Alcohol

catscats222 wrote: »

cut down to once a week?

this - and have a glass of water with every drink you do have - you won't be able to drink as fast, and you will not get as dehydrated...

Keapix wrote: »

It's probably a bit of an acquired taste, but I'm also a margarita fan and have switched over to tequila, soda water and lime.

That'd be a Tequila Rickey. Rickeys are pretty good cocktails, if you don't want to drink the spirit neat.


@OP: If you want to drink less, then just drink less. As far as hangovers, just drink a lot more water. I've never had a hangover, because I always drink a lot of water if I have alcohol.

As far as the empty calories in mixed drinks, I prefer to have my liquor neat. If I want a cocktail, but don't want a ton of calories, then I usually just order (or make) a Gin Rickey. I like to sweeten mine with about a teaspoon of simple syrup (to cut the lime juice), but they are perfectly fine without any sugar.

Water, with a twist of lemon....

I cut it out completely for November. did that last January and what a difference.

Log, Log, Log Everything...and don't cheat on your log. Keep your goal in mind. Once I started to log my drinks, it was easy to realize how many wasted (excuse the pun) calories I was consuming. Sometimes 1-2 days worth of calories in one night of drinks.

I began by limiting myself to only drinking on the weekends. I started drinking water in between and I cut out "regular" drinks, like the beers I always had when I mow the yard. These things helped tremendously. My next goal was to only drink 2 weekends a month, which I eventually extended to one. Then I limited myself on that weekend to only one day of the weekend. On the day that I choose to drink, I spend double time exercising to give me a little leeway.

Reducing the high calorie sugary mixers will definitely help. Let those whom you drink with know about your goal so they will not pressure you into having "just one more". You may want to also only drink your favorite margaritas on "Mexican night" and have Mexican for dinner once or twice a month.

I feel that logging and limited drinking contributed the most to my weight loss. After losing almost 60 lbs, I feel better, am healthier, and don't miss the regular consumption of alcohol. I now reward myself with a good drink or two when I hit certain weight goals. This makes me work even harder for that drink and makes the drink all the more pleasurable. I set my interim goals a bit high and found that I drink about once every few months.

Good luck!!

PS: Log and Keep your goal in mind.

Op, I was a pretty heavy drinker before I started dieting. I don't know how I pulled through it cold turkey but I did.

Whenever I had a craving I just remembered of how sick I felt the next day and I questioned myself as to why I was drinking in the first place. Truth is I still don't know why I was drinking, I guess I like the taste of wine and beer. I wasn't sad or depressed, maybe a little bored?

Find some distractions, I found some new distractions like a new tv show to binge, some video games, something to keep your mind off it if you're like me and drinking because you're bored.

Whatever the reason is you drink you gotta find something that works for you (I don't believe in cutting anything out of your life permanently though so I wouldn't say stop drinking all together, that's just not a realistic goal, I have a cruise coming up in January and there will be lots of drinking happening that week.)