2014 Challenge

Well my weekly check, all good here and keeping going. I think it is around the 70 ish day for me, last day of gambling was 29th Dec. Hope all is going well with everyone 🙂

Keep fighting the good fight!

Just checking in on day 13.good to see everyone doing so well and new people joining the team! Strength in numbers! Reading this thread and being part of the team is so motivating and is helping me so much.have a great weekend everyone!

Hey guys/girls :o)

Hope you are all very well!.. Sorry I have been a little quiet but i've been busy last coupld of days.. Will write in my diary tonight :o)

Just a wee check in so must dash!

Ps i've made it over a week! Day 8 today :o)

Stay strong all!

Much love B x

Checking in have had technical problems but resolved now. Have booked the Florida holiday. Buying dollars on a monthly basis ready for the expense. No spare cash equals no gambling and no increased debts. Happy days x

Up to day 10 for me 🙂 Made it to 12 days before a relapse last time so am hoping I don't slip up again this time.

Sorry - I gave in this week to a bet, lost as usual but my now Day 2:( Well I got to Day 65 last week.

Lost some money (of course) but immediately closed and self excluded so no chasing losses this time, so improvement there compared to past.

Good morning all. Checking in today on 87 days bet free. Had a good day watching England on Wed and after a few/lots of beers during the day, mates talking about betting etc, plus the vast amount of betting opportunities around, I didn't give in.

Lostafortune,It takes a lot of courage to admit to others that you have had a minor blip in your recovery. Remember that you have managed to stay off for a considerable length of time in the past (65 days) and take some motivation from that. Try and focus what you have managed and people on this forum will continue to support you in your journey.

Hoping everybody in the challenge has a good week.

Mike

Morning everyone,

So T-9 hours before check in deadline and we are missing 4 soldiers and a "re-check in" from a couple of prospective new soldiers too.

I spent a bit of time yesterday posting on diaries of team members who haven't checked in - I typically know when the more seasoned "challengers" check in so don't necessarily get nervous until certain points in the week. I am getting a bit concerned that we might "miss" on leedsv and lec101 - check ins have normally come by now, but not concerned that they have fallen. I won't be posting on recovery diaries from now on reminding of check ins - for as much as I want people to stay strong, my counselling has taught me about who needs to take responsibility for things......I guess I need to hand responsibility to you guys for check ins and not be so desperate for it! 🙂

lostafortune - gutted for you about the slip, but know you'll learn from it, hurt for a while and get right back on it. Just understand what triggered it.....work? home? boredom? money? opportunity? something else or a mixture of the above? Get to the bottom of that and make sure your action planning for stopping protects you the next time the conditions repeat themselves.

So, Mr B, checking in exactly a quarter of year since my last bet.....13 weeks, 91 days. Q2 starts tomorrow!

Until this evening everyone, have a great Sunday!

Mr Brightside

Thanks for the comments Mr B and Happy Days - I will pick myself up as usual and give some thought to possible reasons (apart from my own stupidity). All the best with your challenges...

Day 19

Sorry about the late check in for me Mr. B.

I have been at work all day so have just got in. Things have been relatively good for me this week. I had a day off on Wednesday and made sure I kept busy.

Well done on such a detailed weekly update, it always puts a smile on my face.

Onwards and upwards,

Keep strong everyone.

LG

Hello, hello! Checking in gamble free on Day 90 ( I think!!).

Have been all over the country this week work wise and also setting up a new home...next door...a long story, but I promise to make more effort on the forum when things calm down.

Strength everyone,

Louise

Hi all,

Joined this on the recommendation of Mr B on my recovery diary...

I'm on day 17 now - finding it difficult now I've accepted the money has gone - weakness is horse-racing and what gets me is I genuinely love horses and the sport but now I can no longer enjoy it because it's a terrible trigger and if I so much as watch a race I will get the urge.

Really, really don't want to go down the slippery slope again, I wasn't very pleasant to be around when I was in the midst of addiction, one-word answers and not eating properly, not giving my children the attention they deserved and just generally neglecting the house. Worse still, I had started to notice that my work wasn't up to my usual standard and I was totally disinterested in everything.

So I'm hoping that by knowing I will be letting lots more people down if I relapse it will give me the courage I need to beat this thing.

I have an addictive personality which doesn't help, and am currently in therapy for this.

Can't believe I came to this but I'm here now and must recover for the sake of my family and my health.

Thanks for listening to my blurb.

Laura

Hi team!!

So this is the 10th Sunday of the year which means we’re almost 20% of the way through our team challenge. There’s a lot of success to talk about, a new member, almost another 2 members on top of that, a very late check in (Lou!!!) but also a few dents in our numbers for a couple of reasons 🙁

Before I go onto the headlines, I’m going to change a bit of the administration of the challenge, starting this coming week. I’m going to move the deadline for check in forward by 5 hours to 3 o’clock on the Sunday…………as you can imagine, the updates can take a while and I’m sometimes up pretty late…….not the best way to start my week when I’m then up at 5 for my work!! Hope everyone’s ok with that - the earlier you check in during the week, the easier my job becomes! Thanks!!

So, here are the headlines for this week…………

Starting with the highlights for the team - we started the week with 25 soldiers and only 3 have missed check in…….this means our week on week retention has gone up slightly to 88%. Hats off to the 3 soldiers who were officially added to the team last Sunday…….hog, silverlining and newhorizon71 have all stayed with us this week - superb folks, really well done. We’ll be heading into this week with 24 members in the team who are carrying an average of 61 days clean each and a total consolidated amount of gamble free years of 4.2. Our missing check ins this week and a lapse for one of the team has cost the collective numbers quite a bit - a total of 327 days have been lost from the total which feels a bit sore…….however, really well done to LAF for putting the corrective actions in place to prevent it happening again and for having the courage to come on and share the situation with the team…….proud of you for this soldier! If leedsv and stop check in this week and we have a 100% retention (never been done before, that’s out target team!!) then we will comfortably move through the 5 year mark - that will be something to celebrate - we need to do it for ourselves and for our team…….it is absolutely in our hands!!!

Before moving on to the milestones and players of the week, I’d like to formally introduce and welcome baggins to the team. Baggins is celebrating one week clean from gambling today - welcome mate……..hope this challenge helps you recover from this horror that is gambling.

***Last Minute Check In *** - ToBeOrNot has just checked in - at last!! I’ve been bugging Laura for a couple of weeks now and really thought that this challenge would be really good for her - great first post Laura and welcome to the team!! The asks of being a team member are on the first page of the thread……..I’ve not added your clean days to any of the totals on this update, but they’ll go in next week! Great to have you here Mrs!

Matt_1 and FlyingFox - would be great to have you as part of the team - if you want to join then please post this week and I'll add you next Sunday - number of days clean and how you are doing please!!

Milestones Achieved in this week:-

2012theyear - Congratulations to Craig who successfully became the 6th member of the team to break through the century mark…..100 days and counting, proud of the man!

AmandaG - Amanda has moved into double digits of weeks clean having safely navigated her 10th week free of gambling. Superb Amanda, many congratulations!

Lostafortune and stop were both due to hit milestones this week………but LAF……..that will come, I’m certain of it.

Milestones being celebrated this week………and there’s quite a few!

Monday 10th March - Delboy will celebrate being 30 weeks free from gambling and my buddy Lou (lec101) will be exactly a quarter of a year clean - serious woop woop for both of you!

Tuesday 11th March - the gruesome twosome girls of Linda (Hardtimes) and BabyBlueSky will both hit their quarter of a year mark………13 weeks free from the monster. Absolutely delighted for you both, seriously well done!

Wednesday 12th March - Julie (no maybe) will hit the superb number of 20 weeks clean and will be marching towards the half year! Brilliant strength Julie, so proud of you!

Thursday 13th March - Mike (HappyDays) will share the same milestone as the 3 girls earlier in the week as the big quarter of the year comes around………maybe a Thursday check in for you this week fella? We’ll want to celebrate with you!

Friday 14th March - Strange will hit 50 days of freedom……such a significant number of days Strange - a big victory for the good guys to be proud about!

Sunday 16th March - rst18 will also celebrate 50 days of complete abstinence, but will also hit double digit numbers of weeks being free from the real problem gambling area of online betting - really, really well done mate!

There’s a couple of big milestones the following week too…..keep posted and in the challenge to hear them!

OK, onto the Awards for this Week……………and I’m going to make 2 this week, but incorporate 3 team members……..

Firstly - the exclusive Award for 100+ Day Members goes to Craig (2012theyear). Having moved flat and battled with a couple of personal problems it’s a superb victory for our team mate to have coped with that and still have the strength to make it to the century of days. I’m looking forward to meeting you on Friday Craig so we can raise a few glasses to your ongoing success!!

The last award of the week, Heroes of the Week, goes to two of our team who have shown the guts, the honesty, the tenacity and the downright determination to get back up from a lapse and show a lot of people on this forum that it’s possible to dust yourself down, start again and begin to rack up some great clean numbers. rst18 and Batman, the Heroes of the Week are you guys……P**f your chests out!! I’m thinking that Batman should be the Super Hero of the week - lol! Really well done guys for showing others how it can be done and for being a big part of the team!

Right - here’s the Roll of Honour for this week………..

Name Clean Days

The_Rock 98

Hardtimes 89

lec101 90

babybluesky 89

bornagain 82

Happy Days 87

2012theyear 106

lostafortune 2

No Maybe 137

Mr Brightside 91

rst18 43

Delboy79 209

Redeemed 169

Batman 24

Hitthefan 36

mjpsmummy 11

luckygirl 19

AmandaG 71

Strange 45

Silverlining 9

Hog 13

newhorizon71 14

baggins 7

ToBeOrNot 17

Our missing soldiers are leedsv (last check in 28th February), stop (last check in 24th February) and ram90 (last check in 27th February). Come on folks, you would really help us hit that 5 year mark!!

So, drum roll………total days free of gambling is……….

1541 Days = £154,100 in our pockets………………..£0 in the bookies!!!

That’s the update for this week then everyone and check in for w/c 10th March is now open - all check ins count for next Sunday’s update. I would imagine that there’s a few soldiers dreading this coming week - stay strong, post lots, fill your new lives with amazing things, friends, family, loved ones………you will get through it and be stronger and more determined for it.

Have a good week everyone - 100% retention is the goal……..5 years clean will be the outcome for us if we can do it!!!

Mr Brightside

Hi Mr b and fellow soldiers

Great update and so proud to be part of this challenge with all of you. I have gone to Cheltenham almost every year since I can remember so will be quite weird for me this week but fear not I will not falter and looking forward to not being one of the week's losers x stay strong x

Linda

Mr B, Fantastic effort and commitment shown yet again to produce such a brilliant challenge. Keep up the good work my friend as your efforts are hugely appreciated. Let's hope King Billy can get Forest winning again.

Linda, I share you concerns over Cheltenham next week as I to also went most years. I love the sport but unfortunately I cannot even try and just watch horse racing at this present time. Better to be safe than sorry.

Have a good week everyone.

Mike