Giving up/ Cutting Down Alcohol Thread Part 16

maggiem

Welcome Smushesma and Coveredinbees. Good idea to start straight away Smushesma.

I've been on the thread for a while and still struggle with not drinking on a Friday night. I don't want to stop drinking totally and am ok with drinking Friday, Saturday and Sunday, as long as it is a reasonable amount. At the moment I'm dieting too so drinking very little. Sometimes I can manage no drinking on Saturday night, think it is much harder not to drink on a Friday night, 

In terms of a substitute drink I am enjoying sparkling water with lots of lemon and lime or cucumber slices before and sometimes with dinner. Just also have cut out nibbles with that drink too! 

Declaring early today, and thank you for the smiley Cathybird, so 15/21 please. 

Season_of_Mist

Welcome smushesma and Coveredinbees!!!! It’s great to have two new people join at the same time. Lots of us have found this thread to be helpful, it has definitely helped me to cut down. I don’t exactly know how & why the psychology of breaking it down into these small, achievable targets recognised with a ‘smiley’ works so effectively - it just does. Good luck and welcome.

sukeyboo

Well, a very rare thing happened last night - I managed to stay AF 😜 - I think that has only happened once in the last few years and that was when I was feeling poorly so that takes me to 8/10 for yesterday please cathybird 

I struggle to find a soft drink that I like smushesma - most of them are far too sweet but occasionally I have the San Pellegrino Lemon (which is what I had last night) or Blood Orange - they have a sharpness to them which I like. I wouldn’t use them as a substitute all the time as the sugar content is 15.5g for the 330ml can (71kcal).

PriceySOS

11 please, thanks xx

AnnieG

Hello. 12/25 today and a stretch of 7 days in a row which I'm pleased about. I really like fizzy water with loads of lemon in for evenings when I'm not drinking alcohol, but am going for the world tea drinking record this afternoon... I usually get stuck into a bottle of wine on a Sunday afternoon but tea is saving me today! 

RobM99

"I struggle to find a soft drink that I like smushesma - most of them are far too sweet but occasionally I have the San Pellegrino Lemon (which is what I had last night) or Blood Orange - they have a sharpness to them which I like."  How about mixing one with "fizzy" water? Dilutes the sugar. Might taste a bit bland at first but there's always a price to pay!

marahouti

Welcome Coveredinbees. I can empathise with the autopilot drinking  on Fridays and weekends; I was on autopilot seven days a week 😕
 I try now to only drink if it is a special occasion or a social event. Since Covid has meant I have given up work sooner than planned (no TFIF) and I have no social life☹️ I have been doing quite well.
You are doing really well in having 4 drink free days a week. Perhaps have the bottle of wine between you and substitute the rest with sparkling water, tea or whatever on Friday and Saturday and start your non drinking days (I call them school nights) on a Sunday?
Good luck to you and your wife.x
 

Coveredinbees!!!!

Thanks for the welcome

I'm with you smushesma with the diet drinks, they all taste bitter, even the non diet ones that have been doctored by the sugar tax taste wrong too. The worst one for me is irnbru I used to like it but now it is disgusting. I can't actually remember the last time I had a cola of any kind and I use to drink loads of it, probably why my teeth are so knackered (child of the 60s, we didn't do oral hygiene).

Barny1979

13/25 AFDs today 

marahouti

smushesma said

I need to find a substitute drink too - I cannot deal with 'diet' drinks of any type so drink full sugar fizzy with my alcohol and I don't want to continue with that sugar level once I stop the drinking. Any suggestions would be welcome!! 😉

I drink a lot of sparkling water (one of my first purchases with my 'booze savings' was a top of the range Soda stream). I add frozen slices of lemon, lime, orange or cucumber and frozen berries are good too. I sometimes add a little raspberry or elderberry cordial. I like AF ginger beer with a slice of lime. I also enjoy various teas (not aniseed vile🤢). I have also discovered that many AF beers are very good but AF wine not so much. I'm not sure of the sugar content of some of those, sorry. Whatever I drink I have it in a nice glass or cup🙂. X