Building Muscles
For most of my adult life, I have worked out. For the past two decades, pretty consistently. I use all of these weights when I'm working chest, shoulders, and triceps. Currently, I am using the 15# & 12# for the most part. I add 20# weights for chest presses and then drop down for the triceps to the 8# & 5# for the last reps at the end of the workout. My arms were shaking, but I kept going! Through my journey of working out, I have increased the weights over time, pushing and building the muscles.
There are times when I say, "screw it, I'm not working out today!" Then later, I will wish or say, "I wish I would have worked out today." I never regret working out. I used to do the same thing with drinking "screw it; I'm having a drink!" The regret would come. Again, I never regretted not drinking!
It took time for me to build up my physical strength, and I'm continuing to improve. Why? Only because I'm working my muscles. I'm working on the plan even when I don't feel like it. Not willpower, just doing it. There have been days, weeks that I haven't worked out. However, I return because I want to be healthy and active for my whole life. It's a journey. Just like living AF is a journey.
When a person decides to take a break, moderate, or quit drinking, it takes effort. When I first took a break, I researched programs. Just like I did fitness programs and healthy eating plans. I decided that I would commit to a break. I signed up for a program that was all about grace, compassion and judgement free and then did the work. Did I do everything? No. But I did do a lot of it, and I made it through 21 days! The next step was 30 days alcohol-free. I then continued another 30 days alcohol-free, then 100 days until I hit my goal of a year alcohol-free. By then, I felt so good that I didn't want to go back to my old lifestyle—with each step, I built stronger mental muscles. You have to use tools and tactics to keep you going forward to your goal.
Right now, you might be thinking about changing your relationship with alcohol. Maybe you want to try to moderate your alcohol consumption, or you have tried to quit but were white-knuckling it. Don't give up! Keep getting curious.
Keep exercising those mental and physical muscles!
Are you interested in taking a break from alcohol? Dry January is coming, but you can start now. Go to my bio and book a free discovery call! When you do I will send you my free Quick Start Guide for Getting Sober Curious.