I am thinking of going teetotal .....

[TooMuchCaffeine]

I am sure most of you know what it's like - sharing a two or three glasses of wine after a long hard day, sometimes once or twice a week. And what about those PMS wine cravings - or is that just me?

After two such days this week, plus having friends round on Sunday, I am, shall we say, feeling a little, dehydrated, tired, etc. I wonder if it's worth it, it's expensive, makes you feel like s**t the next day, plus alcohol is just so fattening.

But it has become such a habit, that I now want to break. I'm 47 and need to take control of my weight. Please don't get this wrong - I am not even drinking up to the allowed 14 units a week - but FOR ME, I would just like to break the habit completely.

So has anyone ventured into the world of teetotal - what was it like? Did it last - and how did you manage to break the wine habit?

I have been tee total for 6 months as I noticed i was craving it. My plan was not to drink any til my birthday ( this weekend) but then to return to a glass with dinner on sat night and one on Sunday with lunch which is how I used to drink. Though now I'm pregnant so won't be drinking for a while.

Do you drink because you like feeling tipsy/relaxed? Is it a treat /reward for a hard days work?

For me it was a reward BUT i only drank v weak stuff (5.5%) before so I started initially buying shloer. That was our treat drink at Christmas as a kid so I still felt I was having a treat. Gradually I stopped buying it and had stopped before I conceived so less than 3 months.

I guess it's like those nicotine pretend cigarette things for people coming off real ones!

Hi. I tend to want it more when I am a bit stressed so it helps me to relax a bit, so DH and I share a bottle of wine (usually abour 12% alcohol per volume) in the evening after DS gone to bed. Or I have wine we have people round and I am chatting. Funnily enough I tend to drink less in social situations - i am more a drink-when-stressed-or-tired person. I drink to relax.

I do drink Schloer as well but find those drinks a bit sweet for me - so it's to find an alternative really. I don't really like fruit juice, J20, coke, etc because they are all too sweet. Gosh i am going to me Mrs Boring sitting there with my water aren't I?

I have been thinking about doing this for a while. I don't like the fact that I am drinking a few nights a week (probably about 20 units a week now). I feel like I am getting into nasty habits, and have noticed that I feel much better on the mornings when I haven't had a drink the night before.

I am not sure what to replace this habit with either. I used to have a bath to relax but I would wake the kids up if I did that now.

You certainly won't be Mrs Boring...I think a lot of people would consider you Mrs Healthy (and I would certainly be jealous of your discipline).

lots of advice and support (no judging!) over on the Brave Babes Battle Bus (in Relationships)

I've been making loads of fruit flavour or peppermint tea in the evenings to keep myself off the . Not 100% successful but certainly getting through a lot less of the stuff, and it's nicer than coke or schloer.

Hello
I've been teetotal for about 10 years now - my exh drank too much and was vile when drunk, so it's put me off forever.
DH doesn't drink either, so it's never an issue (we forgot to buy champagne for the wedding until my Mum reminded us!) and we treat ourselves in other ways - breakfasts at posh restaurants etc - cos we're always bright and bushy tailed in the morning
My MIL attributes my youthful complexion to not drinking!
So I would say go for it :)

Just prepare a stock answer for why you aren't drinking to fend off nosey parkers bores the curious. It's similar to cutting out cakes and biscuits at work, peole seem offended when you turn down their sugary crap.
I've actually gone off alcohol since DS and can't finish off a can of beer with my burger people look at me strangely when I say, 'no thanks, gone off. it a bit'.
Good luck - your liver will thank you!

I stopped drinking a few years ago because I had high blood pressure and was advised curbing my drinking would help. I still drink, but I'm in the glass or two a week territory rather than a glass or two a day.

DH does love a G&T after work. I have just the tonic, but with the ice and slice of lemon as well. If you really crave the gin taste, try running a finger dipped in gin around the rim of the glass. It's an old barman's trick for dealing with people who have drunk too much but insist on having another.

The thing that made it easy for me was buying a soda stream. I always have icy cold sparkling water on tap. There's something special about soda water, I'm not sure what, but it's more appealing than flat water from the tap. I find most soft drinks too sweet for me, but will occasionally add a bit of ginger cordial or something similar to my fizzy water.

Thanks for your answers. I am actually feeling very virtuous right now. Just think of the money saved - wine costs nearly a tenner a bottle most times - I can save all my money and get some make up or something nice at the end of the month.... The ginger cordial sounds lovely - because you get the "strong" taste, ditto for peppermint. I will spend the evening looking up some lovely non alcoholic drinks for this weekend....

Two words: ginger beer. (And two more: herbal tea).

I've been sober for two years - this is not the same as being teetotal (I mean it is in that I don't drink, but I don't drink because it will kill me, not because I think cutting down might be good - different motivation).

I'd suggest seeing how you get on over a month. That should be enough time for you to feel some benefit without the scary feeling of 'I'm giving up FOREVER'. You should also be able to identify your triggers - you've noted stress and tiredness, and of course alcohol actually exacerbates both. Don't be surprised if you find the triggers are actually more of a 'habit' than that - I don't mean in an addictive sense but I used to have very strong cravings from simple things like the time of day, or doing the cooking, not necessarily overt things like stress.

Give it a try - you can only feel better.

The hardest thing for me was dealing with other people, rather than just not drinking. It seemed to send everyone into overdrive, trying to coerce, cajole, beg, force me to 'just have a little one, just a sip, just a glass with your meal, just taste mine'. Then there was also the emotional blackmail 'you're no fun anymore, you used to be the life and soul, remember how fun it was when we went to so-and-so's party and got so pissed'. Ultimately I lost a lot of social acquaintances when I stopped. It was hard because I didn't want to stop, I had to because we were trying for a baby after years of failing and were gearing up for IVF.

People are weird. It is, as the previous poster has said, like dieting, where people around you seem to want you to fail and suddenly start baking like maniacs.

Also, drinking orange juice and trying to find other people interesting when they've had a couple was not fun, so I solved the what to drink in a bar conundrum by avoiding bars. It was a good lesson in small talk though. I had to relearn how to chat without booze!

My best advice is to do it and not tell anybody (except your DH, obviously). People find it threatening for lots of different reasons, but in general I find that nobody actually notices what you're drinking. I often accept a glass and then drink water and nobody notices my glass of wine is perpetually full.

If you have problems with drinking obviously this is not a great approach but for me, I just have problems with other people boring on about me drinking, so it works well.

I've done this for maybe 10 years. Hardly anyone has ever noticed.

Glad there are so many good ideas here for drinking less. When I decided to cut down, spritzers made it easy, with plain water added to red wine, depending on the food etc. One result of adding water is to make wine a bit drier, and have noticed this effect even more when having Shloer or fruit juice, it just tastes less sweet, as well as halving the calories and cost. Good luck.

I don't drink because I have epilepsy. Was dead easy to stop, having always been a moderate drinker I had a glass of beer one night and had my first seizure in 6 weeks immediately afterwards. It might not have been cause and effect but it was enough to put me off forever. I cannot imagine ever wanting to drink again.

I don't find it a social problem. I never tell people I don't drink. If someone offers a drink I ask for something soft. Because of my age and the fact I have one small DD people sometimes give me a knowing look which I ignore. Anyone who knows me will have spotted by now that I have either had the world's longest pregnancy or it isn't that which is stopping me drinking.

If people ask I give them a hard stare and say I don't drink for health related reasons. Adults should know better than to ask personal questions.

And obviously close family and friends know and care me about too much to want me to risk having seizures. Anyone who put pressure on me to drink would be a cunt. Plainly.

I've not drank for nearly 3 years now - at least not more than one glass at a time once or twice a week. the less I do the less I want to - I dont want to waste days feeling rough or tired, we are too skint for big nights out and as time goes on I don't much like the taste. I treated myself to a g&t the other day and only managed half of it before I was bored of it. it feels great!

my motivation was pregnancy and bf but tbh I think it is more about the mindset, when I first cut down I still wanted to drink loads now I rarely think about it.

is great!