21 days sober.
I've been setting up what I think is a healthy routine for me now that I stopped drinking. Working out, healthy diet, etc. etc.
To be honest focusing on that alone has helped me stay on track with sobriety until the past few days... now I'm just bored with everything.
This is my first time ever attempting sobriety at all. My background is restaurants and bars. have been working in them for 16 years I love my job and the people I've met along the way.
It's funny, you realize pretty quick how much time in a day you wasted away from drinking or recovering from it, and that hit me pretty hard. especially being the night owl that I am. So I've been getting up early and working out, making an actual breakfast, errands, all before noon. that's cool, I'm happy.
but then it's a matter of what I do with the rest of my day on my days off. I get so bored... the pandemic isn't helping but I just feel out of place.
I used to pass the time going to visit my friends that were bartenders, servers, etc at their jobs on the off days and talk to other bar flies. or just taking that drive to the liquor store to buy two handles for the days off and drink away.
I'm single, live in a fun area and would like to make new friends outside of my normal drinking buddies(who I want to keep and are supportive of my decision) but I know it would be better to get other friends as well where our relationship doesn't revolve around sitting at a bar.
What or where are good places to be social with people without it being an elephant in the room that one of us is sober? Especially during these weird times. I'm a pretty social person and enjoy interactions with others. So far all I've found is online communities.
Unfortunately, until in-person events are normalized [again] online communities are what we need and will only be what we can utilize.
Pre-Covid I found plethora of sober events across our country. Sober bars offering taste testing, sober game nights, arts and crafts, soccer tournaments, etc. Some are online. But not as many.
A few weeks ago I learned that we must repeat a behavior daily up to 245 days in order for the behavior to be reflexive. In other words, you'll need to be sober on average 8 and a half months for you to live/practice sobriety without "thinking" about it.
It's hard. Probably the hardest thing you'll do. Continue to improve your healthy routine.
Besides 12 meetings?
25 year F&B vet here knocking on the door of 1 year without anything stronger than Advil. You can do it. The feeling of missing out fades. Stick to it. Go do something you thought was fun when you were 12. Chances are you’ll still love it.