Bornagain and all the good soldiers of Great Britainshire!!
Daughter deposited at dance, £2.65 deposited into the till at Costa, wages deposited into the bank yesterday, final deposits paid on Disney and for an October break..............all courtesy of no deposits made to a bookmakers. Life is good!!
Lady Baggins of Englandshire.........the world will bow at your feet a week on Monday.........and we will reserve the largest of Woop Woops for our challenge Queen........Phil will keep me right here........but I believe that you will be the First Lady soldier to be crowned with the 1 Year award!! You're amazing!!!
1 year, 1 month, 1 week, 1day........doesn't matter the suffix to be honest........as long as what follows says "free from gambling" then you are winning.
Stay strong troops, squeeze your loved ones that wee bit harder and love what you see in the mirror.
Until next week!!
Mr Brightside
Afternoon everyone, checking in 95 days gambling free. The century is in sight.
Best wishes to all fellow soldiers.
Afternoon all!
Checking in for this week.....hit the 11 month mark this week which is unbelievable from where I was.
Have a great week everyone.
Checking in 7 days now 🙂 Fridays are normally bad for me but wasn't tempted even after an argument with my daughter. I've been on my own a lot this week due to the flu and haven't once been tempted. Thanks Phil for running this site! I honestly believe it will help me more than any other strategy. Next week I'm going to try to eliminate the loneliness in my life. I'm not sure what came first the gambling or the loneliness but they are no doubt linked. I would love to start dating again but I feel that my gambling debts would be off putting for any guy who might be interested in dating me. I have started to edit my manuscript that was pitched to an interested agent six months ago ! Six months gone by with no progress on this possible life changing opportunity because I was too busy being self-loathing and gambling. I want my life back. I want my happiness back. I want to like myself again. Thanks to everyone who offers support. It does help not to feel alone on this challenging journey. Good luck all !
Come on troops there are 11 missing soldiers, get safely checked in for the week, still time to do it!
natangclan for an idea how this works read the front page and have a read through the thread and its easy to pick up, you need to make at least one post a week to stay part of the challenge.
33 days gamble free, anything more than a few days would have been a triumph for me.
I have a good job great family, great friends and am lucky I have managed to hold onto those.
I have lost my marriage to this disease and mistreated everyone I hold dear and love.
I actively tried to push myself into a situation I couldn't get out of without owning up as that was the only way I was going to do it. I am lucky as I have the best folks ever but without them I would have done something more drastic.
I am so up for the challenge and want to enjoy life rather than make every minute a struggle.
Hi all, sorry for the late check in. Busy week. No gambling
I was away yesterday, but I am checking in at day 9! This is a new record for me in 7 years! More than a week and I have had little urges. Thanks for the updates, I hope I can be added to the front page soon!
Checking in on day 346.
brennzky you have been checked in and added to he front page. puppetpower once you have made another post you will be checked in and added to the front page.
Challenge Update Week 9
Intro
Two months down, and ten to go! The two months for me have gone really quickly and there’s a large number of us still going strong with two full months under our belts. For any new soldiers you have ten months now to make the right choices and make 2015 your year. We head into March with 56 active soldiers and sadly 10 missing soldiers. I really hope the missing soldiers are safe and check back in this week.
We have yet more exciting milestones ahead, week in week out its so pleasing to report on the progress we are all making. The money saved tally grows week by week and it really is good to see it growing.
I hope this weekend hasn’t been too testing for anyone, payday weekends can be quite a challenge, but by making the right choices and using all the help on here you can stay strong and enjoy all the rewards that come with recovery.
Coping Mechanisms
I realise we all have problems with different aspects of gambling so this is written from my perspective and my problem is mainly horses. This month brings the Cheltenham festival, and for those soldiers who have a problem with this I thought I would post about how I cope and then ask how you cope.
I used to love Cheltenham, it was the highlight of my year, it’s now a time of year I have to plan for. As an event it’s thrilling, exhilarating, unpredictable and used to give me such a buzz when I picked a winner. These sort of events bring danger for me and no doubt many others. It’s going to be all over the tv, press, internet and work/pub conversation. For as much as I enjoyed Cheltenham I have to look back and think what happened and again it was the same old story, I had my good days when I won big, but I always gave it back later that day on the dogs or on the following days horses. So deep down we all know it’s just not worth it. We can’t win because we can’t ever stop!
So how will we cope? That one harmless bet at Cheltenham is never harmless for us, it will lead to pain and open the floodgates to many more bets. So for me my coping mechanism will be total avoidance of the festival. I will have the remote control close and everytime something comes on the tv about it I will very quickly turn over. I will stop listening to talk sport the week before and during the festival. I won’t read a newspaper and I will avoid making eye contact with any papers I see in shops etc. I will be wary of what sports websites I view because seeing an old favourite horses name could bring with it that urge. I will have to avoid certain people in work and locally too. As well as this my mum has all my money and would grill me if I asked for a large amount. Finally I just don’t want to bet, I’m enjoying recovery a lot more than I would enjoy Cheltenham!
So how will my troops cope? For those of you who punted on the horses maybe it’s time to now think about how you will cope that week, I don’t want anyone slipping up at what will be a very difficult time! I would love some feedback about how you plan to deal with Cheltenham week.
Missing Soldiers
I hope you are all safe, please check back in blue in the red, Del79, LEST-WE-FORGET, insanity, willz82, mrdaniel1, damagedone, james229, Freshman247 and jameswoods99.
Milestones In The Coming Week
Baggins brings up her full calendar year on Monday, I’m so proud of you Joanna, you were such an inspirational poster on the 2014 challenge and it’s so pleasing to see how much your life has changed in the year!!!
delboygolf hits 50 weeks on Thursday, big congratulations and the year is now just around the corner, keep it up!!!
wolf57 brings up 9 months on Thursday, top form Cliff, well done!!!
Lollypoplol will have gone 6 months gamble free this time next week, congratulations pal!!!
mba smashes through 20 weeks next Sunday, 140 days is top stuff!!!
elchipper is a centurian on Thursday as is Glads Dad on Tuesday. Hitting that century is such a good feeling, enjoy a drink to celebrate!!!
boxingday1, sonic boom and Jm24 all bring up ten weeks in the coming week, well done troops, the century is close now!!!
IcanDoThis2015 and MrStop hit 50 days this coming week, it’s an important first milestone, well done troops!!!
Roll of Honour/ Days Gamble Free!
That’s a pretty impressive list of days gamble free, I look forward to seeing the numbers get even higher for all of us as the year goes by. Now onto the most important figure. Based on an average loss of 50 pounds per day we have now collectively save a grand total of…………………………..£175000……………….. absolutely top work troops!!!
Summing up
February has come and gone, payday has gone and we go into March 56 strong and celebrating baggins 365 days gamble free. The first female to go a year gamble free on the challenge. If you speak to anyone off here who has achieved a full year gamble free they will tell you just how much their life has improved. If you go back to my first update you can read two soldiers stories of how life has improved. It’s in our hands, recovery is a gift and with it we all have a new start, a new lease of life. *** this gift, stay strong, no bets this week!!!
Don’t forget the telephone list you can get by contacting [email protected] or the weekly chatroom on a Wednesday night. If you have any feedback let me know. Have a good week troops.
Phil
Great post Phil sorry to say I'm not on 28 days now just day 8 after me messing up thanks again for this challenge it is uplifting and inspirational seeing so many doing so well and alot of much needed techniques to try x
Checking In - Day 262
Great update Phil.
Let Cheltenham come and go everyone. We know the risks in advance. Stay strong & don't give your hard earned cash to the bookies. We are the winners this year. Suzy
Day 91 checking in
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