Each Tip is followed by an Inchie or Inchcock response:
1) Here is a list of the reasons to curtail your drinking. Such as feeling healthier, sleeping better, or improving your relationships. Combined, these actions taken can motivate you.
Yes!
2) Put in writing; Set a drinking goal. Set a limit on how much you will drink. You should keep your drinking below the recommended guidelines: no more than one standard drink per day for women and men ages 65 and older, and no more than two standard drinks per day for men under 65. These limits may be too high for people who have certain medical conditions or for some older adults. Your Doctor can help you determine what’s right for you.
Doctor? Talk to my Doctor? Now there is a challenge without a doubt. It’s been so long since I’ve seen her, I don’t think I would recognise her if I did ever get an appointment! Being partially deaf rules out the telephone. All my Emails are routed back to me!
3) Keep a diary of your drinking. For three to four weeks, keep track of every time you have a drink. Include information about what and how much you drank as well as where you were. Compare this to your goal. If you’re having trouble sticking to your plan, discuss it with your Doctor or another health professional.
Apart from, Inchcock suffering from arithmophobia, and vascular dementia, this causes me some concern. He’s hard enough to control as it is. This could drive him to drink, you know?
4) Don’t keep alcohol in your house. Having no alcoholic drinks at home can help limit your drinking.
I don’t have a house, is it alright if I don’t keep any alcohol in my flat instead, please?
5) Drink slowly. Sip your drink. Drink soda, water, or juice after having an alcoholic beverage. Never drink on an empty stomach.
Ahem! You told me not to keep any alcohol in the house (flat). So, if I want to weaken and have a tipple, I have to get a taxi to go down to the beer-off to get my plonk, then come back with it, which costs me at least an hour in time, and the bottle of beer £I.20, and the £10 taxi fare, should help me reduce my intake. Naturally, I will not be ordering a couple of cases of Guinness three times a week from Amazon and hiding them in the wet room…
6) Choose alcohol-free days. Decide not to drink a day or two each week. You may want to abstain for a week or a month to see how you feel physically and emotionally without alcohol in your life. Taking a break from alcohol can be an excellent way to start drinking less.
These suggestions are not going to work, you know. Cause the Amazon beer deliveries can vary between one to three days. The Vodka, Gin and Rum from Valley Wines can change even more, sometimes arriving on the same day, other times three days later? Luckily, I keep a good stock in.
7) Watch for peer pressure. Practice ways to say no politely. You do not have to drink just because others are, and you shouldn’t feel obligated to accept every drink you’re offered. Stay away from people who encourage you to drink.
I’ll do my best to watch for Pier pressure, but I do not live at the seaside? I exist miserably alone in this three-roomed flatlet. No pets allowed. But I do have a Koala and Teddy Bear for company. My Cyber lady friends sent them to me from Canada and Australia. When I wake up in the middle of the night requiring a shot or two of Gin, shampoo or cans of plonk. We often have a chinwag before I pass out in a drunken stupor on the floor.
8) Keep busy. When you’re at home, pick up a new hobby or revisit an old one. Take a walk, play sports, go out to eat, or catch a movie. Painting, board games, playing a musical instrument, woodworking — these and other activities are great alternatives to drinking.
Would it be alright for me to try and take up a hobby from my twenties? If any of the girls are still alive. Also, the medications, memory, and my appendage still work, of course.
9) Ask for support. Cutting down on your drinking may not always be easy. Let friends and family members know that you need their support. Your Doctor, counsellor, neighbour, Carer or therapist may also be able to offer you some help?
My Doctor again, she’s been known to be annihilistic,
Although when I see her, she’s good, medicationalistic,
After Coronavirus, she has come over all antagonistic,
But there’s no need for me to go ballistic,
I’ve enough bothered with the knees being arthritic,
Now joined by signs of becoming an asthmatic…
Three years ago diagnosed as being a diabetic…
Still awaiting the first appointment, Tsk! Pathetic!
The after-stroke sessions can be a smidge athletic…
The bladder, ulcer, reflux and rear end can be problematic…
Saccades in the right eye, so the sight is not precisely copacetic!
Peripheral Neuropathy causing hassle; I mustn’t sound sematic…
I wanted to listen to some music: I like a bit of classic…
The hearing aids broke; at this rate, I’ll soon be brassic!
I may seek help from a loony bin or someone ecclesiastic?
10) Guard against temptation. Steer clear of people and places that make you want to drink. If you associate drinking with specific events, such as holidays or vacations, develop a plan for managing them in advance. Monitor your feelings. When you’re worried, lonely, or angry, you may be tempted to reach for a drink. Try to cultivate new, healthy ways to cope with stress.
Huh! I’m always worried, lonely and stressed!
11) Be persistent. Most people who successfully cut down or stop drinking altogether do so only after several attempts. You’ll probably have setbacks, but don’t let them keep you from reaching your long-term goal. There’s really no final endpoint, as the process usually requires an ongoing effort.
Who are these people, please? A carer calls to do the medications, a nurse every month or so for blood tests… Erm… Oh, yes, the food delivery drivers. Bob from the Winery driver doesn’t encourage me to drink… overly.
Some of these strategies — such as watching for peer pressure, keeping busy, asking for support, being aware of temptation, and being persistent — can also be helpful for people who want to give up alcohol altogether.
– – – _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Testicles!_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _—
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Mind you…
Inchcock’s Make ‘Em Laugh Series
Excellent advice. You could be a counselor.
Cheers Senor, Tim!
The rule of thumb here is keep your checks/cheques five years in case of Internal Revenue issues. After that, you can shred them.
In my 20’s, after I returned to my home in the US after my US Army days in Germany, I drank a lot. How much became evident when I’d been home five years and began sorting through my checks. After the task was done, i realized one in four was written either on a liquor store, bar, or restaurant where I know I’d had alcohol (in quantity, always!) with the meal.
At that point, I was coming home from work and having one or two beers before supper, so had a big appetite on top of the caloric beer: I’d also put on unacceptable weight. All this added up to a realization I needed to adjust my lifestyle. I began by eliminating the after-work beers for Perrier water, which had the nice carbonation. Little by little, I reduced my weight and my drinking to a level that was more social and acceptable.
These days, I go months between a drink, which always is with a meal shared with others.
Oh yes, a family secret not shared with me until it could have been too late was that there were several alcoholics in the family, which was why my mother and father never had alcohol in the house when I was growing up. That knowledge would have helped me moderate my drinking in my 20s. I know that because after I learned that family secret, I moderated my drinking!
I tried reducing, Doug, But went cold turkey out of the blue one day whan I was starting my vacation. Four days in bed, sweating. New bedclothes and mattress needing, I soaked it though. A bad time, but somehow I managed to keep up the abstanance. Many many years now, but that does not mean I am tempted even nowadays. I would not trust myself to touch any again… I feel if I did, it could be back tohe old ways, so easily.
I am proud of how you controlled it mate, well doneski!
I’m the same way with smoking. After dozens of tries to quit, one day I just went cold turkey. That was 3:00 AM, December 1st, 1998! The difference was I told myself I could take a smoke any time I wanted in the future; I just didn’t need one now. In past, it had been “I’ll never be able to smoke again, and there will be times I want to….” When it wasn’;t forever, I didn’t feel the stress of quitting, oddly.
Well done, Doug.
Minr pscking on was hard. It was, and still is, a pipefull of Erinmore mixture – I still fear I may start again. The ciggies and cigars I’m not tempted to at all.
Again, nicely done, Sir!
Everyone finds a way, I guess.
Mant can’t, Doug. I lost a mate years ago, he just couldn’t stop. Always thing of Mick at Christmases.
Likewise here. H3’d go through a half gallon (US, but..) of whiskey every day after work. He drank it in a large tumbler with a bi of Coke. I don’t know how he did it and stay standing, but i never saw him act or look drunk. That level of drinking went on for years.
Blimey, sounds just like Mick.
Your Alto-Ego much improves the advice of the Harvardians, they should revise their 11 chunks of acvice to include the wiser and wittier advice of that experienced Alto-Ego. Well illustrated as well. They should provide that helpful labelling chart with the purchase of every bottle. From laughing out loud to hospital, a fine health warning that is much better than the one that comes with cigarettes. I have a cousin who gave up smoking before the health warnings were placed on each pack, he had an unopened pack of Marlboros that did not have one. As far as I know, he still has it.
Somehow, I never tried absynthe, now it’s too late. I am just slow on the uptake it seems. Oh well.
I would like to warneth you, Sir Billum, of something that is more addictive than any plong or spirits, Liquid Codeine! After the heart (Mechanical Aorta replacement) operation, the doctor put me on it – I got poisoned by it. It is just too good! Went back on the Morphine, and managed to come off it altogether. Sometimes excessive pain could tempt me to overdo things. No longer after the scary poisoning. Still, I did get to meet some lovely nurses and get a load of chinwags in for a while. Hahaha!
Another shared fact tixt us, Billum. I’ve never tried it (Absynthe) either. I did smell some when a bottle was opened in 1967… the smell alone frit me! Har-har! TTFNski!
I’ve had all manner of intravenous pain wonders since my Crohn’s kicked in in 1975, but have not yet been prescribed any liquid codeine. Next time I have a blockage or some such outrage, I shall ask the attending physician about it. My family doctor absolutely hates to prescribe pain medication of any kind. He also hates cats, what kind of person would that be? Chinwags are also very therapeutic, is they not?
They say that Absynthe makes the heart grow fonder, and *other* things according to this advice:
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I can’t say about my Doctor nowadays, Billum. Oh, what was his name… erm… a woman actually,er… never mind. Hehe! Chinwags can me effective relief givers, indeedum, Sir.