Good news bears! Diet coke & gourmet cheese.

Day 6...today was the first day I felt tempted by alcohol. Is there any particular reason that Whole Foods positions its delicious organic wines next to the gourmet cheeses? I refrained and did so with a little help from diet coke. Part of the temptation was that I don't have to work tomorrow until 6:00pm and so I have the opportunity to sleep in. Routinely, I have grown to associate any night which does not involve an alarm clock morning, with drinking.

Other associations with drinking?
-Bad days
-Good days

Its true, I could find any excuse for opening up a bottle of wine on any given day of the week. I would say on average, I was drinking 5 nights a week, and the scary part, I was drinking alone.

A little history: I moved to Chi 7 months ago and since then mostly in order to counter loneliness, I turned to wine. I felt that my life had changed so much that I wanted to be able to turn to wine for comfort. The problem is that I do not subscribe to the 1 glass of wine a day makes for a healthy heart theory, instead I subscribe to 1 bottle a day makes it so much better theory.

I had this behavior in MN as well, but not nearly as severe. In MN I only drank alone 2 nights max, and I felt like I could be satisfied by two glasses. The difference between me in MN and between me in Chi is that in MN I had a very active social life that heavily revolved around drinking. So my MN problems revolved around me drinking socially to get drunk. Its like I had no limit. I always could enjoy one more, and one more after that. This type of behavior led to the countless side effects noted on Jan 1.

I do believe that in the last few days I have realized that I drink more out of routine and boredom than actual desire. Whew, this is good news bears! If I can develop new routines and eliminate my boredom through new social outlets, I can truly change my drinking behaviors.

Of note, next week I will start taking weekly Spanish class and I have my first book club meeting! I also attended a social group meeting last night and have a volunteer role this weekend. Suddenly, my life does not revolve around alcohol or a failed relationship it revolves around me!