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40 Days Without Booze

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Re: 40 Days Without Booze

#271

Post by inthewind »

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #179
nrivadeneira wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that a hardcore workout works even better than alcohol. Not only do you get the same winding down effect in a short period of time (assuming you're really killing yourself and working to exhaustion in the gym), but you get a lot of additional benefits along with it: better focus, improved health, boosted confidence, and improved body composition. You wake up the next morning feeling a lot better about yourself…

Using hardcore workouts as a stress coping tool is not much different from having a drink or two. You're not really addressing the source of stress. Working out hard is additional stress. It boosts cortisol just like job stress. Stress depletes magnesium, and so does hard exercise. You will be hurting your health, not helping it, if you're stressed out and then do crossfit type stuff. That you can't train hard and en…

Interesting take. The missus often reminds me that the body does well to have a little time out from alcohol. At least a couple of days off between drinks. Which could allow for weekend and mid week drinking or some variant. It's easier said than done though.

For me I'm really crap at switching off from work, and I can easily torture myself at the thought that I should be working. However when I drink, I pretty much say to myself - that's enough. And likewise if I'm on my bike.

So when I'm not drinking or not exercising, I'm not relaxing, and that's just a recipe for disaster for me - the knock on effect is that my programming really suffers. I find it a very difficult cycle to break away from, despite there being a simple solution.

At least you might be giving your brain time to breathe when you are exercising.

Re: 40 Days Without Booze

#272

Post by nitid_name »

Havoc wrote: post #133

Went from drinking way too much (Think black out) to zero recently. It was actually surprisingly easy - weirdly effortless. What freaks me out though is how difficult it is to hit the sweet spot. i.e. To drink, but low-moderate amounts and only irregularly. That would be ideal in my view - I don't seem to have sufficient willpower for that yet, so its zero drinks for now.

This is one thing that Alcoholics Anonymous gets right... when you're dependent enough on alcohol to get to the "alcoholic" label, drinking just one or two is really not gonna happen.

Re: 40 Days Without Booze

#273

Post by inthewind »

shanselman wrote: post #198
tjic wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never had a single drink for my first 40 years on the planet, and, yes, people absolutely look at you like you've got two heads. I started drinking (about once a week) two years ago. It's moderately nice from time to time, but I also think the decision to avoid it for twenty years of adulthood was a good one - I established who I am and what my coping mechanisms are for stress, and now it's a nice little social adj…

Yep, I've never had a drink in my 40 years as well. I just never got around to it. I'm not that interested in the culture, either. That said, it does kind of suck to be the sober guy at 3am in Vegas. Always.

What culture?

Re: 40 Days Without Booze

#274

Post by jasey »

I went the whole of 2011 without drinking.

The only difference was my wallet was fuller and I probably had a slightly better immune system.

The hard part was being at social events where for the most part I was the only one sober. I found I would analysis everything allot more and found that personality types I didnt like got much worse when they had been drinking. I also realized that some of my friends were really obnoxious and hated seeing them like that. When your also drunk you dont notice these things...

Re: 40 Days Without Booze

#275

Post by glitch003 »

wavesounds wrote: post #112
plg wrote: post #67

I know a lot of people who are similarly dependent upon (if not outright addicted to) exercise. Typically running although I've seen it with cycling and swimming as well. For these people if they don't get their exercise on schedule, they go absolutely nuts. There are many benefits to exercise but for many there are also big big risks, e.g. joint problems, soft tissue injuries, etc.

I used to be a pack-a-day smoker now I'm a runner/cyclist and you're exactly right if I've been sitting all day and I don't get exercise by the time it gets dark I start going nuts. That being said I'm pretty confident my body was designed to run and not to inhale burning plant matter or drink excessive amounts of fermented grain. So far I feel much better and I don't have any of those problems.

>That being said I'm pretty confident my body was designed to run and not to inhale burning plant matter or drink excessive amounts of fermented grain. So far I feel much better and I don't have any of those problems.

Intriguing. Designed by what?

Re: 40 Days Without Booze

#276

Post by mbrock »

Dewie wrote: post #267
mbrock wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meditation is also a practice of continuous "unwinding," or staying clear of being "wound up." You could make a decent case for summarizing Buddhist philosophy in this way: regular life is stressful, the source of stress is being wound up, and it's possible to practice not being wound up, through specific techniques including meditation. (That's a somewhat customized translation of the so called "four noble truths.")…

When studying I usually take a 15 minute break for each 45 minutes of studying, or 30 minute for every 90 minutes of studying. Instead of browsing websites and such I also sometimes try to do some stretches or pushups - mainly to get a break from the computer screen and engage my body, since a little activity picks me up a little bit. Lately I've considered trying to sometimes meditate in the breaks. With the pushups…

Sounds like a great habit. If you're interested in advice, here's mine, although it might not be so much advice as just general thoughts...

You should be clear about the fact that meditation, for most people, seems to be very difficult. But I purposely say "seems," because it's not difficult in the same sense that lifting a heavy weight is difficult. It's more like how it's difficult to quit smoking when there's a pack of cigarettes in front of you.

Meditation, to some first approximation at least, is about simplifying one's mental activity. Attenuating the internal monologue or at least having a less obsessive relation to it. And acquiring a critical distance from desire, anger, and other phenomena that we tend to get caught in.

When the loopy chaos of thought-proliferation subsides, you begin to see some very interesting aspects of the mind (or of consciousness, of the present moment, whatever you call it). Buddhist philosophy puts a lot of emphasis on the nature of desire and the ways in which the mind is disturbed.

But the difficulty is that when you're sitting there with your mind fully available, it's extremely tempting to wander into thoughts. And once you notice this, of course, you begin to think about not thinking. Think about how you shouldn't be thinking. And so on ad nauseum. This is all just so much chatter and you shouldn't take it seriously. Not taking it seriously -- not grasping onto it -- is crucial. That means not beating yourself up over it.

The catchphrase in contemporary meditation instruction is "just return to the practice." And it can sometimes sound like a stupefying dogma. "Just sit," and so on. But there's a crucial truth in it.

It's kind of like running. At first it's just painful, tedious, and you feel clumsy and unfit. It's supposed to make you feel good, and sometimes it does, but it's also a chore and something you often really don't feel like doing. But after a while you start to understand more about it, understand your own limits, understand how to do it in a way that's functional for you. And then it kind of "opens up."

Running and other physical exercise has more of an obvious external reference point. It's easier to "return to the practice" when you've got your running shoes on and you're actually taking step after step. In meditation, this is one reason why posture is emphasized. Maintaining a good posture -- in addition to its more obvious benefits -- is also a kind of physical reminder of the mental meditation. And the breath provides something like the steps in running.

So a widely recommended strategy is to begin with a simple breath-counting style of meditation, perhaps sitting in the seiza posture, or one of the lotus postures if you're up for it, or simply in a chair with your back straight. There's plenty of decent instructions available on the internet, although it helps in countless and immense ways to have face-to-face instruction and to sit together with others.

Best wishes!

Re: 40 Days Without Booze

#277

Post by peterwwillis »

scotty79 wrote: post #245
peterwwillis wrote: post #216

Tips on abstaining: * Don't keep any alcohol in your house * Don't go anywhere that drinking is the primary focus, or even secondary focus * Pick up a regular hobby that makes you happy and do it at least three times a week * Talk to people you enjoy and join them in activities that don't involve drinking * Put the amount of money you'd normally have spent on booze into a piggy bank and watch it grow * Make a list of…

> Pick up a regular hobby that makes you happy and do it at least three times a week It would be awesome if I could do just that. And I don't even drink. Other points seem much easier though.

You just need to try things until you find something you keep going back to. Examples of hobbies:

Exercise (running, crossfit, weight lifting, parkour, tabita, yoga, hiking, biking)

Sports (rock climbing/bouldering, soccer, baseball, basketball, autocross/road racing, roller derby, surfing, archery, sailing)

Martial arts (aikido, thai boxing, brazilian jiu-jitsu, tai chi, capoeira, kendo, eskrima/arnis, krav maga, fencing)

Dancing (salsa, merengue, swing, tango, blues, ballroom, hip hop, jazz)

Music (learn an instrument, live local shows, discover new genres, download and listen to new music)

Literature (join a book club, cheap books from thrift stores or yard sales, try fiction/nonfiction, reflect on what you read, blog it)

Blogging (research and then write about a subject you care about)

Volunteerism (soup kitchens, community gardens, local government, special needs, peace core, hackerspaces, free education community organizations, conventions, public awareness, public services, community programs)

Weird stuff (slacklining, acro-yoga, aerial silks, unicycling, juggling, rope bondage, home brewing, crafting, building models, puzzles, trivia, ham radio, blacksmithing, astronomy, woodworking, car tuning, karaoke, magic, gravestone rubbing, gardening, canning, locksport, leatherwork)

Re: 40 Days Without Booze

#278

Post by astrodust »

inthewind wrote: post #273
shanselman wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, I've never had a drink in my 40 years as well. I just never got around to it. I'm not that interested in the culture, either. That said, it does kind of suck to be the sober guy at 3am in Vegas. Always.

What culture?

Bars or clubs.

Re: 40 Days Without Booze

#279

Post by munificent »

jasondemeuse wrote: post #111
munificent wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if someone talks to you about dangers of such things as marijuana while sipping wine or beer - you're talking to either dangerously ignorant or dangerously dull person. Or maybe you're talking to someone smart enough to realize that just because a bunch of things are in the same category , that doesn't make them equivalent .

You're totally right, I would hope that many people would be as smart as that person and understand how much more dangerous alcohol can be than marijuana or many other drugs.

> how much more dangerous alcohol can be than marijuana or many other drugs.

That may be true but is irrelevant. The original claim was that someone talking about the dangers of marijuana while drinking is an idiot.

My claim is that talking about one says nothing about their knowledge of the other since they are different things. I can talk about the dangers of bear attacks while driving a car. I can talk about the dangers of flying while using a ladder.

That doesn't make me a hypocrite, it just means I'm not spending every waking moment sorting my activities and discussion points by aggregate danger level.

Re: 40 Days Without Booze

#280

Post by aclevernickname »

munificent wrote: post #279
jasondemeuse wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're totally right, I would hope that many people would be as smart as that person and understand how much more dangerous alcohol can be than marijuana or many other drugs.

> how much more dangerous alcohol can be than marijuana or many other drugs. That may be true but is irrelevant. The original claim was that someone talking about the dangers of marijuana while drinking is an idiot. My claim is that talking about one says nothing about their knowledge of the other since they are different things . I can talk about the dangers of bear attacks while driving a car. I can talk about the…

It doesn't make you a hypocrite, but using your example, it would make you an idiot armchair pundit, unaware of your surroundings, or the comedic irony in which your statements are now grounded. Which is more in-line with the original point, I think.

Not that I'm saying you're any of those things, mind you, but your analogy was fairly flawed. :)

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