Thread: Restaurants
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Old 12-02-2017, 12:02 PM
  # 15 (permalink)  
Meraviglioso
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I am a huge foodie too and had a hard time when I quit thinking that alcohol, particularly wine, was essential to this part of my lifestyle. I enjoy food just fine now and love going to restaurants for a special treat. However, in the beginning I was very careful. I didn't completely stop going out to eat, but there were certain foods that I definitely avoided because they were too too intertwined with wine for me to deal with while new in my sobriety. For example, I avoided cheese plates because, well, cheese and wine. I couldn't deal with sushi because I just couldn't imagine it without an ice cold white wine. A bloody rare steak also no, because red wine. I also avoided a few particular restaurants, ones right on the seaside, because sitting with my toes in the sand, watching the sun go down and dining on fresh fish was just too intertwined with a glass of prosecco or white wine.
Other restaurants and other foods I could handle, but those were big ones for me and I just had to avoid them.
It passed though. I now eat sushi all the time, steaks, seafood, any restaurant. Thinking about it now I suppose I don't really eat cheese plates as much in restaurants because that really appealed to me for the wine pairings. However, I do still eat cheese in the summer at home when it is too damn hot to cook and I do a fruit and cheese plate outside for dinner. I usually make one of my special (and now known among friends as my specialTY) herb waters. I use ice cold sparkling water and put in fresh herbs from my garden- lavender, basil, rosemary, mint, etc.

I don't know that you have to avoid going out all together. If you feel you can handle it, then you shouldn't have to give up something that gives you so much pleasure. But, I would suggest really thinking about what foods or restaurants might be difficult for you to handle and avoiding those. Then think about what foods and restaurants would not be an issue. For example, pizza was a definite go-to for me when I was still having trouble. I was never much of a beer drinker and to me pizza goes with beer, so that was a non-issue food for me, having water there was no struggle or didn't give me any feelings of missing out or being let down. Beer I could take it or leave it. Wheras with sushi or certain fish, at the beginning I had very strong feelings/ideas that something was missing by not drinking.
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