(06-18-2015, 01:30 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Can't really give you any advice without knowing why you quit.

And I understand if you don't want to get into that.

But my advice is to smoke a lot of weed instead of drinking.

Do this....^^^^

I'm down to only drinking on weekends.  The NBA Finals kinda messed that up.

I can relate. I haven't had a drink since the last Bengals game. Just like some of you I drank heavily in my youth but as I've gotten older I just don't care about it any more. But for the last few years I've probably drank at least a 12 pack every game day. (And by reading my gameday post you could probably tell). Not sure how that got started, just enjoy the tailgating thing even if I'm here alone at home. Cold beer, good food & football go hand in hand.
&
on a similar note I'll be retiring in a couple of years & will smoke all the weed I want then. Can't really partake now got too much to lose.

I drink very sparingly. Usually once or twice a month and usually hold it to a beer or two at a time. I had gone on a stretch from about 2012 to the start of 2014 of drinking heavily about four times a week. Once I stopped I just felt an overall improvement of my health and lifestyle. I dropped a solid 40 pounds and just felt better. 


I maybe drink to get drunk once or twice a year now. I get the drinking socially and because it's fun though. But when I look back on my 20s I want something more than "I got drunk a lot." 


If it's working for you keep it up!

I didn't really start drinking until after my divorce.  It wasn't celebratory drinking, but the sad, drinking alone variety that they warn you about.  As the years went by it got progressively worse.  After-work drinking became before-and-after-work drinking. 

Ten years ago this past May I was at a conference for my job.  It was a large conference, thousands in attendance, and they had a social event the last night we were attending.  The booze flowed like a river, and I was lapping it up.  I awoke the next morning feeling like death and not looking too far removed from it.  I stood in my hotel room bathroom, gazing at myself in the mirror and asked myself what I was trying to accomplish if not drink myself into an early grave.  I managed to survive a morning session and made my way to the airport.  Flying hung over was an experience.  I was clutching the seat and clenching my jaws shut the entire way.

I knew that I had a problem, and though it hadn't yet cost me my job or my family, I worried that was the path I was on.  I never went to any meetings in church basements or collected any chips, but I understand why some do.  In 10 years I haven't had a drop, and I resolved never to again.  No message here, just my story. 

Keep it up OP, you can do it.

Just keep remembering how you feel every day, how you are not destroying your liver, how your personality stays the same...just feeling good on Mondays should be motivation enough.

I don't know what drinking is like for you, I'm going off my own experience and what drinking and drugging has done to friends and family in my life and none of it is good.

I have quit drinking a few times but life was just too boring.  Iy took 2 football seasons of noy drinking to where yhe beer comercials were tolerable. I got into 9-10. Ffl leagues yo stay busy during the games.  Bad part is I had to stop watching with friends because they all drank.  Yhat was many years ago. Now today I drink ad mich as I want and don't feel like shit when I wake up. I switched to select 55 which has about 1/2 the alcohol content of a traditional light beer.  It takes a week to get used to the watered down flavor, but at least I get to enjoy beer without feeling guilty or fear getting wasted.  Just don't buy it in bottles because it comes in a clear bottle and develops a skunk taste quivk. Tastes great in cans.  Well, as good as it can without all the alcohol. And no I am not drunk now, the mispelling is because I'm typinh this on my cell phone befote work. Hehe

Never been drunk in my life.

I've been drunk twice since I've turned 21. I think I've drank anything maybe 5 or 6 times since then - not that I turned 21 that long ago. That's shocking because in high school I would literally drink an entire case of Miller Lite most of the times I drank.

After my senior football season ended I literally did no physical activity for the next year. I was always active growing up so I got out of shape very quickly. I started jogging and eating healthy. After a few months got a gym membership and got into lifting. I've drank alcohol sparingly since then. I haven't drank a regular soft drink since then and it's been about a year and I half since I drank a diet one. I pretty much just drink water.

I've lost a ton of weight and gained so much strength. I hate to say that I "just feel better" living healthy because I sound like some arrogant nature hippy who does more feeling than thinking, but I just do feel better.

(06-19-2015, 10:35 AM)6andcounting Wrote: I've been drunk twice since I've turned 21. I think I've drank anything maybe 5 or 6 times since then - not that I turned 21 that long ago. That's shocking because in high school I would literally drink an entire case of Miller Lite most of the times I drank.

After my senior football season ended I literally did no physical activity for the next year. I was always active growing up so I got out of shape very quickly. I started jogging and eating healthy. After a few months got a gym membership and got into lifting. I've drank alcohol sparingly since then. I haven't drank a regular soft drink since then and it's been about a year and I half since I drank a diet one. I pretty much just drink water.

I've lost a ton of weight and gained so much strength. I hate to say that I "just feel better" living healthy because I sound like some arrogant nature hippy who does more feeling than thinking, but I just do feel better.


I get it. And I feel a lot better too. It's nice to not have a beer gut. It's nice not being hung over or doing stupid shit that you regret the next day. 

(06-18-2015, 03:11 PM)Stewy Wrote: This is not an accusation, but at some point you need to grow up and do something with your social life other than get drunk.  It isn't healthy and you'll find some of your friends really aren't your friends cause you can't stand them sober.

And if there's nothing to do for a social life but get drunk, then you must live in Appalachia, where drink and/or have sex pretty much defines the social life.

With that said, I drank like a fish in HS and college.  Drank no more than 2-3x a year for the past 15 years.  And I drink not at all now, due to my diet.  I might drink some on my next vacation.  I like wine with good meals.

That's a pretty narrow minded view.  There's lots to do in Appalachia if you enjoy getting off of your ass and partaking in nature's bounties.

(06-19-2015, 12:59 PM)Wyche Wrote: That's a pretty narrow minded view.  There's lots to do in Appalachia if you enjoy getting off of your ass and partaking in nature's bounties.

His entire post was a clown comment. He tells me to "grow up" and then he goes off and spews some prejudice shit about Appalachia. Makes sense. 

(06-19-2015, 02:16 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: His entire post was a clown comment. He tells me to "grow up" and then he goes off and spews some prejudice shit about Appalachia. Makes sense. 

Yes.....total sense.....

(06-19-2015, 12:59 PM)Wyche Wrote: That's a pretty narrow minded view.  There's lots to do in Appalachia if you enjoy getting off of your ass and partaking in nature's bounties.

(06-19-2015, 02:16 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: His entire post was a clown comment. He tells me to "grow up" and then he goes off and spews some prejudice shit about Appalachia. Makes sense. 

I think I understood what he was getting at, though I agree it was poorly stated.  Went out with the boys last night, had a great time but I was ready to go home 3hrs before I actually went home. 

 I got stuck in the hills of West Virginia once driving between cinci and VA Beach...not gonna lie...I was worried.   I'm not even kidding when I say he (the guy that ended up helping me) was missing his left arm and his dog was missing is right front leg 

Good people...just effin weird.   It's just different in the country, I lived in rural Indiana for a bit as well.  Just a different world.

(06-19-2015, 02:16 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: His entire post was a clown comment. He tells me to "grow up" and then he goes off and spews some prejudice shit about Appalachia. Makes sense. 

Me thinks I hit a nerve eh?

My comments were entirely serious and true whether you like them or not. When one changes a major portion of their social life, they find that some (not all) of people they consider friends, really weren't. They were just people you hung with to do that social activity. If you're a smoker and quit smoking, or a drinker and quit drinking or a druggie and quit drugging, when you quit those activities, your friends will change. Fact.

And having grown up in Appalachia, I can attest that my analysis was fact, not prejudice.

Enjoy your drinkin!

(06-20-2015, 05:26 PM)Stewy Wrote: Me thinks I hit a nerve eh?  

My comments were entirely serious and true whether you like them or not.  When one changes a major portion of their social life, they find that some (not all) of people they consider friends, really weren't.  They were just people you hung with to do that social activity.  If you're a smoker and quit smoking, or a drinker and quit drinking or a druggie and quit drugging, when you quit those activities, your friends will change. Fact.

And having grown up in Appalachia, I can attest that my analysis was fact, not prejudice.

Enjoy your drinkin!

Very true. I've lost touch with tons of friends because all they cared about was drinking or partying. I'm getting into my final year in college and I've lost all desire to do all that anymore. I got serious about school, got a girlfriend and really didn't want to be doing the same stupid stuff anymore with my friends all the time. Surprise, your friends change and you find new people.

(06-18-2015, 03:11 PM)Stewy Wrote: And if there's nothing to do for a social life but get drunk, then you must live in Appalachia, where drink and/or have sex pretty much defines the social life.

Whats wrong with having plenty of sex? If you want to cut down on that get married

(06-20-2015, 05:26 PM)Stewy Wrote: And having grown up in Appalachia, I can attest that my analysis was fact, not prejudice.

It was completely prejudice.  the fact that you lived there does not change that.

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/surveillance98/CONS12.htm#fig6

Per capita alcohol consumption is much higher in many regions of the coiuntry than Appalachia. Plus drinking and having sex is big to teenagers in every part of the country, not just Appalachia.

Sound to me like you were just a social outcast loser when you were growing up and try to blame it on the region where you lived instead of your own shortcomings.

(06-18-2015, 12:03 PM)The Dangler Wrote: I haven't had a drink in about 5 months. I went from 217 down to 190. But I've actually been running and working out, etc. Plus eating healthy. My whole life, I've loved to get drunk. It's always been a love/hate thing like Denny and Joe from Flo's bromance. Now that Football season is creeping up, I'm not sure what to do. Like, what am I gonna do with my hands during the games? I can't remember the last time I've been sober for a game. Anyone else stop drinking?

That's great! Let's drink to your health!

(06-20-2015, 06:08 PM)Bengals23 Wrote: Very true. I've lost touch with tons of friends because all they cared about was drinking or partying. I'm getting into my final year in college and I've lost all desire to do all that anymore. I got serious about school, got a girlfriend and really didn't want to be doing the same stupid stuff anymore with my friends all the time. Surprise, your friends change and you find new people.

Maybe for some.....my tight circle of party buddies and I are still a tight circle.....we just party by having barbecues, doing kids' events together, going to sporting events with our kids together, vacation together.......it's a different kind of party these days, but it's still great, nonetheless.  Watching all of our children become friends is priceless.

(06-20-2015, 05:26 PM)Stewy Wrote:  If you're a smoker and quit smoking, or a drinker and quit drinking or a druggie and quit drugging, when you quit those activities, your friends will change. Fact.

Are you aware of what a "fact" is? I don't believe you do.

I stopped smoking, some of my friends stopped drinking, and I have friends that do drugs occasionally and some that used to do drugs all the time (also while we were friends) that have stopped all together.

We're still the same group of friends. Crazy how that's possible since it's a "fact" that my friends should have changed many times at this point, right?

(06-21-2015, 12:30 PM)fredtoast Wrote: It was completely prejudice.  the fact that you lived there does not change that.

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/surveillance98/CONS12.htm#fig6

Per capita alcohol consumption is much higher in many regions of the coiuntry than Appalachia. Plus drinking and having sex is big to teenagers in every part of the country, not just Appalachia.

Sound to me like you were just a social outcast loser when you were growing up and try to blame it on the region where you lived instead of your own shortcomings.