health

But All My Friends Drink!
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Most of my friends drink to some degree or another, do I just end the friendships now that I’ve quit drinking?

It’s going to be difficult to stay off the booze if your friends are all heavy boozers. Here are some straightforward pointers for dealing with this problem.

The Best Kind of Friends

We have to choose our friends carefully, because the people we spend our time with have a big influence on us. The people you want in your life are:

  • Kind
  • Decent
  • Honest
  • Healthy
  • Fun to be around
  • Inspiring
  • Motivating
  • Supportive
  • Genuinely interested in you
  • Reliable
  • Trustworthy
  • Positive
  • Loyal

People who are truly your friends, who care about you, will respect your decision to kick the booze. They will support you one hundred percent.

The Questionable Friends

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You might want to question the depth of the friendship with friends who tease you about quitting alcohol, and try to coax you back into drinking. Are they really your friends? Would somebody who really cared about you want you to be drunk? Would they let you drink and drive? I think you know the answers to those questions.

It’s not that they’re malicious, that they are intentionally wanting to jeopardize your health, your happiness, your life. It’s more likely that they’ve just given up caring about their own lives. If they don’t care about what happens to themselves, how can they care about what happens to you?

Choose Wisely

George Washington said: “It is better to be alone than in bad company.”

A Buddhist would advise: “If you cannot find a good companion to travel with, walk alone, like an elephant roaming the jungle. It is better to be alone than with those who will hinder your progress.”

While it might not be easy to completely sever the ties with the heavy boozers in your life, you should seriously consider reducing time spent with them to a minimum. And spend more time with your true friends, the ones who respect and support you. Or maybe try spending more quality time with family, or alone. Read an inspiring/entertaining book, learn a new language or skill, work out, practice yoga, meditate, there are endless healthy ways to spend your time.

To kick the booze, you must become a different person. A better, stronger, smarter person.

Give it a go, you’ll be AMAZED at what you are capable of.

KTB

New Glasses and a Fancy New Drink
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I’ve had a set of stemless wine glasses for some time now, and when I hold one of those glasses it really wants me to pour some wine into it. So I decided to pick up some new glasses today — a set of four for the price of a cheap bottle of wine. They have a completely different feel to the wine glasses.

I also picked up some lemon and lime flavored Perrier water. I’m not a Perrier drinker, but I thought it might make a nice change. I was right! A nice glass, the Perrier, some ice and a slice of lemon, and it feels quite decadent. And healthy!

I’m going to reserve this healthy drink for the times that the old me would have had alcohol, thereby replacing an old, bad habit, with a new, healthy one.

Small changes can make a big difference.

KTB

Close Encounters of the Booze Kind
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The eve of Day 2, and I’m feeling highly motivated to kick the booze for good, though I did have several unplanned encounters with it today.

This morning I was looking at some vacation destinations for a hard-earned trip that I’m planning with my other half. Most of the photos of the accommodations had glasses of wine in them — by the jacuzzi, beside the stove in the kitchen, on tables beside sunbeds.

Then I picked up a piece of Mahi Mahi at the store (silly expensive – I hadn’t noticed the price until it was too late), came home and googled a garlic sauce recipe to go with the fish. The first recipe that I clicked on was made with white wine.

And while at the grocery store, I was whizzing through gathering bits for the week, and rounded the corner of an aisle into the booze section — I had to go through it to pick up some bread — surrounded by towering shelves of wine and beer.

Booze is everywhere. It’s “normal” to drink, “they’d” like to have us believe. It makes it tough for a person trying to quit. But knowing that that’s what you’re dealing with is a big help; you can come up with some strategies to counter it. And you should.

Remembering that the poison in those attractive bottles, and cans, and boxes has the potential to kill you might help; that alcohol can quickly cause an intelligent person to make really bad decisions; that it ruins so many relationships, with friends and loved ones; that excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) each year in the United States from 2006 – 2010, shortening the lives of those who died by an average of 30 years.

Some sobering thoughts indeed.

KTB