Wine o’clock isn’t a time. It’s a feeling. It’s usually at the end of a stressful workday or week when the feeling creeps in as you walk to your kitchen fridge. You reach for that chilled, dark green bottle with black liquid inside. But of course, you know it’s a luscious red, and you’re excited to unravel it and pour yourself a glass.
The cork makes a popping sound you can almost taste. You let the wine breathe. A few seconds past feels like an hour when you’re eager for the taste. You decant, you sniff, you swirl the wine glass until the liquid paints the inside of your glass with beautiful crimson. Then, you give in to the urge. You drink. A little at first, and then a lot. And we mean, a lot!
The invigoration makes you say, “Ah, nothing beats wine o’clock.”
Wine o’clock is a feeling that’s been given a proper time. Perhaps a period within a week or a day. And when you make time for something, it becomes a habit over time.
Habits can feel good, but that doesn’t mean it is good. And when health is a concern, it’s something we must pause and look into. So, let’s stare the wine o’clock habit in the eye for a moment to check what it’s doing to our body.
Is Drinking Wine Frequently Really Good for You?
Some of us may rejoice in the fact that even the Bible has “drink your wine with a merry heart” written in one of its pages. We happily oblige. We drink that wine because it’s doing us good. And it does feel good. But perhaps we’re drinking past the “merry heart” threshold.
We’re not discrediting the benefits of a little wine here and there. The resveratrol and the antioxidants will do your body good. But making it a habit to drink wine and much more a habit that spans years will make you wonder if it’s still giving you the benefits it should give. It doesn’t. Over time you’ll develop the following.
High blood pressure
Drinking wine in the short term will cause a rise in your blood pressure. On the other hand, drinking wine frequently becomes a risk factor for hypertension of a permanent kind. Apart from that, the calories in wine will add to your weight and increase your risk of heart disease.
Liver Cirrhosis
Your liver may scar as a result of habitual wine drinking, and it’s called liver cirrhosis. This scarring will inhibit the blood flow. It will also impair the liver from processing the nutrients and toxins in your body. Severe cases of liver cirrhosis to liver failure may have complications such as liver cancer.
Cardiomyopathy
One common heart disease of a habitual wine drinker is cardiomyopathy. This disease stiffens your heart’s muscles and will make it difficult to pump blood throughout your body’s organs. The hardening of the heart’s muscles may eventually cause heart failure.
Cancer
Healthy cells multiply, damaged cells die. That’s how your body should work when it comes to cell regeneration. Cancer happens when the cells that are damaged multiply instead of dying out. These abnormal cells can continue to add until they become a tumor that you can touch. Unfortunately, there are no cures for cancer, and treatment can be challenging.
Cultivating a wine habit for a long period can lead to the aforementioned illnesses. So the question now is, how do you know if you’re an occasional drinker or have a bad wine habit?
Symptoms of a Bad Wine Habit
It won’t be easy to see our habits if we’re the ones doing it. Habits have a way of going on autopilot. And we don’t examine them until we sit down and assess the actions we’ve done in the past. So try to recall if you’ve exhibited these behaviors in the past.
Looking forward to your next drink
You’re wondering how much longer will it be until you get to open a bottle and pour yourself a drink. You may have even pictured it in your head to compensate for the craving.
Wanting to drink after waking up
Wine is in your mind the moment you open your eyes. You can go so far as to reach for the bottle of wine and take a sip straight from the bottle before you even do your daily routine. You need a hit before you can function.
You try to hide it
It came to a point when someone you know has noticed you buying several bottles of the cabernet sauvignon at the local neighborhood mart—perhaps one too many times that you’ve become ashamed and try to hide it.
You fight your friends or loved ones when they bring it up
A loved one has brought up how there’s always a fresh bottle of pinot or merlot in the fridge. Naturally, you get angry and tell that loved one off. Perhaps, a different scenario happened with others, but your reaction to it stays the same—you get mad that they’re in your business. This may be a sign of defensiveness and denial regarding your bad wine habits, and it’s costing you your most important interpersonal relationships.
The bottle count increases
It started out with just one glass of wine a few years ago. Now you’re downing three bottles of wine every day, and you didn’t even notice how it got this far. Over time, you just feel one glass isn’t hitting the spot anymore, so you get another glass, and then another until the right level of buzz hits you.
How to Get Out of the Bad Wine Habit With Compassion to Self
If you can see your past actions matching any or several of these scenarios, you may have a bad wine habit. The next logical step you must take is to change it. But you don’t just go cold turkey, as you may get a bad case of wine withdrawal. The only way to do it is with Karviva and compassion.
Accept you have a bad wine habit
The first step to change is always acceptance. The symptoms of increased tolerance, intense cravings, and worsened relationships will remain unchanged until you acknowledge the problem; it’s you turning wine o’clock into a 24-hour event. It’s going to be a tough truth pill, but be kind to yourself. Crush the pill of truth and dilute it into the liquid of compassion.
Take it slow
Once you’ve accepted your habit, it’s time to change it, but go easy on yourself. Getting out of any bad habit takes a process. You must understand that failing forward is part of the process, so don’t beat yourself up when you relapse. As long as you keep trying, you’re doing okay.
Talk to your friends and loved ones about it
If your bad wine o’clock sessions have affected your relationship with your friends and loved ones, it’s a good idea to talk to them about it. Start being honest with yourself, and then talk to them about how you’re trying to get out of the wine habit. If they care about you like they did when you were still in the thick of that habit, they’ll support you. Surround yourself with these people and avoid peers who are likely to make you relapse.
Meditate when you feel the urge
The concept of riding your urge instead of resisting them is a form of mindfulness meditation. It’s called urge surfing. When you feel the craving for wine, you often think in black and white: either give in or resist. If you resist the urge, it will persist. There will be another moment where you’ll crave wine, and it will be more intense.
Instead, try to surf your urge. Acknowledge the urge. Envision yourself surfing it like a wave knowing full well that it will have a peak and a flat moment, and you’re just riding it smoothly.
Find a healthy, compassionate substitute
Habits stick. That’s why it’s difficult to get out of them. Have more self-compassion: instead of trying to eliminate the habit, change the object of the habit instead. You can do that by replacing wine with an alcohol-free wine substitute.
There is a healthy product that you can consume that looks exactly like wine, but without the guilt and bad consequences. The name of the healthy drink is Karviva Unwined by Karviva.
Your Good Wine Habit: Karviva Unwined
It is amazing to have something pleasurable without guilt in the end. But it is truly elating to have pleasure with good consequences for your body and mind. That’s what Karviva Unwined is offering. A good wine habit, minus the actual wine. Here’s what makes it such an awesome non-alcoholic drink to replace your wine o’clock sessions.
Gluten-free
People with celiac disease will be able to enjoy this nutritious wine-like drink. They won’t get any allergies and will enjoy the full benefits of this super-healthy drink.
Only 80 calories
A glass full of wine will amount to about 250 milliliters, and it will serve you 228 calories. That’s more than a bag of chips you’re going to need to burn. The Karviva Unwined serves 360ml per bottle or an equivalent of 12 fl oz. It only has 80 calories of rich nutrients.
Non-GMO
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are developed to make food larger and products last longer. But these food ingredients can link to cancer and resistance to antibiotics. It can also aggravate allergic reactions and create new ones. Karviva Unwined will make sure those bad stuff are not in the drink’s ingredients.
Premium ingredients
The ingredients used to concoct the Karviva Unwined are made of superfoods such as Aronia berry, dark cherry, Schisandra berry, mulberry, and pear—fruits and herbs that will make anyone look and feel healthy from inside-out.
Infused with adaptogens
The stress-relieving feeling of the real wine is brought into the Karviva Unwined in a new way through adaptogens. It will calm your mind and give you a healthy heart.
Changing the Wine O’Clock Habit With Unwined
A bad wine habit is like an unpleasant picture on a wall that you got comfortable staring at. You keep it there because you’re used to seeing it, and removing it feels weird. But you know, at some point, the picture will have served its function. So when it does, what will you do?
Instead of removing it right away, change it with something pleasant. The same goes for your wine drinking habit. Now, go back to the picture we painted when we started this article. But instead of taking out a bottle of wine, you’re going to take out the Karviva Unwined. Picture sniffing a smoky bouquet and drinking it like you’re drinking health and long life. No more aching heads and hangovers. And don’t forget to say the line “Ah, nothing beats Unwined o’clock.”
Get more compassion into your life. There are more one-of-a-kind drinks from Karviva that enrich your life. Every plant-based bottle gives clean protein, antioxidants, and sustained energy, restoring your health and well-being. See what’s in store for you here.
