Ooh if we're suggesting other hobbies, I'll suggest the best of all, Halloween! There's nothing I enjoy more transacting the daylights out of both children and adults. Plus I get to play dress up.
I am quitting drinking entirely. I have no idea how I am going to handle this and I am seeking help from a therapist to do it.
I am almost more sad that I will have to give up homebrewing than I am about giving up alcohol. I probably would have found it easier to quit if I had not been homebrewing. What an amazing hobby.
Thank you to everyone for all of your outstanding posts, help and feedback. This is an awesome community and I will miss it very much.
Not sure if this helps or not, but I just got an email from Northern Brewers and they just announced that they are selling Non Alcohol beer kits. Maybe you could still brew beer just to enjoy the flavor of beer.
Not sure if this helps or not, but I just got an email from Northern Brewers and they just announced that they are selling Non Alcohol beer kits. Maybe you could still brew beer just to enjoy the flavor of beer.
Get into weight training of some other very physical activity, Cycling, running, Rowing, Kite Boarding,white water kayaking etc....it will be 180 degrees away from drinking at a competitive level and or even hanging around the drinking life style. Watching your body transform can be exhilarating and its own euphoric. And its definitely good for you.
Good luck mate...and its really not that hard once you set your mined to it..I went about 3 years in my early 30's with out drinking due to thinking I had pre-diabetic symptoms, all the while hanging out with drinking friends. In my case the Symptoms wet away so eased back into enjoying beer again. Point is all you need in life is a trigger to make you change directions..seem like you just got yours pulled, so run with it.:rockin:
Wishing you all the best!
AA is a dangerous cult in my opinion. There are many newer support groups that are better if you google.
April Fool's.
Hmmm, maybe it is April Fools.....but go to this link and look at the very top of the page:
http://www.northernbrewer.com
In the vein of "related" hobbies..... Something I have taken up over the last 1-2 years that I have really grown to enjoy is fermenting vegetables. My wife and I make sauerkraut, kimchi, fermented pickles, fermented beets, I grow and ferment a wide variety of peppers and then turn them into hot sauces. Lots of satisfaction from a successful crock pot full of great sauerkraut or a gallon of awesome hot sauce to share with friends. Best wishes.
That's a great idea! I had forgotten about mentioning it, but I also make sauerkraut, pickles (cucumbers of course, but others too), kimchi, hot pepper sauce, and so on. Not only do they taste great, but fermented veggies are very healthy and full of probiotics.
Something else that is fun to do is to make vinegar. If you don't want to pour our your beer or wine(s) or ciders, you can "poison" them in a jar, add mother of vinegar and cover with cheesecloth and let them go. You can make lots of great vinegar, starting with an alcoholic beverage of under about 8%. That would make them undrinkable, but make wonderful vinegar with some time. It's not something for long in the future, when you are out of beer, but for now if you're like me and hate to "waste" beer or cider.
Cheese was mentioned, and that's also fermentation that can require temperature control (a cheese cave instead of fermentation chamber), if you still like the details involved with brewing and have some equipment. You can also make yogurt, full of healthy probiotics, easily.
You may not want to give up HBT forever. you can always log on and check this thread and feel all the support you have behind you. Most, if not all, have no idea what you look like, or where exactly you live. And we don't care. We truly want what is best for you. Now you have figured out what is best for you, and i'm proud of you! You should be proud of yourself. Best of luck to you in the future. But make sure you write down your username and login, you may need to read some supportive messages sometime.
Just wanted to say best of luck to you. Good for you to recognize it was becoming out of control. A lot of people never do that.
Keep yourself busy, very busy. Go fishing, paint the house, cut the grass twice. When you want a drink, do something with your family. They're why your putting the alcohol down. Make it so you don't have time to think about it.
Again, best of luck.
It must be so wonderful to eat at your house, with all of those great hobbies. I'm super-impressed, truly.
I have struggled with alcohol in the past and actually just last night I got pretty darn trashed. It wasn't really my intention to get that drunk but sometimes I just keep drinking even when I know I'm going to feel like absolute death the next day. Alcohol is very powerful. It can cause you to do and say things that are completely out of character. Beer and wine hasn't caused me very many problems. For me its liquor that really causes severe issues. I'm not sure if you are still reading these posts but you aren't alone in your thoughts. For the most part I know when to quit but sometimes I just have a bad day and I take things too far. What I have learned is that I can't drink when I'm emotionally unstable. Giving it up can be the best solution though because then you wont have to worry about ever being in that situation again. Best of luck to you.
Thank you so much for sharing, I really appreciate it. I have been stressed so much in the past about planning when I would drink, how I would manage it, and dealing with each time I failed miserably.. which wasn't every time. But the times that I did fail, it was brutal. I actually feel relieved quitting entirely, as I don't feel like I have that stress.
Thank you so much for sharing, I really appreciate it. I have been stressed so much in the past about planning when I would drink, how I would manage it, and dealing with each time I failed miserably.. which wasn't every time. But the times that I did fail, it was brutal. I actually feel relieved quitting entirely, as I don't feel like I have that stress.
Best of luck to you dsniegocki. That is a tough thing to recognize, and even tougher to take action once you do recognize that you need to step away.
I will through out my other time fillers as suggestions.
Reefkeeping. It has a little bit of chemistry, a little bit of biology, a little engineering, a little design, and a sprinkle of black magic to get it all working. And if you get really into it, you won't have the time or money to think about drinking.
http://www.reefcentral.com/
Other than that, cooking/ BBQ/ smoking meat. My wife and I will pick out stuff that we see on TV or something that we have at a restaurant, and go on a culinary mission to recreate the dish.
One thing I'm wanting to experiment more with is brewing small batches of wort and bottling them in sterilized bottles.
Then pouring a couple of ounces into a glass and filling it up with soda water... My attempt with a pilsner wort was delicious and of course 100% N.A. because no yeast was included.
If I practice this later I may need to boil the jars/bottles before and after adding the wort like people do in canning to make sure it'll be more stable.
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