Today I have accepted that I must end my love affair with white wine.................

[mummypoppins]

I adore it............consume it in bucket fulls and like a gorgeous man it takes over my life and leaves me feeling shite most of the time. Im fat, pasty , dry skinned and constantly tired and now it is starting to affect my work and home life. Yes I function very well and my children are happy and healthy cared for a lot of the time by a nanny as I work 60 to 70 hour weeks but I dont like myself very much and I know I could do so much better without this obession in my life.

So no more wine ( red or white ) or beer etc. Its gin and slimline tonics from now on and only at the weekend. Goes well with the weight watchers plan too.

Anyone else want to join me in suuport ?

laughs @monkeys comment ..I love that!

*squeezes you

gfc - many alcoholics would still drink even when they are feeling rotten with hangover cos if they don't they get the shakes or DT's. I have a colleague at work like that.

Sending good vibes out to all for this week.

Went out last night with DH and drank sensibly. Woke up at 5.30 this morning and fell back to sleep at 7 though!

Good luck this week.

Hi everybody - not been on all weekend as of course, I drank eveyr night, and even last night.

Today I have weighed myself and was so horrified to see how much weight I have put on lately that I really seriously must stop boozing mid week. Not just for that reason obviously but I need as many reasons as possible so I dont just end up pouring myself one at 6pm.

HOw has eveyrone else been doing?

Hi CL, if drink didnt have any calories how many more female heavy drinkers do you think there would be?!! Sometimes tight trousers are the only things keeping me away from drinking every night. I highly recommend exercise. Power walking s good for the beginner. I dont do yoga as I like to sweat!!

MB - yoga is good for the mind though. It gives you the power to find the strength you already have inside.

Walking releases happy hormones and it's difficult to pour yourself a large one while out!!!

I need to join this thread too.

As from today I am having to cut down gradually, hopefully to the point where I can be a social/occasional drinker (but I suspect I may have to not drink at all long term). I've had 2 mouthfuls of wine so far tonight which for me is showing amazing restraint - I'd normally be at least halfway down the bottle by now!

I hate the way it's affecting my life, and that of my children .

Chardonnaylover, I can def. relate to your posts.

Hi all, still managing to avoid it in the week. Helped lots this week by a horrible cold.

Welcomes Mercy..

Day at a time huh

Hope you fill better soon ladylush but excellent that your intake is down.

Having a self pitying day today so wont add anymore *slumps off soberly...

Just finished half a bottle of wine. It's so easy isn't it?

LL I find when I have a cold, I go straight for the hot whiskey because it's the perfect excuse for a drink...

If you don't want to add whiskey, squeeze a lemon (yes, a whole lemon/half pint of water), handful of cloves and heaped spoon of Manuka honey. All have good healing powers. Sending you good vibes to get better.

Good luck to everyone this week. I'm failing miserably...

Hi all, had 2 bottles of wine last night. No excuses other than habit. Didnt crave it or anything, just poured it without thinking that I was breaking my promise to myself. Husband didnt mind as I hadnt had anything sincelast week. He sulked when I didnt come to bed till 3am thoug. I feel fantastic today though - better than none hangover days!.

Have booked a nursery for DS fromnext January. Its fab and he loved it. I feel like some light is being sen at the end of a very long tunnel. I am seeing counsellor next week and am starting to put my life back together on a practical level. If I am happier in myself I SHOULD find the need for oblivion a bit less. If I can get out of the house and wont need to get out of my head as often!

Hi Mercy - nice to know that people can relate to what I am saying. I seem to go through cycles throughout the day of how I feel about booze. First thing in the morning I wake up and although I dont get hangovers (only if I go REALLY over the top) I feel tired and groggy and think I will not drink tonight. I then go to the fridge and see how much of the bottle is left and groan and promise myself I wont do it.

Then by about lunchtime I start thinking, maybe I will, but my good side prevails and says no. But by the time I eitehr get home from work, or have spent a full day with the kids (I love them dearly but they can be trying) I just forget about it, think sod it, and pour myself something.....hence still only one day without alcohol in the last two weeks.

Its like a vicious circle that I cant break out of and I'm sure its the reason why I feel so angry most of the time. The tiniest thing sets me off, I shout at my kids and feel so guilty about it but I cant seem to stop.

Monkeybutler - I often stay up later than DH just so I can drink some more and he cant see.

Hi CL, DH knows very well how much I drink but I d admit that if I have left some wine in the bottle (the second bottle) I wil add a bit of water so that he thinks I have left more. Obviously this means I dont drink it and have to pour it away. We dont keep booze in the house and just it as and when. I only buy what I allow myself to consume. I drink 4 bottles of wine a week which my doctor says is fine! She says half a bottle a day is fine although I should have 2 alcohol free days a week. I didnt tell her I only drink two days a week and see off 2 bottles each time!. It would be cheaper to buy a box but I would drink more than the 2 bottles. A 'session' used to be one bottle then one bottle and 2 beers, then one bottle and 2 little bottles then 2 bottles. Its insidious sneaky stuff.

It's such a maddening, frustrating habit! Since I've been out of hospital, I haven't been drinking nearly as much as I did before, but it's still annoying that I reach a certain time in the evening when it just feels the right time for a glass of wine or vodka and something.

It's certainly a habit, and I would like to have something else to do in the evening... Dh and I rarely go out in the evenings, partly at least because we are so knackered! We are usually up by 5.30-6am and it feels a bit as though I havea drink in the evening to sort of close off the day when the children have gone to bed.

I do sometimes wonder how much guilt is involved. After all, what is the guilt factor of one or 2 glasses of wine with a meal? For me, sometimes it's that old chestnut of being able to binge on a single popcorn. How really really dull.

hellobello - the thing is that surely 1 or 2 glasses of wine in an evening is the norm. @Its the fact that some of us are drinking three times tha tamount every night that is the issue.

Tongiht for instance (you can tell from my spelling) I have had a rum and two thirds of a bottle of wine. I am not having any more because I will go to bed to stop myself having any more but the point is that again I have failed to not drink, or to only have one drink.

I am starting to think that I just want to kill myself but cant understand why because I want to see my children grow up.

Is anyone else around to help me?

When our kids have gone to bed, I do get that desire for a little treat which could easily be a glass of wine BUT

the wine is down in the cellar
and if I suggest it to dh he says he would rather have a cup of tea! And he's the one who buys the stuff in crates, wine I mean not tea.

I am much more likely to drink wine if it's already open in the fridge and begging to be drunk up.

Couldn't you wine-loving ladies chuck the rest of the bottle into the casserole?

Can you think of another treat instead? Don't laugh but Su do Ku seems to do it for me. I swear it lowers my blood pressure.

Another way of reminding you not to drink is to find 2 pictures of the late Jeffrey Bernard: one from when he was a beautiful young man, and when he was a complete wreck in his 60s. Booze completely ruined, and then ended his life. But on the other hand he was in love with it.

Detta - my dad swears by hot whiskey too. Mixes it with lemon juice, cloves, cinnamon, honey and brown sugar. No whiskey in the house though. No wine either. Alcohol is the last thing on my mind at the moment. Ds, dh and I have been really ill.

MB - glad you found a nice nursery for your ds. It really does seem like things are looking up for you

CL - hope things look up for you soon. It sounds as though you are very unhappy Mind you, your last post was written after you'd been drinking, so maybe not a true reflection of how you really feel?

As an aside - very pissed off that this reduction in wine intake has not resulted in any weight loss

I find that I have replaced my wine drinking with Toberlone!!! So, definitely not weight loss. But my stomach isn't as bloated.

LL Did you send me your cold over the ethernet? I have had a terrible sore throat for a couple of days and now runny nose, shivers..... I'll try to avoid the whiskey as it is one of those drinks that makes me crave more. I took an antihistamine to help me sleep but DD2 decided that she wanted to play/sleep from 01.10 until we got up at 07.30 this morning.....Felt too rotten to put her back in her own bed.

Sending good vibes to all.

Hi CL, hope your post just the drinktalking If not, keep posting and am sure some excellent advice wil come through.

Had great nights sleep last night but tomorrow am going on an xas do so I know I will drink substantially then. Putting xmas tree up this weekend as DH is very festive and insists that we put decorations up on first day of Dec!. He said 'lets buy our christmas booze while its on offer at sainsburys'. Dont be ridiculous - how lng do you think it would last?. We are getting it but I am taking it t MIL for safe keeping.

CL, 2/3 bottle of wine and a short sounds pretty normal to me too. I can't do the crossword or anything very sensible after that amount, apart from drink more.

Last night I drank 2 stiff gins and 1/2 bottle of wine. I am also a steroidal dribbling wreck with a massive appetite for anything with masses of calories.

I would so like to be in a position where I can just stop when I feel my senses are slipping. It's normally the time when I feel there is no hope!

lol at "ethernet" - sorry detta if I infected you via the pc. Computer viruses getting all pathogenic these days Hope you feel better soon. Ds has been waking up early too so we just let him come in with us cos its too damn cold too get up and comfort him back to sleep. Bought some whiskey today and had it with lemon. Don't know if it did anything. It sure didn't affect me in the slightest so can't have been much in there.

mb - good idea about taking the xmas booze to mil. My dh is festive too - wants to get the tree tomorrow. Personally, I would rather get it the week before xmas as I get a bit fed up with it after 2 weeks.

Thanks all for your concern - it was the drink talking but I still feel like a rotten mother a lot of the time with my mood swings. The slightest thing makes me angry and I scream at the top of my lungs, god knows what the neighbours mst think. I never used to be like this so I can only assume it is the booze that is doing it to me.

Promising myself only one or two drinks tonight and really hoping that from tomorrow I can make a proper go of it and not cave in at the slightest pressure.

Chardonnay did you see today's Times? There was an article in Body&Soul section about a woman who sustained serious liver damage after just a couple of glasses a night - for 20 years.

OMG After only two glasses a night?

She didn't have just a couple of glasses of wine though, did she. 1/2 a bottle a night + a gin and tonic. Well, unit-wise that's about 7 units. With a bit of extra wine at the weekend, that's actually quite a lot. 5x7 units for weekdays = 35, then perhaps a whole bottle of wine each over each weekend day, a further 20 units. That's about 55 units a week, and not incuding parties or anything else!

I don't like the dodgy journalism and scaremongering in that paper. Only recently it published the news that safe drinking limits were plucked from the sky and bear no relation to anything. Other countries see things differently.this may shed a bit of light