I'm going to start tomorrow I hope....
I am addicted emotionally and I'd bet physically to my wine each night and coffee all day. I know coffee's not out, but coffee is not coffee without cream...

Any nice tea ideas? Any other ideas for special drinks to get me through the day?

I love chai tea and there are so many great flavored teas out there now. Also nonfat sugarfree flavored lattes from Starbucks or DD or made at home.

tikva, these might help a little:

I pour Toriani sugar-free flavored syrups (hazelnut and/or vanilla) over ice with a little (1/4 cup) 1% milk and top up with club soda when I want something that tastes "bad" for me but isn't too bad at all. The drinks are like Italian cream sodas -- but without the guilt! Give a quick stir before you drink, or all the flavored syrup settles on the bottom of the glass.

Hope this helps. I love my wine and coffee, too!

Rae

I "weaned" myself off of cream by switching first to whole milk, then to 2%, and finally to 1%. I stopped there because I think the coffee needs a little fat in it. That saves me quite a few fat calories each day.

I also started drinking office coffee instead of grinding fresh beans every day or getting a cup-o-joe from a coffee shop. Trust me, you'll drink less.

Hmm, wine. That's a tough one. I guess if it's red wine, a glass a night would be good for you!

Hi there! The girls on this forum helped my with my wine crutch, and I stopped for a week, and have only had wine 2 days in the past 2 weeks...so I think they work. Here are the substitutions:
1) "mocktails" - get some zero-cal fruit-flavored, carbonated water, and add 2 strawberries and 8 blueberries, serve in your wine glass. Only about 10 cals!
2) Take a bubblebath and grab a girly mag or a good book, great way to ease tension
3) Valerian root - some say this herb will easy anxiety and help you sleep. It is not great for me, so sometimes I take 1/2 dose of Advil PM
4) exercise - an evening walk will do you good.
5) blog!
6) Organic "sleepytime" tea - chamomile

I mainly go for the top 2, the mocktails are really fun. I know how wine relaxes me, but I had to quit for an entire week to make sure I wasn't addicted. Plain green tea with a bit of honey in it works for me instead of coffee. Good luck!

Mmmm.. mocktails are good. My friends always serve mocktails at parties because so many of us don't drink. You can also add mangos, or lime juice and a few mint leaves with carbonated water and ice and it's a great mojito!

Coffee is actually really good black with just a squirt of sugar free syrup. When I found out I was allergic to dairy, I thought my world was over, and Starbuck's soymilk is not only more expensive, but full of sugar! I started getting my coffee black and adding some stevia and it's SO MUCH BETTER than it ever was with milk. You get used to it.

Tea is good too. If you can find Yogi brand (normally with organics.. I know it's at Hannaford), they have a bunch of really good decaf or lowcaf teas with stevia brewed into them so they're an easy grab and go fix. I'm loving Mayan hot chocolate now- and none of the calories!

Charolastra, what is Mayan hot chocolate? Is that a Yogi tea flavor? I love those teas.

WOW. There are some great ideas out there!!!!


I think I would like to blog but where's a good spot to do it?


I'm eating my string cheese now. Had a long walk with the Golden Retriever puppy - HAVE to or he bounces off the wall. He is the best part of the diet plan ever lol!! He was actually pretty off the wall last night too and I thought I'll have to walk him evenings around the neighborhood. I will dread when the weather turns bad, but I will still want to get some exercise in there...

I need to get my post count up, since I can't even reply to messages that are sent to me.... *sigh*


So I'm trying FF 1/2 1/2 again.... sure I'll hate it. But with all of your other great suggestions, I'll be finding the perfect thing in no time flat :c)

I like Soy Milk Creamer or wean yourself down bit by bit to 1% (I can't do skim unless under duress) Sometimes I do my own Hot Choc with 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa a tsp or 2 of coffee Little salt splenda to taste Heat the milk and then swirl in some vanilla extract. . .Allie I'm going to try it with plain soy milk next time I get some at let you know
Whats the Mayan stuff? MMMM CHocolate
I'm also going to try it with Cinamon instead of coffee

Teawise I like Mary twinings spiced for a cozy "coffee/chai" feel great with soy milk

Oh man I went cold turkey with the coffee. It was hard going but I felt better in the end. I had Chai for that in case of emergency break glass feeling. Exercising does help and you'll find you sleep better without so much caff jumping through your system. I keep hershey's unsweetened cocoa in the house and make sugar free hot chocolate with skim milk when I need something nice.

As for the wine which I'm going to assume helps you relax in the evening...try replacing it with something else like a new hobby (I blog on my myspace page) and when I get really bad cravings I come here and post.

Which is why I'm here now cause I'm avoiding the wee devil on my shoulder who is telling me that fish and chips is a wonderful idea. lol

I can't give you any suggestions about the wine, I stopped drinking 8 years ago (I was a horrible binge drinker). However, there are coffee products out there that might appeal to you and still be on plan. I like a brand of French Vanilla coffee that a co-worker buys me at the military commisary. It's sugar free and decaf. Make sure you read the labels though. Another co-worker brought me some swisse mocha SF/FF and one of the first ingredients is corn syrup solids. There is a disclaimer that it adds a negligible amount of sugar.

Maybe try a seltzer with a twist of lemon or a sf flavored water in the wine glass?

In P2, you can still enjoy your wine, though I don't think we're supposed to drink it every day. What you might do is make a wine spritzer with some wine and a lot of sparkling water!

I love my evening hot chocolate, which I make with unsweetened cocoa, SF syrups (Kahlua is yummy!), and skim or 1% milk. The hot milk seems to relax me.

The Mayan hot chocolate is actually called Mayan Cocoa Spice- I was close! :P It's cocoa shells and cocoa powder, cinnamon bark, chicory, cardamom seed, stevia, ginger, clove, and black pepper. A bit spicy and just enough chocolate for me. It might be hard for some people because it's not creamy- just a tea! But oh so good. I add some soymilk to it sometimes.

I'm a huge Mayan hot chocolate fan though. Spicy and chocolate- could it get any better? I used to make it myself all the time at home but since I don't have a stove now, it's not as useful.

What I did for the wine - is just not buy it. Simple as that. Granted, because of the medication I'm now taking, I'm not supposed to have much of it, but if I don't buy it, no one will, so it's not in my house. "Out of sight, out of mind"

As for the coffee - that's a tough one. I have a 45 min drive each morning on average, and I couldn't make it through with out my travel mug. I started using ff creamer - I know it still has sugar/corn syrup, but that doesn't set off the 'sugar monster' for me, so I'm OK with it. It still has the rich taste of the real creamer, DH even likes it - and it's sweet enough so that I don't have to add anything else! DH still adds the sugar - I don't know how I used to do that! It would be so sweet to me right now, that my teeth would hurt!

Good luck!!!!!