No More Wine... 7 days down, too many days left to go

Well I'm about a week in and so far I've been able to stay away from drinking wine. I miss my wine pretty much every night. I saw some friends in San Diego this weekend and, as usual, they popped open a bottle of wine and I had to politely (and a tad tearfully) say no thanks. This of course brings an onset of questions and looks that I know are leading to a possible pregnancy. This, of course, is untrue. If you want to read about the reasoning behind my wine boycott, read my previous blog titled "No More Wine - 30 day Challenge (eek!!).

One thing I have noticed this past week is the fact that wine is EVERYWHERE!! This makes it really hard to avoid it (duh). There is wine on tv shows, in movies, all over billboards, in commercials, it's everywhere. I never noticed how prevalent wine is until I am wanting it but can't have it. Every time I see a reference to wine, I get a longing and my mouth starts to water a little. Hopefully this reaction will fade throughout my 30 day trial. This also makes me wonder how much advertising and propaganda really do affect us?

There are two major differences I have noticed. The first is that I haven't been getting any headaches at night. In the past I would get headaches 3-4 times per week sometime after dinner (after drinking wine). I always wondered if this was related to wine, and now I have my answer. It's only been a week though, so I will have to see if I remain headache free. I also noticed that I eat dinner alot faster now. Wine really makes me slow down and enjoy my food. Probably because I love to sip and savor wine, and wine also brings out the flavor in food, so it encourages slow savory eating. I thought it would affect my sleeping and my energy levels, but it really hasn't at all. This is really good news to me because it means that wine doesn't effect me in these ways, or I don't drink enough wine on a daily basis to have it effect me in these ways.

How did I make the change to having NO wine? Most people tell me that they just can't do it because there is never a good time and they love wine too much. I'm there with you. The two things I have done these past seven days to prepare myself for no wine were:

1. Have alternative beverages ready. I knew this would be my biggest struggle. I am a big water drinker, and drink it pretty much all day long, so at night, I don't want water, I want wine. Something full of flavor. I knew if I was going to last 30+ days, I needed a substitute that was full of flavor. I started adding fruit to my water; lemons, raspberries, grapefruit, oranges, whatever I feel like (and whatever I have available in my fridge). This gives me that blast of flavor I am missing, and is super healthy!

2. Be prepared for the temptations. When I'm out to eat, with friends, celebrating, eating chocolate, etc. I want to drink wine. So, before any of these occasions, I simply remind myself that I'm not drinking wine right now so that I'm not caught up in the moment and find myself ordering my favorite Merlot before I remember that I'm going wine free for 30 days.

So far so good! I'm not dead yet, although my taste buds probably think they're dying. Check back in next week for my blog at the half way point of my 30 days wine free challenge.