I love wine. But it does not love me anymore. It affects my sleep too much now and I am just not as resilient as I was in how I recover.
3 glasses is way too much. 2 is on the line and 1 seems to be okay. Maybe none would be best?
So here I am at the point where so many of us find ourselves. We have to give up habits that we have had all our lives and that we love. Every night for 50 years I have drunk wine. I drank a lot of it. This is my favourite habit.
You have your own habits too, don't you? It may be wine. It may be candy. It may be pop. It may be pizza. It may be smoking.
For me, this is the last frontier. I have given up all the other bad ones. What helped me with smoking and grains, is that for me, I feel the bad effects of those bad habits directly. My lungs hurt when I smoked. I got bloated with grains. In wine's case, I am no longer sleeping well. I wake up often and feel so dehydrated. So this feedback is a help.
What is really hard is when people have a habit that is bad for them that they do not feel directly. Worse, is when they feel good. You Cup Cake eaters know what I am saying! You beer fans know too.
But while I feel shitty after I drink, I feel wonderful as I do. I also enjoy the anticipation. Just thinking of my first glass of wine...! Wine Oclock has been getting earlier and earlier! So I am trying an old and successful strategy for me.
What I am doing is progessively cutting back. I am now at 1 glass a night. It has taken me a week to get here. The tough time is from 5 - 6pm. But I find that once I have had my 1 glass, I am not so frantic. I also find that delaying and then giving myself a small treat, helps me cope with the longing. The difference in how I sleep and feel is quite measurable too. So my body is sending me poistive feedback, when my mind is longing for another glass.
But my mind has a helper too. The money side is interesting and an incentive too. Wine was our largest expense - much more than food. I am keeping a tab. We will save at least $250 a month. That is the same as my phone and internet costs.
Money is a good incentive for the mind. A good friend did this when he gave up smoking. Paul had a piggy bank and put his $20 a day (2 packs) into this. It was enough for him to take his wife on a cruise at the end of year 1.
Lastly, I am going public for a good reason. Tough commitments made in public are easier to keep that the ones we make just to ourselves.
You can see how I am approaching this - what works for you? How have you found success in giving up your favourite bad habits?
