I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t try to interject some temptation.
Too late my man, the 2 month stint is over.
And besides, it was weed I was depriving myself of, not booz. Perhaps you should have posted this:
My mistake. 
Gib wrote:
I have always thought this about you Gib:
You play your cards close to your chest and you are a shrewd operator, even though it seems otherwise, as you do have the tendency to act in the way you think people expect of you, but thinking about this, you do this for a reason.
I think all round Gib has been grossly under estimated, not only by people he knows, but by himself also, you must be surprising yourself daily.
I really thought the booze and drugs would get the better of you, but you prove me wrong and I happily acknowledge this.
All you need now is experience in the affairs of the heart and you are older now, so your past failures are not applicable to who you are today.
Kudos to Gib!
Are you in America? Is the housing market still depressed?
Thank you, Shieldy.
And again, I take back what I said to you earlier: I really, really don’t hate you.
I’m in Canada, and yes the housing market is still depressed, pretty much all over North America. But that’s a good thing for buyers.
I decided to chart my progress:
One good thing that’s come out of this is that I want to speed up the process. I want it to happen sooner.
There seems to be an average of six month periods between these stints. I have to half that. 3 months (or thereabouts).
And once I go through all combinations, I want to take a 1 year break from all drugs and alcohol. I think if there’s one thing these past several stints have been teaching me is that I need a lot more than 2 months.
I think this time around I’m going to forgo alcohol. So starting this Saturday, May 14th, I will go until July 14th with NO ALCOHOL!!!
BAAAHHH!!!
Gib,
So you’re going to use peroxide? 
Gargle only.
I said BAAAHHH!!!
Chill out Gib, have a Majito
If you lace it with acid, coke, maybe a crushed pill of ecstasy, I’ll drink. But no alcohol!!! 
I reeeaaallly wanted a drink on Friday. It was another one of my caffeine Fridays, and I had been really good the whole week. One cup of coffee in the morning on Monday, half a cup Wednesday mid-day, and then 3 cups Friday morning (and another big cup of Joe in the late afternoon). I was fucking wired… it would have been reeeaaally fun to drink that evening… but I didn’t.
^ Just patting myself on the back. Now go on with your lives.
Today is July 15th, the day I can drink again. Actually, I think yesterday was, but I decided to wait for today. (If I quit drinking on May 14th–meaning my last drink was at the latest on May 13th–then does two months mean I can start drinking on July 14th or that my abstinance must follow through on July 14th? I think it means I could have started yesterday, but whatever).
Anyway, what did we learn this time?
Overall, we learned that the absence of alcohol in my life is probably a pretty good thing. I get a lot more work done on the weekend–and I save a huge chunk of my wallet. I’d say that emotionally and physically, it doesn’t do too much. Emotionally, I’m still the same, and physically, I still get tired on my days off caffeine. Of course, by “physically”, I just mean how I feel (not counting the day after effect)–obviously there are many physical benefits to abstaining from alcohol. And of course, my non-caffeine days aren’t that bad when I’ve abstained from caffeine for a good long while, but I find that even half a cup of coffee ever odd day, which I sometimes need, can take a toll on my energy on the even days.
But I definitely like having an extra day on the weekend sans hang over, and I’ll take the savings in my bank account any day.
There are a couple other “learnings” I got out of this–not signs of life improvement per se, but definitely learnings:
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It’s definitely the caffeine that makes my trips twice as intense (at least). It’s a trend I’ve known in my drug use for a while now: on my Fridays, after I get jacked and drunk, I’ll smoke up. The high is definitely more intense than usual on these days. I always attributed it to the alcohol. I’ve read that alcohol can be a catalyst in helping other drugs get into the brain. That’s what I assumed was happening. But these two months have taught me that all that’s needed, in my case, is the caffeine. I guess if the neurons are already firing, this just adds to the effect of the cannabinoids.
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I’ve also learned that the cannabinoids have a major impact on my self-discipline. I read Charles Baudelaire’s On Wine and Hashish a while ago. Baudelaire compares the effects of wine and hashish and says that though they are very similar, there is a subtle but important difference: whereas wine lowers your inhibitions, hashish weakens your will. He had an agenda to try to promote alcohol and degrade cannabis, so he described the inhibiting effects of alcohol as “liberating”, as freeing the soul from its own inhibitions, whereas cannabis was more stultifying of the soul, taking away its will to do, well, pretty much anything that requires effort. I don’t care to celebrate alcohol or demonize pot, but I agree with Baudelaire’s take on these effects. As subtle as the difference between them is, he was bang on.
Marijuana or any other cannabinoid has the effect of weakening your self-discipline (Baudelaire puts it in terms of “will”). This is not to say that I fell of the temperance horse, but that I was dieting at the same time (hey, I’m all about self-deprivation! ). Unlike with my commitment to abstaining from alcohol, I’m not as staunch when it comes to dieting. I’ll allow myself a little snack every now and then, or to go over my daily goal by a couple hundred calories. But this makes all the difference in the world to my self-discipline. It essentially means I allow room for excuses. If I’ve already gone over my daily limit by a couple hundred calories, what’s a hundred more (I tell myself)? Or sometimes: fuck it! Just on this day, I’m gorging; I’ll eat extra lean tomorrow or go for an extra bike ride. ← All because I allow for some wiggle room in my discipline.
This time around, I got a good feel for how the cannabinoids can take advantage of this wiggle room. Whereas my determination not to drink can be put on auto-pilot so to speak (I can’t actually trick myself into thinking a drink or two is OK), my determination to limit my calorie intake requires constant and deliberate effort. This is where the “munchies”, as the druggie vernacular calls it, takes its toll. For me, the experience wasn’t that I’m more hungry than usual, but that I just couldn’t help myself. I just watched myself caving almost every time. My will, my self-discipline, was sabotages by the pot.
So a little lesson in self-discipline: don’t smoke pot. I also had the opportunity to learn a few more tricks about self-discipline, but those had nothing to do with the abstinence of alcohol (though I’m sure a lack of alcohol is certainly a helpful tip). They are: 1) remind yourself that you’re supposed to have cravings, or that it’s supposed to be uncomfortable. This is the whole reason so many people fail at their new years resolutions the first month in. They supposedly “know” that losing weight, or quitting smoking, or whatever, is going to be hard, but when they feel it, they suddenly get the idea that: this isn’t supposed to be so hard, therefore I’m justified in breaking my commitment. Reminding yourself that this is supposed to be hard makes the cravings or discomfort suddenly seem like “business as usual” and it becomes a bit easier to dismiss them. And just to give you an extra boost, 2) remind yourself of your goal. Say to yourself: don’t you want to lose weight? Don’t you want to look good? Live healthy? Reinforce that you’re doing this for a reason, that there’s a prize at the end of the road worth working towards, but you do have to put in the work in order to make it a reality.
BTW, started smoking again… but then quit again. This time, however, I think I can only do it for two or three month stretches.
So it looks like all I have left are three 2 month stints during which I allow myself only one category of drug: caffeine, alcohol, or cannibinoids.
My next stint will last from Jan. 1 to Feb. 28. The only question is, which category? I’d like to hear from ILP members on this question.
Alcohol and mary jane are downers, so try caffeine, the upper, by its lonesome in (80% cocoa content or higher)small chocolate pieces. No caffeine drinks.
What? You can’t tell me no drinks! slaps hand
But it’s an intriguing idea nonetheless. So 80% cocoa or higher, you say, huh? How much chocolate would I have to eat to reach, let’s say, one cup of coffee?
http://www.builtlean.com/2012/04/12/raw-chocolate/
Basically 4 ounces = 1 8oz. coffee (however good coffee tastes it does not have the health benefits)
Thank you very much, Mongoose, I will be trying that.
You’re very welcome Gibmuffin. 