Coldfusion

My wife and I are totally addicted to seltzer water with lime since we quit drinking alcohol.

We quit drinking almost two years ago, just when our county started monthly curbside recycling. It would have been difficult, and embarrassing, to put out all those wine bottles--but the seltzer bottles crush easily and a month's worth fits in the recycling containers.

There was a bit of a problem a few months ago when something happened to the lime crop. Limes went from 39¢ to $1.79, so we had to switch to lemons. But that situation has improved.

Meraviglioso

Me too, exactly like this with the water and used to be with the wine.

FeenixxRising

Yes, and we would find ourselves dead in a matter of days

jezza

That's really interesting as I have always been a big drinker of tea, coffee even before I started alcohol.. Permanently dehydrated maybe?? hhmmmm this calls for some research.. Fed up of running to the loo every 2 minutes!!!

FeenixxRising

Same here, I was a hard core coffee drinker long before I developed a drinking problem. I've actually decreased my coffee consumption a little since I quit drinking.

newman23

Much better then booze! For me it's been diet soda. You ever see the movie "Stir of Echos" with Kevin Bacon, with the scene where he opens up the fridge and it's just stocked full of orange juice? It's kinda like that for me when there is a good sale on the stuff hahaha

MyTime86

I'm the same way, I chug water when I'm at parties. It's just my nervous energy I guess but I stay sober , I spend half that time in the bathroom but whatever works

awholenewlife52

I absolutely love sparkling water too and I drink rather a lot of it. I enjoy plain water too but sparkling just feels a bit more special and rings the changes a bit from sticking with plain water all the time. I'm not a great lover of coca cola, lemonade and so on, and if I ever do take those it is always the diet versions, I find the non-diet ones too sweet.

Something to watch out for with sparkling water......it was in one of the newspapers here in the UK recently that some brands of sparkling water contain sodium, so if you were drinking a lot of those you'd be consuming a lot of salt. This made me go and check the brand I drink and it doesn't contain sodium. Just something to watch out for.

Croissant

I used to drink a lot of sparkling mineral water - no sodium.

Now I drink mainly water, and sparkling mineral water is more like a treat with dinner. Which I actually love and look forward to.

My main concern with any other sodas, is sugar and colourings - switching from an alcohol addiction to a sugar addiction is quite easy, so maybe at least break up flavoured sodas with water in between, if you aren't ready to eliminate completely. Or water down with sparkling water.

I ocassionally - maybe once every 2 months, grab a bottle of diet something, but even then, it's only one or two glasses. Those chemicals are evil and basically still make you crave sugar anyway.

Spinach

Maybe your wife is pointing out you seem very thirsty and worrying if your showing signs of diabetes?
I needed to drink volumes of liquid to replace the habit but that wore off after three or four months.
John.

FeelingGreat

I always drank a lot, fast, possibly through nervousness. This is why I order a pint glass of soda water up front when I'm out.

MrBen

Pepsi Max. Pepsi Max. Pepsi Max. Massively addicted. I need to quit before it messes up my teeth. All that caffeine doesn't help my sleeping issues either.

Sometimes I drink diet coke, but for me that's the pop equivalent of drinking warm tesco brand lager while in the desperate throes of withdrawal.

Thepatman

When I come home from work, I chug a bottle of sparkling and feel the burn.

Another member once said something similar and I found it resonated with me, I need to feel that burn! LOL!

Pondlady

When I was in early sobriety, I was pretty focused on what non alcoholic drink I could have. Over time, I've become more relaxed and rarely think about it anymore.

ccam1973

Had to quote thepatman. I do the same thing, have to feel the burn. Drink flavored carbonated water as quickly as i chugged my beer; got to feel the burn!

Started on diet soda couple weeks ago but ended up drinking about 30 diet cokes last Sunday. Giving that a break, now back to massive amounts of my flavored carbonated H2O.

JD4010

There's a local company that makes "real" soda pop for this area. Their ginger brew has real ginger in it, and is sweetened with local honey. The root beer is actually an herbal concoction, again with honey. They have a fine cherry soda, made from cherries instead of some kind of extract. Freaking yummy!

Some local bars have it on tap. It's a little spendy, but well worth it. The sodas are made to be sipped like a drink, so you can belly up to the bar and be part of the crowd!

Alphabet

My only problem now is that I don't have a lemon tree in my backyard!! I go through probably 5 in a day with all the iced tea and seltzer I drink!

Tip: Polar blueberry lemonade seltzer + half a lemon + ice = SO GOOD

Soberpotamus

Sounds a little like what I did with seltzer and coffee. This really shouldn't be a problem.

I went to Diet Coke for a while, and coffee... then dropped the Diet Coke for seltzer. After several months I cut back to about 4 cups of coffee max per day. I drink seltzer if we have it on hand.

My husband makes comments that annoy me. He used to make comments more until I attempted to educate him on how it's a MUCH better habit than wine drinking. I reminded him to be thankful that I'm no longer sneaking out to get two bottles of wine.

I don't think non-addicts will ever truly "get it" and that's ok.

Soberpotamus

Yep, same here

VikingGF

EXACTLY!!!! What I do now and what I did then. At least we are consistent, Lola!