Excuses NOT to drink

I can come up with a million reasons to drink. One of the ways to counteract that is to have as many as possible reasons not to drink.  I have discussed this many times. 

 Some of my reasons for not drinking are to be a responsible parent and husband and to be a responsible business owner.  However, it is the more specific activities that help week after week.   As of now, those are: basketball, softball, public speaking, important business appointments and any time I have to drive somewhere.  I need to make sure I have a constant stream of these activities scheduled each week to give me enough excuses not to drink, especially on the weekends.

 This past weekend I ended up with 12 drinks, 3 under my 15 max. The reason was because I had a very important speech contest last night (Mon).  Not only did I need a clear head to practice on Sunday, I needed to be at my best come speech time.  So, my normal 5 or 6 Sunday drinks did not fit into my schedule.

 As it turns out, I had 3 on Sunday, all after 5pm when I was done practicing, but still too many.  I will admit, yesterday (Sun) was a tough day. The drinking urges were very strong, but the desire to do well in the contest was stronger.  I decided to give myself a reward, however, and allow myself to have the 3 drinks I was under last week after the speech contest last night. 

 I won the contest and had the drinks. I enjoyed them and felt I earned them. For the record, I know this is cheating, but I am counting them for last week.  Again, I think I earned it.

 The real good news is that winning the contest gave me another reason not to drink, that is the next contest.  At the next level, I will be delivering the speech to over 300 people in May.  Since the next contest is on a Saturday, I plan to not drink Mon-Sat, or at least until after the speech on Sat.  I will need to be at my best, and that means no alcohol.

A busy schedule keeps the booze away

Sorry I missed my update last week.  The week before last I went over by 2.  Easter Sunday is what got me. I thought I planned accordingly, but still went over.

 It started with an annual Easter Egg Hunt/picnic for family and friends at 11am. This is not your typical city or recreation Easter Egg Hunt.  It is complete with Bloody Mary’s and beer. Then, I cooked dinner for 14 family members at my house.  I had 2 drinks at the picnic, then took a couple of hours off, but still ended up having 7 before the day was over.  That put me at 17 for the week, 2 over my 15 limit.

 Last week I ended up at 15 with 4 dry days.  What made it easier was that I had softball practice at 6:30pm on Sunday night.  Typically, I would have had a handful of drinks by 6:30 on Sunday night.  However, because of softball, I waited until after practice to have a few drinks.

 This week I think I will be at or under 15.  I went dry Mon and Tues but had a drink last night.  Why?  Well, I have many excuses. The one I used last night was that I enjoyed a beer to wind down after giving a speech.  I gave a speech at 8pm.  Speeches always get me nervous, excited, and edgy so I had a beer with dinner when I got home.

 Next Monday night I am at the 3^rd level of a speech contest.  Therefore, I plan to go dry on Sunday so that I am at my best on Monday.  This should make it easy to keep within my limits.

 One would think that family and job would be enough to not drink, but having things like basketball, softball and speech contest help quite a bit.

 

Alcohol and Basketball do not mix

Last week was fine.  4 days dry, then 15 spread out over Fri, Sat, Sun.

Something interesting happened though on Saturday morning while at the gym. I ran into one of the guys I play basketball with and he told me that he plays in a league at 6:30am on Sat mornings.   My first thought to myself was “wow, I could never do that, I drink on Friday nights”. 

First of all, I could not do it, or would not want as I already play on Thursday and Friday mornings.  A 3^rd day would be too much on my body and I like to vary my workouts anyway.  However, that was not my first thought.  The first thought was that it would conflict with my drinking.  Now, if I was 30, I could have 5 drinks on a Friday night and get up and play basketball early, but not at 50. 

Basketball is one of the things that makes it rather easy to stay dry during the week. Before I started playing on Friday mornings, I used to have one or two on Thursday nights. Now I stay dry so I am ready to run on the basketball court at 5:30am on Friday mornings.

Anyway, this was just a reminder that I do have a problem with alcohol.

So far this week, dry Mon & Tues. Will do the same tonight and Thurs.  I have to save up as it is a holiday weekend.  I am cooking for 25 people on Easter Sunday.