Week 1 progress report

One week down and now the rest of my life is staring me in the face....

Melodrama aside, the prospect of never drinking again is genuinely daunting. I've gone a week so far without any real problems, but there have been occasional pangs of desire: I'm particularly keen on red wine and a nice, hoppy beer. I like the process of drinking them, the colour, the smell, and the taste. I also like being drunk - there's a sense of freedom and invulnerability which comes from a nice bottle of wine. I understand that I drink too much, but I also understand that with self-control, it's possible to drink in moderation and thus to enjoy the elements of drinking which are less dangerous.

Fortunately, I also understand that self-control isn't my forte and that one of the hardest parts of dealing with alcoholism is that your greatest opponent is your own mind. Nobody knows your own weaknesses better than you do yourself and so when your brain is formulating those carefully crafted arguments in favour of having a drink, it knows exactly which buttons to press.

I also know - from the one Alcoholic's Anonymous meeting I attended some ten years ago - that that daunting prospect of 'never drinking again' isn't one that most recovering alcoholics deal with. The answer is to deal with the temptation on a daily basis: aim to stay sober today. Taken in small enough steps, we have the strength to achieve pretty much anything.

So. My name is Donald and I'm an alcoholic. I've been sober for nine days and I won't have a drink today.

With regards the other goals I had for the week - to eat more healthily, exercise a little more and such - I guess I was successful. There was never really going to be a way to measure those aspects of the week as there wasn't really any specificity. I was planning to keep a food diary, but unfortunately that didn't happen. I was far too busy helping organise my wife flying from the US to the UK and bringing her cat, which took a lot more effort than either of us anticipated.

I have been weighing myself on a semi-regular basis and my weight has dropped almost daily, so I must be doing something right. My diet for the week has involved more fruit and vegetables, more whole grains like porridge and muesli. I'm also trying to drink more water.

I'm not going too heavily into measurements and the like, which I'm trying to save for a monthly update. Instead, I'll be reporting on my weight on a weekly basis and also plotting a graph of my weight loss to give a visual guide to how things are going!

Last week This week Weight loss BMI Metric 85.1kg 82.9kg 2.2kg 28.0 Imperial 187.6lbs 182.8lbs 4.8lbs 28.0

Targets for this week, then:

1. Keep a daily food diary. Without actually paying attention to what I'm eating, I can't know what needs improved!
2. Drink at least one pint glass of water per day. There will be other fluids, but I know I need to be drinking more water.
3. Keep a daily exercise diary. I won't be counting day-to-day activities such as walking to the shop, but will hopefully use it as a motivator to get a bit more active.

Wish me luck!