Quitting Alcohol

[Manwitaplan]

Well fellas I was so pumped to announce my 1 year alcohol free on this board. Friday Dec 27 was exactly 1 year and this thread had a major impact on me making that decision. I only started to do dry january then the rodeo cookoff was here in February and I decided not to drink, then spring break and decided not to drink and just kept going. I believe i have read every single thread posted on guys quitting and others who were motivating. I had many first over the last 12 months first time to ever fish and not drink, first time to ever dove hunt and no alcohol, opening day of bow season, opening day of rifle season at the lease and no alcohol. I was not a drunk or even an every day drinker but when I did drink I liked to have a good time and talk trash and get a little rowdy. I have really become strong in my relationship with God, and 21 days ago I started the Carnivore diet to finally get my health on the right track.

I do not know anyone on here but truly wanted to say Thank You to every single person who replied on this thread.

Manwitaplan!

 

[bakerra2]

Nice work. Congrats


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[CRJR45]

Well fellas I was so pumped to announce my 1 year alcohol free on this board. Friday Dec 27 was exactly 1 year and this thread had a major impact on me making that decision. I only started to do dry january then the rodeo cookoff was here in February and I decided not to drink, then spring break and decided not to drink and just kept going. I believe i have read every single thread posted on guys quitting and others who were motivating. I had many first over the last 12 months first time to ever fish and not drink, first time to ever dove hunt and no alcohol, opening day of bow season, opening day of rifle season at the lease and no alcohol. I was not a drunk or even an every day drinker but when I did drink I liked to have a good time and talk trash and get a little rowdy. I have really become strong in my relationship with God, and 21 days ago I started the Carnivore diet to finally get my health on the right track.

I do not know anyone on here but truly wanted to say Thank You to every single person who replied on this thread.

Manwitaplan!

I am so happy for you and everyone else making strides in recovery, or just living a healthier lifestyle .

KUDOS !

It can be done !

 

[HingleMcCringleberry]

I am about a week and a half in. Going to give drying out a go for a few months. So far sleep is waaay better.

 

[eamyrick]

Well fellas I was so pumped to announce my 1 year alcohol free on this board. Friday Dec 27 was exactly 1 year and this thread had a major impact on me making that decision. I only started to do dry january then the rodeo cookoff was here in February and I decided not to drink, then spring break and decided not to drink and just kept going. I believe i have read every single thread posted on guys quitting and others who were motivating. I had many first over the last 12 months first time to ever fish and not drink, first time to ever dove hunt and no alcohol, opening day of bow season, opening day of rifle season at the lease and no alcohol. I was not a drunk or even an every day drinker but when I did drink I liked to have a good time and talk trash and get a little rowdy. I have really become strong in my relationship with God, and 21 days ago I started the Carnivore diet to finally get my health on the right track.

I do not know anyone on here but truly wanted to say Thank You to every single person who replied on this thread.

Manwitaplan!

Awesome job on the sobriety. My 1 year seems like not that long ago because alcohol was every part of my life. April is 11 years for me.

 

[eamyrick]

I am about a week and a half in. Going to give drying out a go for a few months. So far sleep is waaay better.

When you take a step back there is no real argument that anything is better with alcohol. Sleep, budget, decision making, fitness all improve. Way to go.

 

[74Bronco]

Well fellas I was so pumped to announce my 1 year alcohol free on this board. Friday Dec 27 was exactly 1 year and this thread had a major impact on me making that decision. I only started to do dry january then the rodeo cookoff was here in February and I decided not to drink, then spring break and decided not to drink and just kept going. I believe i have read every single thread posted on guys quitting and others who were motivating. I had many first over the last 12 months first time to ever fish and not drink, first time to ever dove hunt and no alcohol, opening day of bow season, opening day of rifle season at the lease and no alcohol. I was not a drunk or even an every day drinker but when I did drink I liked to have a good time and talk trash and get a little rowdy. I have really become strong in my relationship with God, and 21 days ago I started the Carnivore diet to finally get my health on the right track.

I do not know anyone on here but truly wanted to say Thank You to every single person who replied on this thread.

Manwitaplan!

Congrats! Your story sounds like it is just 12 months behind mine. Sober since 1/22/23, Carnivore since 12/08/23. Quitting alcohol had my sugar cravings going wild, quitting sugar was tougher for me.
I'll keep it to Alcohol, that decision has helped good decisions snow ball for me. Good job!

 

[TaperPin]

As a young guy I had no clue so many older guys gave up drinking at some point, and always assumed they just didn’t enjoy the taste or being around fun people. It was also partly due to the older generations never liking to talk about anything “private.” At least for me it was eye opening to know others in my boots.

Now I don’t harp about it, but make a point to not hide it either - that applies to all addictive behaviors. I don’t drink, but also can’t do a number of things. The kids laugh when I mention back in college during a month-long break I did nothing but play a new video game every day all day, and had to throw it in the dumpster and have never had a Xbox since. At the time that happened one friend had a porn addiction and headed for divorce, another dude was a sex addict and would hook up with your grandmother and hate himself for it afterward. lol The grandmother thing is not funny, but damn all his friends have always given him crap and it’s still funny after all these years. In life we will all know folks that will develop a number of behaviors that will negatively impact their lives, from women, to chemicals, social media, talk radio, movies, fishing, hunting, parties, concerts, video games, smoking, the gym, racing things with motors or pedals, food, spending money on things, gambling, fighting, and some place someone collects butterflies and can’t stop even after its cost him a marriage and job.

Managing a predisposition to addictive behavior and recognizing it’s having a negative impact on your life is a skill that gets stronger the more effort is put into it over time. Cutting out an unhealthy behavior is great, just try to fill the vacuum with something or the bad habit will return. It’s part of being human.

To everyone - hang in there day by day - keep up the good work.

 

[pugwylde]

I can’t ever seem to quit all together, but with the new “lifestyle” change I’m doing I only drink once a week with my cheat meal I get once a week. I think it makes a huge difference with my weight loss and not feeling bloated.

This is where I'm at. I can't say I notice benefits on the regular, save the bloating, but I definitely notice the drop in performance when I do drink.

 

[Brock A]

I hit 365 days yesterday, plan on to keep it rolling. This thread has been great.

 

[schmalzy]

I hit 365 days yesterday, plan on to keep it rolling. This thread has been great.

Badass!


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[Wyobohunter]

It’s been over 5 years for me.

 

[rogerdoger]

New to this forum, came across this post as it caught my eye. Good job on the quitting alcohol, I am going on 18 months. I was a heavy drinker, was able to get it down to only Friday and Saturday nights. Then I realized I would wake up feeling great everyday I had to go to work, then on the days off I would wake up feeling awful. My biggest thing is whenever I feel like getting drunk I run a couple miles or do a hard workout, helps put things into perspective for me.

 

[Tenstrike]

Welcome to the Slide, great plan, keep working it.

 

[easychair]

Ironicly, I came across this forum on my 1 year of sobriety (quit 1/5/24).
I almost always just go to the classified forum but something pushed me to the general this morning and I saw this forum. Read every damn page and I’m inspired by a lot of what you guys wrote,
Like a lot of addicts I appeared healthy on the outside, energetic, motivated, active, seemingly successful…until I wasn’t.
Business on a slide, marriage in seeming despair, and I can’t seem to find the motivation to engage in the activities (hunting/outdoors) that I really enjoy. Add in all the other bad ideas that come hand in hand to drinking alcohol daily, and it usually ends up with the inevitable “bottom”.
After 38 years of Alcohol, Nicotine, and Antidepressants I had no choice but to completely clean up my life to survive. It took an intensive outpatient program with group therapy, and I started attending AA meetings on my 2nd day of sobriety. It’s not for everyone but AA changed my life for the better, nothing like making an extremely avoidant person be open and honest about defects in our character.
It wasn’t until I got sober that I was able to start to get to the root causes of addiction and past trauma, could do pages on the subject. Just watch some Gabor Mate, he is so good on the subject.

Congratulations to everyone who is successful in sobriety and I really look up to the long timers who help motivate us get and stay sober. I enjoy their shares too
Anyways, rockslide is and has been my favorite forum site for many years. There doesn’t seem to be too many subjects off the table here, that’s what makes this site so great. I’ve learned so much from you guys, read a ton of great stories, and bought a load of bad ass gear here on rokslide.
Keep up the good work and everyone have a blessed year!

 

[hunt1up]

So I was invited to play poker by a friend of mine last night. We got to know each other through mutual friends in the town my wife and I moved to 15 years ago. It’s only 30 minutes from our home town so people know people in the area, but of the 14 guys there I knew only 5. The friend who invited me is first generation born Palestinian. His family left the West Bank before he and his siblings were born. So he’s very much a red blooded midwestern American, played football, cusses, talks sports, but they are Muslim. Only Muslims I know around here, lol. So for religious reasons he’s never drank. Many of his local friends growing up, like mine(and me) are heavy drinkers.

I haven’t drank in over 28 months now. So I have zero problem being around a bunch of drunk dudes while I drink my NA beer. I assumed when I arrived to play cards there might be a handful of guys drinking, no big deal. When I got there only one guy was drinking. I knew he would be, but that’s expected. Usually he slams em down but I think in 5 hours he had maybe 3 beers. Everyone else there, even those I knew liked to drink, were having either NA beers or just soda(pop around here), and even water(what an idea!). 3 of the guys were Muslim, 4 were ex drinkers from what I gathered, and a few just didn’t bring any booze out of respect for the host I assume.

It wasn’t some special evening. Just guys getting together to play cards and BS. But in my 20 years of being an adult this may have been the first social gathering I’ve attended that wasn’t an excuse to drink beer disguised as something else. The conversations were better. The game was better. The whole thing was just better.

I’ve now long been free of alcohol but even this far in, it was a slap upside the head for me. I went home at 11, got 8 hours of sleep, got up and exercised. Now I’m in my blind waiting for the deer to start moving. I’ve been thinking about it all day. Thinking about how shitty I would have felt after such a night in the past. How little of the conversations I would have remembered. How much of a waste of time it would have been if I’d gone just for a reason to drink yet again. I probably would have laid on the couch all day watching football instead of hunting this cold front.

Anyway, just thought I’d throw that out there. It was a simple thing that ended up being pretty profound.