[webbo]

have i strayed on to alcoholics anom chat room.

[fatdoc]

I was waiting for you on here, with your knowledge i thought you'd have more positive things to say to the poor bloke....

c'mon... 

[fatdoc]

I don't have kids, but most of my friends do now. I notice a massive difference between the happiness (of the parents and the children) of those who seem to have got themselves 'sorted', and those who haven't. I suppose in terms of climbers, this means dads/mums who have time to climb - particularly specifc times when they can go off and do their own thing, unencumbered by the family. As an observer, this is entirely different to the whole family being at the crag, which although a nice thing to do, it is ultimately a family day out with a bit of climbing thrown in.

Obviously, when you have kids time is precious, but I would have thought a couple of short evening sessions and half a day at the weekend is not out of the realms of most people, and certainly enough to stay strong.

also as someone else pointed out running is a lot more time efficient way to exercise than climbing.

Perhaps, but I also think many people are very ineffective (time-wise) with their climbing training. If you have space in your cellar, you can set up a small systems board, plus some dead-hanging rungs with attachments for pulleys and have a very effective session in an hour (including warm up). As it's at home you could conceivably warm up, put the kids to bed, then go back down to train (or something like that). Creativity is important in these situations; you can't say "I can't do what I used to do, so I may as well not bother". Also, running won't get you up your project.

I strongly disagree with you on the first point. My family live at the crags in the summer... it's a great larf... and i get to boulder hard (for me). belay my kids as they learn and develop....

I strongly agree with you on the second. This isnt about focus on climbing, it's about changing a complete lifestyle, in fact it may well get you up a project, if you do no aerobic exercise and then get fit the effect on routes / long problems can be dramatic!

[Dr T]

The low alcohol beers are better than no alcohol beers taste wise.

Cobra 0.0% is ace.... 
got some mates to taste test it against some regular Cobra - they couldn't tell much difference

gave up drinking about 4 years ago for a number of reasons but still enjoy a couple of cold ones in the evening without any the calorific or morning after side effects   

[webbo]

I was waiting for you on here, with your knowledge i thought you'd have more positive things to say to the poor bloke....

c'mon... 

my knowledge in that alcohol is bad for you or my knowledge that i can drink x number of bottles of red wine and still get up for work/still climb at my usual level.

or the reason one drinks to unwind/destress or in order to cope with life.the answer is therefore look hard and long at your life.
then what needs to change and then make those changes.
the issue is when one belives you can't change then you need to bounce it off someone else.

personally when my daughter was a baby i had it dialed.in the garage tues/fri nights if the missus was out use the baby alarm.wall thurs night,climb outside sun.
now shes a teenager with major hormonal issues and the resulting crisis,training can be often cancelled at a moments notice,fortunately if i miss climbing/training for more than 2 days my major guilt/self loathing kicks in.

[GCW]

Beer gives you the munchies bad.  It's a great way to be a fat c*nt.  Look at GCW 

I don't eat when I drink- it reduces the space for more BEER.

[moose]

have i strayed on to alcoholics anom chat room.

yup.... we're all on the 12 steps programme: V1, V2, V3, V4.....

[The Sausage]

I strongly disagree with you on the first point. My family live at the crags in the summer... it's a great larf... and i get to boulder hard (for me). belay my kids as they learn and develop....

I strongly agree with you on the second. This isnt about focus on climbing, it's about changing a complete lifestyle, in fact it may well get you up a project, if you do no aerobic exercise and then get fit the effect on routes / long problems can be dramatic!

I certainly don't disagree that going to the crag with your family is a great thing to do, and way better than not going to the crag. My point was that if you have specific climbing goals that you are going to have to work hard for and concentrate on, setting time aside for yourself is an important part. The need for this obviously differs from person to person. I love, for example going out in a group of people, spotting, cheering, piss taking, trad climbing, sport climbing, bouldering, going to places I might not have things I want to do; I also love going out bouldering on my own - it really enables me to focus and concentrate on what i'm doing. This is a very important aspect of climbing for me.

Yes, that last point was a bit flippant and not really accurate. The main point of that paragraph was the bit about being creative with your training, and not sacking everything off because you can't do what you used to do. I suppose I meant that if running isn't something that interests you, don't do it just because you think it's more time effective. If you really want to climb, and time is precious, then adding running into your schedule isn't going to help - if you only have 2 hours a week and you want to climb for those 2 hours, devise an effective training plan.

[nik at work]

Beer gives you the munchies bad.  It's a great way to be a fat c*nt.  Look at GCW 

I'd just like to confirm that GCW is a fat WEAK c*nt.



(I'm just weak...)

[Houdini]

If you really want to climb, and time is precious, then adding running into your schedule isn't going to help - if you only have 2 hours a week and you want to climb for those 2 hours, devise an effective training plan.

Indeed - time is precious, we only have one life.  I fully expect to enjoy scratching up rocks when I'm 60; I'm certain it won't make too much of a difference to my enjoyment whether it's 5+ or 7C+.

Training specifically to achieve specific goals is one thing.  Making a few tweaks to your lifestyle and the way you train ie:  taking up jogging (as one example of cardiovascular exercise that is known to increase fitness and one hopes longevity and physiological well-being - it need not be sprinting and not necessarily at the expense of ones climbing) may very well set you up to have a healthy long happy and productive life (and certainly less of a fat c*nt, which is unforgivable.)

Beats being a sedentary alcoholic or a brute-strong 8B type w/ diabetes or cirrhosis (and I can think of one very high achieving alky in UK climbing - which of course I won't name - yes of course there are others).  We may be put on this Earth to fart around, but climbing should only be a part of that.

Without getting all Dr. hOU on Golt, I think his issue is largely mental.   Free your mind and your ass will etc..

[fatdoc]

have i strayed on to alcoholics anom chat room.

yup.... we're all on the 12 steps programme: V1, V2, V3, V4.....

pure UKB perfection

[fatdoc]

sausage,

fair points, you do need your own time to try to excel of course... but by appreciating the little horrors in your environment isnt as bad as it sounds... you'll have to trust me on this!

[slackline]

Free your mind and your ass will etc..

Next you'll be recommending people to "Tune in, turn on and drop out" Dr. hOu, or should I say Dr Leary

[GCW]

(I'm just weak...)

And you thought the climbing works was something to get excited about, ker-pow mutha fuckas....

At least I have the excuse that I never train now.   

[Houdini]

As your attourney, I would advice ALL to take LSD at least once.



It's all a question of being arsed, innit?  It's not about finding the time to climb or run or skydive (as the time is clearly there) it's about not finding excuses to veg-out (rather than drop-out).   That's something you get your swede around or not (and most likely end up being one of those hopeless obese types waddling around carrying 100KG of pure fuck on the hips and croaking before 55, and there are soooo many of those.  Good riddance, I say).

* No TV.  TV is for fat bland people.  I never watch TV, not ever.  OK, DVD's from blockbuster I watch, but films are rare as I don't P2P.

* Why don't you get off your arse and do something less boring instead?

* I can't be arsed writing more shit on the internet.

*  What's w/ this asterisk shit?      

[fatkid2000]

Towards the top of this thread fatdoc has some great ideas.

A year ago - I went through a shit patch in life - it happens to all of us, you just need to realise its happening and address it and the big step has been taken by GOLT by putting this posting on here.

I forced myself to stop drinking - and I mean stop, all booze cleared from the house. It may not work for everyone but I was drinking a stupid amount, it worked and thanks to friends, my better half and a few others (you know who you are) I've come out the other side.

The second thing I did was start cycling again - and commuting to work (30 miles a day). Think whether you can get some exercise built into your day. Lunch time run? Get up half an hour earlier for a run / board training etc - this will also stop you drinking at night etc.

[nik at work]

I kind of reached a tipping point.
When I was at uni I just climbed. Obviously I physically couldn't do this every waking minute so lots of time was spent watching shit on TV. Life was good.
Then I got a job and lost all my dicking about time and hardly climbed at all. Not due to lack of time but because by the time I was home from work I couldn't be arsed. Not so good.
Then I left work, but did something that was all-consuming (and still is) and hardly climbed because I was always thinking about this other huge thing I had to do (even though it's something that will take years, it just become such a dominant force in my life). Better than having a job, but still not the right balance...
Then I had a baby (well not me personally but I am now the owner of a baby) and I pretty much stopped climbing for a few months. I was still doing the all-consuming thing. Life balance just off the wrong end of the scale...
Then my wife got made redundant so I had to go back to work. So I'm now self employed so have the stress of inconsistent income, I am the only bread winner so have to pay the bills, feed the dog, clothe the missus etc etc, I am still a dad of a young child and I am still doing the all consuming thing but I am also climbing more than I have since uni. I'm still shit mind. Wierdly good work life balance, if a little short on sitting on my arse time...

For me there were two factors in this:
1) I reached the point were my life was nothing but doing 'chores' and couldn't carry on like that, I needed a vent. Previously I thought I was busy and had no time but I just didn't realise what busy really was.
2) Somebody gave me the impetus to climb by being keen and wanting to get out whenever possible whilst still understanding the whole job/family thing as they were in the same boat (and I'm not going to be all schmaltzy and name-check you GCW so no need to get all embaressed)...

I guess what I'm saying is break the downward spiral somehow and you will be amazed at the extra time to do things you can find (especially if you don't watch telly, drink or waste time on the internet ) and how just fairly small adjustments in how you work things can change your happiness.

Failing that take drugs, lots of drugs.....

[Mike Tyson]

Wow, I didn't expect such a resonse, I'm gobsmacked.

There's a lot of very kind and helpful advice from people, thank you very much. I'm gonna break with my usual routine and actually go to bed early tonight (Well, early by my usual standards) but I fully intend to respond to everyone tomorrow.

Thanks again though.

[GCW]

If it's of any use, you drink half what hOUD and I drink.
But yeah, a lot of people have been in your position.
As D:Ream said, things can only get better (sorry).

And think of what you have got.  Children are a huge commitment and challenge and change your life.  But they are very rewarding, like nothing else.

[Joepicalli]

Keep only the skankiest spirits in the house, for example, a selection of herb liquors, Czech slivovice (sp?) and schnapps; stuff that's tough to drink and enjoy on it's own.  (Seems weird, but it works for me).

This actually, looks like a an invitation to to start designing  potentially lethal (and lucrative) cocktails out of the contents of your mittal european drinks cabinet.
Please post the results (remember to dismember and bury the recipients of failed combinations).
AND REMEMBER KIDS WOOD ALCOHOL LEADS TO IMPOTENCE AND BLINDNESS and should never be included in a cocktail recipe (except in tiny quantities  to substitute for a lack of good pharmaceuticals).

[Houdini]

If it's of any use, you drink half what hOUD and I drink.

Rumbled . . . 

Just had 3 dry days and shared a bottle of wine last night.  Last week was half-dry / half-wine-y (a shared bottle w/ food; all very civilised, no arm-wrestling).

I think you know you have a problem when you start drinking weird shit from the drinks cabinet when you're out of your favourite tipple.  I've just checked: full bottles of Aguardiente, Ramazotti, Unicum (!) and half of Ameretto (for tiramisu).  Yum yum.  Not.

The downside is that we're all labelled filthy shoplifting alcoholics now.   No sign of Slopes or Yoss either - I'll check the park benches   


   

 

[Houdini]

*weird feeling*

Oh, an unusual moment of clarity:



Being a vain body-fascist vegetarian w/ bizarre training rituals & running a marathon a week on 3 or 4L of water/herb tea a day really helps keeps the gut trim.

[lagerstarfish]

I fully intend to respond to everyone tomorrow.

Not individually, I hope, or you really won't have any spare time.

[nik at work]

Houd
We had some Unicum. For fucks sake don't try and drink it, horrible horrible stuff.

We used it to clean our dining table. I say clean I mean we used it as the accelerant when we decided the dining table was beyond cleaning and only good for burning....

[Houdini]

There is a Hungarian side to my adoptive Euro family.  I'm given Unicum regularly.  Ice cold on the rocks:  mingin'.  Pretty good for getting merry on but gives me wind.