30 Days without Alcohol – Day 30!!!!!!

Here it is, the last day of my challenge.  I wish I was more excited about it!  Which I suppose could be good news.  It’s good that I’m not thinking about waking up at midnight just to have a drink right?????

What did I chose to have for my first drink?  Annnnnnnnd the winner is…… whiskey.  I’ve got about a shot of Jack Daniels in the freezer.  And about a shot of Jameson reserve 18 yr old Irish Whiskey in the cupboard.  Over the rocks should do nicely  to celebrate this path I’ve gone down for the last 30 days.

What have I learned???

1. I have much more energy when not drinking (I have to apologize to Miss K for the obnoxious behavior on that bike ride).  And maybe apologize to a few homeless souls on the bike path….

2. For some reason although I had more time to clean the house, it seemed to get messier every day.  It’s a never-ending cycle of looking for things to do “Oh, look at this picture.  I haven’t seen it in ages.  I know, I’ll put it on the table and get a picture frame for it the next time I’m at the store”.  I’ve now got piles of stuff like this allllll over.

3. I saved a lot of money!!! By my calculations I figure I saved about $175 in not buying wine, and reduced bill when eating out.  If I kept this lifestyle up 90% of the time I’d save about $1900 a year!  Mind boggling. (wait, did I do my math correctly??)

4. It’s easier to get up in the morning.  Although it’s still NEVER easy for me to get up before 8am.  EVER.

5. Blogging is kinda cool.

6.  I conk out at 10:00 pm on a Friday or Saturday night.  Geez that was embarrassing at Shady Lady falling asleep at the table.  Again, probably need to apologize to random stranger sitting behind me that I kept leaning on.

7. And last but not least, this was worth doing.  I lost 10 lbs. by altering my diet and not drinking.  I still had a little cookie or sweet something here and there.  Which actually made it more realistic for me to stick with this plan.  Adding exercise into the routine helps boost it of course, but I now know that I can stay on track diet wise even if I can’t get my big butt on that bike 🙂

Ciao my sisters out there for all of your support!!! Thanks for reading 🙂

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30 Days without Alcohol – Day… oh whatever

Ok, my original intent for what I was going to write is now blown to bits.  What I was going to write had to do with how in preparation for completing the 30 days on Wednesday, I have spent the last few days browsing recipes for an amazing cocktail to make on Thursday – Kiwi Martini, Cucumber Martini, Mojito Diablo, etc.  NOW… now I just want a scotch on the rocks.  RIGHT Now (at 1:20pm on this Tuesday).  It’s a perfectly good reaction to having received that news that there is a 1 in 3 chance you will be laid off due to the budget crisis California is having.   I feel like I’m waiting for the lottery results!  Only in reverse.  This is one lottery I don’t want my number to be called.

Things rattling through my head: 

• How many roommates can I fit into my 2 bedroom house?  Does a Tent in the back yard count as a room?
• Can I get a drink now?
• How much can I sell my old hat collection for?
• What would it be like if I completely gave up electricity in the house? Who really needs it right?
• I should start watching Weeds and take notes…
• Can I get a drink now?
• Oh my Gawd!  I’m going to have to give up my iPhone!!!!

Scotch on the rocks please.

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30 Days Without Alcohol – Day 21

Ok, it just got difficult!

Man, I sure wanted a glass of lovely white wine last night!!!!  Yesterday was a 12 hour day at the winery with the Randy Travis concert.  After working all day with the normal winery hours I decided (yes, I did it to myself) to stay to help the night crew for the concert.  I’m glad I did though. There were times where it was pretty busy.  And there were the slow times where we all took turns sitting in the 6th row seats the Tour Director gave me earlier that day.  The tour crew was a blast!  They were hanging out in our tasting room after they set up the stage and bought several cases!  Then during the concert we would run into them as we moved about and chit-chatted about things such as how Randy Travis’ allergies were acting up.  Gee, allergies acting up in Sacramento???? Never happens.

On a side note: chatted quite a bit with one gentleman – totally my type.  Except for the married part!  Dang it!  We were having a great time talking about his wife and kids.  😦  One of these days I’ll find one that isn’t married.

I still managed to make it through the evening with everyone offering me wine.  When we have big events like that we often trade wine with the other rooms.  You’ll see us running back and forth “trade you a Chard for a Cab!?”

Today however….damnit.  The “L” word is buzzing heavily.  Twice in the last week Division Managers have stated to me in unofficial conversation “the courts are looking to stop all training except the required classes”.  My training is not required.  Which would move me high up on the list for layoff.  Right about now I’m in a mood to guzzle a few shots of whiskey. No, Scotch. The good stuff.  Go broke alllllll the way baby.

I know that not one of us is safe right now.  We are all stressing.  And I’m trying not to stress about what hasn’t happened.  But dangit, this would be just devastating.  I love this job!

Before I leave work today I’m trying to think of how to not dive into that bottle of JD in my freezer.  I’m thinking a nice long trip to the grocery store?  Waltzing slowly down the vegetable aisle?  I do look pretty good today… maybe I’ll meet an unmarried man that will be come my soul-mate 🙂

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30 Days Without Alcohol – Day 18

18 days!!!!!  Yayyyy!

One thing I was enjoying last night was whitening my teeth.  No, really.  I realized that in the past I would try the whitening strips at night, to only reverse the results with coffee, , soda, and wine the next day.  It doesn’t matter whether the wine is red or white, they are both equally as bad.  White wine is acidic which erodes the enamel allowing other foods to stain the teeth as well.  Now if I drank the wine out of a straw… that would help 🙂  I’m excited that this time the teeth whitening may actually work!

I want to get my thoughts out before my hands go numb again.  I don’t know why, but I’ve been thinking about this since Monday.  I had some errands to run downtown which caused me to be without my car for about 2 hours.  Since it was a really nice day, I thought I’d walk around downtown Sacramento.  As I meandered down K street I decided to stop for an early lunch at a cute little cafe type place called Ambrosia.  Now I work downtown so it’s not like I can’t go there anytime.  But for some reason I haven’t.  It’s interesting; that side of K street verses the side where I work (only a few blocks west).  The few blocks around Ambrosia it’s suits, skirts, and high heels.  But a few blocks down the street it’s jeans, t-shirts and flip-flops.  And that’s the difference between State Capital political/analyst pool and the County/State employee pool.   It was quite fun people watching!    But the one that got me the most intrigued was the young man in the tuxedo.  He was inside the cafe, off to the side of where the line ended.  At first he didn’t really look out of place because I thought he had a rolling case with a musical instrument with him.  My guess: he was playing at the Capital building for something.  He had on a crisp tuxedo, beautiful red carnation in his lapel, well done gelled wavy dark hair, and the most amazing green/blue eyes I’ve ever seen.  I did the  usual “Are you in line?” question.  And what came back was  a surprise.  “Are we ever really not in a line?  Aren’t we in a line our entire lives?  We all spend our lives in a line of some sort. We are in line to be born, we are in line to die…” and on and on.   Huh.  Something is not right about this one.  Ok.  I turn my attention to the board so that I’ll be ready when it’s my turn from “the line”.  I saw what I wanted and then started listening to the young man again completely curious to see where he was going to take his ramblings.  He never really stopped talking once I got him going.  Kinda like a wind up doll.  By now he’s talking to the entire line and not just me, but still addresses me once in a while.  I’m wondering Aspergers?  I just don’t know.  There was just something not right about this kid.  He was pretty smart.  I thought I’d test something at one point.  I’m trying so hard to ignore him, but can’t.  He was stuck on the topic covering fire safety rules and how many people could be in the restaurant.  So, I asked him how many people were in the room right now?   I was thinking he was going to be able to answer that one pretty quickly.  But he didn’t.  He continued on to talk about how he could play golf right now if he wanted to.  “Because I have a golf club and two balls”  I was trying so hard to not laugh at this one.  Did he realize what he just said???  To my relief he quickly added “oh, I didn’t mean my own! (little embarrassed laugh).  No, not that at all”.    He’s standing a few feet behind me now.  I couldn’t help but turn a little and make the statement “I was wondering if you were going to catch that one”.  Hmmmm.  He’s got a sense of humor – probably not autistic then.  But what??  Still thinking Aspergers.  OH, back to the test.  Much like now, I’d forgotten about my question to him regarding how many people were in the room now.  After the golf club and balls chuckle he slid in there with “There are 23 people on the room right now”.  Ok!  He didn’t forget!  And he counted while talking to us all!  Why is this odd well dressed young man left alone in downtown Sacramento???  What I thought was a cart and music instrument turned out to be a golf club (yes, he really did have one) and an old briefcase.  And the shoes… white tennies.

Usually the face of mental illness downtown is old.  Scraggly.  Homeless. Despair.  This young man didn’t fit that stereotype.  Where did he come from?  Why on earth was he left downtown all day?  I saw him a few hours later talking with a group of men that looked questionable and I worried for him.  I tried to keep an eye on him for a bit, but then he disappeared.  I do hope he’s safe.

And that is the young man in the tuxedo with the stunning eyes.

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30 Days without Alcohol – Day 17

Wooo Hooo! I’m over halfway through this challenge!!!  Nice.

I’ve had a difficult time getting a free moment to update the blog.   Combine that with the numbness going on in my hands; it’s been a slow week for me e-mail and blogging.  Not sure what’s up with the hands.   I’m trying to get an appt. to have that checked out.

Argh!  Such a busy weekend and week.  A few challenges arose with social events.  Hmmmm, how to handle the no drinking thing.  Pops in the park was great!  Loved seeing Miss S and Miss V.  I just filled my wine glass with iced tea and enjoyed the music with great company.

I actually had two days off in a row with no real commitments this past week.  I approach those days with both glee and loathing.  I love that I have no commitments, but that means I’m gonna want to go out and shop. Spend money.  That’s just not something I should be doing these days.  On the plus side the no drinking thing actually is saving me money.  On Sunday Miss K and I decided to relax at Le Rivage for a cool riverside aperitif and appetizer.  My sparkling water was $3.75 to her $14.00 wine 🙂

The REAL challenge was dinner Monday night with the winery co-workers.  Usually, we can put down some wine!  But I stuck to my guns and had water in the wine glass.  I actually wondered if this was going to change my experience socializing.  Usually that glass of wine helps me loosen up and be, what I feel, more fun!  I’m finding out that I’m doing  just fine on my own.

Another big plus??? I’ve lost 5 lbs this past week!

Oh, almost forgot.   I promised Miss D that I’d tell her about the guy in the Tuxedo with the stunning blue eyes.  I’ll have to save that for tomorrow!  My class is about to start….

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30 Days without Alcohol – Days 8 & 9

Ok, catching up here for the last couple of days.

Not drinking still hasn’t bothered me.  No cravings.  I am surprised by that one.

You know what bothers me now?  If I don’t have to have that glass of wine or beer with dinner ( and a few more on the weekends), then why the heck do I???  It’s like that piece of cake.  I don’t have to have it!  But I do.  And I enjoy every bite.  Is it that I’m stressed? Not mentally stimulated? Or just don’t care??  Maybe it’s a little of all three. 

One of the reasons I work a second job on the weekends is to keep from getting bored on the weekends.  But it doesn’t necessarily  get me mentally stimulated.  Entertained sometimes yes, but not challenged.  Lately I’ve found a few projects at the house that have taken care of that.  Ever try fixing a drawer when you have NO clue what you are doing????  3 days, 4 trips to Home Depot, a few object thrown across the room, and a few tears later I had it done.  BUT.  After that I was so stressed I wanted a martini!

Last night I enjoyed happy hour with two co-worker sans the “happy” part.  And still very much enjoyed it.  I figure I saved myself at least $10.   Again, money is incentive for me sometimes!

I do have to confess, I did think today about what kind of martini I’ll have the day this experiment is over 🙂

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30 Days without Alcohol – Day 7

Hey! It’s been a week! Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

San Antonio Riverwalk

Whenever I stop or cut back on the frivolous habits I like to add up how much I was spending.  I imagine all that money accumulating, which will then go towards a nice luxury like travel!  By my calculations last night, I will save enough money by cutting back on the wine and beer to afford a nicer more luxurious hotel for my trip in July.  Now that’s incentive!

 

Benefits to this 30 day experiment:

1. Consume fewer calories
2. House is cleaner than it’s been in ages
3. Saves money!!!
4. And I’m sure there are health benefits in there as well…

The biggest challenge of last night was trying to deal with the CHEESECAKE in the fridge. 

Cheesecake.

There are 3 pieces of cheesecake in my fridge taunting me. Granted I didn’t buy
them. It was so cruel of my Mom’s boyfriend to bring that over Sat. Night!  Although you didn’t see me protesting at the time 🙂

Like many children, I was taught by my parents to not waste one bite of food.
And based on my weight you can see my parents taught me well. So here I am
staring at this cheesecake! I don’t want to have it there, but I can’t bring
myself to throw it away. My compromise? Freeze it. I’m very much an out of
sight, out of mind kind of person. Not so good for the contents of my veggie bin
in the fridge! 

The cheesecake is now safely tucked away in my freezer. 

g’night!
Sent from my iPhone

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30 Days without Alcohol – Days 4,5,6

Today Miss D asked me in concern… I didn’t see you post anything this weekend???? Thank you for your concern!  All is well.  I don’t have an internet connection at home and will more than likely not post on the weekends.  Plus, my Mom and her boyfriend were visiting 🙂

On that topic, it was an interesting weekend!  Friday I managed to talk them out of going to “Golden Corral” for dinner.  After being in California for only a year, they haven’t completely caught on to the fact that the buffet restaurants here are on the “Just don’t even think about going  there” list.   They are from Texas where they actually do a good steak at a buffet.   We finally settled on Sizzler (still a pretty big sacrifice on my part).  Most of the weekend was spent planning on where to eat.  We’d get halfway through one meal when the question was asked “Where are we going for dinner?”  

Despite that little annoyance the weekend went well!  Had my first non-alcoholic beer and was totally fine with that.  It just feels better holding what at least “looks” like a beer.  Who’s with me here?

The diet on the other hand.  Totally shot!!!!

Gotta run.  Jury Duty 🙂

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30 Days Without Alcohol – Day 3

C’mon America, LET’S EAT! Stop the Insanity!

Whatever happened to Susan Powter? Mid 90’s diet program diva. Full of energy, sporting the hair style that possibly influenced Pink, and my hero at the time! With her recipes I managed to lose 90 lbs back then. And over the years since then I managed to Yo-Yo like I was going for the Duncan Championships. The toy maker, not the  doughnut maker. But either would work for this reference????

Here’s a question I have for myself.  Am I obsessing about my diet to distract myself from having wine?  Or am I obsessing about not having wine to distract myself from the chocolate cake?  Or whatever chocolate I’ve got stashed in the back of my pantry (yes, there is ALWAYS something.  Learned that from my Mom).

While I rummaged through my cabinets looking for that Susan Powter cookbook that I was pretty sure I have, I found a slew of others from fads of past. Some are probably still worth exploring, others… Well, ummm. They gotta go.

1. It’s not Gourmet- it’s better! By Eudora Garrison circa 1978. Where they cooked with lard. This was on my first to go, but then I saw it was signed by Eudora herself. Awwww.
2. Pasta-all the recipes. Well. I don’t usually do pasta.
3. Micro Magic- quick, easy recipes for the microwave. See my first post to for why this one can go…
4. Several low-carb cookbooks from an ex.  GOTTA GO!

Still doing ok on the no alcohol front. But tomorrow is Friday. AND my Mom will be visiting for the weekend. This may be a tough one! Wish me luck.

Sent from my iPhone

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