Are you an alcoholic?

[ziggysocki]

Originally Posted by cdcox

I'm similar to ziggisocki and Dane. I'm a fairly heavy drinker, with low dependencey and no spillover into the rest of my life. I enjoy drinking and think of it as a reward for when my day's work is finished. I drink mostly at home, spread it out over several hours, never get "hammered" and can control it.

That said, I decided on the morning of July 13 that I've been drinking too much. Mostly worried about irreversible health effects like liver and CNS damage. I decided on that day that I was going to limit myself to 1000 drinks per year, distributed however I want. That is almost 3 drinks a day, which would be a significant drop in consumption for me -- like I said, I've been drinking too much. That flexibility of having a large number of drinks to manage over a long period of time was important to me so that I never feel like I couldn't have a drink if I want it. Limiting myself to 3 drinks a day or 20 drinks per week was not appealing. But 1000 drinks in 1 year seemed like it would allow me to have freedom, while still helping me to significantly drop my consumption.

Beginning on July 13, I've been religiously measuring every drink with a shot glass and recording them on a spreadsheet. This ritual keeps me focused on my goal since I am a quantitative person. I've had 34 drinks in the last 18 days, which puts me on a pace for about 700 for the year. On my highest day I had 6 and on several days I've had none, and haven't felt deprived. I have a column that shows me how many drinks I can have today while staying on pace for my 1000 for the year. Today I can have 18 drinks and still be on pace. I won't drink anywhere near that many, but I like to watch that column grow. Actually, I want to have a decent bank built up for holidays, vacation and the like. Maybe by the end of the year I will have only drank 586 drinks or something. That's fine if that's what happens. But that is not the goal. The goal is 1000.

You are gonna be shithammered for the entire month of December! ... but seriously, cool plan.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by ziggysocki

You are gonna be shithammered for the entire month of December! ... but seriously, cool plan.

Doubtful. I hardly ever go past a heavy buzz. But if I decide to celebrate the holidays and have 6 drinks a day for a couple of weeks, I want to make sure I've got them in the bank. We are also planning to go to Cancun in June, near the end of my drinking year. I don't want to be running short then either. Or come back from vacation and have to go stone sober for a month. I can do that (and will if needed to meet my goal) but don't want to. So I'm pacing myself.