Solution to after-work beers

I work hard and my job is a little stressful, so like many people, I love a cold beer or two after a long hard day of work, especially if I have to grade papers after I get home. :-/ I exercise a lot, so it's not hard for me to fit a couple beers into my daily intake (and I just skip the evening snack that day). Two beers seems to be the magic number for me to relax without any hangover feeling or disturbed sleep. However, the problem is that after a couple beers, it's easy to reach for a third or fourth. Then bam! I'm over on calories and feeling sluggish the next day; not to mention, I often wake up in the middle of the night. Boo!

I recently stumbled on a solution. We had some beers from out of state that we haven't put in the fridge because we are savoring them. They are hard-to-get and we are big beer lovers in my house. After work, I put a couple in an ice bath (just water and ice in a big mixing bowl). It takes a little while for them to get cool, so even if I want to have a third beer after the second, there is no way I am going to drink a warm beer, and it would take too long to chill it down. From now on, I'm leaving my beer in the cabinet.

Hope this helps the other beer drinkers out there in MFP world trying to shed some pounds!