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Welcome to day 19 of your mindful drinking audio advent here on the Mindful Drinking and Moderation in Midlife podcast. Today we're talking about being prepared. It is Friday, the 19th of December, and pretty much all the corporate style work dues are done by now, all the office-based ones. Of course, if you're working in different areas, you might still be having your due. I remember working in hospitality. We had our Christmas due in January because we had to work and serve everybody else. So for the majority of you, we're now heading into the time where the focus shifts mostly to family and having family come and visit, you go into see them, time at home. Hopefully, between the work dues and the family dues, you'll have a bit of downtime for yourself. It's so important. You need to rest to recuperate to recharge your batteries. Now, nothing derails your good intentions of doing that faster than being unprepared. You've made the decision that you're uh drinking differently this Christmas season. You've done lots of hard work when you've been out, you've managed to use some of your personal guide rails to drink the way that serves you best. And then for these last few days, you're at home and you want to relax and treat yourself with some lovely drinks. And you go to the fridge, and all you've got in there is your usual full strength beers, wines on your shelves or all your full strength spirits. Now, don't worry, I'm not about to say you have to throw them all out. Again, you do as you wish when it comes to choosing to drink full strength or low-no. But if you do want to incorporate regular low-no and light drinking into your lifestyle at home, the best thing that you can do for yourself is to be prepared and to stock up the fridge. Because when your fridge is full of good options, when you've thought ahead, when you've got yourself set up to succeed, that's when these moments stop feeling like uh a constant struggle and a constant battle. And they're just an easy choice that you're genuinely happy to make. So have options. I've mentioned before there is a lot to explore, there's e lots of things that you can grab in your local supermarket. They all now have designated uh blue zones. Uh, I don't I still don't know why they're blue because I keep thinking of like uh an old lady's blue rinse, which I know ages me, but still. Um, but they all have dedicated blue zones, which are their um low-no areas where you can find alcohol-free versions of your favorite types of drinks. Don't limit yourself to just one or two products that you'll soon get bored of, okay? Try a few different things because also you might not like the one or two that you get, and I don't want you to be put off because you've tried two drinks that you don't like and think that oh, there's not much else out there. Um, I was likening it to uh pizza or uh a burger at a restaurant. You know, if you have a bad one, it doesn't mean that you never eat pizzas or burgers again, it just means that you perhaps don't go back to that restaurant or you don't order that topic. The other thing is to stock up your areas, your drinks, areas at home, like you would find in a bar, or at the very least, the same way you stock it up for your full strength drinks. So, for example, if you like making cocktails at home, make sure you've got all of your equipment. Make sure you've got your shakers and your porers and your stirrers and everything. Make sure you've got some nice glassware so you're not just pouring your alcohol-free wine into some purple IKEA kids' cup that you know, we've we've all got those in the cupboard. Um, make sure you've got some good ice. Ice is really important, and it might not sound like it is, but it is. You want good quality, large, chunky ice that fills the glass so that it doesn't dilute too quickly and turn your drink watery. Uh, and lovely garnishes, you know, making sure that you've got a nice slice of orange or lemon or a twist. Of course, if you're not into doing that kind of thing, just making sure that you've made it as easy and simple as possible for you to have something that you like. A single nice glass that's your special drink glass, uh, and making sure that your drinks are always chilled so that it can be served as they will be best presented. Uh, and prep now. Don't wait any longer. We're it's the 19th of December today, to make sure that you've got enough drinks in for the Christmas period. Make sure that you get your orders because a lot of the online retailers, which I highly recommend that you do check out, places like Wise Bartender, of course, Dry Drinker, the Alcohol Free Drinks Co., Mid Strength Drinks. Um, I'll list all of those in the show notes for you as well. Don't worry about um writing them all down. Um, a lot of those will be having their final delivery days uh today or soon. So make sure that you get in a few drinks that you can enjoy. Now, if you go to today's day on the Mindful Drinking Advent email, you'll see a list of all of those online retailers that I've just mentioned, plus uh I think three or four more, plus a few from outside the UK as well for my US listeners. So you can find some places to go and get yourself a great selection of alcohol free, low, no, or light drinks to enjoy for the rest of Christmas. I will see you tomorrow for day 20. And until then, say it with me cheers to a Christmas less intoxicated.