Sober Day #31- Eating to support Sobriety

Being a somewhat insatiably curious person, I find myself wondering about how we in early sobriety can use nutrition to support ourselves, how food and supplements might hasten our return to vibrant health.  And there is a ton of information available, as my initial google searches have identified.

On the other hand, as a scientifically-trained physician, I am highly skeptical of unattributed blanket claims.  Things like:  Eat more vegetables, Never eat xxx, always eat a lot of yyyy- grab my attention in a bad sort of way.

So I have given myself a new task:  Developing a health assessment useful for establishing a health baseline on quitting alcohol, and coming up with evidence-based recommendations for food and supplements.

Evidence-based means that I can show you (a) specific article(s) from peer-reviewed medical journals that provide good evidence to support that recommendation.  It is the opposite of the 'snatched from thin air' recommendations found proliferating on the web.

As soon as I figure out how to do it, I will make a separate page summarizing these ideas, with references back to each specific post detailing the scientific evidence for this particular recommendation.

My Thanksgiving, BTW, was alcohol-free and pretty awesome.  This was my first major holiday without alcohol, and it went pretty smoothly.  Thank goodness I have a relatively drama-free family, so I didn't have to cope with the massive drinking around me or other major crazinesses that many of our community had to face, and I am grateful for that!!

Sober Day #30- Happy Thanksgiving!! The Visit

Last night a dear friend I hadn't seen in a while visited us in our rental house here in New Orleans.  Our typical evenings together are usually sharing wine while catching up on news.   I texted her about my 100 day challenge- expecting that she wouldn't drink when we got together.  Yet when I texted her yesterday about what she'd like to snack on, she replied:  white wine and I eat almost anything.

Well, I thought, I can handle this.  I asked DH if he would please buy a bottle of white wine, open and pour it for her, and handle pouring refills so I didn't have to handle the wine bottle at all.  And so he did.

Observation #1:  Friend is a devout Catholic.  She mentioned how another friend of hers was also doing a 100 day no-alcohol challenge- for a special novena or something (please forgive, I'm sure I have the religious terminology wrong).  And friend approached my challenge like it was no big deal, like it wouldn't be any harder for me than, say, giving up sweets for Lent.  And I actually found this very refreshing.  Since it was no big deal in her mind, it made it easier for me to say to myself:  This is no big deal, you are just choosing not to drink wine tonight.  It turned out to be very refreshing NOT to have a moral/judgmental component attached to my actions.

Observation #2:  I bought a big jigsaw puzzle for us to work on as we talked, as distraction for me.  This worked well.  And as we sat at the DR table doing the puzzle, I had the same great time I always have with her, complete with lots and lots of belly laughs.  I will admit we also had a ton of great food to nibble on, which helped me feel not-deprived (back to my usual low-carb eating after this week in New Orleans!!!).  And not-drinking was not nearly as hard as I feared it might be.

The things I keep learning about sobriety, they continue to surprise me!

Happy Thanksgiving and Many Blessing for the coming year!

Sober Day #24- Alcohol and Routine and Travel

For the last 24 days, I have been at home, settling into my normal routine:  Normal work hours, normal school hours for daughter.  I am getting used to the rhythm of this, and each evening without wine is a little easier than the next.  But a new challenge is coming up.

Tomorrow we leave to spend the week of Thanksgiving in New Orleans. I've spent a fair amount of time there, although I've never lived there.  We love the city, and it is where we eventually plan to retire.  BUT- it is definitely the land to Big Eating and Big Drinking!!!  I certainly plan to take advantage of the Eating- but I do not plan to drink.  I mean, I will not drink.  And this will be new, and possibly difficult.  Usually when we spend time in New Orleans, we get right into the routine of a lot of great food and great drink.  I'm not sure if approaching this routine with a major change- no alcohol- will be hard or not.

DH has decided he will support me by not ordering wine or beer for himself when we are eating out.  He loves his glass or two of red wine each evening, so I really appreciate this help!  (And he is one of those who has his two glasses of wine, and switched to Fresca- no problem.  sigh.)

I've been noticing at home that I am more aware, more noticing of little details of delight- tastes, sounds, smells, etc-  that I would in the past zip by in my hurry to get to the next glass of wine.  There is so much to appreciate in New Orleans-  I am hoping the richness of the new appreciation of my senses and surroundings will compensate for the 'loss' of the rosy glow of wine.