To ask what you do on nights when you don't have a glass of wine

My OH works in the wine industry so we have (very good!) wine in the house all the time.
I have cut down massively, and basically live off squash. In the evenings, I’ll have a peppermint tea which helps me unwind before bed.
I heard that if you can make it to 7pm without having a drink, then you’ll unlikely want to drink after. I was finding I was having an alcoholic drink around 5:30pm straight in from work most nights but if I didn’t bother, I usually managed to abstain for the whole evening. Wine really helps me relax, and definitely relate to the dopamine hit.

I discovered 0% beer a few years ago and it's been a game changer for me. This Christmas I also discovered 0% Guinness which is enjoyable to drink in its own right. Non alcoholic gin and tonic is nice too. In answer to your question about replacing a glass of wine specifically - i sometimes have a single alcoholic drink e.g. a sherry or g&t and have that with my food along with water, then move on to tea or coffee - so not 0 alcohol but there's no bottle open so no temptation to have a second glass or see the semi drunk bottle the next night and think, better not waste that!

That sounds perfect relationship with alcohol, that you can take it or leave it

Alcohol is inflammatory and incredibly damaging to the gut microbiome. Don’t kid yourself.

If you dont mind me asking, which app is it?

I like a nice herbal tea when I am watching TV in the evening, or if it's to replace a drink with dinner I'll have a grown up soft drink (0% alcohol Prosecco, aqualibre sparkling water or a non-alcoholic beer are my favourites). I've found that cutting out alcohol has significantly helped reduce my anxiety and low mood. Whilst I also got a dopamine hit with that first glass, it turns out that overall my mental health is negatively impacted by even small amounts of alcohol.

If you like having a glass in your hand try 0% alcohol wine. I like Macguigans personally. However, it's rare that I have a glass of wine anyway. Hot chocolate works well, or sparkling water with squash in. I find things like knitting, sewing or playing games on my phone keeps my hands occupied.

I only drink at the weekend and not all the time. I have a bit more over the Christmas period but I think that’s normal.

in the week most evenings after work I either go for a run and then have a bath and have a late tea. Or I have an early tea and then go to the gym or another hobby. Drinking doesn’t even cross my mind on these sorts of evenings. About once a fortnight I meet a friend for dinner and may or may not have a drink with that.

I don’t tend to replace alcohol with anything specific and if I want a drink I’ll have one and if I don’t I won’t.

That's interesting about the lemon balm! I have tons in my garden in summer so may harvest some!

Sounds like more of a psychological comfort. Perhaps a nice 0 gin - Stryke or similar and tonic with ice. Still get the 'and relax' feeling.

I drink about two glasses of wine a year.

I eat biscuits or chocolate every evening while reading or watching tv. Not sure which way round is worse to be honest!

We don't drink during week and I barely drink at weekends.
Just bimble about doing hobbies, Netflix, dogs, bath

Like others on here, I don't really drink much but neither does my husband.
We both have jobs where we need to be on the ball so we don't drink anything in the week unless we are on holiday.
Weekends are so busy that we often don't drink much then either.
Confectionery on the other hand.. If there is anything with any sugar in it then it is gone.

We only have wine on a Friday and Saturday evening so through the week I tend to drink decaf tea and water in the evenings. We've had a glass or 2 of wine most evenings since Christmas Eve cos 'it's Christmas/we're on holiday' but to be honest I'm fed up of it now and can't wait to get back into a routine.

We fast twice a week. DH has water, I have white tea. (No milk or sugar as that would break the fast.)

@HumanbyDesign that sounds wonderful. I've been having the ginger shots from Lidl so a homemade version would be nice to try.

This just popped up in active so thought I'd share my wine-swap, which is homemade ginger and turmeric shot - like the ones you can buy in the supermarket except I make it myself: couple of thumbs of ginger (no need to peel), heaped teaspoon of turmeric, couple of squeezed lemons and about 1 cup water in the blender/nutribullet then strain and top up with about ½litre cloudy apple juice.

Nice to have while making dinner instead of that glass of wine! You can mess around with the ratios but basically it's Got a real kick that's reminiscent of strong booze 😋😁

….source? Sorry but I call bullshit.
Sweeteners are no good for you either!!

I am French and this is not true AT ALL. At the table far more water is consumed than wine. People might have ONE glass with food and definitely not every night. And people would never just flop onto the sofa with a glass of wine and nothing else. There’s always food involved and it’s consumed at a table. The British attitude is VERY wrong.
In the evenings my eldest (who’s 6) isn’t asleep until 9 so there’s not even a lot of time to do as you describe. I drink water with my meals/don’t drink alcohol in the week. Once the eldest is in bed, I have a herbal tea and a chunk of dark chocolate, read a bit and then go to bed by 10 (youngest is still awake at least twice a night and I have an early start for work so no choice really).

I used to be like this, pre dc. I'm now happy to go all week without drinking and I'll likely manage dry January quite easily. I just keep myself busy so I don't even give it a second thought. I like swimming too (exercise provides dopamine hit too!) If you like alcohol to relax you, you could try substituting alcohol with a CBD drink. Trip do some nice flavours.

Me too.
I did find that without something in my hands, I'd eat mindlessly. So now I knit/crochet/embroider you can't do those with mucky fingers and whilst that all sounds a bit "old biddy" they're actually hobbies that are right on trend now with some gorgeous thing to be made!

Wine every night will not help with your anxiety and low mood it will make it worse.
I have a can on Pepsi Max or flavoured water

Surely you do what you normally do, just without a glass of wine? Whether that's watching tv, reading, hobbies/crafts etc.