Sobriety is a battle… I struggle everyday wanting to drink and constantly thinking about it 56 days in. I want/need to add more to my life like healthier eating, exercising, more self care, (battles I have struggled with as well) I feel like adding anything on top of maintaining my sobriety will be a lot. When or how did y’all go about adding more life changes on top of sobriety?
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I would highly recommend focusing on staying sober for that first 6 months at least. Taking on too much can become overwhelming and trigger a relapse.
Hell my addictions had me in poor shape mentally, physically, spiritually. It took years to get me there i needed to be patient making progress climbing out of the mess.
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My first year, all I focused on was my sobriety. I was working my program so hard I had nothing left to put into other areas of my life. I was ok with it though because the obsession had finally lifted and I was able to move onto other life changes. Everyone moves at their own pace so do what’s best for you and your sobriety.
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56 days is great!! Keep it going! I agree with the others here, the focus is first and foremost upon your sobriety. The other stuff can wait until you are ready to tackle more. Everyone is different, but eventually you will reach a point where that addiction voice will become smaller and you’ll feel strong enough to take on the other aspects. For me that point was around day 90. I’m 133 days into it now and finally starting to attend to better self care, the things you’ve mentioned. But it’s not just a simple linear progression, like “now I’m sober, I can focus on XY or Z now.”. there are ups and downs and moods shift. The main thing I keep in mind is always , always, be specially attuned to my sobriety and never take it for granted.
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Build that solid sobriety base before you try to balance more on top. In my head it looks like a pyramid with sobriety on the bottom and life building up from there.
I allowed myself to eat whatever I wanted for the first five months. No restrictions. The good news was the calories I cut out from drinking balanced all the chips and ice cream so I didn’t gain too much. It is very freeing to eat all of your calories.
At a year I tackled cigarettes and finances. Now I just keep piling on new goals and knocking them down.
Don’t rush yourself especially if that addict voice is still loud. Without sobriety all is lost. 🩷🩶
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I am glad I came here for advice! Thank you guys!
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I’m sort of the other side of the coin here because I’m not a very functional alcoholic.
During my last attempt at sobriety, I didn’t do much at all for 19 months and it was really unfulfilling.
I’m only 34 days in now and I’ve LOADED my time with things but mostly creative things that are good for the soul.
What I did was started with a daily to-do list which subtly had things on there that I wanted to address like you’ve said healthy eating - My diet was shit and inconsistent so I put “Make sure you eat 3 times a day”. I didn’t make any time for self care either so I added a few things on there that steered me in the direction of general overall self care.
I’m fully on board with everyone else here saying focus on your sobriety first 100% but if you think your sobriety will benefit from adding more stuff then I say go for it. Just be sure that it ultimately supports your sobriety and doesn’t distract you away from it.
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I love this! I feel like adding more creative things would be good for me, to divert my thoughts to a healthier place (not always thinking about drinking) and I like the idea to subtly add others to where I’m not feeling forced? Idk how to word that correctly but yeah. What sort of creative things have you added to your routine?
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Hi @Elletse! 
Nice to meet you. I’m Matt.
What does this mean?
Like when I say “maintaining my car”, for example, that means, for me, following the maintenance schedule in the owner’s manual, with a mechanic who does a careful job (they were recommended to me by a family member who trusts them). (If only human beings had a maintenance manual… 
) But, “maintaining my car” can mean a lot of different things to different people: doing some things, skipping some things, maybe not even reading the manual 
What does “maintaining my sobriety” mean? Does it mean sobriety is about resolve and willpower? Does it mean no socializing? Does it mean different socializing? Does it mean new hobbies (I loved your post on that in the other thread; personally I love the hobbies I’ve found in my sober time)? Does it mean a recovery program? (like AA, SMART Recovery, Women for Sobriety, etc etc - which are also social spaces; some of my best friendships, people who really understand me, I made in my SA group)
What does it mean to “maintain” sobriety?
Is it the same thing as “caring for a garden”? That just occurred to me just now. “Maintaining” and “caring for” mean similar things but they are different: we “care for” things that are alive and growing (literally or metaphorically); we “maintain” things that are not alive (like cars).
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Wow, that put it all in a new light picking it apart like that. Thank you! Also nice to meet you Matt! I think a goal for me now is finding the right support groups, as I am not a social person in any way, but maybe it would help finding people who understand? Maintaining or keeping up with sobriety is different for everyone, as is maintaining cars and caring for gardens… I feel I am not as good with words as you put it so thank you again for this response!!
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Yeah I get what you mean.
I’ve played guitar all my life so I’m dedicating much more time to playing and writing. As a drinker, I started to lose dexterity in my left hand after 2 drinks so I didn’t bother playing very much for a while. I’m now able to play for a solid 8 hours again and not get RSI plus the quality of the music I’m writing is so much better.
I’m writing a book which I’m about 40 pages into - It’s structured like a self help book but i’m delving into my past at the same time by giving examples. It’s really just a form of tangible therapy as its forcing me to dig into the past, process it whilst writing it down and then coming to a conclusion at the end of it.
I’m a Chef so I get creative in the kitchen anyway but seldomly at home - I’ve started getting creative at home again with my food; my flavour identification was always good anyway but will continue to improve to longer I stay sober.
I’ve started singing along to the music I write which was originally a no-go because I do not have the voice or singing but bizarrely i’ve found a register which suits me and its allowing me to put a lot more emotion into the songs I’m writing.
There’s all manner of things you can do to get creative - Singing, Drawing, Cooking, Instruments, Painting, Writing, Sculpting… even doing stuff with the kids (if you have any or have kids around you, Nieces, nephews etc) Even if you start something completely new that you’ve always wanted to do but didn’t think you could learn, you will eventually learn. I hear this thing all the time that people are too old to learn an instrument or a language which just isn’t true; I learned 2 languages in my mid 20s and have taught god knows how many people in the 40s/50s how to play advanced guitar techniques. So… The Creative world is your Creative Oyster 
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Amazing! Those all are great creative outlets! I might have to pick up some old hobbies as I completely forgot how much music meant to me before drinking and figured I just never would/could play again…
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What do you play?
Was a percussionist for a while and dabbled with the keyboard here and there. Definitely an escape from the world.
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Ohhh okay! Thats awesome!
Well, I wouldn’t say I am a drummist… I bought a drum kit because all my friends played guitar (which I also played) and a band of 5 guitarists would not be super great… so, drums. 
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Welp, its pretty cool that you can play both! Takes talent!
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Congrats on day 56! That in itself is something to be so proud of. I agree with everyone saying that staying sober should be the focus. I’ve gone through on and off phases of drinking, but one thing that has consistently helped me with my stress is going on hikes with my dog. I think just being in nature and getting away from the buzz of the city has always been good for me. When I am sober I am outside more then ever. It gets me out of the house and allows me to clear my mind. With that being said I think any healthy hobbies that you’ve left behind or want to pick up aren’t going to hurt you to try. 
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Thank you!! Getting outside sounds like a great way to clear my mind, I will definitely have to find a place to be outside and maybe read, that sounds super nice!