Everyday Systems

Please give me your before and after experience if you are doing "glass ceiling". If you are a drinker please tell me how you incorporate it into NoS. I started last week and can't really decide how I want to do this. I have read Reinhard's "glass ceiling" and his experience with drinking.

I drink strictly wine. I love that 1-2 glasses a day is actually healthy, but unfortunately on weekends I exceed this limit. I am a daily wine drinker so I am trying to figure out how I will be more successful on NoS. I figure my options are...

1) no wine on N days, no limit on S days (I am a careful drinker, but do exceed the 1-2 glass limit)

2) 1-2 glasses a day without exception

3) 1-2 glasses a day on N days, no limit on S days (of course, my fav option, but not sure it will work !!)

What are your experiences/thoughts on this matter? I promise I will accept constructive critisism

Hey Jenny,

I could have written this post myself. I had a glass ceiling habitcal and then started one named WOW for with out wine during the week. For me it was because I realized that the glass or 2 (and how much is a glass?) made it harder for me to contain myself to N day food intake. I try to read one Proverb per day-handy since there are 31 of them. The day I decided was the 20! (Prov 20:1)Whoa! I still have the occasional wine during the week, but wisely.

I don't want to be craving or thinking about my wine at the end of the day, any more than I want to be craving or thinking about food. To me, NoS is all about the freedom FROM such things.

Just me,

Resting

My glass ceiling is that I may have 0, 1, or 2 drinks a day if I wish. I don't make it complex.

In practice, it's usually a glass of wine with dinner or a nightcap while I'm relaxing with the family.

If a drink is a sugar-based liquor, yes, it's an S. I do it just like anything else. Does it TASTE really sweet? If it does, it's an S.

I find the best success with No S when I strictly follow the exact rules without a lot of tweaking, and I find the same is true with Glass Ceiling.

I was developing a drinking problem and glass ceiling took care of it.

resting52 wrote:Hey Jenny,

I could have written this post myself. I had a glass ceiling habitcal and then started one named WOW for with out wine during the week. For me it was because I realized that the glass or 2 (and how much is a glass?) made it harder for me to contain myself to N day food intake. I try to read one Proverb per day-handy since there are 31 of them. The day I decided was the 20! (Prov 20:1)Whoa! I still have the occasional wine during the week, but wisely.

I don't want to be craving or thinking about my wine at the end of the day, any more than I want to be craving or thinking about food. To me, NoS is all about the freedom FROM such things.

Just me,

Resting

Resting, do you drink wine on S days, if so, can I ask how much? And yes, Whoa! on Proverb 20:1. God does have a way with timing!!

I do 0-2 alcoholic beverages daily, no exceptions. I don't drink more on S days. I really can't tolerate more than 2 drinks, so not having more is not a big deal.

I actually drink more on N days than S days. This is largely because most of our family members are not drinkers, so family occasions tend not to include alcohol -- even weddings and such. Depends on who I'm with, I guess.

NoelFigart wrote:
I was developing a drinking problem and glass ceiling took care of it.

The fact that I am asking makes me consider this myself. How easy was it for you to implement glass ceiling?

I made myself a deal. If I couldn't stick to glass ceiling for a full calendar month with no failures, I'd check into rehab.

It was the most amazingly powerful motivator you can imagine. I hate encounter groups and all that smack, and the thought of the expense in time and cash made my stomach curdle.

So in reality, not very hard at all.

Jenny,

I don't drink alchohol, but coffee is definitely my "drug of choice." I quit drinking coffee for four years because I could not reasonably limit myself. If I started drinking "talls" on Monday, you would inevitably find me down at the corner Starbucks on Friday afternoons mainlining "ventis". I am not joking. My husband bought me a 24 oz Ziggy mug when we first got married. I would have about three a day and end up having heart palpitations by early evening .... "clinic visit" anyone? (that's a House joke)

ANYWAY ... right before my six month No S anniversary I decided I would try Reinhard's glass ceiling principle with coffee. OH MY GOSH! It works and I get to have my java.

I can have 0-2 every day, every day I max it out (Ok that's not true there have been one or two days I haven't )and I do cafe mistos on N days and Caramel Macchiatos and/or Lattes on S/NWS days. I have only crashed through my glass ceiling one day so far and it was on an S day when I had 3 coffees. Since it was actually TOO MUCH it was not as pleasurable as keeping it to my two.

But for this particularly bad habit of mine, all I can say is the "glass ceiling" concept is sheer genius. If I had any desire to drink at all I would probably use it to have wine with my husband, and do the same concept 0-2 daily. But I just really have no desire to drink so I am just grateful it works so well for my coffee,

Blueskighs

Blue-thanks! I know what you mean. Wine is my "sugar" of choice. I can easily pass up sweets (although I do enjoy them!). I tend to be an all or nothing type which is why I question glass ceiling for me.

Noel-great plan you had! I know I can go without as I usually give it up for Lent every year (40 days) with no problem. I guess it's when I have one glass it usually leads to more than 2. But I'll never know until I try, right??!!

My "glass ceiling" is up to 2 drinks a calendar day.

I don't do anything different for S days, both because I think I wouldn't be able to stick to a lower ceiling during the week, and don't see that there is a problem with this moderate level of regular drinking (on the contrary, the evidence strongly suggests it's very healthy).

If there's a special occasion that makes it difficult to avoid drinking more I:

1) just try really hard. Glass ceiling is important.
2) hope it goes past midnight because then I can dip into the next calendar day's reserve
3) exceed the limit, mark the day red on my habitcal, and report how many drinks over the limit I went here on this board. The resolution to publicly (and quantitatively) fess up is a very effective way to keep failure from spinning out of control. I've had very few failures in the five or so years I've been practicing this, and I don't think any have involved going more than 2 drinks over the limit -- huge progress for an former double digit binger.

Reinhard

I've been doing a variation on the glass ceiling that pushes it farther, but not as far. Instead of using calendar days and getting those extra drinks past midnight, I've decided that it's 3 drinks in a day and its following night. Sunday-Thursday more than 2 rarely comes up, but sometimes Friday and Saturday events with dinner just speak to a dinner drink plus two after, or one before, one with, one after. The only problem I've encountered is the few all night blowouts that still come up, how many jello shots equal a drink?

jexica wrote:how many jello shots equal a drink?

One.

Sorry... I feel for ya.

But seriously, have a really good sweet drink and savor it instead. Appletinis are much better than jello shots.

Well I have posted on this before and I have been a bit hit and miss with it so far, but I reckon this time....

Anyhow, you simply have to make it work for you - no one is policing this for you!

My solution is up to 2 a day usually, with up to 4 on one night a week if you wish. The pay off from this is that you must have the following day off if you go over 2. But no more than 4 prevents a real binge.

The day off bummer makes you think about whether you really want to blow your allowance as well.

I have also toyed with a "one off" approach where you must have one day off a week, regardless of whether you went over the 2 or not. This is just to clear the system which I find helps with sleep patterns.

Thanks everyone, it looks as if everyone has their own solutions and for their own reasons. I appreciate everyone's approach and I'm sure we are helping many others out there lurking. My approach for now is to just not worry about the consumption. Worrying (see my signature line) about what I put in my mouth has gotten me into more trouble than I realized.

That being said...I am not concerned about my consumption in any way other than I know it will not help me to get my weight down. So, since I have decided not to worry about weight and just let what happens happen as I change habits then I won't concern myself with how many glasses of wine I have.

I am considering changing this habit to glass ceiling after the holidays, but not before.

This sounds like rambling so I hope it makes sense to you all!!