Discussion
Got my ass straight man handled tonight and I don't drink. So im going to devour 2 poptart-ice cream sandwiches, inhale a half gallon of nicotine, and go back tomorrow. Any other sober cooks out there? Why do we still do this?
What's your addiction transfer /behavioral displacement/substitute dependence?
not really sober but trying to avoid the habit of alcohol to cope with work. just got out and i’m on my way home to absolutely house a huge plate of stir fry and watch king of the hill. and probably fall asleep on the couch. congrats on the sobriety 🫡
i actually just finished the new season with my girlfriend and we decided to do a whole rewatch because man king of the hill rocks. loved seeing bobby as a cook, some of the episodes kind of blow but i enjoyed most of it
lmao I tried cutting caffeine a while back and got these little squirt-in flavor things as a substitute for soda/energy drinks. I thought I was doing great until i found out they were caffeinated and I actually upped my dose.
Orange juice. It's packed with enough sugar it made quite the replacement for Coca-Cola while I cut back. Used to drink 4 liters a day now in down to 1 liter every 2 days including at work lol. Simply made has an orange pineapple juice that's absolutely delicious.
The issue is I used to be a fatass and in the process of not being a fatass I stopped drinking calories so I can still eat a bit like a hog.
I've moved to just hot tea/coffee with nothing else in it. Its tasty and I tend not to drink too much of it by only drinking hot. I'm good with caffine as it is. I'm not out here trying to be a total teetotaler
That's fair. I was cutting back caffeine due to already having several sleep issues. Clinical Insomnia, restless leg syndrome, obstructive sleep apnea ADHD and anxiety all working against sleep. Adding 4 liters of Coca-Cola a day was not helping lol.
Caffeine is a form of treatment for ADHD, but I have to meter my dosage and stop at tea time. If you have other treatments for ADHD they may interact and cause sleeping problems
I'm honestly only doing it because I'm visiting my parents soon and they really don't like me drinking energy drinks. I can have any other form of caffeine around them.
10 dollars a shift sounds rough, haha I joke. I smoke a lot more now that I don't drink, I also eat a lot of candy and bullshit like your pop tart masterpiece. I'm a general manager and man sometimes I'm ready to go home and kill a bottle, those nights I walk and get tacos with some music on.
Not who you’re asking but the more I try to sober the more I specifically Nerds Gummy Clusters. I swear discovering those things might be the one thing that works as a substitute.
My biggest thing is alcohol and nicotine both insist on the other as a plus one, and they don’t get a long with appetite which makes weed sad.
weed is my off button. a couple of puffs and I'm chugging water, hide the vape from my morning self, and on my way to bed if I don't just pass out on the couch.
yeah lol. sometimes it does keep me up til 2am as well.. but a sobering late night. Not getting all fucked up. But then the weed hangovers.. damned if you do, or don't.
I wouldn’t be shocked because I was just sorta out on candy. Younger coworker let me try some and I was just like fuck I need to stay away. Eventually bought a pack, made it last a couple days but just kept going back to it like a few minutes after I put it down.
Let my 68 year old mum try one, she’s hooked too now and I when I come over she’ll often ask if I have any on me lmao
Being a cook and going sober is the first step to community college to get that degree you fucked off to party with the cute waitresses that ultimately never stuck around anyway. The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step
This is so true. I was a cook for 10 years. Left that to go work in a warehouse (which wasn't exactly an improvement). Then got a job installing internet. All the while trying to take college classes. Finally got a bs call center job with an employer that would pay for my school. Worked my way up. Finally got a job in IT project management for the same employer and almost done with my degree. Keep your heads up and keep at it. Eventually you will get out of the restaurant trap if that's your goal.
No idea- I’ve only ever worked in Food service (boh) since I was 15 (30 now). I’m almost 1 year sober and just trying to finish my degree after dropping out like 7 or 8 years ago.
Edit: I will say, before pandemic I heard the spiel “this industry is one where anyone can get a job quickly and survive”- now after pandemic I don’t know if that’s still true. I will say that I don’t plan on continuing my major in English literature and philosophy, because it was an idealistic choice not really made on availability of positions in that degree. Might be time for me to sell out and study something more employable.
My Son quit after 18 years. went part time to Community college. after a year was able to get hired as a Paraeducator. ( Assistant Teacher ?) He was so burnt out ! Teaching 6 year olds to read is a much happier experience :)
We do it cause it’s what we know and the bills gotta get paid.
Kudos to you keeping it sober. Booze and drugs have been the downfall for too many of our brothers and sisters.
My husband is 4 months sober, and is constantly downing sparkling water to replace the booze. He occasionally worries about the cost of buying that much of it, and I just tell him it’s cheaper than booze, dialysis, and divorce.
To all of you who have gotten or are working on getting sober despite the incredibly high stress and substance using culture of restaurant work, I promise the people who love you are so proud of you and so grateful.
I smoke weed about it, don't really drink anymore, but it sounds like you don't even do that. I did over the last month start jogging again. I feel calmer honestly. If you're physically capable of it, try it out. Or just join a gym or something.
You're still gonna scream in your own mind while doing it, but feels like the angry thoughts and frustrations drain a bit.
Your not alone, 3+ years sober here, all while cooking. I still do it, because there is nothing legal I know how to do that makes as good of money at this point. And I also unfortunately kinda love it. And I’m still a fiend for nicotine, caffeine and sugar.
Raw dog things. No nicotine, alcohol, drugs. Do drink caffeine every so often.
I take a good healthy bitch and vent and sometimes angry clean my house.
My much older coworker who's been in the game all his life drives me home and lets me get it all out, I'm sure partly because he'd hate for me to quit.
Then I go home to my really chill husband and make dinner.
I also just work at a decent place, so that helps.
Sober server here, but Cali sober. I love it. I've gotten out of the industry more times than I can count but always find my way back to you sweet, demented fucks.
This one was iced cinnamon roll pop tarts with a salted pretzel crunch ice cream. I try different combos. This one slaps. Another good one is cherry pop tarts with Cherry Garcia ben n Jerry's.
I’m sober at work if that counts. But we do it because we hate ourselves. We bond through trauma and don’t want someone else who can’t handle it do the work.
Same sugar n nicotine. Plus caffeine and video games. Work too, though. The kitchen work can be one hell of a dopamine kick. Or the stress can knock off the wagon. Just gotta git gud.
Ngl, when I was cutting back the beer, I was addicted to watermelon and pineapple with tajin. Love that sweet, sour, spicy, burning, all around sense destroying bowl of delight.
I would always just house a pint of ice cream and drink maybe 4-5 seltzers. The seltzers made me feel like I was drinking something more than just water and helped with the feeling of missing out on drinking alcohol. The ice cream was to ease the pain
Yeah I quit both nicotine and alcohol 5 years ago, not going back to any of those so soon... also quit working on any high volume kitchen after it and am now selling frozen fitness meals of my own doing, so it's easier on the addiction.
I was a California sober cook for my entire cooking career. I didn’t abstain, but drinking was few and far between, and only for parties or what have you. I think I got by on pure bottled rage (and a lot of weed).
Now that I’m not a cook? Every day ends with a cold beer or three or four.
I don’t drink or smoke much anymore, and when I did it would just be gatherings or parties. Never smoked cigarettes, neither.
My vice is pictured here: sugar. And video games, I guess. I’ve paid for it with my teeth and weight. I was loosing weight before Covid but then the restaurant closed and classes stopped (in and out of college for 10 years) so I started eating unhealthy again and gained it back.
For god sakes people don’t be me and go to fuckin dentist. Even if you don’t have insurance because that shits a joke anyway. Don’t be like me unable to sleep because you want to rip your teeth out of your skull.
I hadn’t cook in years, but now working in a hospital kitchen over five years sober my addiction transferred is simple a Mexican Coke with a bean and cheese burrito and chips and LOTS OF LOTS OF HOT SAUCE 🥵
If you need a drink or bump to get through the shift this isn’t the line of work for you. Way too many here glorify that shit like it’s something to be proud of.
No, the question is why you do it sober when weed exists. It's not bad for you. it helps with cancer. And will make that sandwich 100000000 time a better. Sober life is for boomers and back. In todays society weeds the new cigarette
Semi sober. I drink maybe once a month at this point but I'm more at the bar for the karaoke lol. The reason I say semi is this time last year it was every single night. Other than that weed to deal with the chronic back pain I've had for the last 11 years and my several sleeping issues lol. Also atleast 1 fun trip every 2 months.
Got sober before I became a.cook. Mostly a jack of all trades, master of none. But, cooking has been a passion.
Craving carbs and sugar, take away alcohol, it was a major source of our calories, carbs and sugar. Back in Bill and Bob's day they really didn't understand that stuff. But, they saw the craving happening. They told people to always have hard candy on them for when the cravings hit. Something similar happens when you try and quit cigarettes, because the tobacco is cured in sugar.
Hope this helps the sugar and carbs cravings.
The worst of days isn’t half as bad when you don’t drink the night before and get a good nights sleep. Bonus points if you eat a decent breakfast before work too.
9 months (again) today. I realized I want to do this as long as I can and the only way is sober. Good luck out there. Just waking up for the coffee now and the cigarettes after sunset.
Are you building those correctly? I'd either have both poptarts with the icing facing in or at least he bottom one facing in. Having the icing facing down on the bottom it may crumble off you're trying to bite it or put it on a plate.
Not a cook but been a GM for a while. I have a chair that sits in the yard, I go straight out there alone and hang out for an hour or so after work. I smoke weed and read most of the time, you can have a pop tart and do whatever. In the winter time I do it in my car. It’s a good way to decompress and recharge before going in and dealing with the animals and things.
I'm not sober, but I got myself out of the habit of drinking during the work week.
This is gonna sound gross depending on your tastes but I bought a jar of pickled pork skins from the local Mexican corner store and those babies doused in Valentina hot sauce over a tostada or a plain saltine REALLY take the edge off when I have a particularly horrid day. 🥒🐽
3 years sober. I'm currently in the process of making the switch to institutional work, largely because I don't have coping mechanisms for the stress, hours, and fucked up dumb shit that comes with restaurants. I want to live like a real fucking adult – do things in the evening with friends (that aren't going to a bar and trying to get obliterated in the three hour gap between me getting off and the bar closing). I want benefits. My shit hurts, and I need to see a real doctor. My teeth are fucked, I need dental.
I moved to a deep blue state. We have an aging population and lots of poverty/addiction adjacent social services. The future of good food in the face of climate change and wealth inequality is feeding the people who need to be fed.
I'm sick to my fucking toenails of staying late to feed the owner's cousin's friends' 12 top that sat 5 minutes to close. I'm tired of the lack of real willpower and the "just hanging on" of high volume restaurant work. It's grueling, the pay sucks ass, and benefits are hard to come by.
So, to answer your question, OP, I'm not doing it anymore. I'm turning 30 this year, and I don't have the patience or energy for the petite bourgeois bullshit that goes into restaurant work. I'm optimistic, though. I think the future of our industry/skillset will be rewarding. Our work is not easily replaced by AI/robots, and social services expansion will open up many new avenues for employment.
Im a sober cook. Tbh, I prolly would be out of a job now had i continued. I have regrets about it. I was worried that I'd find it impossible with how busy we are but its actually been a breeze
I think we eat the word shit we do mostly because it's a way to get our creative side out. Does it taste good? Maybe. Nothing like downing five pounds of sugar or loads of fat and grease to define what "tasty" is though.
I also eat my feelings after a rough shift. I usually go for carbs. Mac N chz, spaghetti, pizza, or maybe some burgers if I get off work before they close.
I’m a food addict (a 400lbs one) so I actually just started smoking pot to curb my junk food habit. Idk if it’ll be successful but insurance won’t cover anything weight loss related.
Well my thinking - and I'm pretty sure most folks would agree - is that "marijuana consumption" makes food more enjoyable, sometimes exponentially. So I would imagine that it is actually going to make your problem much worse.
Off the hard stuff and alcohol, so I do many weed pen hits and take a handful of Kratom...so, still drugs... just I'll be asleep at a regular hour and fully rested and ready to get crushed again
pepsi max is my vice now, or going a run to destress. i don’t drink, smoke, or even work in kitchens anymore tho so i try to lead a very calm life otherwise i’d probably feel the need for alcohol more often
Buy into a culture or friend group that supports your choices and work in a place that tolerates a place you survive. Candy calories are not the answer unless you want diabetes.
Also, I'm not here to pontificate. This is where I'd paste in Aaron Arkaway the sleepy dude from Sopranos.
I hear you. It's not an every night thing. Just a weird craving I had after work. I think im gonna try some healthier shit tbh. & I have no idea what that last sentence means.
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u/eraserhedbaby 13d ago
not really sober but trying to avoid the habit of alcohol to cope with work. just got out and i’m on my way home to absolutely house a huge plate of stir fry and watch king of the hill. and probably fall asleep on the couch. congrats on the sobriety 🫡