Checking in daily to maintain focus #54

Continuing the discussion from Checking in daily to maintain focus #53 - #2518 by JazzyS.

Previous discussions:

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Hello everyone.

I made a new topic askinf for your views on how to have a relationship when sober. Follow the below link.

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Good Morning Sober family :sunrise:
Checking in Day 72 AF
Feeling tired but enthusiastic a nd grateful ~~ for the tools of Healing and Recovery.
Hope you all have a good one today.
Sober with a little help from you my friends :peace_symbol::heart:

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Im sorry you are struggling @Catmama23

Remember recovery isnt always linear. Sometimes we have those ā€œoffā€ periods. Sometimes all we can do is not use and that is enough.

Stinking thinking is exhausting. Maybe checkout the daily gratitude thread adding that practice every morning has shifted my thinking to the positive.

Dont lose hope. Dont use. Keep trying sobriety tools

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Day 2000

Thereā€™s nothing stopping any single person who is reading this from getting here. You donā€™t need to struggle and toil for years before it ā€œclicksā€. Making years of mistakes is not a requirement of sobriety. Years or drinking and drugging is pain enough, why do you want to make your recovery just as hard.

I know AA isnā€™t the only way, but youā€™ll have a rough time telling me itā€™s not the easiest. I spent too long out in the wilderness of my own ego to know that my own way would never work.

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Day 77 AF. Feeling tired today. Supposed to be a pretty day outside so I will get out and get some Sun and work in the yard some. Hopefully that will snap me out of it.

Have a great day!

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Solid info. Thanx. Congrats on 2000 days clean and sober. :v:

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Drop the :microphone:! Congrats on freedom from alcohol!

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Checking in on Day 436
Have a great day everyone!!

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Iā€™m so grateful for the responses to everyone who reached out to me - @Markjackson @JazzyS @GenG @Hesmyportion @SadMemeQueen @Misokatsu @Mno @KellyKelly @Cjp and for everyone here in this forum. Your messages brought me hope and perspective and I plan to revisit them when Iā€™m feeling down.

I donā€™t want to restart my sobriety. It has been hard work and I donā€™t want to undo all of that. Itā€™s a little corny but I think of the expression that inside of each of us are two wolves, and itā€™s up to us to decide which one we feed, care for and nurture. For 20 years Iā€™ve been tending to the selfish, ego-driven, anger-fueled wolf that thinks life should be fair and easy and drinks away itā€™s bad feelings. No wonder the other wolf is now throwing a tantrum that Iā€™m finally looking at it and paying attention to it.

I need to keep going and get a sponsor but I also need to learn basic coping strategies for managing intense emotions. Iā€™ve already picked up some great ideas in this forum. And @Cjp im going to start posting daily in the gratitude thread.

Recovery isnā€™t linear - I just remember this. I also think I should start tracking abstinence from junk food binge eating - this is not helpful in any way.

Iā€™d be lying if I said Iā€™m not still in a funk but I know what I need to do and with your help I feel motivated to keep trying. Thanks all and I wish everyone a sober day :yellow_heart::yellow_heart::pray::pray:

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Good to hear that you are not giving in and it was even better that you opened yourself about what is currently going on in your life and whatā€™s troubling you. Thatā€™s definitely better than trying to find an answer all by yourself and allowing these negative emotions to feed on you. One big step done in the right direction!
If you have someone to talk to in real life about your current situation, that would be the first thing to do, just vent as much as possible. When your head starts to clear, write down all of the things going on and add them into one of the three categories:

  • cannot be changed
  • can be changed with a lot of efforts
  • can be changed with less efforts
    Then have a look at the list again and check with yourself which of these need to be tackled with priority.
    For those things in the last category, add an action plan, e.g. donā€™t drive to Burger King, but use a time-saving Internet recipe for a salad, wrap, bowl or whatever you like.
    For those things with higher efforts, decide when you want to work on it, what needs to be done to prepare for it and who might help you with it.
    If the points are in the category ā€œcannot be changedā€, start learning about how to accept these and how to cope with them. Some topics might become less distracting, frustrating or depressing when you talk about them, read about them or spent time mentally putting yourself into the situation you are afraid of. If required, set a timer to take you out of the possibly depressing moment after a time, itā€™s like saying to yourself ā€œitā€™s OK to be down and depressed for 30 minutesā€. When the time is over, counter the just experienced moment by being physically active, e.g. go for a run, paced walk or swim. Now itā€™s time for your body to be active, not your mind. Block off times in your calendar to repeat these exercises, check your list once a week to check off things you did start working on.
    All the best to you, sending you energy and positive thoughts :hugs:
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I am so happy that you came here @Catmama23 to let us all in on your struggles rather than giving in to the addict. Glad to hear that you are now feeding and nurturing the other wolf. A sponsor would definitely be helpful- wishing you luck in finding one soon.

Thank you @AlexWayhill - your post was extremely helpful and something i plan on starting for myself. Appreciate you :pray:

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Right on @AlexWayhill - great advice :100:

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3 yrs 7months. Not one of my better days BUT STILL SOBER DAMNIT!!!

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Iā€™m so glad we could help

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Wow congrats on being sober for so long!

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Day :one::six: :busts_in_silhouette:

:red_car::hammer_and_wrench:
So on my birthday, this Saturday my car engine suddenly did not started and I leaved my car in other city. Asked mechanic to take it to service and fix it while I took my friends car for few days. So today they fixed my car. It was old fuel pump problems. After work I headed to my friend, then to other city. I took my car and got back home to gym. Then friend called and said i forgot my work backpack at his car. After gym headed for my backpack. Woked up 5:40. 22:00 finally home.


So I started to work far away from home again, not far away from Baltic Sea. Working schedule got rough again. Waking up around 5:40. Ariving at work around 6:30 / 6:40. Lunch break is shortened again from 1 hour to 30 minutes. Going back home from work around 18:40. Then going to gym around 19:00 for about hour or doing running workout.

Doing 2 gym workouts per week. Now because I had two right arm surgeries and because Covid Lockdown my second Medianus Nerve surgery was postponed for 11 months. So I lived 11 months with main Medianus nerve tatally cut off. The nerve was almost dead. After two years of surgery showing only 0.5 nerve signal. That is almost nothing. Still that made big changes and the possibility of arm amputation are no thread now.

I still have lots of problems with that hand. My half right arm is numb. Some small muscles are atrophied. Blood circulation in that arm is problematic and I often have some inflammation symptoms, especially after some wrist movements at work or etc.

So my workouts are very specific. I only do machine assisted pull ups. When there is less tension on wrist I like to lift as heavy weights as possible to get bigger pump and use that momentum with lower weights on synergic exercises that gives more pressure on wrist. Focusing on slow isometric moves. Only use EZ barbells.

Still I have big disadvantage on arm workouts. Instead I do train arms on my legs day. There was big studies made. One group trained only arms. Other group legs. The leg group showed bigger anabolic results on arms than arm group alone. It all goes to growth hormone stimulation.

I also doing 1 running workout and trying to implement the second one. One for long distance running and other for speed. I am figuring out the best days strategy for each workout and now the plan is:

Monday - Tempo/Sprint running
Tuesday - Back/Chest/Shoulders
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - Legs/Arms
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Long Run
Sunday - Rest

Or sometimes I switch between rest days if I need to skip workout.

To be honest I would like to add one more running day and have extra one workout focusing more on shoulders and chest that would be great push/pull split from my Tuesday mix.

But I have long working hours and buildup of lack of sleep through working week so I need to focus more on recovery since rest day is also an important part of the training discipline.


Yeah Buddy! Lightweight, baby!

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@Catmama23 Iā€™m sorry youā€™re struggling :people_hugging: sending strength šŸ©µ
@Alycia congrats on completing probation :tada:
@Sunshine-girl welcome back :blush:
@Englishd congrats on 2000 days :tada:

988 days no alcohol.
453 days no cocaine.
75 days no vape.
3 days no binge-eating.

Slept for just one hour last night so Iā€™m tired but restless today.

I did my morning routine and my morning walk. Had my phonecall with the cessation nurse.

Went to return some clothes that donā€™t fit to the sports shop, so a bit more walking.

I spoke to my dad, and he is doing much better, he is off all the pain meds and his pain is now manageable, he found a good osteopath and heā€™s ā€˜doing the trickā€™. Iā€™m so pleased, I was so worried about him.

Had to reset my impulsive spending counter because while I was checking the storeā€™s website to see if they had any hoodies in my size that match the joggers Iā€™ve got, I spotted a really nice outfit. Iā€™ve had a whole palarva with me getting my order wrong, ordering again amd therefore paying twice for delivery, duplicate payments being taken, communicating with customer service, itā€™s definitely the Universe teaching me a lesson, so Iā€™ll listen.

I am way too tired to do my evening walk, even though I really want to, to clear my head. My feet are also really hurting so they have probably had enough for today as well, so Iā€™ll listen to them too.

šŸ©µ

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We need to rest sometimes my friend.
Hard lesson to learn.
Have a wonderful evening. :hugs:

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day 219 AF

Back to work after a 5 day weekend thanks to rain and a day to remember our fallen.

Not much to report just trucking along as usual, no hiccups to report other than the odd thought about picking up sneaking in here and there. Nothing I cant deal with.

Even if you relapse they say keep coming back, even if its back to this forum, keep ya chin up its hard out here playing the game of life.

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