Dieting advice/stopping drinking

[alyth]

having reached the stage now where I'm 11 1/2 stone and bursting out of my size 14 clothes, I'm looking for dieting advice, and, more importantly, advice on how I can stop drinking wine and what I can replace it with.

My alcohol intake has gradually increased over the last 5 years, and it's now got to the stage where I can gulp through a bottle of wine within an hour and still feel okay. To be honest, I can now get through 2 bottles of wine very easily. Don't get me wrong, I can have days without wine, but my partner's away a lot and I get lonely and start drinking. So, having hopefully hit rock bottom last night and somehow managed to get through work today, I want to stop drinking, start a diet and try and get healthy again.

What can I sit and drink at nights apart from wine? I'm not really a tea & coffee person, but I'm worried that if I start drinking say fresh orange that'll counterbalance my healthy heating plan! I'd be grateful for any good healthy eating websites as well, and of course I'm on a strict budget, although hopefully as my wine bill decreases I'll have more money for fruit for smoothies.

Anyone advice gratefully received I've made the decision to cut out the wine and hopefully get rid of the wine waist and hopefully lose some weight elsewhere as well!

[annie-c]

www.positive-eating.com (http://www.positive-eating.com) has great advice and a fantastic members' forum. It's a Scottish site but there are lots of forum members from all over the place. The site recommends a positive eating plan, based on a healthy balanced diet, exercise and a dose of positive thinking so it's an excellent long term plan for healthy living.

I too have put on weight slowly over a number of years and have managed to lose a good bit of it by cutting out the 'empty' calories found in alcohol/crisps/takeaways etc.

If you don't mind me saying though, 11 1/2 stone isn't a huge weight problem... given that you are drinking quite a lot, I would imagine that curbing your drinking habits alone, without cutting back on food, would probably solve your problem.

It may be though that on 1-2 bottles a night you might need to have a think about your drinkign as much as your eating. If you are drinking because you are lonely then you will need to tackle the problem in order to find a long term solution. What you can drink instead of wine? Well, water., lo cal squash, lo cal mixers... that is an easy question to answer. What can I do to replace the comfort I get from drinking wine? That's probably what you need to tackle.... but there is support out there, if you want it. :)

Annie xx

[alyth]

Annie, thanks so much for your response. And such helpful advice, I really appreciate it. I've been researching degree courses and am just about to take the plunge and start one via the OU so I'm sure that's going to take my mind off a bottle of wine, I don't have any friends or family apart from my partner and my faithful hound and live away in the sticks so it's not easy to do voluntary work, I also freelance so am never really in a job long enough to make friends - I sound like a really sad case now, but I really am happy in life, just want to stop sitting throwing wine down my neck every night!

I am hoping that now I've stopped drinking (on pepsi tonight) then the waist will disappear, I walk for an hour a night so the rest of me is fine, but it's the usual story of when the wine comes out so do the peanuts and crisps.

The website is great, thanks for that as well, and for your kind words.

[annie-c]

No worries. The difficulty with wine is that it tastes so lovely!!! I also find that wine makes me want to nibble on crisps...

If you are feeling bold enough to take the plunge, then joining the positive-eating forum will take your mind off things maybe. They are a mad lot, I've been on a meet with them on one occasion though it's a long way to Scotland for me.

If you decide to join in and want a ready made 'buddy' then PM me and I'll let you know my username on there .. xx

[annie-c]

PS A thought for you.

On average, in order to lose 1lb in weight, you need to consume 3,500 calories fewer than you burn up.

The average bottle of wine contains up to 700 calories. A reduction of 5 bottles of wine a week, alone, without any changes to your diet or exercise, could potentially lead to a 1lb weightloss in a week.... :)

Now those are only averages. And the benefits of a generally healthy diet are fantastic so I'd still recommend the diet. But it's amazing how much drinking can make or break it for us, weight-wise.... ;)

[alyth]

You know what Annie, that one piece of advice about the calories in a bottle of wine have spun it for me, I've been thinking about that all day - of course I knew it, I just chose to ignore it! that's been in my head all day, even when I went to the supermarket tonight, I bought myself some lovely low cal hot chocolate, loads of fruit, just come back from a long walk with the dog, and feeling so motivated!

I'm about to take the plunge as well and look at positive eating, as I'm in Scotland it's ideal for me.

I can't tell you how much your advice has made me think about things, I really appreciate your postings and hopefully will meet up with you on the eating site!

[annie-c]

Well done you!

There is a meet in Scotland from that forum tomorrow night so it will be quiet on there if you want a gentle introduction. And then the next day they will all start posting photos, which will be less stressful for me than last time, when I was in them and really embarassed about anyone I know seeing them!!! :)

[scubaleopard]

What is it about wine that not only makes it enjoyable but also makes every other fattening thing that you have proudly resisted all week perfectly OK to eat---- AND woe betide anyone who critices you whilst you are doing it!!

[gibby]

drinking 2 bottle of wine is very bad
Im sure you dont need me to tell you its going in the direction of liver failure
or worse

from a friend of mine who went through the same thing I can say EFT or emotion freedom technique is great for stopping additions & cravings to eat very quickly

alot of NLP practitioners now teach this and you should get instant results that you can repeat at home once you have larnt how to do it yourself

a short vid of its results can be found at
http://www.emofree.com/default.htm
but it helps to find a local practitioner

usaully 1 sesson can sort it out
far cheaper than drinking yourself stupid all the time

G

[belfastgirl23]

If you need a substitute drink in the meantime while you get used to being alcohol free, you could think about having pure orange with either fizzy water or lots of crushed ice. The latter takes a while to make as well so keeps you busy.

The other thing about the alcohol is that it is bad for your teeth as well, just in case you need any other persuasion!

Good luck.

[offbeatgirl]

I also knock back rather too much wine - and have broken a few zips on favourite clothes - so I sympathise.
Have you tried alcohol free wine? No, it isn't as nice, but some are quite passable. I brought a crate from lono and alternate wine days with wine free days:
http://www.lono.co.uk/
I've also found the stutter home alcohol free chardonay and merlot quite drinkable (from Somerfield) but the Eisberg range far too sweet.
Oh, and yes, alcohol removed wine is very low in calories, which many soft drinks are not.

[alyth]

hey, tell me about the sugar in drinks! I've been trying to find some really nice soft drinks, but honestly, the amount of sugar in them is unbelievable! I usually drink diet pepsi, not great but not full of sugar, but things like ribena are horrendously packed with sugar! I've been on soda water & lime which is quite refreshing, and still not had any wine yet - I know that sounds bad, but for me to get through the weekend without any wine is just amazing, I'm really proud of myself!

[annie-c]

hey, tell me about the sugar in drinks! I've been trying to find some really nice soft drinks, but honestly, the amount of sugar in them is unbelievable! I usually drink diet pepsi, not great but not full of sugar, but things like ribena are horrendously packed with sugar! I've been on soda water & lime which is quite refreshing, and still not had any wine yet - I know that sounds bad, but for me to get through the weekend without any wine is just amazing, I'm really proud of myself!


Well done, alyth, it sounds like you are really determined!!! Let us know how you get on xx

[Narla]

Alyth - where are you? I was getting quite caught up with your story and progress just now - reading this forum for the first time, but then just as I wondered what happened next and how you were getting on - the chat stopped!!!
That was 9 days ago. Well????? How are you doing? I was just thinking about how good you were to even begin the alcohol free quest and was making a decision to join you because I too drink far too much and it has got to the stage where I am getting quite worried about my health and weight gain. But I also find it far too easy to just put it off until tomorrow and crack open another bottle!

I would love to hear how it's going for you and if you have found anything else to help.

Thanks, Narla

[alyth]

hi Narla - thank you for reading my pathetic story - you should see the one on the alcoholic thread where I really bare my soul!

Not doing too badly, had a total blip last weekend where I had 2 bottles of wine, but otherwise I'm doing okay! OH is away on Wednesday for a week, so that's the real test, but I'm walking for about 1.5 hours a day, eating all my fruit & veg, and I generally feel a lot better just after 2 weeks. I've taken up cross-stitch again, which is impossible to do if you have a drink as the squares are so minute you have to really concentrate, I have my cup of tea at 10pm then go to bed reading for my OU course, or at least in preparation of it, and I'm generally leading a quiet and otherwise sad smurf type life! The one thing that really did stick with me was Annie's advice about the calories in wine, that's still with me. I quite fancied a glass of wine tonight, Oh collects wine so we have tons of it in the house, but then I thought no, I've gone this far so why spoil it! I'm figuring that the odd GLASS rather than bottle is okay on a Friday & Sat night, but to be honest I've totally changed my mindset and I've got stuff to do on Sat so I doubt I'll even have a glass tomorrow night as I want to be up early. So it's more of a mindset change Narla, if I have one glass then I'm bound to want another, so now I honestly don't think about it - hence my not posting on this thread for a while!

The other side to this, which I had never really thought of before, is that my partner and I sit and chill over dinner, chat in bed, whereas beforehand I would be rushing tea, rushing to walk the dog so I could have my wine! I'm even in a way looking forward to Oh going away, just to prove to myself that I can go without wine whilst he's away. I get a bit scared in the house on my own, and drinking the wine whilst he was away was in some weird way a comfort/security issue, so that's going to be the test for me, but I'm not going to fail!

So thanks for your reply Narla, whilst I'm not going to give up my wine totally, the bottle a night is no more for me! I hope I'm not coming across as smug, this was a huge thing for me, it was weird the first Friday night just sitting with a glass of pepsi or tea, but only on rare occasions like tonight do I think about having a drink - I only even drunk wine so we never have spirits in the house. If you want a buddy pm me - it was an age thing with me as well, I didn't want look like an old lush as I still look like a kid, just a fat one!

[annie-c]

Well done, Alyth - I am so pleased for you - you sound determined to get this cracked xxx