Replacing alcohol with…

…too much sugar! I’d like to pick 1 (or a few) things to keep me focused on mental, physical, and spiritual. Just small steps right now. I’ve been known to burn myself out when I get flashes of motivation. I’m approaching 30 days sober and feeling great about it, but it’s time to start aiming at the lifestyle change as a whole. Any suggestions from personal experience? I appreciate this community very much. :heart_hands:

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I listen to lots of podcast. I’ve found Huberman Podcast recently and especially this episode about the effect of alcohol on the body and mind. Pretty amazing stuff. He has lots of other topics on mental and physical health as well. Definitely worth a listen.

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This is a good one for me. I’ve already saved some topics that pertain to me. I appreciate this

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I found daily brisk walks 15 min, no stopping and eating small, healthy frequent meals to help.
Meetings and here, of course. And I always eat breakfast! Small, usually an English muffin with honey or peanut butter. Sometimes jam.

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I took your title literally and just came to post…

Lacroix

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For me it was fruit juice, to replace all calories I was getting with all drinks.
And sparkling water just to, get something ‘similar’ to replace all those drinks, it had to be sparkling for me…

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Meditation was something I had started a little before I got sober,but I really leaned into it when I first stopped drinking. I have never managed to sustain a daily practice. But I learned a lot and it stays with me. I liked the Calm app. But there are lots of other options including free ones.

If you search :mag: meditation on the forum there will be lots of threads and good suggestions :blush:

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@Benwa10 this has been great so far. Thank you!

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For sure man. Really blew me away how in depth he goes into everything. Very eye opening.

Of course we need alternatives to alcohol. For example I hike. I bike. I’m improving myself, personally, professionally. But. A big thing to learn and accept too is that part of our lives consists of nothingness. Part of life is a void. And one of the reasons I became addicted is that I was always lookign for ways to fill that void. At times we just have to be. Nothing more. Just sit with ourselves and accept there’s nothing more than that. Might sound vague but I think and feel it’s an essential part of recovery. Not saying it’s easy BTW.

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Doc snipes on youtube also has alot of stuff about addiction and mental health.
Huberman is great i listen to him too.

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Not for everyone, you gotta be in a really stable and passionate relationship for it to be any sort of healthy but… lots of fun times with my lover. Making up for all those times i used to be wasted and ruin the moment :grin:

@Eke Omg, this is the truest thing hahahahahaha! This is going to crack me up all morning. @NoWayJose when I first became sober I was eating an insane amount of candy–way more than I’d ever done before, and I remember reading something about your body craves it at first when you quit drinking after long term alcohol use/abuse because of they way it metabolizes alcohol and it wants to replace that for a while at first. It did pass after my body adjusted back to normal, and the cravings went back to just regular old sugar cravings. :relaxed:

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Thanks for this. I think what you’ve said here is really important, and it’s not often discussed or mentioned, but you’re right. You can achieve so much more sober, but it’s not all about achieving stuff, it’s learning to just be with yourself, and I think it’s one of the hardest things. I’m working on that, not very good at it yet.

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Sorry! I forgot to say that at the moment I’m replacing alcohol with reading and podcasts! This Naked Mind is great, Huberman, and Dr Chatterjee are my favorites.
Book wise, I just want to read everything!!! :joy:

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Menno…!!!
Your post catched me tonight :pray:t2:

My first answer was: Sports :muscle:t2::woman_in_lotus_position:t2::biking_woman:t2::weight_lifting_woman::running_woman:t2:
Second answer: personal development :white_flower:
Okay… Taking care of myself, my health, eating, meditating, napping for healing, therapy.
It’s much more in the focus and it’s wondeful.

But to accept just to be…
And let the void be there…
It’s not that dangerous at all, as I thought it would be during the years filling it up with alcohol, drama and nonsense sex!

There is nothing dangerous.
It’s just calm and easy in this void.
It’s peaceful.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

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