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

[Stuffisperplexing]

I have a glass of wine every single night

Just one (or two)

But I think the reliance on it is unhealthy and I'd like to not drink for a bit

It doesn't help that I have anxiety and low mood and wine gives such a nice dopamine rush

It sort of blows my mind that some people don't drink it at all - I'm quite envious of the self reliance

I have a diet soda or water. After dinner will have tea or coffee.

Will any book do, or does it have to be borrowed from the library?

I find it weird when posters get very specific like this.

I don’t have a sweet tooth. You can be a stone overweight just by eating too much healthy food.

I am obsessed with kombucha. I order boxes of it from a company called leftfield. I have also started making my own. I love that it's not sweet. And the leftfield stuff is unflavoured.

Funnily enough I just saw an ad for them

Do you feel it helps your health overall?

@abracadabra1980 just made me really want a glass of wine 😂

I don't drink spirits but do love a nice glass of wine or champagne. I also like the ritual of pouring a nice glass and relaxing over it with dinner.

However age has made me now feel dreadful after one glass so I am doing dry January and hope to continue it into February.

I guess like many things in life we have to exercise discipline. I mean if there were no consequences then I would eat pizza and drink champagne every day - but my vanity wins so I don't.

I can’t drink at all for the foreseeable so I’ve been trying different things. I’m also on a fluid restriction so that’s fun.. However, for a Saturday night I’d have:

Naughty alcohol free sparking wine
Trip CBD drink ( the peach one), maybe some berries and some ice.
Feavertree tonic with bitters

day to day I buy expensive squash
mixed fruit with water
The odd Coke Zero.

After a couple of months of this I’m not really missing it to be honest.

Ah no is it a kidney diet? Hope things resolve for you.

Tonic and bitters sound great

I don't think pizza and champagne are objectively bad are they?? Need a bit of protein in there too.

I hate wine so never drink it anyway. But I don’t really drink at all (maybe half a dozen times a year). I just drink my favourite fizzy drink in the evenings, play my online game, sort the kids out and maybe watch a bit of tv. It doesn’t bother me at all not having an alcoholic drink, and I find it odd that people don’t know what to do if they don’t have one. Surely you just do exactly the same as you’d normally do but with a non-alcoholic drink instead?

Maybe use a wine glass for whatever you are drinking to feel more like normal. Or drink alcohol free wine?

I was doing the same thing and realised it was becoming less a habit and more a need. I found it really hard not drinking anything the first few days, then it was easy. I try and have a stock of nice sparkling drinks in the fridge to drink from a nice glass when I'm cooking. That is when I miss it most! Waitrose sells a really good non-alcoholic mojito. It's not much ilke a mojito but very pleasant and not too sweet.

I know this isnt the point of your thread but I bought a portable bath off Amazon for £140, had it almost 2 years and it's still fantastic. My house doesnt have a bath either and I really missed having one ( my bathroom is tiny so we use it in our ( giant ) kitchen like the olden days 😅

It is sadly, but hopefully not forever! On the upside I’m high dose steroids which seem to be giving me energy I haven’t had in years!

I'd rather a bubble bath. Society's acceptance and casual language around alcohol dependency bothers me massively. I hate that if you have a bad day at work somebody will always tell you to go home and have a glass of wine. If alcohol were invented now it would be a class B drug!
Try gentle exercise, yoga, getting lost in a good book or some other self care that floats your boat and build up to at least two alcohol free nights a week.
You've got this!

I stopped drinking wine at home from September until December & I’ll do it a once I’m back at work. I found drinking ‘posh’ soft drinks, my current favourite is sparkling rhubarb and ginger in a wine glass works. I’ve also got a selection of herbal teas try as well, depending on my mood.
I'm going to download the app someone has mentioned so I can log my non alcohol days.

I do nice fizzy water with cordial OR biscuit tea OR nosecco.

Ironically, I've started going to a pub quiz with friends. It gets me away from vegging on the sofa and, because I have to drive there, it means I can't drink. I usually have lime and lemonade.

@Stuffisperplexing - try a teaspoonful or so of apple cider vinegar (ACV) in water instead of wine with a meal. I find the dryness of ACV really works when you want that kind of flavour- and ACV is meant to be good for you in general too.

For the relaxing quality of alcohol, I quite like some of these new-ish CBD drinks in cans like TRIP.

For G&T type drinks, I recently tried a tsp of marmalade with tonic and a dash of Angostura bitters (which are v alcoholic in themselves, but you literally add a few drops on the top). Or I make up a G&T but just put about a tsp of gin floating on the top. So you get the scent / flavour of gin in the first mouthful but overall not drinking masses of alcohol ...

And as a halfway house - Decem is really good as a 10% gin. Really great if you want something but to limit the alcohol. I've tried some non-alcoholic gins and all pretty uninspiring- really not worth the price. But Decem is great. I think the presence of some alcohol carries all the botanical gin flavours, in a way that all the zero % gins just don't, and once you dilute it with tonic you're at 2.5% alcohol- so pretty low.

And Guinness 0% is really good, if you like Guinness / real ale.

Planning to try Bottivo, but suspect it is pretty similar to my angostura bitters marmalade tonic idea, and it's quite pricey so not sure if worth it.

Has anyone else tried Bottivo?
What did you think?

I love wine. The taste, the ritual, how it signifies relaxation. But I can’t handle the hangovers anymore and want to be healthier. So I’m drinking moderately one weekend night only and having 0 or 0.5% drinks a couple of nights a week. Low/no has improved vastly in recent years. I’m trying a Trip Cbd right now, but not too sure about the taste.

You mean the bath bucket that go on the shower? They are surprisingly ok

Don’t overthink it.
Have some wine, or don’t.
It’s not going to make that much difference in the end.
Thinking or worrying or debating or asking or contemplating is all just time wasted, and we’re a long time in the grave.

So enjoy.

https://bathbucket.nl/products/bath-bucket?variant=46452877459792&country=NL&currency=EUR&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&utm_source=googleads&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=20122039417&utm_term=&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAApmsmW3W90s6XtbTckveaklx69_Vl&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInPftzdvcigMVfJ2DBx1e5h9fEAQYAiABEgK5qfD_BwE

Not even sure these are a thing in the uk they drain into the shower tray..

This is brilliant!! Do you just sit it in the bathroom and fill from the shower?

I drank a glass from a bottle when I was pg with my son (nearly) 6 years ago now…it tasted like apple juice and was horrific. Would be nice to see if there are nice (supermarket) alternatives, that taste like wine…

Crossing fingers for you.