Anyone else gone off alcohol?

I used to have at least a couple of daily pints in the pub, stopped 1st Jan [New Year resolution], it was a struggle at first, but my appetite & general feeling better, plus my sleep patten has much improved, and lost weight over the same time

So, for me it has worked, and I can now go into pub and have a coffee whilst having same chats I used to have holding a pint

Just for "balance" - I started losing way before MFP - went from 17st 8 to 11st 10, drinking every Friday and sometimes Saturday too.

It can be done, just allow for you drink calories. That said, 2000Cals/day is a pretty drastic cut for me.

I'm having real problems with alcohol. Not like alcoholic type problems, just the pressure on me to drink often. It's never been a problem before I started counting calories but now I realise they've made up a big part of excess calories over the years. Go out to the pub? Friends buy you a drink. Friday night in with the boyfriend? Bottle of wine to celebrate the weekend. I don't enjoy myself as much if I don't have a drink anyway, because I'll be the sober one amongst loads of energetic drunk people and I just wanna go home. If it's with my boyfriend then he'll say I've got to have at least one otherwise he'd be drinking alone. Then there's my sister who every now and then will come round with a bottle of wine, and my dad who will bring me a few cans of cider in from the shop on a weekend when he comes up to visit. Alcohol is just everywhere for me and a lot of the time I feel obliged to drink and make merry or else be boring.

In the past I was lucky and able to drink quite heavily and it didn't effect me at all! But when I started my diet it was easy to cut out drink in favour of foods and as my diet went on I found that I was less able to handle my alcohol so i cut back even further and as I was reaching my target weight I started to have the occasional drink as a treat. I don't worry about alcohol and calorie content anymore as I've turned into such a lightweight and now I can only handle one drink! So my attitude has completely changed and that's probably not a bad thing!

I haven't drunk alcohol for a couple of months although it's not really because of dieting but rather that i've moved to a new area where I don't know many people yet and my partner is away for months so I don't want to be drinking empty calories on my own. :bigsmile:

Having said that though I don't miss it at all and I have found weight loss relatively easy whereas I have found it harder with drink in the past because drink tends to make me feel like snacking, plus I don't miss feeling groggy in the morning! I've never been a big drinker but when I do start again I intend to keep it to weekends only and cut the midweek bottles of beer that used to feature at times. I also exercise 5 to 6 days a week now and I don't think I could manage it if I felt hungover. :noway:

The fact I am limiting my alcohol, going low cal and low carb, is upsetting several of my friends, because when I visit they often invite me to a glass at their place. Granted, I am not much of a drinker, even social drinker, because I have always had a low tolerance, even though I have been allowed to drink since I was 14. I may have some moscato or a sweet Riesling with my dinner on the blue moon occasion, or try a shot of some new vodka or whiskey, but I also prefer to eat my calories, not drink them away.

I didn't move to wine Country to stop drinking it.

It's really a matter of whether I want to spend 2-300 cals on something that not only gives me less resistance to chockies, etc. but OR to have a filling pudding or snack. Most of the time its a no-brainer. However, we have always made Saturday special, with a bottle of wine between us, and where it used to be half and half, I now tend to have one and a bit glasses, and make sure I have been to the gym or been out for a walk to earn that treat! Occasionally I might have a half pint of beer, but I can make it last for ever - ditto an orange juice.
If you have an event coming up where wine/ drinks, is served, try to plan and visualise yourself refusing a drink, etc. Or try to think of a strategy that will avoid you being pushed to have another drink. Eg offer to pass round the nibbles - you can't hold a glass as well as two plates of nibbles!!
Good luck!

I've been trying to give it up for the time being. I love beer. Especially good, craft beer. I have always leaned toward binge drinker, but up until about 2 years ago, it never mattered. I only drank if my husband and I went out somewhere. With little kids, that was rare. I never drank at home, and we usually never even had beer in our fridge. Once we found a love for craft beer, we started buying it. And, since we no longer have a babysitter, we mostly enjoy beer at home. At first, it was only on a Friday or Saturday night. Then I started enjoying one or two during the week. I started supplementing with Yuengling Lite because it is low calorie and low alcohol, but I was just drinking more of them. When I realized I was drinking 'a few' multiple times a week, coupled with chasing the same 2 lbs for more than a month, I decided beer needs to mostly go. I had none during the week, last week. I even skipped a work-related happy hour to avoid it. I indulged on Friday night (high calorie craft brews, of course, so I was way over my daily cals), but I have abstained the rest of the weekend. Its a start. I do like sleeping better and feeling more alert in the morning. I was down those 2 lbs as of Friday. I'll weigh again next friday, and hopefully they won't be back and I'll be down a little bit more.

I was a 4-6 pints-per-week drinker for years (and mind you, those were Imperial pints, mostly), and I've basically given up alcohol. That helped immensely with the weight loss I must say. I thought it would be really hard because I LOVED beer, but personally, it wasn't that hard at all.

I definitely miss drinking way less than I like looking in the mirror and being happy with what I see.

I don't miss it, first week (6th jan) I was so bored at night I would go to bed early! I used to drink a few glasses of wine a night, my stomach is defiantly going ( lost 5inches in January) but I'm putting that down to diet and gym 3x week .

So true...bed early has been a weird reaction to my cutting out beer drinking. It is after all the reason why I shot up to 454 lbs, not hard when you average 4-6 a night.

Dec 31 2013 was my last any drink...31 pounds later its a no brainer. I am going on Disney cruise with my family in March, plan on a couple then...next time my annual fishing trip in May. I think if I hold it to these special events then it wont hurt my progress overall.

I've never been a big drinker, so I don't see much point. I figure it can't hurt me if I already do it so rarely (usually I go months without it, and when I 'stock up' I don't have it more than every few weeks). I've started using wine in cooking though, just as I started eating better, and still been losing weight and feeling good. So it's not that alcohol is bad. It's just important to keep it in moderation. If you can't do that then I do think it's good to cut it out.

That said, if you cut it out, then reintroduce it, you may gain a lot of the 'beer belly' back. If you don't want to cut it out forever, maybe instead teach yourself to take it in moderation
Also, I highly recommend upping your caloric intake! 1200 is too low for most people. Unless your doctor or nutritionist is telling you to eat that low, you're probably better off eating at least 1400. To which you may be able to fit in an occasional drink!

I'm going to try to cut way down starting this week. I really blew it this past weekend because of a stressful Thursday. I had a few margaritas. Then on Friday, a friend came over whom I haven't seen in a long time so we drank a lot. Then yesterday I didn't feel like exercising and went way over my calorie goal for the day. So starting this week I'm going to try to drink only once every other week. My bf wanted me to drink with him today but I didn't. It would be a lot easier if he was willing to cut down too.