No Booze November

[FannyFernackerpan]

This thread is for those of us on the Sober October thread who have decided to continue on, plus anyone else who would like to join us.

1st November coming up on Sunday - a good day to start!

Day 1 again here - glad to read everyone’s doing ok though

Another booze free Friday.

Hope everyone is doing ok.

All good here, had a becks blue, this is getting easier. Especially when I think I'm now on day 37, it would seem a shame to have to start again at day 1. What's everyone else drinking?

I'm not a beer drinker anyway (don't like the taste), so makes no point me drinking alcohol free beer.

Tried alcohol free red wine once and it was vile.

So I'm not really bothering with any substitutes at the moment, just tea really. I've had a couple of cups of green tea this evening and that's it.

I just had fizzy water. Not sure if I want a "replacement" as such. Spent the afternoon with my daughter in A&E and I usually would have rewarded any stressful situation with wine, but I almost feel like I'm relieved not be thinking about it. I'm sure I'll get bored with this feeling of relief and at that point it will probably be a struggle. Well done everyone else 😀

@FannyFernackerpan

Another booze free Friday.

Hope everyone is doing ok.

For a ‘support’ thread this post is pretty insensitive and dismissive! Do you bother to read many of the other posts @FannyFernackerpan? Stupendously insensitive and un-empathetic.

Seastate, I'm not sure if you may have meant me rather than Fanny's post, where I said about starting at day 1 being a shame. If you did I am sorry, I followed a notification back to the thread from email and you're right I didn't scroll enough, I thought there was only one update and was just checking in. I hope you stay with us, every AF night is an achievement. Keep going.

I had the Aldi 0% sparkling white wine. Can report its just fizzy apple juice!

I have another bottle as it only cost 2 quid but won't get it again. Though there is a Rosé version I may try. The search continues. Must do more research.

Still, felt good to just be able to "join in" with DH who was having red wine.

It's now Day 7 for me and its been a really good week. Work has been very busy and I'm much less knackered than I normally would be at the end of a week. It's definitely because I haven't been hungover.

Downside: am eating more. But fuck it, its the lesser of two evils! And its just part of the transition.

What has been very encouraging is that I've managed pretty easily, knowing I have 0% substitutes. I reckon it's definitely more psychological than chemical with me, if that makes sense.

I bought a bottle of 0% sparkling wine from m&s for last night but didn't even open it! So that's 2 days dry for me - more impressive than it sounds as it includes a Friday which is normally the night I drink.

Hi all, how's Saturday going? My dh tried a new AF beer, moretti zero, it is truly awful, really fruity. So we're sticking with the becks blue, got my dm drinking it now too, she saw it in my shopping and wanted to try it. She's a 'sherry at Xmas drinker' so hopefully I won't start leading her off the rails! I'm still reading the unexpected joy of being sober and more bits are ringing true. She talks about the addictive voice talking, sometimes known as the wine witch and how the voice gets less persuasive the longer it's denied alcohol. I really notice this, the first few days going AF feels the huge effort but I have less intrusive thoughts about alcohol as time passes and they're more easily ignored too.

I've had 2 glasses of the 0% sparkling wine - nice enough, if you want fizzy grape juice! I'm now having a 0% San Miguel which is basically identical to the normal beer. Who knew!

@westr that's interesting to know about San Miguel I'll give it a go and steer clear of the Moretti @Hohofortherobbers!

Early dinner and Killing Eve here. Nothing exciting to report. I have not told anyone that I'm not drinking for a month. Not sure why, but I just want to quietly get on with it and don't want to tempt fate. If I start talking about then I'll start thinking about it, and maybe feel like I'm missing out, whereas at the moment I'm feeling quite in tune with the positives of being booze free for a while 😀

Well done everyone on navigating a sober weekend so far. Day 3 here and not really difficult. My problem is impulse control! What I find is I have no conscious desire to drink, but then I will be in the supermarket and find myself skipping towards the wine aisle having, minutes before, been thinking, “I’ll never drink again”...nightmare

Agree Becks Blue 0% is really good. Haven’t tried the Moretti 0% but will now avoid! Heineken 0% is very good also. Have yet to find a decent alcohol free wine - I think I read recently that Waitrose do a very good alcohol free rose - costs about £6...am kind of excited about alcohol free Guinness! I do like Guinness in winter...

I'm still going. Am finding that in the evening when I'm doing dinner or something I do really crave a nice glass of wine. If I had some in then I would definitely succumb, but it soon passes and when I wake up in the morning I'm so pleased I haven't given in. DH has got lager in and I thought about that but weighed it up and easily decided firmly against it. I was tempted to get some wine last night but I always let the kids stay up to watch Strictly and I'm determined they won't see me drinking at home anymore, so that would put it at about half nine before I opened the bottle and that just seemed silly. Went to bed at 10pm with a mint tea and a good book!

Well done all! Can anyone recommend helpful podcasts? There are so many out there!

Hi all, I am on day 7!

Since the first lockdown (I'm in Scotland) I have drank faaaar too much wine. I recently looked over my incomings/outgoings and the amount I spend not just on wine but the inevitable takeaways afterwards was horrifying. I have no off switch, I can't just have a glass and stop, I have to finish the bottle then my distorted thinking will have me go out to get another without too much thought.

I'm single and live alone so really only have myself to hold me accountable - and that's not good! Also due to the aforementioned single-ness meeting up with my also single friends just revolves around wine, and it's usually me funding it. I also have hidden social anxiety so there's been many many nights down the pub where leaving/get to home is hazy. I get the fear, it affects my anxiety and although I don't act outrageously, has probably ruined a few dates as I'm not being my actual true self.

I've downloaded the I am sober ap but would be interested in any podcasts or the elusive decent tasting 0% fizz or wine!

I also need to lose a stone at least and it's impossible when I'm drinking wine. All the weight is around my middle, a proper wine waist.

I'm not so convinced that finding no alcohol wine and beer is a great alternative. It's basically telling yourself that you're missing out on something and that you need to find a substitute. My approach is to find actual alternatives that I like. So hot chocolate or a herbal tea for relaxing and cosying in at night. In summer I want to experiment with some refreshing fruit cocktails or mixing sparkling water with stuff. For me with wine especially I do like the taste but it's also the signal that I'm going to get a bit fuzzy and 'relaxed'. So even if they could actually make a NA wine that actually taated nice it woulsnt have the same draw because the associated feeling wouldn't be there IYSWIM. (I've been here since the Oct thread btw. Have just finally managed to assign myself an actual name rather that User(number).

Hi @supercee I'm newish on here too 👋🏻

@SarcasticIntrovert I'm in complete agreement with you. I'm not sure that I want to go out of my way to find some that tastes like alcohol but isn't. It would only make me think about booze more. My husband doesn't drink much at all so I'm not tempted by him. The other think is that I use a vape and find that, like with cigarettes, the two go hand in hand. So now I'm leaving my vape at work do that in the evenings I don't use it at all 😀

I think part of it is that I don't like herbal teas or fizztly drinks. I don't drink squash or coke etc.

I basically drink water, tea or alcohol. So my substitutions are limited. I drink tea most nights obviously, but if I want an alternative that isn't water, then it's 0% beer or nothing really.

Wish I was a fruity herbal tea person! But absolutely loathe fruity drinks!

Must admit I only really like mint tea. I've got a fruity tetley tea at the moment and it's okay but would probably be better cold.

I'm drinking a lot of lemon squash! For me, the real impetus for this dry lockdown is to kick smoking. So am on day 4 of no booze and no cigarettes.

I e managed the whole weekend with no booze the only time an it was Friday night 😀 I'm cutting out sweet stuff too and I've felt low on energy.