As someone who had become one of those middle-aged, middle-class wine drinkers that the government keep announcing are the scourge of the country, I had been aware for some considerable time that I needed to break the daily wine habit. I am not talking about a serious, roll around the floor slurring my words problem, just a tendency to open a bottle of wine after a stressful (or un-stressful) day, and having a glass or two. The week-ends were worse, when I started looking forward to 5 o’clock to justify opening the bottle and having 3 or 4 glasses during the evening. Whilst this was rather habitual behaviour, I didn’t feel it was addictive.
Rather than attempt to give up totally, either for a short or longer while, I decided that I would simply drink more consciously, and just have a small glass or 2 with my week-end meals. It was actually really easy to give up the mid-week drinks. When the little voice inside my head started saying “don’t you fancy a glass of wine?”, I quickly forced another thought inside my head. If it persisted, I forced an image of a glass of very warm and very sweet wine to come to mind, and the desire soon went (I like wine very dry and VERY chilled!).
It’s been well over two months, and I have been sticking to the plan pretty well. As I mentioned in my last post, apart from the week we were away on holiday, when I drank alcohol every day, I have managed to stick to no alcohol Mondays to Thursdays. The best thing is that it has stopped occurring to me to open a bottle of wine in the evening – in fact, there is an OPEN bottle of wine in the fridge, left over from the week-end and I am going to have to tip it away as it won’t taste very nice by the time Friday comes round.
I have read articles in the past about people giving up alcohol and feeling fitter and healthier, whilst looking 10 years younger. I am still waiting for this to happen! Perhaps it only works if you give up totally?
Another humorous post, loving the funny images too. Well done on giving up alcohol in the week, that is pretty impressive.
ReplyDeleteInteresting you are talking about drinking 'consciously,' I am reading a book about mindfulness and its true, a lot of our behaviour is from habit, rather than need.
Sounds like you are doing well though, so congratulations on your good work so far.
Yes, it is amazing how many things we just do through habit. I have also been to some Alexander Technique lessons recently (might blog about it soon), and that is very much about being mindful about the way you stand, sit, walk and generally hold yourself to enable the body to go back to how it was intended to move rather than the bad habits it has got into.
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