“lovely as the tremor of the hands in alcoholism” — Comte de Lautreamont
To the left is my calendar. The lil smiley face stickers denote the days I managed to drink just 2 drinks or less.
You’ll see that for 10 glorious days, I managed to drink in a somewhat moderate manner!
The pages shown’re for June, and yes, that does mean that on each of 20 days in that month, I had 3 drinks or more.
Still, I’m making progress, sort of. Actually, May also had 10 stickers. When near the end of June, I realized I wasn’t gonna beat May’s record, I flirted with the idea of going on an alcohol binge for the rest of the month.
But I held it together, consoling myself with the fact that Junes have 1 less day than Mays do. If June had 31 days, it’s def. possible I would’ve had 11 stickers –
Anyway — while we all work on our coping issues — Other drinkers might be happy to know that Time mag’s reporting that “Every cup of coffee per day you average confers a 22% reduced risk of developing alcoholic cirrhosis … compared with people who never drank coffee, according to a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.”
The study reports an 80% fall in the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis for those who drink 4 cups of coffee a day. The average American drinks 3.2 cups of coffee a day.
Stay caffeinated –
Update, 7/31/07: July went quite well –
July 7th, 2006 at 11:25 am
Arright! Pouring myself cup #2 to counteract last nights wine at green drinks…….clean slate no?
July 7th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Jay! Stay focused and I’ll cheer you along :-)
July 7th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
I too have been trying to stick to the 2 beer max during the weekdays, as well and some weekends. Like this weekend, for example, I plan to have zero alcoholic beverages (mainly because of my binging over the long weekend). I’m happy to read your story though to know that I’m not alone. I love your idea of tracking the days with stickers and will start to do the same. Please continue to keep me updated.
I’m amazed at the amount of things we appear to have in common and look forward to reading many more of your blogs.
July 7th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
Okay, so your crutch maybe coffee…mine’s beer…still our struggles are beyond similar.
July 7th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
Great post Siel! I’ve struggled (probably not right word) with the coffee thing since college days (late 60’s). I love hip, literary coffeehouses…love double espressos, with a good newspaper, or a pie of paperwork to do while enjoying the yummmy espresso(s). Currently I’ve been concerned with a serious health issue (”health opportunity”…Optimum Health Institute: http://www.optimumhealth.org/OptimumHealth), so my body is telling me no more coffee. But it’s hard, just as it’s hard to go all raw…but have to do it if I want to be around on the planet awhile longer…LOL The compromise I’ve come up with, with my bohemian-self (http://www.levity.com/corduroy/diprima.htm) is to have a nice espresso only in a cool coffeehouse, and only if my health-oriented side says it’s ok…and no more than once-a-week. Gotta do it, but I’ve spent 1000’s of hours of my long/short life enjoying the coffee scene…good memories I guess. Thanks for all your good sharing Siel!
~Peace, Larry
July 7th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
P.S. Woops…see a typo. Meant “pile” of paperwork, not a “pie” of paperwork…LOL
July 7th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
Wait — Not sure if this is clear on the post — but I AM talking about alcoholic drinks in most of the post — though wine, not beer, Kristen :P
Coffee, I drink a lot of, but don’t consider a crutch. I mean, it’s good for you!
July 10th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Seems that the University of Minnesota just completed a study of 28k post-menopausal women (14k of which drink coffee), and as it turns out women who drank 6+ cups of coffee were 22% less likely to develop adult-onset diabetes. And women who drank decaffeinated coffee were 33% less likely to develop it over those who did not drink coffee.
Personally, If I was a woman, I would gamble and stick with the caffeine. Full article here.
July 10th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
Luckily, I’m not even close to post-menopausal :P Still, coffee’s awesome. I’ll be drinking it till then –
July 13th, 2006 at 8:06 am
Not related at all to caffeine…but I really like your planner! Can I ask what kind it is? :)
July 14th, 2006 at 9:15 am
It’s a Franklin Planner — The compact kind :)
August 3rd, 2006 at 7:45 pm
Hi Siel!! Just wanted to let you know that I liked your idea so much I kept track in my own planner last month. I got a star for everyday with 2 drinks or less and an extra heart sticker for any day with zero drinks. How’d I do? 20 days with 2 or less and 11 with zero!! w00t!! Now it’s time to celebrate! ;)
August 4th, 2006 at 3:27 pm
Kristen — Happy for you, but your success really puts my efforts to shame! Last month, I had only 7 stickers :( Hanging my head —
It’s a new month now though, right? And so far, I have 1 stiker. Yay! :)