Wii like wine
by Phil Long
This is week three of my new regime of regular exercise and no drinking on a school night - and so far it’s going reasonably well. Certainly in terms of drinking I’ve stuck to my rule on that - and have also tended not to drink so much at the weekend too. I don’t believe drinking at the awards ceremony I went to last Tuesday counts as ‘a school night’. I have had some issues sleeping during the week which I think is a ‘hangover’ from beer or wine helping me feel sleepy and therefore get to sleep - last night was probably the first time I’ve gone to sleep with ease; and this in-spite of having bought the world’s most comfortable bed.
Exercise-wise, I’ve had quite a busy three weeks which have made it hard to find the time. I have been using the Wii Fit more particularly for the aerobic exercises (i.e. those that burn fat) - but I’ve only found time to go swimming once. That said, I’ve stuck to my regular football games on Thursday nights - and on Friday we’ve got the interdepartmental football tournament. All being well I’ll be off swimming after work tomorrow and on Thursday.
The bin men read your recycle bin
Possibly. At the end of week two I put the recycle bin out for the first time since before I went to the Lake District. When I came back it had been emptied and on top, in addition to the usual blue bags for cardboard, was a NHS leaflet titled “When does drinking start to affect my health?”. It has a little chart showing the risk groups for men and women - with more than 8 units a day being ‘Higher risk’ - which probably tallied with my drinking. That obviously isn’t a good place to be - and the leaflet has served as a rather timely reminder of my motivation for reducing my drinking.
Reduction not abstinence
I remember a number of years ago a friend advised me that it’s more realistic to aim to reduce drinking than abstain completely. Basically she pointed out that if you chose to stop completely and have a drink you’ll tend to give up on the plan completely - deeming yourself to have failed. Of course I’m not an alcoholic, which I imagine would be an entirely different kettle of fish.
This leads me on to my next project - and why I’ve posted on Facebook that I’m going to need wine bottles. This week I should have my wine making kit arriving - which provides all the equipment and ingredients to brew six bottles of wine (all the equipment, except for the wine bottles, that is). I figured this would make an interesting project and - if all goes well - it will save me a bit of money on wine. The initial outlay is roughly equivalent to £5 per bottle. After that, if I stick to kits for 6, then it’s just £2.50. If I find it goes particularly well then the equipment for 30 bottles doesn’t cost that much more (probably another £20) which would make the price per bottle around £1.60 and would naturally last me for some considerable length of time.
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I think I’ll be joining you on the weekend-only drinking. I did try it myself at the start of the year and carried it on for months but things came up. Anyway here’s to not feeling like crap when you’re trying to get work done!
I’m impressed by your non-drinking in the week Phil! I too had had various bouts of a similar rule - but is never lasted for ever. Not that I drink lots in the week, but I do think cutting out the week-booze wuld clear my head a little more… Perhaps I should take you fine example and try again
My alcoholic wife, however, would not be impressed!!
Phil, I think you and I are really on similar pages - if not the same. Uncanny, innit? Across the world, and all, through a completely random encounter - as ’twere… and there you have it.
All the best with these changes; I will be documenting mine when I am able to start effecting them - first things first.
The people in such cases, said so - Avos will be alive, maybe pomrem.