Alcoholic - weigh loss trials

dialtone75

Hey gang, first time post. I've been using MFP for at least 3 years, going to the gym 3 days a week for 2 years. I have come to the realization that I am sabotaging my self with one simple thing: beer. I don't drink "heavy" beers but I drink at least a six pack of Miller Lite every day of the week. I go to work daily, am a great father, coach youth sports, and feel I am fairly successful. But I have been an alcoholic for almost 12 years. My diet has been focused around how can I eat healthy enough and exercise enough to allow me to still drink a lot of beer. I am trying to lose weight and gain muscle. But I am not losing any weight. I have enjoyed weight lifting and ran a few 5K races. But until I can get rid of this demon called beer, I am not going to get any healthier. I am stuck at 255 lbs even though I work very hard on my diet and exercise. Have any of you battled with this and can offer advice? I REALLY don't want to go to an AA meeting. I really want to change and need help getting over the craving and habit of drinking.

TavistockToad

Why do you REALLY not want to go to an AA meeting? I'm asking out of curiosity, that's all.

There are plenty of other therapies available, see you doctor.

In the meantime, try cutting back instead of going cold turkey.

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cmriverside

Yeah, talk to your doctor.

What's wrong with AA? You say you admit you're alcoholic. Why not go and find out how they did it?

wizzybeth

So what makes the six pack the magic number? What's to stop you from drinking 7 tomorrow night or 8? Or drinking just 5 today?

I also am curious as to why you resist going to AA. Is it because secretly deep down inside you don't want to give up any alcohol and all? Because you know with alcohol, if you are truly an alcoholic, there is no moderation. You either have to give it up or you continue and it gets worse and worse and then that six pack a day becomes eight ...ten... twelve...

Someone I know very well drinks almost a case of beer a day. He carries it in a travel coffee mug so people think he's drinking coffee until they smell him. He has no idea how much he reeks.

Personally I'm just thinking about the expense. I drink 1 to 3 bottles of wine a week sometimes... and when I stop and think about how much money I'm spending on alcohol it does make me slow down. I have cut back to where I probably only drink one bottle a week. And while I would like to cut that back... The thought of not having at least one glass of wine every night makes me sad LOL.

Can you possibly cut it back to one can of beer at night at the end of the day to kick back and enjoy? Why does it have to be a whole six-pack? I think the answer there in is your problem and why you are resisting going to AA.

TurtleTape

I've heard good things about SMART recovery if AA isn't for you and you want an IRL option. There's also just one-on-one therapy. I quit in October and didn't join any IRL groups, no slip-ups or anything on my end. If you really want to quit, find something to help you along. I went to the ER and left with some prescriptions, one of which was to help with the withdrawals(they can be very dangerous), then joined an online group.

Importantly: If you quit and start experiencing heart palpitations, high blood pressure, hallucinations, severe shakes, etc., get to the ER. There is no magic amount where you're at risk for dangerous withdrawals or safe from them, so keep an eye on yourself after you stop and pay attention to any symptoms.

88olds

Ok. I weighed 285lbs, HBP, CPAP, back pain, a seemingly permanent cough. As one of my friends said once, when I was wining and dining, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Big meals, surrounded by drinks, that was my favorite pastime. One day I faced up to the fact that I wasn’t going to control my eating as long as I was drinking.

I got the stationary bike out of the corner of the basement and parked it in front of the TV. When I got off of work, i went home and hit the bike in the basement instead of meeting the guys. It was strange. I went to an AA meeting, didn’t like it. I went to a therapist for a few months. It was OK. After making such a huge deal out of it, turned out drinking was just a bad habit. If you knew me when. Food wise I ate pretty much what I wanted. In about 18 months I lost about 65lbs with the only big change being not drinking. After i quit losing like that I eventually made other changes that got me down to under 185 lbs where I remain today.

I think of it as having to decide whether I wanted to eat or drink. I couldn’t do both. I picked eating. Nobody was more surprised by any of this than I was.

vingogly

There are several good alternatives to AA - see:

https://www.smartrecovery.org

You can join a local meeting if there is one, start a meeting, or attend one of their online meetings. SMART by the way has a higher success rate than AA and it is *not* a spiritually-based program. However, there are a lot more AA meetings around than SMART meetings. AA's success rate is no better than that of spontaneous remission (people just quitting on their own):

http://hams.cc/effective.pdf

The other alternative would be to find a therapist who works with substance abuse issues but that will likely cost money unless covered by your insurance. Both AA and SMART are free.

The keys to getting and staying sober are in my experience:

* Having support and accountability from others
* Having a context for social interactions other than drinking buddies
* Finding ways to spend your time other than drinking
* Really wanting to be sober more than you want to use your substance of choice
* Some can control their drinking, but many find they need to be 100% abstinent

AA is only one way to help with these goals. Here's an article that lists a few other alternatives:

https://www.soberrecovery.com/addiction/5-popular-alternatives-to-alcoholics-anonymous-2/

And by the way, I'm a mental health professional as well as former heavy drinker who hasn't had a drink since January, 1993. I went to meetings for about a year but found the 12 step nonsense and the insistence that you "work them", the belief that you have to self-label yourself as an "alcoholic" (a diagnosis not found in DSM, by the way), and the AA "fundamentalists" who treated the Big Book as their Bible intolerable. Find what works for you, AA, SMART, or some other path.

sweetsarahv

I’m so glad to see this post! I was going out and drinking 6 or 7 cocktails at my favorite bar almost every day after work! It’s still hard to leave and go to the gym now instead of indulging in my beloved Jim Beam, but I want to lose weight bad enough that it isn’t worth it. That being said...you can have A beer every night if you want! But if you really have trouble stopping there, I do suggest getting help somewhere. I thought I had a real problem, but it turns out I just was in such a blah place that it felt like I had nothing better to do with my time.
However you choose to deal with it, I hope everything works out!!! I bet you are mentally so much stronger than you even know.

dialtone75

Ok, so I survived. About day 4 I felt a little rough. I felt cold and weak. I was sitting in the gym and after I changed I felt like dog crap. I went home, took a nap, and felt better. Each day got easier. To help with sleep I took some melatonin or sleepy-time tea. I am now 3 weeks in and have had a couple beers here and there. But NO WHERE near what I was drinking. Weight loss rate increased, blood pressure is good, and resting heart rate is fantastic. So if anyone is struggling with this, please know it is possible and not as scary as Google would have you think. You literally have to take this battle one day at a time.

CourtneyUT

dialtone75 wrote: »

Ok, so I survived. About day 4 I felt a little rough. I felt cold and weak. I was sitting in the gym and after I changed I felt like dog crap. I went home, took a nap, and felt better. Each day got easier. To help with sleep I took some melatonin or sleepy-time tea. I am now 3 weeks in and have had a couple beers here and there. But NO WHERE near what I was drinking. Weight loss rate increased, blood pressure is good, and resting heart rate is fantastic. So if anyone is struggling with this, please know it is possible and not as scary as Google would have you think. You literally have to take this battle one day at a time.

Amazing! God bless you. Keep going!

rach3116

If you’re looking to stay sober....
My (6 years) sober husband quit cold turkey. He was a different type of alcoholic, he could go a week without but then would binge. He could even go a month, then binge, he could have 1-2 at dinner and be fine but then within another week or 2... binge. He went to 1 AA meeting and that helped him realize that he really was an addict. I think he went to a handful more, but it wasn’t for him either. He’s been successful without it. The hardest thing for him was loosing his past friends- since drinking was the main focus. Runningrob.com is his blog if you’re ever interested, he’s always happy to talk to others going through it.

Emeraldreign

dialtone75 wrote: »

Hey gang, first time post. I've been using MFP for at least 3 years, going to the gym 3 days a week for 2 years. I have come to the realization that I am sabotaging my self with one simple thing: beer. I don't drink "heavy" beers but I drink at least a six pack of Miller Lite every day of the week. I go to work daily, am a great father, coach youth sports, and feel I am fairly successful. But I have been an alcoholic for almost 12 years. My diet has been focused around how can I eat healthy enough and exercise enough to allow me to still drink a lot of beer. I am trying to lose weight and gain muscle. But I am not losing any weight. I have enjoyed weight lifting and ran a few 5K races. But until I can get rid of this demon called beer, I am not going to get any healthier. I am stuck at 255 lbs even though I work very hard on my diet and exercise. Have any of you battled with this and can offer advice? I REALLY don't want to go to an AA meeting. I really want to change and need help getting over the craving and habit of drinking.

ALWAYS CHECK WITH YOUR PRIMARY CARE DR. FIRST. You may need medication to help.

6 Beers for a week.
5 beers next week
4 beers 3rd week
3 beers 4th week
2 beers 5th week
1 beer 6th week

EspressoLvr

At some point, losing weight has to become more important than the beer. That's how I stopped drinking. I changed my priority. It was hard. There were tears. But I resisted and persisted and started reaching my goals.

saraonly9913

HAMS Harm Reduction For Alcohol offers a non-religious addiction help

JeromeBarry1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10638088/less-alcohol-february-2018-one-day-at-a-time

You might find this useful.

Evamutt

they have meetings called "Celebrate Recovery" which deals with all kinds of addictions, they usually meet at a church, it's awesome

goneundone

I skipped most of the thread to tell you about HAMS, look it up online. I don’t prescribe to the alcoholic/lifetime disease mindset. Plain and simple alcohol is a drug and people get addicted, like any other drug. Unfortunately society has romanticized it which makes it hard to quit for those who want to stop taking this drug. There are lots of resources for us that are not centered around AA! Please feel free to message me if you want to.

Edited to say that I read through the thread and I’m so happy some people have already told you about HAMS!

JaneQP

I am in AA except I traded my alcohol addiction for sugar and gained 40 pounds in 2 years. My liver enzymes are great but cholesterol hit 240! There is something called LifeRing you could look into if AA isn't for you.

tessr

New here.... Addicted to food and booze . Day one of this battle. That's been a life long struggle. I need to change something. So here I m. Being honest.

Unknown

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