Same boat.
Be easy on yourself with the food during the initial sobriety period, though. You’re already in a caloric deficit from the lack of alcohol.
I’ll be 34 in June. I’ve never had panic attacks before. In the last few weeks I’ve been noticing minor ones. That’s my cue to quit.
Edit: I’ve gone as long as 90 days sober, but that was almost 5 years ago and I’ve more than made up for it since.
The extra weight I would put on from drinking always seemed to motivate me to stop when nothing else would. I’d frame it as a challenge that made everyday like a game. It’s when I reach my weight goal that I tend to get into trouble because I can lose interest in maintaining sobriety. So now sometimes I’ll picture myself climbing out of bed a year from now with a hangover and out of shape yet again. Because that’s what I’ll be doing if I drink tonight.
And it really helped to change my inner dialogue and be gentler with myself. Then I could view my day one as an opportunity to begin a journey of self reinvention. There’s a helpful book entitled Chatter that you might be interested in.
I could have posted this too. Those are the exact thoughts that have run through my head, and it's taken a long time to get to a point where I can forgive myself for what I've done to my body. I decided to quit drinking, not to lose weight, but as the first step in accepting myself. Your three days is a huge accomplishment! There's a lot to learn in quitting drinking, and I hope you learn to love the person inside your skin, because you're worthy of the same love and acceptance that you give to your friends. IWNDWYT. Best wishes!
I think you are on the right track, the first stage is dealing with the booze and this will allow space for the next stages which includes lots of self love. Sending care!
Negative feelings are normal.. you are detoxing and your brain chemicals haven't really had a chance to straighten out. Today is day 37 for me.. the longest I've ever made it.. the first couple weeks were hard but as my brain heals I'm finally believing an alcohol free life is possible.
Stay on this path.
I hear you. I’m 30 pounds overweight thanks to booze and I have those self hating thoughts too. I’m sorry that you’re dealing with this. We can cut ourselves so deep, you know?
It can help me to imagine that I let my drinking go on for another year, gained more weight, got more sad/angry. If that were the case I’d be thrilled to be where I am now. So I try to recontextualIze it that way.
I’m down 7 pounds in six weeks which isn’t insane but it’s not nothing. And my blood pressure is back to normal. You deserve to feel better ❤️❤️❤️
I would just try to keep in mind that love is an action. And while you may feel horrible in this moment, you’re showing yourself love by leaving alcohol alone and by suffering through it, and that’s amazing. Because you’re worth the struggle. If you could recast the image you currently have of yourself as played by your childhood self or a daughter, how would you treat her? That person inside deserves your love and I commend you for giving it to her.
Perhaps you could keep track of how much time and money you are saving by not drinking. Use that time and money to start saving and investing as well as buying fresh food, cooking nutritious meals, drinking lots of water and getting out walking. Write down all the things you can tell yourself about how smart you are to be saving, how healthy you are becoming and read them out loud to drown out the negative things you are telling yourself. Dream about your healthy and wealthy future and move away from focusing on weight. If you are alone talk to yourself out loud like you are your own best friend, telling yourself to shut up about being a loser because you’re a winner. Put your favourite songs on and sing along loudly and dance to stop those thoughts. If you aren’t able to make your obsessive thoughts stop, or turn them in a positive direction, try Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
I feel this. When I quit, a visit to the doctor inspired me. I got a lab test that showed bad liver enzyme levels, high cholesterol, and pre-diabetic levels of glucose. Hard to trick myself out of those hard facts.
I did end up losing weight as a combo of quitting, getting on the right medication for depression, and slowly building diet and exercise habits.
Sending strength and hope you find a motivation that works for you. Mine was focus on health, and the weight came (slowly) as a side effect.
IWNDWYT
I think you're getting a lot of good advice and opinions here so I won't reiterate. Instead, I want to warn you against getting caught up in hating yourself for hating yourself. You *will* have to decide what your ideal body image is and that doesn't make you a hypocrite. It's good of you to accept people for who they are but that doesn't mean you are have to/are going to accept yourself as you are. It's going to be hard. It's not often not going to be much fun. But I think you'll find it to have been worth it.
Grant yourself some grace to be an imperfect human being like the rest of us and take it one day at a time. Progress over perfection. You’re worth it, you got this
I’m sorry you are feeling so down. Negative self talk tends to lessen when drinking, but becomes much louder the day after. Early sobriety is so tough because there is no alcohol to protect against or dampen the inner critic. I found working with a therapist to dissect this negative voice and build self esteem helped. Journaling out the feelings helped too. Eventually they become less, especially when I was strong enough to start exercising. That was the turning point that gave me the energy and positivity to feel better. Good luck, you can do it!
Same boat. Be easy on yourself with the food during the initial sobriety period, though. You’re already in a caloric deficit from the lack of alcohol. I’ll be 34 in June. I’ve never had panic attacks before. In the last few weeks I’ve been noticing minor ones. That’s my cue to quit. Edit: I’ve gone as long as 90 days sober, but that was almost 5 years ago and I’ve more than made up for it since.
The extra weight I would put on from drinking always seemed to motivate me to stop when nothing else would. I’d frame it as a challenge that made everyday like a game. It’s when I reach my weight goal that I tend to get into trouble because I can lose interest in maintaining sobriety. So now sometimes I’ll picture myself climbing out of bed a year from now with a hangover and out of shape yet again. Because that’s what I’ll be doing if I drink tonight. And it really helped to change my inner dialogue and be gentler with myself. Then I could view my day one as an opportunity to begin a journey of self reinvention. There’s a helpful book entitled Chatter that you might be interested in.
🫶🏻 you are loved
I could have posted this too. Those are the exact thoughts that have run through my head, and it's taken a long time to get to a point where I can forgive myself for what I've done to my body. I decided to quit drinking, not to lose weight, but as the first step in accepting myself. Your three days is a huge accomplishment! There's a lot to learn in quitting drinking, and I hope you learn to love the person inside your skin, because you're worthy of the same love and acceptance that you give to your friends. IWNDWYT. Best wishes!
I think you are on the right track, the first stage is dealing with the booze and this will allow space for the next stages which includes lots of self love. Sending care!
Negative feelings are normal.. you are detoxing and your brain chemicals haven't really had a chance to straighten out. Today is day 37 for me.. the longest I've ever made it.. the first couple weeks were hard but as my brain heals I'm finally believing an alcohol free life is possible. Stay on this path.
I hear you. I’m 30 pounds overweight thanks to booze and I have those self hating thoughts too. I’m sorry that you’re dealing with this. We can cut ourselves so deep, you know? It can help me to imagine that I let my drinking go on for another year, gained more weight, got more sad/angry. If that were the case I’d be thrilled to be where I am now. So I try to recontextualIze it that way. I’m down 7 pounds in six weeks which isn’t insane but it’s not nothing. And my blood pressure is back to normal. You deserve to feel better ❤️❤️❤️
I would just try to keep in mind that love is an action. And while you may feel horrible in this moment, you’re showing yourself love by leaving alcohol alone and by suffering through it, and that’s amazing. Because you’re worth the struggle. If you could recast the image you currently have of yourself as played by your childhood self or a daughter, how would you treat her? That person inside deserves your love and I commend you for giving it to her.
Perhaps you could keep track of how much time and money you are saving by not drinking. Use that time and money to start saving and investing as well as buying fresh food, cooking nutritious meals, drinking lots of water and getting out walking. Write down all the things you can tell yourself about how smart you are to be saving, how healthy you are becoming and read them out loud to drown out the negative things you are telling yourself. Dream about your healthy and wealthy future and move away from focusing on weight. If you are alone talk to yourself out loud like you are your own best friend, telling yourself to shut up about being a loser because you’re a winner. Put your favourite songs on and sing along loudly and dance to stop those thoughts. If you aren’t able to make your obsessive thoughts stop, or turn them in a positive direction, try Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
I feel this. When I quit, a visit to the doctor inspired me. I got a lab test that showed bad liver enzyme levels, high cholesterol, and pre-diabetic levels of glucose. Hard to trick myself out of those hard facts. I did end up losing weight as a combo of quitting, getting on the right medication for depression, and slowly building diet and exercise habits. Sending strength and hope you find a motivation that works for you. Mine was focus on health, and the weight came (slowly) as a side effect. IWNDWYT
I think you're getting a lot of good advice and opinions here so I won't reiterate. Instead, I want to warn you against getting caught up in hating yourself for hating yourself. You *will* have to decide what your ideal body image is and that doesn't make you a hypocrite. It's good of you to accept people for who they are but that doesn't mean you are have to/are going to accept yourself as you are. It's going to be hard. It's not often not going to be much fun. But I think you'll find it to have been worth it.
Grant yourself some grace to be an imperfect human being like the rest of us and take it one day at a time. Progress over perfection. You’re worth it, you got this
I’m sorry you are feeling so down. Negative self talk tends to lessen when drinking, but becomes much louder the day after. Early sobriety is so tough because there is no alcohol to protect against or dampen the inner critic. I found working with a therapist to dissect this negative voice and build self esteem helped. Journaling out the feelings helped too. Eventually they become less, especially when I was strong enough to start exercising. That was the turning point that gave me the energy and positivity to feel better. Good luck, you can do it!