcoholic, but they wouldn't dare go to a food court in the mall and tell an obese person they're fat and they need to go to Weight Watchers. It's the ONLY hope for them. Someone might film it, put it on YouTube and that would be the end of their life as they know it. You can't say fat, but apparently you can still say drunk. I find their unsolicited advice to be the equivalent of saying: "You have cancer and you need to treat it with leeches and bloodletting. It's your ONLY hope." Archaic, arrogant, ignorant assholes.
The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly ask Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
My 28 year old husband was surprised to learn my favorite episode of South Park is 'Bloody Mary'... until he rewatched it. " Is that really what AA teaches?" "Yep." "I thought it was a South Park joke." "Nope." "That's ridiculous." " I know." "Absolute rubbish." He's English.
I've been through the AA experience four times. It's never worked for me and doesn't work for a lot of people. Fortunately the science and medical monkeys have made incredible advances in the treatment of alcohol addiction, which I consider to be a reversible, healable MEDICAL condition. God and His big penis are not needed here.
Gabrielle Glaser's book, Her Best Kept Secret: Why Women Drink and How They Can Regain Control, was a game changer for me. It opened my eyes to Smart Recovery and a world full of women who were just like me.
For the record my husband, who's never had a drop of alcohol in his life, doesn't think I'm an alcoholic, but he's European. In fact, half of his family is from Cork, Ireland. Several of his uncles have fallen down while drunk, hit their heads and died, which is considered a natural cause of death in Ireland. My therapist thinks I have a significant problem and is highly in favor of some outpatient rehab, however he is not a fan of AA, but he is of Smart Recovery. My doctor thinks alcohol is a toxin PERIOD. And a sugar, which she opposes in all forms (my precious wheat!). She would like to see me be paleo and alcohol free forever. I should mention she looks like a super model, so I value her opinion. The nurse practitioner who prescribes my crazy pills is ok with me having 2 beers a day as long as I'm working with my therapist to titrate down and off. That would be awesome if that's how much I'd been drinking, but I lied by my ass off so she'd keep prescribing without sending me to rehab. Truthfully before Dryuary I was consuming 7 servings of alcohol per day (there are five in a bottle of wine...5 oz wine = 12 oz Beer = 1.5oz Liquor). 1000+ calories PER DAY just from alcohol. 30,000 + per month!!
It wasn't like that before my trip to Europe. Before that I was abstaining Monday through Thursday, drinking a bottle of wine each day Friday through Sunday. At that point my ALT (SGPT) level (indicative of liver damage/disease) was 22. Normal range is 0-32. A year earlier it was 44, so I'd made significant progress. My current level drinking 7 servings per day is 36. High, but still better than Charlie Sheen's on his best day. I'll be getting new tests after Dryuary.
So here I am Day 11 without alcohol. Scale read 138.7 when I started. Today 134.6. 4 POUNDS IN 10 DAYS?!?!? Doing the same exercise regiment and diet I regularly do. Yep. Dry January is definitely going to be a yearly tradition. Day 3 was rough, like bad headache and agitation. I am and have been treating the symptoms of withdrawal with black coffee and weed. They help immensely. Also, one of my crazy pills (Lamictal) is actually an anti-seizure medication, which is given to patients in detox (usually it's Depakote) to prevent the possible seizures that come with severe alcohol withdrawal. But other than that smooth sailing. Ok last night was rough but only because I was a bad bipolar bear and changed (lowered/stopped taking some of) my Seroquel because I thought hey, I'm not drinking, I'm better now. Common for bipolar bears (why do we hate taking our medication so much?).
My husband asked me if this is going to be the new norm. I don't know. Daily drinking is done for sure. But I like the idea of the one cheat day per week diet. First heard of it in a Daniel Craig interview promoting Casino Royale. He did it then and we all know what he looked like in that bathing suit. And by drinking only one day per week I can afford to splurge on more extravagant wine and liquor (I already splurge on beer...$12 per 4 pack? Yep. I'm a princess).
Smart Recovery says I can learn moderation. AA would say no way. But after healing old wounds and treating an underlying mood disorder with weekly therapy, going back on my bipolar meds after 2 years off (don't ask), getting my hormones as balanced as Suzanne Somers', replenishing depleted vitamins levels, detoxing my life right down to the toilet paper, finding an amazing partner and best friend (same person) who doesn't drink...yeah...I think I can pull it off.
And yet I keep hearing Forrest Gump's voice in my head...
That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go without alcohol.
So, I got to the end of the day, and when I got there, I thought maybe I'd go to the end of the week.
And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just go the whole weekend.
And I figured since I'd come this far, maybe I'd just go the whole month.
And that's what I did. I went all of January without alcohol.
For no particular reason I just kept on going. I went clear to the end of the year.
And when I got there, I figured since I'd gone this far, might as well turn around, just keep on going.
When I got to another year, I figured since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going.
When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. When I had to go...you know...I went.
YODA: And so...you just stopped drinking?!?
ME: Yeah!
[Cue Music and Montage]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgnJ8GpsBG8
Ok so the last few lines haven't happened yet, but I believe in the power of manifestation.
Enjoy watching Forrest Gump! (oh you know you're gonna)
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