Christmas Weight Loss / Sobriety Challenge

I'm limiting calories, which means making choices about what to drop. Wine seemed like a good candidate, especially on those days when I'm feeling hungry and really would prefer another serving of soup or vegetables to fill up with, instead of a glass of wine. When I'm with other people who are enjoying a glass in the evening, I mix a little unsweetened sour cherry juice in some soda water in a wine glass. I like the taste, and it's convivial. A nice side-effect is that I'm sleeping MUCH better. I'm looking forward to finding out what our neighborhood's annual New Year's Eve gathering will be like stone cold sober. No hangover the next morning? I can play music and sing until 2am without starting to sound like a donkey? (I listened to a friend's smartphone recording after last year's bash: Yikes. Drunk people sing out of tune.)

Also, I can save a ton of money on wine purchases. Instead of grocery-store wine every night, I can buy a really nice bottle for very occasional indulgence.

My personal Step One every time I start losing weight is to severely limit, if not eliminate, alcohol. It's not just the calories in the booze, it's the fact that after a couple glasses of wine I want half a pizza, or other inappropriate food items. I did pretty well in November... I recommend Thanksgiving dinner with Baptists for cutting alcohol consumption!... and I have strategies for handling the three Christmas parties I know I have to go to. One of the rules I've stuck to over the past 15+ years is "no drinking anyplace you don't intend to sleep", so that cuts out office parties, etc. Was that a hard decision to make? Nope... my friend's husband got pulled over for DUI and I saw first-hand the problems it caused him, so I swore off away-from-home drinking on the spot. Good luck to all who are cutting way back on the vino this holiday season; I'm with you all the way!

I having been cutting my drinking down a lot lately, but I do truly enjoy having a cocktail with friends and/or family. That being said, I have multiple events each week through Christmas and I am planning on picking one each week to drink at instead of all of them. Seems like good compromise. I was just discussing this with a co-worker this morning, so the plan is in place. Now I just need to follow it.

Buy some sparkling juice for yourself. I have a pear one that comes in a wine type bottle. If you plan for just one, it won't make you want a bunch more like wine would plus it still looks like you're having something.

Great idea - I would love to join you and give up all alcohol beverages for the rest of this year. I have 50 pounds to lose and just like I didn't realize how much I was eating (portion size), I bet my alcohol portions are larger than I think also. My goal is to lose 12 pounds by January 1. If I meet that goal I will keep doing the same until I lose all of the weight. Good luck everyone.

I have not had alcohol for 5 weeks now and intend to keep it that way. My weight has stabilised and no more eating the entire contents of kitchen after a few drinks even had a night out on the town and put myself as designated driver just to make sure I wasn't tempted. Christmas will be hard as all my family drink but it feels good not to... x

Ummm okay I'll start tomorrow. Had a horrifying experience at work today. Cannot unsee what has been seen. Not enough eye bleach, cannot cut out my heart.

Not me, but a very close buddy.

He has wrestled with weight for almost as long as I have known him (16-17 years). Much of that time he has also wrestled with alcohol and , from a variety of sources, I know that alcohol has been an issue for him sporadically for many many years. This last summer he was diagnosed with Diabetes Type 2, so things have gotten more objective and urgent.This is what seems to work for him.

I make him talk to me about the strategy he ( emphasis, he, not someone else) has thought up about how he is going to handle food or alcohol in a given situation. For him, articulating, out loud and exploring the details in advance seems to work.

For him, open bars at a party are a lure. Sometimes he gets someone else to get him drinks so he doesn't get near the bar, sometimes he abstains, sometimes he sticks only to one type of drink and religiously alternates it with something non alcoholic like club soda with a lime etc.

He and his wife often go on cruises. You can buy packages of booze, wine, champagne, soft drinks, etc . This year he has bought the soft drink package. He intends to only spend accumulated "frequent cruiser" points and no cash for alcohol and will limit it to a specific type. He's cheap that way; he will do that.

With the DM, he is good about his blood sugar numbers and has been experimenting how alcohol affects the numbers. What he has found is that a tolerable amount of gin requires mixers etc that make it an unacceptable item. Also, he said it was too much work for the pleasure. So, no more gin even though he has been a double martini guy with extra olives for as long as I have known him.

However, the same volume of scotch is more satisfying to him, doesn't need the mixers ( or work) and doesn't mess with his sugar numbers. Thus his cocktail will be Scotch, probably single malt on the theory that a lesser amount of something real good is better than a large amount of ordinary booze.


My point is that he is approaching this coolly, not in the heat of the moment, knows what his self imposed limit will be and what behavior he needs to do to accomplish it. All this is haooening long before he get near a party or a bar.

All of these are strategies he has thought up himself. Not me. Not his wife. Not his doc. My role as friend is to cheerlead. (Go, Go, Louie Shoe!!)

Your mileage not only may, but will, vary. No big deal.

Oh yeah, at the end of June he was 240. Yesterday he was 195. He is 69.