Yesterday I decided to take a day off to nurse my cold. It’s already much better but I’m still sniffling.
I spent a lot of time reading, made a bit of music, knitted three gauge swatches for the sweater I want to make next, and that was about it. For once I did do enough to not feel cranky at the end of the day. A nice balance between actually moving things forward and relaxing. Oh, and I started planning the November novel. Finally. I decided to use Janice Hardy’s book „Planning Your Novel“ (Amazon-affiliate link). So far I’ve made good progress and am almost convinced that I’ll have a plan come Wednesday.
Today marks the day I’m allowed to drink alcohol again.
I know I said that I’d wait until November 8th but I changed my mind. I found that not drinking any alcohol does not make a measurable difference in my sleep. It does make a difference on the scales but even there – I can easily eat enough to make up for that. Not drinking any alcohol wasn’t hard at all. After the first few days I just resigned myself to drinking something else instead.
We did try a couple of non-alcoholic wines and I have to say that I’d rather drink water. We drink alcohol-free beer all the time anyways. Every day for lunch my husband and I share one, for example.
I did miss the taste, and the marking of events by drinking alcohol. Having a beer at night for me means that it’s the weekend. Going out to a restaurant is something I like celebrating with a beer too. But then if one celebrates too many things with alcohol that can become somewhat dangerous. So I like taking some time off here and there.
I’m doing the same with certain foods. Sweets, chocolate, and potato chips all signify special treats for me so I need to be aware, and not consume too many of them. I eat when I’m feeling down, when I’m feeling particuarly festive, when I’m angry, when I had a bad day, when I had a very good day, and if I don’t pay attention that can lead to me eating sweets all day long which wrecks havoc with my blood sugar and makes me gain weight.
So I’ve been a little stricter with my chocolate rationing in the past week, mostly unsuccessfully. If I can’t manage eating only a sane amount I will have to abstain completely for some time. We’ll see. At least I’m no longer binge-eating chocolate right before my bedtime because that definitely messes with my sleep.
But with the alcohol I have to say that I thought it would make more of a difference. It’s good that it didn’t. That tells me I don’t need to stop drinking it altogether.
And now I need to get on with the planning of the novel.