Sober Day #32- First Holiday/Vacation without Wine

Today it is official!  Thanksgiving without wine, and a week's vacation in New Orleans without wine.  Truly a Milestone for me.

These are the things I did to help ensure my No Wine success this week:

(1)  As soon as we arrived, I stocked up on flavored seltzer water and diet soft drinks.
(2)  I permitted myself food treats this week that I usually steer clear of- my usual diet is No grain, No sugar- and this week I had some of both.
(3)  I arranged distractions of Non-Wine things I enjoy:  crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzle, new embroidery threat, a quilt that was done except for hand-stitching the binding, a large stash of magazines and a few new books, etc
(4)  I enlisted the help of a few trusted folks- DH, one sister, my nephews- to help distract attention from me if there were questions about my not drinking.  DH was kind enough to refrain from ordering any alcohol when we ate out.
(5)  I took my kindle with me to social gatherings, and occasionally excused myself for a few minutes of Reorientation by Book.
(6)  I invented the Detail Game:  When I feel disoriented or regretful about no wine, I refocus on my surroundings.  I challenge myself to notice at least 10 details that I haven't seen before.  This turns out to be fascinating:  from cracks in the ceiling (a la Madeline in Paris?) to a carved wooden edge to the table I'd never noticed, to a column of caged oyster shells at the restaurant-  this approach seems to add a richness and grounding.

What do you do to help set yourself up for No Alcohol Success?

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 #29- Bone Density Improvement after Quitting Drinking!

As a, ahem, mature female, I do think about my bone density.  I want to keep it strong and normal to support a healthy active life as I age.  My weight-lifting, pilates, yoga, TRX, cardio, etc, certainly help-  but I also know chronic alcohol overuse has an adverse affect on bone density.  Therefore I was very happy to come across the following article.  What I have reprinted here is the article's abstract.  The full reference is at the bottom of the post, for anyone who wishes to review the original article in it's entirety.  It is available at www.pubmed.com as a free full text article.  I have highlighted the bits that are the most relevant!  

AIMS:

The aims of this study were to assess bone mineral density (BMD) and content (BMC), osteocalcin, serum telopeptide, PTH and vitamin D in alcoholics, and to determine if a 6-month period of abstinence leads to changes in these parameters.

METHODS:

Serum osteocalcin, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), telopeptide (40 patients) and 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D, were measured in 28 controls and 77 alcoholic patients, 48 of whom were evaluated again 6 months later. All patients underwent whole-body assessment of BMD by a Hologic QDR-2000 (Waltham, MA, USA) bone densitometer, at the beginning of the study and 6 months later.

RESULTS:

Patients showed higher serum telopeptide levels **(0.59 +/- 0.40 versus 0.19 +/- 0.10 nmol/100 ml, P < 0.001), lower IGF-1 [median = 49, interquartile range (IQR) = 31-121 ng/ml versus 135, IQR = 116-237 ng/ml, P < 0.001], vitamin D [26.5, IQR = 17.0-37.8 pg/ml versus 82.4 (IQR = 60.9-107.4 pg/ml, P < 0.001] and osteocalcin (2.1, IQR = 1.1-3.6 ng/ml versus 6.65, IQR = 4.9-8.8 ng/ml, P < 0.001) than those in controls. Patients also showed lower BMD values, Z- and T-scores at many levels of the skeleton and reduced total BMC. After 6 months, those who continued drinking showed a loss of bone mass, whereas those who abstained showed either no change or increase, differences being especially marked at pelvis, right arm and total BMD and BMC. Simultaneously, abstainers showed a significant increase in osteocalcin (versus a decrease among those who continued drinking). Serum telopeptide increased in both groups.

CONCLUSION:

Ethanol consumption leads to osteopenia, and decreased serum osteocalcin, which improve with abstinence, whereas those who continue drinking show a worsening of both parameters.

Full Reference: 

Alvisa-Negrín J, González-Reimers E, Santolaria-Fernández F, García-Valdecasas-Campelo E, Valls MR, Pelazas-González R, Durán-Castellón MC, de Los Angeles Gómez-Rodríguez M.   Osteopenia in alcoholics: effect of alcohol abstinence. Alcohol Alcohol. 2009;44:468-75.     

Sober Day #28- Fun in New Orleans!

I do love New Orleans.  I may have initially, long ago, decided I like the city because alcohol is so much a part of the casual culture here.  I wonder?

It is so interesting seeing New Orleans without alcohol-  without planning meals in restaurants to be sure they are in a place that serves alcohol, without mapping out where the local wine/liquor stores are, without having whole chunks of my day defined by alcohol consumed.

I actually think I may like being sober.  This surprises me, since I'd thought of a life without alcohol as a Life defined by a continuous feeling of Deprivation.  And I'm not really feeling deprived, except in a minute or two, here and there, mostly when a Habit-Thought relating to obtaining or drinking alcohol kicks in, and then I realize, Oops, I'm not doing that right now.

It is still an alien feeling, though, this feeling fully present all the time, to myself, my companions, my surroundings.  A wee bit I feel like I'm in a strange foreign country, and equally I feel like I'm home to a comfortable loving place that I'd forgotten I belonged to.

This is a sensually-rich city. The house we are renting is just off St. Charles, and I love hearing the streetcars go by!   Audobon Park is just a few blocks away, and what a lovely place that is!!  DH and I are both still liking the idea of retiring here eventually- and we're having fun driving around (it's rainy, making our usual walking-biking mode a little less attractive than usual) vetting different neighborhoods and imagining ourselves living in them.

We are now off to lunch in a French Quarter restaurant owned by the family of one of my patients-  apparently a New Orleans institution that I've somehow missed before.  I'm almost drooling in anticipation of more great food!!

Sober Day #27- Sleep: Restore to Factory Settings

I'm having a fabulous time on my New Orleans vacation- even without alcohol.

One of the biggest changes for me over the past nearly-four-weeks has been sleep.  Judging from the other blogs, that seems to be a universal theme for early sobriety.

Before (i.e., with alcohol) my typical night involved 4.5-5 hours in bed.  Much of that was poor-quality sleep, disturbed by metabolizing the large amount of alcohol in my system when I went to bed.  Although I occasionally remembered dreams, I doubt if I regularly got much REM sleep at all.  This has been my pattern for a couple of decades at least.

From day #1 of this challenge, I have been craving more sleep.  I've been tracking my sleep times in my journal, and note that I've been getting 7.5-8 hours of sleep most nights.  Since I get up at 5:30 almost every day, this involved astoundingly early bedtimes, like 9PM.  And yet it feels very nourishing.

On the two nights we've been in New Orleans so far, I have been in bed an amazing total of 12 hours or so a night.  And most of that time was actually spent sleeping, lol!  I feel so relaxed, so calm, so full (and not just full of the wonderful food that flourishes here- also full, as in fully charged, ready for any activity or fun that comes along).

It really does feel like I am getting the amount of quality sleep my body needs, finally.  Like I am making up for a many-year sleep deficit, and getting to the way a person should feel, rested and full (not just full of the wonderful food that flourishes here, but also full, as in the energy tank is topped off, restored to factory settings, so I am energetic and enthusiastic about whatever comes along!

Hurray for sleep!!

Sober Day #26- Flying without Wine

I have always been a Fearful Flyer.  I would not get on a plane without at least one glass of wine in me, even if it was a 7 AM flight.  (Sometimes awkward, lol!)  International flights?  Glass after glass of wine until I fell asleep.  I guess I thought I would self-destruct without that cushion, that self-erected zone of I am Not Really Here.

Yesterday I got to the airport, and went through security.  My default after that is to head immediately to the closest bar.  And I did.  But I ordered iced tea and a salad.  When at the next airport between flights, I bought a diet coke and some cashews and nibbled on these while recharging my phone and reading the morning's WSJ which I'd brought along (hard to read newspapers on planes!!)

I got on the next flight, and arrived here in New Orleans.  And here I am!

How was it?  Almost painless.  I did stock up on a backpack full of magazines, and a few cross-word puzzles to distract myself.

Final Diagnosis:  I guess I must have long ago outgrown being a Fearful Flyer without realizing it.  Another revelation of this sobriety experiment. I keep finding out that I am Stronger than I thought.  In a lot of ways, excess use of wine seems to be an emotional crutch that I no longer need.  Wow!