I stopped drinking at 25, and picked up a 5-year chip a few years before I got married. I should have kept it going, I was in great shape then. I’ve been a pretty heavy beer/wine drinker since then, and I know it’s time to stop again. I’m getting too old for this, and I won’t be able to afford the habit when I retire. I took a week off last month, and it was hard. I need to give it 90 days, and start cycling or jogging after work instead of chugging. I’ll report back if I have any success with it.

It’s about $7-10 a day for me, but that’s still $2-3k a year. Not in the retirement budget, for sure. Although the less I drink, the longer I’ll live, so the money has to stretch out over more years. Good problem to have.

This is exactly my problem. Hopsecutioner is my favorite beer, and it’s 7%. I’ll buy a case (24) expecting it last 2 weeks, and instead it’s gone in a week. I tried switching to Recreation Ale (4.7%) but I miss the hoppy flavor and end up just drinking even more of those.

I try not to keep anything stronger than wine in the house, because here’s what happens. I realize I’m out of beer, and I think “oh, I’ve got that bottle of Pernod from last year. I’ll just sip that while I’m watching this movie.” The next think I know, I’m incoherent and throwing up.

My 90-year-old father in law just quit. He had to, his daily Scotch consumption was killing him.

Just some random thoughts as I consider next steps. I appreciate this thread, it pops up from time to time when I sort by new. Good to know others are working through the same issues.

Yeah, I’d be very happy to make it to 90. I probably should have added that he hasn’t been here to visit in over 15 years because he got drunk at my son’s birthday party and acted foolish, and my wife basically banned him. She just said “Don’t come back here unless you can come without drinking”. So no more visits. He and my wife see each other a few times a year when she visits Columbia SC, but my son and I very rarely see him.

I don’t know what kind of person I want be when I’m retired. I guess I’ll decide when I get there.

Well, 2 twelve-packs actually.

Still trying to collect reasons to stop drinking, or cut back, and I hit on a big one: memory. Is my drinking eating away at a lifetime of memories? I’m finding it harder to remember things lately - some of that is being in my late 50’s, but maybe the beer doesn’t help.

Congrats man! I should take 2-3 months off myself.

I’m trying an app called Reframe to help me cut back or stop drinking. I like it so far. My only goal right now is 14 days alcohol-free. I’m at day 3 and feeling irritable, but no other side effects. I’m going to Orlando for Free Play Florida on the 16th, and I plan to slowly open the beer spigot then. Or I may decide to keep going without it. Hell, all I know for sure is that I’m not drinking tonight.

Yeah, when your liver starts to hurt you know it’s time to quit. I’m sure I’m not the only one on this thread to experience that. My last drink was Thursday night and my liver is still a little sore.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on r/stopdrinking this week. This Pinside thread is great, but people post there non-stop. I also still recommend the Reframe app. If you go through the sign-up process you’ll get to the screen that wants $80/year. Ignore the app for a week or so, and you’ll get a half-off email. It’s worth $80/year, but $40 is better.

Just found a saying I love: “Once a pickle, never a cucumber.”

Went to my liquor store, and all they had was Bud Zero and O’ Doul’s (we used to call it O’Drunks). I need to check out the supermarket.

I’ll be a week sober tomorrow, and I’m still having pain in my right side. I guess I need to open my wallet and go see my doctor. Hopefully it’s just my liver healing itself. Meanwhile, I just did the math on my last binge:

8 beers * 12 ounces * 7.3 % = 7 ounces of alcohol

But “it’s only beer”, haha.

Thanks. I saw my doctor on Friday, and they did blood work. I have an ultrasound tomorrow, and I’m sure they’re going to say “fatty liver”. But that’s reversible.

I have the same nightly routine (more like 2-4 beers). Just got my labs back and everything is normal, but that doesn’t explain the pain in my side. Hopefully this morning’s ultrasound will have some answers. All I know is that when I go hard, that pain in my side gets a lot worse.

I’m 10 days sober and feeling pretty good. I even hosted a party Saturday, and drank some Athletic Brewing “Run Wild”. It’s amazing how close it is to Terrapin Hopsecutioner, only downside is that it costs just as much. But I’m less likely to drink more than 2 now because the “MORE” switch doesn’t come on.

It’s still early days, but my sleep, memory and blood pressure are all improving. The pain in my side is mostly gone.

My 90-yr-old father-in-law drinks 2 liters of scotch a week. He has some of these issues, and he’s been hard to be around for the last 2 decades, even with me being a drinker. He repeats himself all the time. He hasn’t been to our house in 18 years because my wife said he can only come if he leaves the bottle of scotch at home. At this point he may as well drink himself to death, but it’s sad that we’ve been estranged from him for so long.

I don’t want to be remembered for being a drunken miserable bastard when I’m gone.

Thanks, I just listened to Dr. Huberman’s podcast about alcohol too. The medical science behind all this is pretty clear - alcohol sucks.

It’s funny looking back on little things that made me a daily drinker. When I was a 22-year-old college student, I came upon a group of guys in lawn chairs behind a dentist’s office at 6pm on a Tuesday night. They each had a six-pack. I asked them (naively) “you guys drink on weeknights?” and they all laughed. One guy said “we drink like this every night, it’s our reward for a hard day’s work”. So that somehow became gospel to me: you work, you drink.

That was reinforced by my first job, where we had an open bar after every monthly technical review.

It’s called “California Sober”. I support that. I think weed is better for you overall than alcohol.

It’s been a good temporary substitute for me. I love the taste of a good hoppy beer. Hoping to transition to something cheaper soon.

Lucky for me, weed makes me paranoid and I hate the way it makes me feel. So my only alcohol substitute option is CBD.

Ready to watch some election returns!

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I’ve been eating Tate’s cookies a sleeve at a time. But haven’t had a beer in 14 days. I’ll kick the sugar eventually.

Shout out to my friend Bryan at Portal Pinball. I sheepishly brought 3 of my own NA beers to the tournament tonight. Not only did he let me bring them in, he put them in the cooler for me! I left a nice tip for the bar staff. I had a bad competition night, but still had a great time. I’m really trying to prove to myself that I can play just as well without a few strong beers. I’ll get there with more sober practice, I think.

I’ll wrap up 3 weeks alcohol-free tonight, at Free Play Florida. My wife and I did Epcot and Animal Kingdom earlier this week. I had tonic water and lime while she had 2 glasses of wine. I had a Heineken 0.0 while she had a Guinness. I brought down a few six packs of Athlete “Run Wild”, and those are great for killing any craft beer cravings. This will be my first non-drinking vacation in over 20 years. So far I’m not missing the buzz at all.

$9.50 for Heineken 0 at Rainforest Cafe, the bastards.

I stocked the beer fridge for December. Pretty disappointed in the Brooklyn Brewery stuff so far; it has a metallic taste, and no hoppy flavor like the Run Wild. The Heineken 0 is a little better. I think next time I’ll just stick with Athlete Brewing. So hard to find a place with more than a few 6-packs, though.

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I haven’t lost any weight in my 32 days so far, but I haven’t made that a priority. I’ve been eating a lot of cookies and ice cream, but I’m ready to ramp that crap down now too. I’m 195 and 5’10”, and I’d like to get to 180.

Thanks @cait001, I needed that right now. I’ve gained a few pounds since I quit, but I’m not going to worry about it until I hit 90 days. I know I’m going to have to join a gym to stay fit and lose weight.

Oh man, I haven’t seen that one @ejs. I did find a brand that I like as much as Athletic Brewing: Grüvi. The IPA and Stout are both awesome.

https://www.getgruvi.com/collections/beer

How’s everyone doing, dealing with the holidays? I’ve got one family get together coming up, but it’s mostly non-drinkers. I’m enjoying the time off, working on games. I just finished my first alcohol-free playfield swap, and I think it came out great:

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With some tweaking of the guides, it’s playing great now! I’ll check those out, thanks

60 days sober today. I joined a gym (Crunch) and I’ve started running 3 miles 3 times a week. Normally, I’d just do nothing when it’s too cold to ride my bike, so this is a nice option for $15 a month. I’m not going to worry about weight loss until all the Christmas cookies are gone.

I saw it at Whole Foods but decided to pass. I may try it next time.

For me it was always a stimulant, oddly enough. I’d be sitting in the basement alone, listening to great music. Next thing I know, it’s 3am and my wife is coming down to check on me. I look around and there are 6-8 empties. “How did this happen?”

I’m feeling great. I’ve been to the gym 3 times this week. After today’s 3-mile run I just feel sleepy. I may not make it to midnight

69 days alcohol-free today. Apparently this number has significance to some people on the internet.

I’m still rocking the Athletic Brewing beers. I’ve tried almost all them now, and Athletic and Grüvi are the only ones I really like.

I’ve been hitting the gym regularly since New Year, and I’m only down 5 pounds. Seems to be a lot harder to lose weight now than when I was younger.

True, but I’m also eating pretty well too. But I do need to cut way back on carbs. I’m trying that this week and finally seeing some results. I’m back to my 2006 weight.

Good luck to you, you can do it! It’ll give your organs a rest, if nothing else. That was my original reason for quitting. Now I just can’t find a reason to start again (today is 4 months).

We had to euthanize one of our cats today for lung cancer, it was rough. I don’t see my wife cry that often. I took her to her favorite German restaurant and she had wine, while I had Bitburger 0.0. It was pretty good. I’m going to miss that cat, but we have 3 more. I’ve only really bonded with our orange tabby. It’s going to be a rough day for me when he goes.

Damn, I’m really sorry to hear that man. I hope I stopped in time.

I’m 4 months in, and I’ve got my 5k “run” time down to 42 minutes from 55. I’m wearing pants that I had set aside over 10 years ago in case I ever lost weight. I like how I feel most of the time. If you’re thinking about quitting, try a few months. I can’t think of a good reason to start back up.

Hello my fellow sobernauts, I hope you’re doing well.

I really wanted to drink today. I’m trying to have a relaxing week off, and my wife decided she wants to tackle the attic. I asked if she could wait until next week, since I’m on Spring Break and trying to relax. She said “you may be off, but I’m not” - which is ridiculous, she’s retired and she can make her schedule whatever she wants it to be. I told her she was on her own, and she was okay with that, but not really.

I strongly considered going to have some 7% IPAs and play Godfather and Foo Fighters. Instead, I spent the day moving my games in and out of storage to get ready for a Classics tournament in May. I might still go to the bar tomorrow, but I’ll have Athletic brews since I’m not pissed off any more. I’m on day 160 and I’ll be damned if I’ll drink just because I’m annoyed.

That’s actually the only place I go now, because they have a killer selection of NA beers. I found a new favorite this week (it’s 99 calories tho):

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Very cool! We’re about the same age, but my kid is 24 now. I stopped Oct 31 last year after a hangover that left me with searing pain in my liver. I got frustrated when I still hadn’t lost any weight after 3 months. But I added regular exercise and I’m down about 12 pounds now. I’m with you, I’m 59 and I’ve already consumed my lifetime limit of alcohol.

Today marks 6 months sober for me. I’m down 15 pounds and generally feeling pretty good. A few times a month, I get a pretty strong craving for Terrapin Hopsecutioner, but I’ve been able to push it off. I have a lot of extra energy that I’m channeling into pinball restoration and running.

Losing the weight helped me and a doctor figure out that the pain I’ve been living with on and off for 3 years is an inguinal hernia. My GI doctor and his PA had diagnosed me with chronic diverticulitis and sent me to a surgeon to get part of my colon removed. The surgeon was a little too eager, so I got a second opinion which led to the hernia diagnosis. I’m looking forward to that surgery (much easier recovery).

My wife and I are sitting here eating candy right now, lol.

That’s just as good for you, if you can do it. It’s still harm reduction.

That’s my next milestone.

Much like alcohol!

Wow, no posts in 69 days. Must be a sign [Edit: it was 68]

I hit 250 days sober yesterday. I’ve been tempted to start drinking again about a hundred times, but I’ve been able to shake it off so far. The last month has been the hardest, with surgery keeping me away from the gym. Running has helped me cope, and I can’t wait to start up again.

Hope ya’ll are doing well. I may drink again some day, but it’ll be a lot less frequent if I do. For now I’ll stick with this.

Grüvi is an awesome NA beer! I’ve been mostly drinking Athletics, but I grab Grüvi when I can.

Frippertron, thanks for writing all of that, I needed to hear that right now. I got locked out of my house this afternoon and got stuck outside in the heat for an hour. The whole time I was thinking “f this, I’m due for a beer now for sure”. Now I’m at the Cuban restaurant with my wife drinking unsweet tea.

Pretty sure we all do. The only thing that keeps me from starting up again is knowing that I’ll be back to drinking 3-4 beers a night in no time (and the occasional blowout drunk that makes me sick as a dog). I also have to remind myself that I was on the verge of having serious liver problems, according to my doctor.

..sentence completion! Haha, sorry, couldn’t resist.

Impossible, you are the pinball PCB master! I was just pulling your leg.

Dude, Congratulations!! I’m 9 months sober. It’s been a struggle lately with a hernia operation, unrelated severe back pain, and gaining back all the weight I lost at the gym the first half of the year. My upcoming one year milestone is the main thing keeping me sober right now.

That’s exactly how I got started. Then extended the 30 days to 90, and finally said f it, let’s go for a year sober.

I’ll second this - any harm reduction is good! I would be drinking in moderation too, if I hadn’t broken so many promises to myself over the years. I had to pour out a few beers that were left at my last league night. It was surprisingly easy. I’m happy that I finally know myself well enough to stay away from slippery slopes.

Also, glad to see you on this thread @deadflip! I’m “Primitive Pinball” on your stream chats.

I was planning to drink while on vacation in Vancouver, but I picked up a case of Athletic beer instead. So my journey to one year (on Oct 30) is intact.

When I first quit drinking, I got enthusiastic about exercise and weight loss and dropped 15 pounds. I’m kind of annoyed that the weight is coming back - I’m still exercising, but I’m eating way too much. I’ll start dieting again when vacation is over (tomorrow).

I quit a year ago today, and looking back I’ve been crazy productive:

- hosted 3 IFPA tournaments, and cooked for 24 each time
- ran about 10 miles a week (after decades away from it)
- added a ceiling to my patio
- populated a Viking playfield from scratch
- did a Rolling Stones playfield swap
- helped my neighbor with a complicated woodworking project

That’s just off the top of my head. I’ve also been more present for my wife and my mom, who lives in an assisted living facility near us. I’m a lot more patient with my son, who moved back in with us to save money. It’s all been good.

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20 pounds lighter, and my liver doesn’t hurt now.

After taking a year off drinking, I’ve been carefully enjoying beer again. I’ll let myself keep it up as long as I can follow 2 simple rules: no more than 6 a week, and no more than 2 at a time. I do know that not drinking would be better for me. Once you’ve listened to this podcast, the facts stick with you and make it impossible to drink worry-free:

I’ll probably give another listen tomorrow, since it’s been over a year.