Hiatus from alcohol

neeterskeeter

I was just thinking, if I'm not sure whether I should quit drinking alcohol all together, or just watch my intake and make sure it's in moderation (see my other thread titled "alcohol"), maybe I should just try not drinking anything at all for like a month, and see if this helps me, both fitness-wide and mood-wise etc.

Has anyone else done this? What were the results?

Poison5119

Cutting back on drinking will help weight loss, no doubt.

I was just put on an anti-depressant, so giving up alcohol is pretty much a no-brainer for me. Trust me, I'm going to be watching the scale closely now.

neeterskeeter

Wow, good luck to you and let me know how it goes!

sw_in_victoria

I haven't done it but I intend to go dry for a month starting in mid-October (once my summer and early-fall vacation trips are over). Until then, I intend to watch my intake.

A friend of mine gave up alcohol altogether for about two months. He said he lost about 10 pounds. I didn't see him during that time so I don't know.

I personally think it's a great idea. Not only will you lose some weight, you'll save money too. Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

I'd be curious to know what your results are.

thinsky

I think that giving it all up is not a bad idea. I think that once you get over the not drinking social all the time and you are in control of the drinking. Then once in a while you could allow yourself a drink here and their, but you will always have to be on the look out for it taking the reins again. I know some people can do alchohol in moderation and that works for them, but other people can not. If stopping drinking is something that is important to you, then I think that giving it up for a while is not a bad thing and then reevaluate your self after that said amount of time and see if things are better in your life.

That is just my two sense and I know that a lot of people might say this is a lifestyle change and everything in moderation is fine, those people obvisouly do not have the addiction to alchocol that some of us have, and their is nothing wrong with that, we just need to be aware of our tendencies toward alchohol.

1Sweets

I gave up drinking for the most part. I was having 2 HUGE glasses every evening & sometimes refilling 1/2 way I guess bored & depressed. I now have more energy AND... don't have the food cravings that alcohol stimulates! My experience to you:flowerforyou: I'm glad I stopped. More calories for something else. Yum:laugh:

hopingforhealthy

I'm a twenty something who spends alot of time partying. I'd drink four nights of the week, most of the time, racking in up to 4,000 calories on beer alone.
I think my drinking was synonymous with my weight gain.

Once I realized how excessively I was consuming, I quit pretty much cold-turkey.

I've had a couple glasses of wine, and vodka and waters but, for the most part I've been dry.
And it feels great!

neeterskeeter

Thanks everyone. This is inspiring. I keep coming up with excuses. I am flying home and going to the beach with my family over labor day weekend. I cannot imagine a beach trip without alcohol. My sister and I drink a lot together!

But maybe that is part of my problem... feeling like I can't give it up and there's always some reason to drink it. Maybe this would be a good time to test it. I am really afraid to say that I will quit cold turkey and then not be able to and feel down and depressed about myself.

TByrd1325

I like to think of my weight gain in two parts:

Starting at 18 I started drinking... then heavily drinking. +20
20 : Pregnancy + 50

I gained 20 lbs in about a year - year in a half from binge drinking. (Which was also accompained my late night eating of garbage) I quit for a couple months before I got pregnant and lost 10-15 lbs(not sure exact) without exercise or a diet change.
It's rare that I drink now just because I will be hungover in the morning even after a couple beers. But especially now that I'm dieting, I'd rather save the extra calories for food.

You could always just try for a week not drinking. See how good it feels.

LivyJo

I think that if you are quitting drinking for reasons such as alcoholism, or want to take a cleansing periord for a month thats great. In my experience, anytime I have cut anything out of my diet because I am on a "diet" i tend to crave and crave and then go off the diet and over-indulge. My philosophy now is, anything in moderation is fine. I personally am changing my lifestyle, not just being on a diet for the time being. I need to learn NOW how to have a healthy balance of controled calorie intake and personal enjoyment and satisfaction. Because if I can't do it now, then when I do get to my ideal weight, I wont be able to maintain it.

I used to have a few beers (or Mike's - was my weakness) during the week, and over-indulge in alcohol every weekend. I now never drink during the week, unless its a special occasion (maybe once in a month) and balance my weekend drinking with lots of water so I do not over-consume, and drink low-calorie beverages. I also limit it to one night on the weekend, not 2 nights.

It works for me, and thats what is important. Find something that works for you! :drinker:

stephcheers

After my last baby (and 20 pounds over weight) I did not go back to drinking alcohol until I reached my goal weight, which took about 6 months. The biggest thing I can say about not drinking alcohol is that it is very empowering. I loved that I could go out with friends and family and have a great time without overeating or drinking empty calories. I felt very much in control and proud of how I was losing weight.

Now that I have a new goal to lose an additional 10 pounds...you've got me thinking about the alcohol I do drink now. Hmmmm?

neeterskeeter

Lots of great ideas! I think I will quit drinking for a week and see how it feels and I think that will spur me on to stop drinking mostly fod good except maybe on special occasions.

Steph I like the idea of not drinking until I hit my goal weight. Then maybe I won't want to drink at all after that, or, if I do, I will realize the power of moderation.

jlefton1212

I found that for myself, if I was trying to avoid something in a social situation, I would make my goals known and it was much easier to stick with it. As an example, last Thursday I was at happy hour for work and I ordered a water. Someone commented about me not drinking, and I simply said "I'm trying to be healthier, so I avoid drinking during the week." After that, not only was it not a big deal that I wasn't drinking, but I knew that everyone knew my goal so breaking down and having a beer wasn't an option.

I am sure that if you told your sister that you were trying to cut back, she might give you some support! Even if your goal is to have a glass of water between drinks, or to make one day of the long weekend an alcohol free day, I am sure if she knows that you are trying to cut back she'll make it easier for you.

BrendaLee

Give it up. You don't need it. Your liver has to work overtime every time you drink alcohol to try to rid your body of it. You'll be doing great things for your body if you just don't drink it.

1Sweets

I'm holding out to drink for special occasions. I too have drank so much that my husband thought I had a problem. Maybe I did. It was only 1-3 glasses a night:laugh: . But if I didn't have alcohol in the house I would Freak Out:sad: So that's gotta tell you something. I feel so good now. I just stopped cold turkey. I may have to stop my pain meds for my back. Really:flowerforyou:

I think alot of my weight issues have been from drinking then you need something salty with the drink then something sweet from the salty. etc etc. hahahhaha.

Good Luck Girl:laugh: Just

neeterskeeter

I found that for myself, if I was trying to avoid something in a social situation, I would make my goals known and it was much easier to stick with it. As an example, last Thursday I was at happy hour for work and I ordered a water. Someone commented about me not drinking, and I simply said "I'm trying to be healthier, so I avoid drinking during the week." After that, not only was it not a big deal that I wasn't drinking, but I knew that everyone knew my goal so breaking down and having a beer wasn't an option.

I am sure that if you told your sister that you were trying to cut back, she might give you some support! Even if your goal is to have a glass of water between drinks, or to make one day of the long weekend an alcohol free day, I am sure if she knows that you are trying to cut back she'll make it easier for you.

JLefton,

I think this is one of my biggest hurdles. If I were all by myself, I would be fine. But in social situations, all my friends drink, and lately I have tried to ease up and when I say no thanks they look at me like I have three heads, and they'll say things like "What's wrong with YOU?" I guess that just goes to show how often I drink and how often they drink! I know that my friends would be supportive of me if I decided not to drink at all, but then I feel like a spoilsport. I don't know why everyone cares whether or not I drink or not. I would like to be able to be fun without drinking but maybe I am boring when I don't drink and maybe they know that. :laugh:

My bigger problem is my co-workers, who are mainly my bosses. I just started working at my job two months ago and I think I started drinking too much because of our frequent happy hours. They come by my office maybe two times a week and ask if I'm ready to go downstairs and have a drink. In the past I always have and it is how in part I think I have managed to fit in very well here and learn a lot of the scoop about the firm etc. I could go down with them and just have a water but I think they would be offended. They would also probably be offended if I said no thanks and didn't go at all... so I could do something passive aggressive like always leaving early etc. Argh I don't know, I am bad at handling these situations and I guess a lot of my issues with alcohol stem from the fact that if it's around I feel obliged to drink it and be social and I think my bosses like that and would take it personally if I were to tell them I am not drinking... like I am saying something bad about them drinking or something, you know?

annerssju

I completely understand about friends/sister looking at you like you have 5 heads when you say no to a drink!! When I was pregnant, I can't tell you how many people said to me, "O looks like I lost my favorite drinking buddy!" I never realized how many people considered me their "drinking buddy" but it just didn't seem like a good thing to be to so many different people!! But I still hung out, and drank water and had lots of fun! I'll admit it was tough in the beginning, but it gets easier as you stick to it.

As for drinking with your bosses, I say you should probably still go to the happy hours, you don't want to offend, plus it will probably help you professionally to get to know them on a personal level. Just nurse your drink for as long as you can, or just see if you can sneakily get a diet coke and add a lime or something so they'll think you are drinking but you really aren't!! I used to drink sprite with lime when I was preggers just so I could feel like I was participating with everyone, I know it's weird but it worked for me and made me feel like I was in on the fun drinking!:drinker:

neeterskeeter

Those are all really good ideas, anners. I don't know how I would be sneaky at happy hour at the bar downstairs b/c the bosses know the bartender and seem to order more (strong) rounds before I even ask for another one!! Plus they pay for it, so I could tell them I would like mine to just be soda, but then my bosses would either see on the tab that it wasn't, or they would be paying for alcohol that I didn't drink! Ha ha. I think I will either have to nurse one drink slowly -- and even ask the bartender not to make it too strong, which they usually do -- or suck it up and tell my bosses I am not drinking but I would love to go have an iced tea with them, or something.

Ripgirl

I was just thinking, if I'm not sure whether I should quit drinking alcohol all together, or just watch my intake and make sure it's in moderation (see my other thread titled "alcohol"), maybe I should just try not drinking anything at all for like a month, and see if this helps me, both fitness-wide and mood-wise etc.

Has anyone else done this? What were the results?

I posted this on another board recently after becoming frustrated and searching for some information. I decided to give 'no alcohol' a go and see if it changes anything. Today is day #8 without a single sip of wine.... not noticing any differences yet other than the healthy notion that I haven't had anything to drink. Everyone is different.... give it a try and see what works for you - good luck!

---

I really like wine. A lot.
It seemed obvious why anyone would tell you to cut out alcohol when you're trying to lose weight (all those extra calories, sugar content, etc) so knowing that, I still felt ok having a glass of wine in the evening as long as I had the calories to spend according to MFP.

After a quick search I found the quote below. I'm not happy about it, but it probably explains - at least in part - why the fat is not coming off as quickly as I would have hoped/expected given the weeks of high intensity exercise and calorie watch. I'm going to try cutting it out completely for the next month and see if it makes the difference. I thought I'd share for any of you who may not be aware, or who are struggling with a plateau or the last 10-15lbs and can't think of anything else to do 'right'.

"Daily alcohol consumption will slow or stop your results. The drawbacks are probably going to far outweigh any health benefits. Your liver can't metabolize alcohol and fat at the same time. It will always get rid of the toxic substance (alcohol) first. That means that as long as there's alcohol in your system you won't be burning any body fat. If you have one or two drinks, you might stall your fat loss for a few hours. If you have quite a few drinks, it might be as long as four days before you're metabolizing fat again.

Drinking also dehydrates you, raises cortisol levels (goodbye muscles), raises estrogen levels (hello hips), lowers inhibitions (pizza anyone?). Combine that with the fact that alcohol promotes abdominal fat storage (of all places!) and it's really not worth it, not even on free day, not if you're serious about making a major transformation.

I personally don't drink alcohol at all. I'm way too freaky about my definition and nothing will wreck your abs faster. I know several women who have a few drinks once a week and they've still achieved their goals. I know other women who if they have even one drink a week can't lose that puffy lower belly or see any definition in their abs. Just how negative the impact is probably depends on your goals, age, activity level, metabolism, and a zillion other things.

If wine with dinner is part of your lifestyle, and you're not in any particular hurry to have abs like a cheese grater, you might experiment a little. See if you can have a glass of wine a few times a week and still be making progress. If it's really slow going, keep cutting back the number of drinks until you're satisfied with the level of your results. Of course, if you're wanting to radically transform yourself for a Body for Life challenge, or a tropical vacation, or a big date with a little black dress, forget the alcohol. It's the enemy. "

Bye, bye wine

Ripgirl

sorry - I see someone already shared that in your other thread 'alcohol'.
Stay strong!

barbiecat

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
There are so many more reasons for not drinking than there are for drinking.

Alcohol is all empty calories.

If you can't go without alcohol in order to improve your health, that might be a serious red flag that you have a problem with alcohol. And if you have a problem with alcohol than you shouldn't be drinking it.

Try it for a week and see what happens.
:bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile:

ppatter815

Most fitness gurus will tell you to go one month without alcohol. It gives you at time to get your body on track and helps with your "jump start" weight loss. After a month, you can add a glass of wine or a drink if you want. I believe Bob Greene, Oprah's trainer recommends this. Sometimes I need to add a few calories to get the minimum of 1200 so I add a glass of wine. I have just started back with the food diary but before my hand surgery, I had lost close to 10 pounds and that was with a glass or wine a several times a weeks. I would give it a few weeks at first. Sometimes, you just need a nice glass of wine with dinner.

shelltob

I totally understand the alcohol thing! I am in my 40's and my life is crazy and I like to relax with a beer or wine a couple - 3 days a week. I did stop drinking for lent and felt 100% better but I didn't lose weight, but I also have thyroid problems (another excuse?) As far as your boss' - co-workers maybe you can tell them you will go but cant drink due to medication. good luck

adopt4

maybe you can stick to a "64 calorie" beer and limit to 1 or 2? At least that wouldn't be as bad as regular beer or hard alcohol. That way, you are helping yourself with your calories and sugar intake, and reserving your calories for actual nutrition for your body, and yet still being able to go out in social situations where it is demanded. (By the way, that's very, very freakin' immature, to give anyone a hard time for not drinking.)

The picture might be a bit bigger than you think... are you developing a drinking problem? Best to cut it out and find it out now, before it's gotten any worse. You may not be, but there are indicators in what you've written that you "might", so it's worth exploring now.

Drinking because someone else says, "oh you have to, or it's no fun!" is not good. you have to look at that person and say, "seriously? you only like me when I'm drunk?" I drank a LOT in college due to peer pressure, and sure, I'm a lot of fun when I'm drunk...of course I'm funnier to everyone else when they're drunk too... but I learned a couple of things from that. One being if my friends are forcing me to drink, they're not really friends (learned that after nearly dying of alcohol poisoning). Friends will watch out for you and do what's best FOR YOU. I also learned that alcohol gave me an excuse to be goofy and silly, but in reality, I could be that goofy and silly and wild without the alcohol, I didn't need an excuse to do it!! I'm normally a very shy person so drinking let me "get out of my shell" without fear of being rejected, becuz I was drinking, so if they didn't like me, it could be blamed on the alcohol, you know?

I was a lot like you, drinking socially, from peer pressure, although I drank a LOT I didn't have an alcohol problem. When I finally realized I didn't even enjoy it, I stopped. Now I don't drink hardly ever, unless I want to and I'm in the mood - don't care what anyone else thinks. But my friends love it when I get in the mood, since I rarely do, makes it more of a party atmosphere! I still go out with my friends, I just don't drink, the side benefit being I"m also the designated driver so I can make sure my friends get home safely, and don't get into trouble if they drink too much.

foxyforce

i gave it up! starting last week...doin ok so far!

havingitall

Those are all really good ideas, anners. I don't know how I would be sneaky at happy hour at the bar downstairs b/c the bosses know the bartender and seem to order more (strong) rounds before I even ask for another one!! Plus they pay for it, so I could tell them I would like mine to just be soda, but then my bosses would either see on the tab that it wasn't, or they would be paying for alcohol that I didn't drink! Ha ha. I think I will either have to nurse one drink slowly -- and even ask the bartender not to make it too strong, which they usually do -- or suck it up and tell my bosses I am not drinking but I would love to go have an iced tea with them, or something.

Why would they be offended if you don't drink? Why don't you just honestly say you are trying to get healthier and prefer to have water or something like that. Anybody with half a brain would appreciate you wanting to be healthier and would encourage you to do that.

hasiangirl

i hate to say it...but i love having my drunken nights every so often.....i'm thinking of just stopping until i get to my goal weight and then learn how to drink so that i can maintain my goal (mind u i only drink about 2-3 times a month) but the munchies come after my drinking episode :laugh:

blondeheat

If I can remember to make myself, having a glass of water for each alcoholic drink is a great way to slow down consumption, get people used to see you with water and reduce the dehydration that comes with drinking.

I am trying to cut back - it can be hard in social situations. The best strategy for me has been to always have a drink in my hand (water, diet coke etc) Then I can easily say I'll have a beer once I am done with this - sometimes I am never done with the non alcoholic beverage.

neeterskeeter

sorry - I see someone already shared that in your other thread 'alcohol'.
Stay strong!

It's okay, I enjoyed hearing it from the source, and what your results are so far. Thanks for sharing. How long do you intend to stay dry?

I keep thinking it's okay to have some wine because of the health benefits. But then I try to get those same benefits from my clean diet, so, really, I am just making excuses to drink something.

I am interested in hearing your further results so please let me know, thanks!

SHBoss1673

I was just thinking, if I'm not sure whether I should quit drinking alcohol all together, or just watch my intake and make sure it's in moderation (see my other thread titled "alcohol"), maybe I should just try not drinking anything at all for like a month, and see if this helps me, both fitness-wide and mood-wise etc.

Has anyone else done this? What were the results?

When I was in college I would do this, mostly to confirm that I could be at a fraternity party and not NEED to drink (alcoholism is in my family) so I was scared that I would fall into that. But yeah, for what ever reason you do it, it's not a bad idea. Truely, now, I drink once ever 3 or 4 weeks, and I don't miss it at all. Even when I do drink, it's not usually more than 4 or 5 over a whole night. Which for a guy my size, isn't really all that much. Seriously, I never miss the alcohol, actually it's more fun watching others get stupid drunk and be able to remember them the next day.

neeterskeeter

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
There are so many more reasons for not drinking than there are for drinking.

Alcohol is all empty calories.

If you can't go without alcohol in order to improve your health, that might be a serious red flag that you have a problem with alcohol. And if you have a problem with alcohol than you shouldn't be drinking it.

Try it for a week and see what happens.
:bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile:

Well that about sums it all up, barbiecat. I am going to take your advice.