Especially for UK people (or anyone lse for that matter)

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Herewego
Herewego Posts: 49
in Health and Weight Loss
I don't want to chock anyone in saying that it is only for UK people but I am addressing them specifically because I know that that might an issue that some of them also encounter.
I am French but living in the UK, and here we have this huge pub culture: a little glass of wine here with some friends, little phone call from a frinds asking to join her for a cocktail there.... Before you know it you have drunk a bottle of wine and you ar craving some food. Of course because you have drunk to much you have no will power an start to eat the house.

I have thought about cutting the wine out completly but I like a glass of wine from time to time (I am French after all) so after a too much to drink evening yesterday (complete with the munchie taking my calorie intake to 2200 cal for the day!!!! :mad: ) I have decided to give myslf a quota.

4 small glasses of wine / week (that is a bottle). I can organise as I want, if I have a bog party, well I can have that in the evening, the rest of the week will be diet coke. Or 1 glass from time to time up to 4 glasses in the whole week. For this purpose I am starting the week every Friday as it is normally my "going out" night.

What about you? How are you dealing with this? Do you refuse to go to the pub? order only a diet coke? only have a glass at home?
I don't know if it the US you have this same "pub" culture that is why I was particularly addressing to UK people.

HWG :happy:

Replies

  • Ellem86
    Ellem86 Posts: 204
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    Hi HWG, i am also suffering from our pub culture. What makes it even worse is that it's not just outside of work. If it's a nice day everyone wants to go to the pub for lunch, if it's a nice evening, everyone wants to go for drinks after work. If it's a nice weekend, all my friends want to go to the pub or hang out in the park with a few bottles of wine! It's also not helpful that everyone, including my boyfriend, gets a bit annoyed if I say i'm not drinking. I deal with it by entering food into my diary the night before, so if I know i'm going out, I can incorporate alcohol into my 1200 allowance or make sure I work out. If alcohol won't fit into my allowance or I can't work out, I just stick to the dreaded diet coke.

    Low cal alcoholic drinks are vodka with diet coke or slimline tonic, white wine spritzer using slimline tonic or diet lemonade and half pint of shandy using a light beer (e.g. corona) and diet lemonade. Nothing beats vodka as a low cal spirit though, I think it's only about 60 calories a shot.
  • nordens
    nordens Posts: 28 Member
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    I'm sure many in the UK feel your pain Herewego! Since joing MFP I have definitely gone to the pub less.....mainly as I am in the gym a lot more often these days! But on the days I do go to the pub with friends I make a point of doing an extra hard or long workout on the bike or in the gym and this goes a long way to nullifying the calorie intake of the beer. Plus if I've done hard exercise I feel much less inclined to drink as much as I would have done previously.
  • sophieshaped
    sophieshaped Posts: 228 Member
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    I drink Gin & Slims, which come in at about 55 cals. The good thing is you can sneak a plain Slimline tonic every now and again, without the 'why aren't you drinking?' questions. Plus I find I associate the flavour with gin anyway so I don't miss the gin that much!
  • lesley1981
    lesley1981 Posts: 329 Member
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    I wouldn't be much of a drinker (well, I was, but not anymore), so the pub culture thing doesn't bother me. I can quite easily go to the pub with my friends and just sip on water :smile: However, on nights that I am drinking I'll only have one or two Corona with lime, or some malibu with diet coke! :drinker:

    My boyfriend is a Buckfast drinker (classy, eh?) and could easily clear three bottles in one weekend! There's more calories in one bottle than there is in a McDonalds :tongue:
  • xXmimiXx
    xXmimiXx Posts: 564 Member
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    Hey!

    I know exactly what you mean. I love going out with my friends but the quick drink always turns in to two and if you do that 2 / 3 times a week that's over your cals by almost 50% it's not good but cutting it out all together it also hard because you don't get that enjoyment from sitting with your mates with a drink in the evening having a laugh. Sure you can do this with a soft drink but it is not the same really!!!! I have found myself not going out much to avoid this drinking! I like going out on the weekend sometimes but recently I've put it off because I know even if intend to drink eg 4 gin and soda waters ie 60 cals a go, I'll end up drinking more and probably deviating from my lowest cal alcholic drink and to top it all off probably getting the munchies at about 3am! Not good!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would like to give up drinking for a month or 3 - I sound like I dirnk a lot, I really don't just on the weekend like a bottle of wine or something but that probably makes me a binge drinker...oh dear you can't win!

    Mimi
  • little_miss_very_bad
    little_miss_very_bad Posts: 21 Member
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    Hi,

    I too have had this problem!! I no longer drink at home - unless it's a special occasion, and I dont drink a lunchtimes at work - I say that I have to drive so there's no point. When I do go on nights out etc, I try to save enough calories throughout the day for drinking, so I will eat say 700-1000 during the day and save 250-500 for drinking (my total for the day is 1200) - depending on how much I'm planning on drinking. I only drink vodka and diet coke which is 56 cals per drink (single), but I do find I get drunk quicker doing this, so end up drinking less anyway lol!!

    Good luck with it xx
  • happy_jax
    happy_jax Posts: 289 Member
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    To be honest, I am not much of a drinker, so find alcohol the easiest thing to cut out. (My opinion is why waste the calories on a bottle of wine, where I will be feeling vile the next day, when I can have a nice chunk of cheese...mmmm, cheese, now that I miss!!) But I do appreciate how hard it can be.

    Especially when you are out with work colleagues - that is my hardest time - as all my colleagues are REALLY heavy drinkers and the company is very generous on expenses!! I tend to do as the below...such a good tip, plus G&T's somehow even FEEL less bad for you...hehe, I'm sure they're not, maybe just as they're clear they seem "pure" hehe :happy:
    I drink Gin & Slims, which come in at about 55 cals. The good thing is you can sneak a plain Slimline tonic every now and again, without the 'why aren't you drinking?' questions. Plus I find I associate the flavour with gin anyway so I don't miss the gin that much!
  • Simplicity
    Simplicity Posts: 383 Member
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    I fail miserably. I figure that I'm best at not drinking anything unless it is a planned night out. I can't do 1 or 2, only several. So my way round is to have one really good time once in a while instead of my old ways of drinking anytime I had an excuse. I do find that partner and friends get dissapointed when I don't drink (weird?) and they don't understand that I can have just a good time not drinking. For instance tonight I am invitesd to a concert and after show drinks and food. I've decided that I'm not drinking already, but If i do decide too it will be my "night out" for the while and I will enjoy it.

    my honest advice to anyone is that I have 'managed' to go out every weekend and drink and continued to lose weight ....BUT! for a controlled much easier way of losing good fat and eating correctly it is simply much better not to drink at all.

    ps. I'm not calling alcohol bad and I do know that sometimes a glass of wine can improve weight loss. I just feel the weeks that I have not had it at all I feel so much more in control of what i am eating and so much better at explaining the weight that I am at. Alcohol is the reason i was over weight in the first place.
  • Herewego
    Herewego Posts: 49
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    To be honest, I am not much of a drinker, so find alcohol the easiest thing to cut out. (My opinion is why waste the calories on a bottle of wine, where I will be feeling vile the next day, when I can have a nice chunk of cheese...mmmm, cheese, now that I miss!!) But I do appreciate how hard it can be.

    The issue is: I love both: Cheese and wine............. and they go so well together (with bread of course)........... :tongue: Yep remember I am French.

    HWG :happy:
  • LotusF1ower
    LotusF1ower Posts: 1,259 Member
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    I don't want to chock anyone in saying that it is only for UK people but I am addressing them specifically because I know that that might an issue that some of them also encounter.
    I am French but living in the UK, and here we have this huge pub culture: a little glass of wine here with some friends, little phone call from a frinds asking to join her for a cocktail there.... Before you know it you have drunk a bottle of wine and you ar craving some food. Of course because you have drunk to much you have no will power an start to eat the house.

    I have thought about cutting the wine out completly but I like a glass of wine from time to time (I am French after all) so after a too much to drink evening yesterday (complete with the munchie taking my calorie intake to 2200 cal for the day!!!! :mad: ) I have decided to give myslf a quota.

    4 small glasses of wine / week (that is a bottle). I can organise as I want, if I have a bog party, well I can have that in the evening, the rest of the week will be diet coke. Or 1 glass from time to time up to 4 glasses in the whole week. For this purpose I am starting the week every Friday as it is normally my "going out" night.

    What about you? How are you dealing with this? Do you refuse to go to the pub? order only a diet coke? only have a glass at home?
    I don't know if it the US you have this same "pub" culture that is why I was particularly addressing to UK people.

    HWG :happy:

    I only drink on a Saturday or Sunday when we go out, once per week that is. I do not drink in the week anymore as I found it was nigh on impossible to shift any weight if I just kept drinking more in. I try to keep count of drinks I have on these nights (which are now wines instead of my vodka and diet cokes which I used to have), but I do not lose sleep over it and I do not sit there teetotal either - all those people around me getting tipsy and me sitting there sober as a judge is not my idea of fun :wink:
  • princessorchid
    princessorchid Posts: 198 Member
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    I wouldn't be much of a drinker (well, I was, but not anymore), so the pub culture thing doesn't bother me. I can quite easily go to the pub with my friends and just sip on water :smile: However, on nights that I am drinking I'll only have one or two Corona with lime, or some malibu with diet coke! :drinker:

    My boyfriend is a Buckfast drinker (classy, eh?) and could easily clear three bottles in one weekend! There's more calories in one bottle than there is in a McDonalds :tongue:

    Oh man, you sound just like me! I used to go out a lot more, especially when I was at uni (I went to St Andrews, a town with only 3 streets and 50+ pubs). I am now perfectly happy to drink just water at gigs, which we go to at least a couple a month usually. I do have the occasional blow out, but I'm totally over drinking for the sake of it now (whereas some of my friends drink to get pisht) - I'll only drink things I like the taste of! For me that's a couple glasses of Cairn o Mohr fruit wine (apple and elderberry are my favourites), single malts, and Canadian ice wine.

    My boyfriend used to drink a lot of Bucky as well, in fact I think he'd be ashamed to admit now he used to go through a bottle or so a day sometimes! It's so full of caffeine and sugar - he doesn't touch it now!
  • hdelamore
    hdelamore Posts: 206 Member
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    Hey, i don't know if this would be any help
    but if i go to the pub, i drive there and back
    then i can't have more than a glass =] x
  • supersarah14
    supersarah14 Posts: 170
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    LOL. We have the same thing in the US...called bar hopping. :laugh:

    And its the same process here...one friend calls and wants to go out, then another is at this other bar for a birthday and so on...before you know it you've had 6 drinks and have the munchies. What we tend to do here is go to a lot of fast food places and 24 hour Dinners.

    My trick is to always be the DD. I am always the driver...that way I never have more than one. And if I do have a drink it's going to be my favorite, which is usually a Guiness or a really good glass of red wine.

    It's important to still be able to have a good time out with your friends but still be in control. Limiting yourself to a few glasses a week is a great idea! :flowerforyou:

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