Who's with me?
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So glad I found this group! I'm not quite ready for complete abstinence, but I have been cutting WAY back on my wine. It's really hard, as I'm married to a fellow wine lover who also happens to be naturally slim and never needs to watch his calories!
I've cut back quite a bit over all, and I'm paying a lot more attention to portion size (since I have to log it into MFP). I took a Sharpie and made ounce lines on my favorite wine glass at 4oz, 6oz & 8oz. That makes it super-easy to keep track and not to over-pour.
Like others in this group, I've noticed a very strong correlation between food cravings and wine consumption.... especially cravings for sweet and salty foods. And cheese. Why does wine have to go SO well with cheese...and not carrots???0 -
In England on Monday evening there was a panorama special talking about wine drinking in middle class and how it's no longer the working class that have the drink problems it's working professionals.
95% of drinkers drink at home, and it's usually a glass of wine whilst making diner then three or four whilst relaxing in the evening.
Was a really interesting program. It's really not uncommon amongst people to be drinking too much.
I'm still contemplating giving it up for lent....0 -
Hey all,
That's interesting to hear about middle class drinking starting to become a problem - though less visible because kept at home (and kept so classy indeed). My teenaged daughter often notices (and decries) all the Wino Paraphenalia to be had for the middle class home: the little kitchen towels with the funny sayings about how much a person drinks, the endless coasters and earrings and stuff made to give to all one's girlfriends who also love to sit around and drink lots of wine together. It's true: it's a whole culture of celebrating the little-bit-of-excess thing. It's kind of depressing when you look at it with that lens.
I think I am going to make a set of little towels and all that say things like "Thanks anyway, I have Spinning at 6 a.m." or "Water - The Miracle Drug" or something. Maybe those will take off!
Glad everyone is still fighting the good fight. I had 2.5 glasses of red last night and 2.5 of white on Sunday. This is the most I have had in MONTHS but in both cases it went down to easy. Back to abstinence for me. It's like the Overindulge button is only ever the gentlest push away from activating.
Martha0 -
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
I'm so glad I'm not alone! I don't crave food and I eat well but I've turned to wine/beer for relieve stress and now it's become a habit. I really need this support group to help me through this, so thank you! I can't believe I'm going to admit this but I was drinking approx 918 calories a day!!!!! I've gone a few days without drinking and I felt great and sleep better than usual.
Starting today, when I get off work instead of grabbing a beer or pouring a glass of wine I'm opening this group for encouragement.
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Hi all my name is Ashleigh. And I love wine (and beer and spirits). But wine is my drink of choice. On Monday I made a decision to stop drinking until I reach my goal weight, and then I will reward myself with wine. It's very hard for me, not only do I enjoy a couple glasses of wine when I'm alone but I also drink during social events. All my will power goes out the window when I drink. I allow myself to have a few bites of some "forbidden food", and then before I know, I've eaten hundreds of calories worth! Eating too much while drinking has gotten to the point of being habitual. I have to put my foot down. Now.
Only 6 months ago I was at my goal weight for the first time in my life. I was so happy, fitting into size 4's and being able to wear a bikini without being embarrassed. Then I started eating more and more. I broke out in acne and hid myself away for 2 months, being depressed and reverting back to my old patterns of emotional eating. These last 2 months of holidays packed on 10 lbs for me. I've officially gained 25 lbs since July.
I've been on MFP for years, but never really utilized the community forums, until now. I started counting my calories and logging my exercise yesterday, and I am committed to losing 25 lbs, the healthy way. I'm also detoxing from caffeine, sugar and grains.. so this next week is going to be really tough for me. I'm looking forward to the support of this group!!
I'm right here with you girl! I'm glad I'm not alone in this! Wine/beer are my problem and I need the support to help me kick my bad habit of drinking...pretty much daily, ugh!!! I will be turning to this group daily for support. We can do it!!!!0 -
Opal and Martha you inspire me! I need this group more than you know! Thanks! :flowerforyou:0
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It's great to have new members - good luck with your lifestyle changes! Today marks 8 weeks wine-free for me and I can honestly say that I don't miss it and I feel just so much better since I stopped. It's funny, when I read something about someone arriving home from work and pouring a glass of wine I do get a bit of a twinge, but that's really all it is........ it's gone as soon as it hits.
The stuff about middle class drinking is really interesting, and I'm sure it's true. I was talking to one of the guys I work with (he happens to be our managing director, but we're a pretty relaxed small organisation, so it was OK) about the fact that I'd decided to give up for a year and he was saying pretty much the same thing. He said the term he'd heard used for people in this situation was 'functioning alcoholics' - so we function perfectly well at work and in our professional lives, but we rely on the alcohol (and I think it's often wine, particularly for women) to de-stress. It was certainly where I was - and I'm so glad I've broken the cycle. The fact that we can break the cycle makes me think that for most of us it's a habit rather than an addiction. He also told me about his brother, who apparently decided to give up alcohol for a year, then who suddenly realised 14 months later that the year was long gone and he hadn't even thought about it! Wonder if I'll be like that? I have to say that I do wonder how I'll feel about drinking once my year is up - it's an intriguing thought!
I'm looking forward to sharing the journey with you all.
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Opal24 you are such an inspiration! It is actually like you are our guinea pig. Letting you try it for us before we sign up for it lol!
I've given up alcohol for lent. I did say at the start it was just wine, but I thought let's see if I can do 46 (yep not 40, lent is 46) days of
not drinking at all.
At the beginning I was actually really nervous but I do feel like I have been training for this. I have slowly but steadily cut down and gone for longer periods without. This is day 5 for me and to be perfectly honest it's not as hard as it was as the beginning of the year when day crept in, hangover gone and I was dying for a drink and coming to this forum every night for motivation.
I will keep using this forum as it so brilliant for motivation and inspiration and here's to Easter Sunday!!
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Hey all!
Back on track after a weird week where I found myself saying "Oh but just this time..." 3 different nights! This is after weeks of barely having anything (like 2-3 glasses over the course of the whole time) and in most of those weeks having no alcohol at all and loving that feeling. What gives? I don't know. As I suspected, it was just too easy to fall right back into the 1 becomes 2 becomes 3. (Well, actually, that scenario only happened once but the other two nights it was 2 down like water.) I think I had told myself enough times that I don't have to work at this anymore because I don't have cravings but then - guess what! - I went out and rekindled my cravings by giving in. No more. I am not having any alcohol at ALL for the next two weeks minimum - maybe longer.
Just reread my own post (weird, yes) from 2/22/2012 and realize it was 2.5 glasses those nights but it was good to see that was in fact first time in about a month. It's harder to track something you're not doing than to track something you are doing!
Back on the horse. Back on the horse. Thank you all for listening.
Great to see you here jenniegeo! Hope you are well.
Martha0 -
Hello!
I made a New Year Resolution not to drink this year until my birthday, which is in mid Oct. I can't say I have enjoyed it so far because I love drinking, but I really needed to do it for weight loss and general health reasons; obviously it's just empty calories, plus it makes you crave nasty food and, worst of all, it leaves you too wrecked to exercise the next day. The other thing that has made it difficult is the fact that my husband is a massive drinker - until about a week ago, when he decided he needed to stop as well, there was a constant supply of alcohol in the house and he was glugging in front of me every night. HOWEVER, despite this, I have managed to do almost 2 months without - woo-hoo!
I still find every day quite difficult - not so much the morning and afternoon, but definitely coming home in the evening. It's also hard turning down pub invitations - being a non-drinker in a pub, and paying handsomely for the privilege via extortionate fruit juices and bottled waters, is not fun. BUT I have lost weight! And I am hoping that, sometime in the near future, my skin will remember that I am not a hormonal 14 year old and correct itself to reflect my pure living!
Please add me as a friend because I could do with some boozeless cheerleaders (and am willing to be one myself) - I find talking about it motivates me to go on. I haven't read every post on this thread yet but will do now and am looking forward to reading some tips on how to keep going!
V xxx0 -
Hey Vacherin,
Good to see you here! I have found this group really really helpful - and am in fact feeling the need for that help a bit more often these last few days! I just posted a few days ago saying I wasn't going to have any more wine for two weeks and have already broken that promise 2x. I think for now - given the fact that I am about to help host my sister's wedding and have lots of family in town, etc. - that maybe I need to modify to only a six glasses a week, none in the house and never more than 2 in a sitting.0 -
Hi Martha
Sounds as though things have been a bit tough lately, and not going to get much easier with your social life the way it's going to be. Maybe you just need to be a bit kind to yourself for a while and recognise that you're doing as well as you can in the circumstances. You need to be able to enjoy the wedding without beating yourself up over the wine thing!! If you can keep it to reasonably moderate you'll be doing well - than after the wedding you can get back into it with a vengeance! Sounds as though you have a plan anyway :-) Good luck - keep posting if you need support!0 -
Hi again
I would HATE to go to a wedding and not drink, so don't beat yourself up too much about that one - especially as it's your sister's. If you are hosting then it's not as if you will get totally wasted anyway, but you will be able to have just enough to enjoy the occasion. Sometimes you really should not drink (e.g. when you're just bored at home), but something like your sister's wedding is a time when you should enjoy yourself.
I can't believe I've done almost 9 weeks without drink. Going out is still very difficult, especially with the weather getting better - soon it will be the season of sitting outside in pub beer gardens, and I really would not want to do that drinking just water whilst everyone else had wine or beer. I think it's a case of finding something else to do which is equally summery and fun, but I don't know what that will be as yet ...
Hope everyone else is doing well with their cutting-out or cutting-down endeavours! My husband is still off the naughty juice although he hurt his back really badly and is very down about it, so I am trying hard at the moment to convince him that starting to drink again won't help long-term!
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Hi - I'm with you Vacherin - it's 9 weeks today for me and I can't believe how much better I feel! Good luck with finding a fun non-drinking thing to do - and keep us posted when you find it!
Martha - I hope things are going well for the wedding planning and that you're enjoying yourself with absolutely no guilt!
My first real challenge will come for me on Wednesday, when the people I work with are going out en masse for a pub quiz night. I really enjoy them, but this will be my first non-alcoholic one and I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's also pub food, so it's a bit of a double whammy for me. I have the menu in advance so I can plan what I eat and I know I'll be drinking sparkling water, so fingers crossed it'll be fine. We have at least one other non-drinker in the office, and my non-drinking is public knowledge, so at least people won't be pressuring me. It'll just be me thinking how nice just one glass would be - except it wouldn't be just one glass! Wish me luck.
Christine0 -
Hey there - Thanks for the support. I decided today to just quit harassing myself. I am a bit stressed lately - but mostly by a surfeit of happy things -- and have decided that the good news is that even under stress I am drinking much (MUCH MUCH even) less than I was a month ago. The key with me is not to keep it in the house. THAT's when the trouble starts! And pubs are tough. I love sitting outside at our favorite local place with a glass of wine. I wish you both the best of luck on your visits to similar places. Good for you for checking the menu ahead of time, Opal, and thinking through what you will do. I find that is crucial for me actually changing my behavior -- planning what I am going to do and then visualizing how exactly I will do it. Sometimes, I visualize how healthy the water is making me while drinking it and that helps me enjoy it more.0
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Opal, I've done a few sober pub quizzes now and they are actually ok. I was nervous as hell about the first one, thinking the sight of other people drinking would make me flip out and run amok, stabbing other quiz-goers with my answer-writing pen, but the fact that there were questions to answer actually provided a distraction from the drink, or lack of. The food also meant that there was something else to focus on. Ironically enough, on that very first quiz night my husband and I, in our team of 2, came second, and our prize was ... 6 pints.
(Luckily the prize came in voucher form and my husband is saving it to spend on his men's day out watching rugby in the pub on St Patrick's Day. I won't be joining him ...)
Good idea to get the menu in advance so that you can make a healthy choice, or have what you want but try to compensate during the day, OR decide sod it, you are going to eat what you want but just not drink. I don't think going over on your calories on the odd day is such a bad thing, but not planning for it can make it seem like the end of the world.
GOOD LUCK - YOU CAN DO IT! xxx
Edited for spelling!0 -
I'm day 12 down for lent 35 to go!
That is all
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Congratulations helenoftroy!!! Keep it up!!!0
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two weeks in!!!!
Definitely craving sweets and chocolate, but anything has got to be better than "needing" a bottle of wine at 500 calories right?!0 -
Hey there Helenoftroy - congrats to you! And definitely, any of those choices is better than a bottle of wine. For one thing, you don't get the headache!0
