Exactly, @doogie! All of that. I’m happiest when I can curl up around a full belly and go to sleep. Like a toddler. 
Tuesday, August 26
Weight 147.6
CG Max day 29/50 - staggered RDL, shoulder press, banded hip thrust, sweeps, pushups - 12 minute cardio warmup. Today was good. Woke up before the alarm, it’s a nice, cool morning, and the workout went quickly. Nothing to complain about today so far! (Now off to work, lol.)
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The semaglutide has killed my alcohol cravings. I used to get really anxious if I didn’t have alcohol in the house, just it case I NEEDED it. Now I will occasionally have a drink or two on a Saturday night, but not very often. Do you mind if I ask what you get out of one glass of wine? Is that enough for you to “feel it”?
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Hmmm. So feel it, absolutely. I think you and I are looking for and experiencing different things, though. I don’t do it for social anxiety, but rather social enhancement. I like the celebratory nature of it. I like cheers-ing. I like that it makes eating dinner with my husband more like an official date.
Three sips in even a wine (or mixed drink) I’m not crazy about starts tasting delicious, and everything just becomes sort of golden for me. I’m loosened, but I don’t often start from “tight,” if that makes sense. So I start off relaxed and just become more so - I’m generating ideas, which is usual for me, but maybe now they’re crossing very mild lines (anger does the same thing - I’m funniest when I’m angry because I’m less filtered). I guess euphoria would be the best way to describe glasses 1 and 2 of wine, though “euphoric” seems like it overstates what’s happening. I’m not drunk, I’m just super engaged socially and deeply, like…chuffed about it. Buoyant. Again, it typically energizes me - husband and I are prone to late walks when drinking. My understanding is that this is the case with about 10% of people (according to Andrew Huberman). The rest get sedated by it and stop more easily because they become sleepy. We 10% are more prone to alcoholism, as I understand it. Anyway, so that’s glasses 1&2. At 3 I still feel good. Stopping there lets me escape without a hangover, assuming I’ve eaten appropriately, but the third glass is a diminishing-returns thing and can lead to poor choices going forward (by which I mean have a 4th, not sleep with strangers). Ideally, I would never drink more than two drinks. Because that particular slope is so slippery, I’m hoping the reta will help me see what a one-drink evening looks like so I can make good choices when I come off it. I don’t have a problem not drinking, but do have a problem resisting what seems in the moment like more fun.
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Thanks for taking the time to explain that. I find it really interesting.
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That sounds like fun, or that you’re a fun person to be around when having a couple.
I could never quite understand that. I was only fun to be around if there was something equally wrong with the people I was with. To normal people I was probably pretty ridiculous.
Anyways, thats a really interesting time you’re having with the glp-1 inhibitors. I’m curious as hell about them after seeing how well they worked with my neighbor. Like, once winter set in, I didn’t really see her outside at all. Then spring came around and I was like, Wow! Amazing!
But bear in mind that this is me on one or two - I do get stupid if I keep going, e.g. keep turning the music up even though I’ve been told it’s irritating.
I have a lot in common with a labrador retriever, as I’ve said before. No one wants a drunken retriever bouncing around when they’re trying to be mellow. 
I’m coming back to edit, because I’m not actually sure that I’m telling the truth. My husband and I have very similar drinking profiles, and we have made a lot of temporary friends while drinking. Like…whole bars in Belgium, people buying us drinks on vacation, etc. One guy wanted a picture with my husband a couple of years ago. We’re both pretty social drunks, and I will additionally drunk-solve your problems if you care to share them.
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I once led a band of late night merry makers on a drunken lunch tray sled ride down the beginners hill outside of the bar at my local ski resort!
I had multiple drinking personalities. Some were pretty fun. Others… 
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Interesting side note - Huberman also said that the amount of alcohol that is non toxic per week is zero. Not to be a party pooper, but it is what it is.
Also, people with ADHD are 5-10 times more likely to suffer from addiction. That little genetic mutation that puts you in the ten percent that gets energized is possibly a sign that you are neuro-divergent (ADHD) as well.
Cheers!
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I have some eccentricities. Or mismanaged superpowers, depending on how you want to look at it.
.
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Those super powers are only mismanaged until you realize they are super powers.
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I think this used to happen to me when I was younger. But I quit drinking altogether just over a year ago. I got to the point where more than two drinks and I couldn’t sleep through the night. I would wake up with my heart racing and couldn’t get back to sleep. Then it got to the point where even one drink would mess with my mood for like 2 days. But I’m kind of that way with everything. The few times I smoked pot weren’t so great for me either. Or more accurately, for the people around me. My husband has banned me from edibles for life. Lol
Yes, all true, including “the only safe amount is zero.” I love Huberman, but I take his information as “to consider” rather than as rules for my life. I’m old enough to know that my alcohol intake is well managed addiction-wise, although as @BethB points out, aging changes its impact and so I’m increasingly curious about reducing. At this point I don’t want to eliminate it altogether, but one day? Maybe. We’ll see. At this point it doesn’t ring any (well educated) alarm bells, it’s just fitting less comfortably into my clean lifestyle. ADHD is a yes as well, though that, too, is well managed behaviorally. There’s a lot of substance abuse in my family - I’m cautious.
@BethB, I can look at my Apple Watch’s resting heart rate graph and see spikes where heavier drinking occurred. This year it was a vacation to St. John in late February and camping at the beginning of August. So yeah, me too.
My husband always used to think I was exaggerating until it happened to him one night. Lol. He was like Oh my God that was miserable. But yeah. Last year we were on a family vacation and I had ONE drink and I couldn’t shake this weird feeling of guilt for like 2 full days. That was the last time I drank. It was weird for me at first because I’m literally the only person that I know that doesn’t indulge in some sort of lubricant. Alcohol and bread are like a bad boyfriend for me. Sometimes fun, but usually just make me feel like shit. Lol.
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Wednesday, August 27
Weight 148.6
CG Max day 30/50 - “accessory circuit” targeting for and abs, delta, glutes, biceps, and triceps - with 5 min cardio warmup. It was supersets, so it sped by.
How is it now, with some time under your belt?
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There is an old saying - if you think you don’t have a problem, quit for a year.
If you can’t - you have a problem.
For me, life is just so much better without artificial dopamine bumps - but I am AuDHD, so your mileage may vary.
Honestly it’s just normal. I drink water with dinner and if I’m feeling fancy I drink a Waterloo sparkling water. Lol. But I don’t miss it at all. I don’t think I realized how badly it was effecting me. It fed my depression and social anxiety, made my workouts harder, made my sleep shit. Probably took a month or two for me to not want to grab a drink to unwind. But that might have had to do with my drink of choice too. I liked those Mikes hard drinks which are full of sugar. Went to dinner the other day with 3 other women who all drank, but there was no pressure there. So socially it’s fine. How I feel? There is a marked improvement. To be clear, it’s not like a hard core moral stance or anything like that. To each his own. But for me, it’s kind of like when I quit smoking. I just don’t see a world in which I go back to it.
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Uhh, thanks, lol, but I know I don’t have a problem. I mean, I have a lot of problems, I suppose, but alcoholism isn’t one of them. I very much enjoy my sober time and don’t wish to drink it away. At the same time, I don’t want to never have a fancy martini again or wine with my bestie or a brewski at a hockey game. But thank you for taking the time to offer feedback - I do appreciate it. You should introduce yourself somewhere - I’ve been seeing you around a bit.
I’m glad that it’s feeling natural for you. That would be my hope, too, if ever I go in that direction. I talk easily all day (therapist) so I would imagine it would be fine.
The sugar…I suspect that one of my very high heart rate episodes (v. high for me being in the 70s) was due to the combination of alcohol and sugar, the Caribbean vacation spike episode. A lot of fruity rum drinks.
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Uhh, thanks, lol, but I know I don’t have a problem. I mean, I have a lot of problems, I suppose, but alcoholism isn’t one of them. I very much enjoy my sober time and don’t wish to drink it away. At the same time, I don’t want to never have a fancy martini again or wine with my bestie or a brewski at a hockey game. But thank you for taking the time to offer feedback - I do appreciate it. You should introduce yourself somewhere - I’ve been seeing you around a bit.
I feel like this more speaks to the reality that people tend to fall in the line of abstainers or moderators when it comes to “vices”. The whole “if you don’t have a problem go a year without it” is basically a non-challenge to an abstainer. “Oh, you want me to just completely cut something out? Ok!” The REAL challenge to issue to that person is “If you REALLY don’t have a problem with alcohol, have 1 drink a night”. Because THAT person is going to totally biff on that one. Whereas someone who can naturally moderate is going to balk at the 1 year challenge because they don’t WANT to live an existence where something is completely cut off from them, even if they DON’T have “a problem”, because shy should they live like an ascetic if they don’t have to?
This has been one of the biggest (and still hardest) revelations on my late 30s. Especially since I’m married to a moderator and I’m 100% an abstainer, and somehow she still puts up with my shenanigans. “Honey, I’m going to buy some groceries. I forgot: are you never drinking skim milk again, or was it whole milk that we decided was slowly killing the whole family?”
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Wait…are you saying 1 drink a night because that’s not a lot, or because it is? Am I biffing because it would be gross to have to drink daily, or because if I drank 1 I’d wind up having 3 nightly, or because it’s only 1, so moderate?
Hahaha, this can be me, a little bit, but more because I go through eating phases. One day that’s IT, no more broccoli, it’s yucky to me now.
Exactly. I’ve done nothing wrong - why would I agree to a punishment? Whereas @BethB has agreed to something that more like a treat (to feel good), as I have in making the changes needed to reduce my inflammation - which is the motivation behind my interest in reducing alcohol intake. I’m not trying to prevent something bad; I’m trying to gain something good. If I can do that and also keep the drinks, which currently seem like something good, yay. If not, I’ll adjust.
The reta may help me to realize that I get more “yay” without it. If so, great!