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

Cranberry juice/herbal teas

If a lot of it is the habit of pouring a nice chilled glass & the feeling of sitting down to relax, trying swapping in non alcoholic wine.

Yuk, wouldn't thank you for a glass of wine every night. I drink it occasionally, with a meal, but don't see the appeal of it on its own. Prefer tea or water. I think having it EVERY night is surely not good, and perhaps a habit to be broken.

Kombucha is nice

I only drink a couple a year - or I get sleepy, nauseous and sets off my IBS. DH drinks every day - not sloshed but too much, I worry about his liver tbh. His family are drinkers and MIL thinks I am ‘odd’. I also hate drunks. I stick to decaf coffee, mineral water etc. also found non-alcoholic martini which I mix with Sprite and it’s really nice .

Decaff Americano - I have a couple of coffee machines and will sometimes make a decaff cappuccino or decaf iced coffees in the summer.

We all have our vices though, OP. Some will snack too much, others will drink too much. For me, it’s vaping too much 🤷‍♀️

Yes - I like them. Relaxing and tasty but not overly sweet . Worth trying.

Late to the party!
As others have said, unfortunately menopause and alcohol (even at the one-glass level) just don’t agree for me.

I really like Kombucha and the lovely San Pellegrino waters. TRIP drinks are also lovely and if I feel like pushing the boat out I have a Crudino (which is almost like a lovely Aperol Spritz).

Love "DH is going full on smug dry January" 🤣

My aunt does Dry Feb on the basis that it's a shorter month and Jan is rubbish enough without no alcohol too..

If you find like I did that the 0% gins (even Tanqueray) are not worth the price, I'd recommend trying Decem gin. It's 10% and does actually taste like gin with lovely botanical flavour, which I think probably need some alcohol to carry them. But with tonic it's then only 2.5% so quite a good way of cutting down.

Its advert popped up on my Facebook feed and they've got a website, but not seen it in the shops yet. They do an intro offer of 10 or 20% off sometimes.

I don’t understand what you want from this thread OP. Any attempt to tell you that drinking everyday is fucking awful for you is batted back, it might catch you out one day, those statistics you read about are real people, not just background characters.

But on the other hand many have given the alternatives to living life and not drinking alcohol, but you’ve also sneered at those, so what do you want, to be patted on the back for drinking or advice to cut down, as a few including me thought you were looking for.

OP I think these types of threads really attract the tee-totallers in droves

I know loads of people who have a glass of wine every night & I think if you are not drinking a bottle a night & your weight is healthy then you're probably doing ad well as those who are eating bars of chocolate every night.

I love wine & would happily have a glass several nights a week.

Last year I wanted to lose some weight so I cut out home drinking & decided I would only indulge if there was an occasion such as a birthday meal, a party or a trip away etc

I coupled this with an overhaul of my eating habits.& lost over 2 stones in 11months

I found it hard to break the habit of particular foods (i love carbs but need to limit them) + alcohol but i found after a week or so the temptation was def less. Plus I started to see results on the scales & that spurred me on..

I switched up my evening routine by reading more - which meant cutting down on useless phone time & i was shocked at how much i struggled with that)

I also started having my shower in the evening before bed & that signalled the end of the day & was a very effective way to make a new habit

Well because I think team "fucking awful for you" are hysterics and I'm not generally at home to the views of hysterics.

Team "please yourself but here's a thing I do instead" are my people.

I would really like to get better on my books to phone scrolling ratio so this is a good angle

Also this thread makes me wonder about buying shares in TRIP

I watch TV and films in bed on nights in and go for dinner or play sport on nights out mostly. Basically I don’t think about alcohol unless I am at a proper party which involves dancing! Once you break the habit you will wonder why you ever bothered!

I guess the question is, could you sit down on a Friday evening and not drink wine, and also not be sitting there obsessing about the fact you're not drinking wine?

I suspect the answer is no, if you were honest with yourself. But I now sense you started this thread solely to find an audience to call boring and are rather disingenuous.

Fair enough, crack on, but it’s a dangerous game you are playing, I hope you win, many do exactly as you are and lose, but il be honest the ride is pretty fun, I know exactly why you enjoy it! 🥂

I hate dancing and parties so we might have different pleasures 🤣

The answer is no that sounds like a waste of a Friday

Chocolate.
And think about wine……

I would rather not be wrung out for years in a care home for sure

Just as I thought.....you are an alcoholic.

I hope your will is up to date.

I’ve suffered with anxiety and unfortunately have never had a dopamine hit from alcohol, just a headache when have more than one, or I get too drunk too quickly, and miss this nice fuzzy feeling people go on about! It makes me quite anxious the thought of drinking sometimes, so I’m the opposite. I find hangovers make anxiety/depression worse. You need you calming camomile tea :)

Alcohol consumption regularly can cause that earlier, it can induce dementia or a stroke in a young person, that’s just only the beginning of the list, so there you go, but if your a live for now sort you won’t give a shit about potential consequences, you just assume that you are invincible and will die at a reasonable age and quickly!

Lime cordial, ice and sparkling water is good.