Fourteen months in, my evening glass of wine just faded away

Friday at 8:51 PM 1965 views 9 posts

I hit goal about 14 months ago and have been in maintenance since. One thing nobody warned me about: how much my relationship with alcohol would shift.

Before, I'd have two glasses of wine most weeknights. Not a problem, just a habit — the automatic pour while I made dinner. Around week six I noticed I'd pour one, take three sips, and forget about it. It would still be sitting on the counter at bedtime. That's still true now. A bottle in my fridge lasts about a month, which would have been unthinkable a couple of years ago.

It's not that I decided to quit. The wanting just quietly left. Part of it is probably that I'm no longer drinking to take the edge off a rough day, and part of it is just something I can't explain. Either way I'm not mad about it — better sleep, no 3am wakeups, fewer empty calories.

Curious whether this stuck for others long-term, or whether the desire crept back once you were in maintenance. Mine hasn't, and I keep wondering if that's typical.

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same thing happened to me but the weird place I noticed was the recycling bin. Used to be a full clink every Sunday, now it's maybe once a month. I also started keeping a can of lime seltzer in one of the good wine glasses while I cook — sounds silly, but my hands wanted the ritual more than the wine. Half the time I'd still pour a real glass, take two sips, and end up dumping it while doing dishes, which felt wasteful enough that I mostly stopped bothering. Curios — did it hit you hardest on the cooking nights, or was it the weekend wind-down that faded first? Mine was 100% the 5pm dinner chaos.

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Ha, the hotel minibar is my version of this. I used to land, unpack, and pour a glass of whatever red was in the room while I answered emails. Now I still want the ritual — stemmed glass, something cold, a little “I survived the airport” moment — but it’s usually sparkling water with lime or an NA beer. The weird part: I don’t miss the wine, I miss the punctuation mark at the end of the travel day. Did you find a replacement ritual, or did the automatic pour just quietly die on its own?

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Curious whether you tracked anything objective, not just the sips. I’m about nine months in and my “glass while cooking” became a half-glass I forget on the counter. What surprised me was my sleep tracker: fewer 3 a.m. wakeups even on nights I had one drink, and my weekly grocery spend dropped. Did you notice changes in resting HR, sleep latency, or actual weekly units? I’m trying to figure out if this is a real shift or just habit disruption. And did it stick at 14 months, or drift back once maintenance felt less novel?

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I tracked it as a habit loop: cue = chopping onions, routine = pour, reward = apparently nothing. Once the payout flatlined, the subroutine got deleted. Weird part is the glass was load-bearing. I still pour sparkling water into the same stemware while cooking — zero alcohol, same ritual, and my sleep tracker stopped filing complaints. Sharp question: did your taste actually change, or did wine just lose its payload? I can’t tell if I dislike it now or if my brain simply stopped paying out for it.

I’m a broke dorm student, so my old “fun budget” was whatever 2-for-$10 wine the grocery store was pushing. Now I’ll open a cheap bottle for a roommate’s birthday, take two sips, and it just sits there becoming expensive vinegar. The upside: that money’s been going to cottage cheese and clearance rotisserie chicken. My social life is mostly me nursing a sparkling water at parties like a tiny retiree. Honestly, did your wine fading make social stuff easier or harder? I keep wanting a decoy drink so people stop asking why I’m not drinking.

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The shift showed up in my sleep data before I even registered the wine itself. My watch started flagging a resting heart rate 8 bpm higher and I'd wake at 3 a.m. wired, staring at the ceiling. Now I'll have one glass maybe every other Friday, and the scale parks two extra pounds of water for two days after. That bloat is what finally made the decision for me — I got tired of losing three days to one drink. Curious if anyone else tracks that two-day puffiness, or if I'm just hyper-aware now that I'm grinding against this plateau.

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Same here — the 5pm pour was pure muscle memory. Now I keep a cold seltzer in a stemless glass while I referee the kids' dinner. The ritual scratches the itch more than the wine did. Did you swap in a different "adult" drink, or drop it cold? Also, my snack drawer shifted from pretzels to pistachios and frozen grapes — curious if yours changed too.

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Same! Mine wasn’t wine, it was the 5pm beer while I cooked. I started pouring a NA grapefruit seltzer in a stemless wine glass and that ritual scratch is real. What surprised me: I still enjoy a drink out with friends, but at home I just… don’t finish it. Random question: what do you do with the leftover half-bottle? I switched to half-bottles because dumping a glass felt wasteful. Also, did the shift happen because the first few sips felt stronger, or because you got full faster? I track “pour nights” in my notes app just for curiosity, and mine went from 5x/week to maybe 1. It’s wild what maintenance rewires.

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