Anyone else work in the food/beverage industry?

thelovelyLIZ
thelovelyLIZ Posts: 1,227 Member
edited December 2 in Health and Weight Loss
Hey all,

I'm back here at MFP after gaining back the weight I lost due to a year of shifting priorities and other things. Nothing bad, but I know it's time to get back on the wagon!

The issue- I work in the craft beer industry and have several media creation side project also involving the liquor industry. My boyfriend also works in wine, so as you can imagine we have a lot of alcohol around our house! The thing is I know this is hindering my weight loss. It's becoming increasingly clear to me I can't outrun my fork, and I think one of the main hindrances is honestly the fact that I just love beer!

Obviously I can't just quit drinking. I'm working on cutting back, but because my job involves alcohol, sometimes drinking is literally part of it. I'm curious how other people who might work in the food and beverage industry have dealt with this? My lifestyle and career were completely different last time I lost weight, and I'm having trouble reapplying it in my current situation. I'm extremely active- I work on my feet all day moving around beer boxes, and do aerial dance twice and week and also try and get in 2-3 runs a week. But I just can't seem to get my eating and calorie intake on track for more than a few days at a time.

Replies

  • RosieRose7673
    RosieRose7673 Posts: 438 Member
    edited June 2016
    I worked in the restaurant industry for about 8 years. I didn't really watch what I ate or drank during that time. I just worked out every so often and made a half assed effort to watch what I was eating.

    That was a few years ago. I gained and lost weight since then. However, my boyfriend does manage a wine and cheese bar currently. He always brings home stuff. I always ask him to bring home dry red wine. It takes me a while to drink that as opposed to some sweeter chilled white wine. The dryness helps me not want to drink it fast/have another. I don't know if you have cheese to go with the wine, but I always go for a REALLY strong tasting cheese that I can only eat a few bites of.

    As for beer, maybe go for the really dark heavy beers. Those may be higher in calories but often I don't drink it too quickly and want another.

    Also, you seem to be very active. So you don't need to go and do 1200 calories or what not. You do have wiggle room for your alcohol!

    Edit: I just noticed you also work in the liquor industry. If you don't like rocks or neat drinks... Learn! Those would definitely be lower calorie drinks!
  • thelovelyLIZ
    thelovelyLIZ Posts: 1,227 Member
    RosieRose7673 wrote: »
    I worked in the restaurant industry for about 8 years. I didn't really watch what I ate or drank during that time. I just worked out every so often and made a half assed effort to watch what I was eating.

    That was a few years ago. I gained and lost weight since then. However, my boyfriend does manage a wine and cheese bar currently. He always brings home stuff. I always ask him to bring home dry red wine. It takes me a while to drink that as opposed to some sweeter chilled white wine. The dryness helps me not want to drink it fast/have another. I don't know if you have cheese to go with the wine, but I always go for a REALLY strong tasting cheese that I can only eat a few bites of.

    As for beer, maybe go for the really dark heavy beers. Those may be higher in calories but often I don't drink it too quickly and want another.

    Also, you seem to be very active. So you don't need to go and do 1200 calories or what not. You do have wiggle room for your alcohol!

    Edit: I just noticed you also work in the liquor industry. If you don't like rocks or neat drinks... Learn! Those would definitely be lower calorie drinks!

    I do wine and cheese as an evening snack sometimes- I usually try to go for maybe 1-2 oz of a hard sharp cheese since they are higher in protein.

    I think a big issue for me is I've just always consumed a lot of liquids. As a kid I drank nothing but soda and when I quit soda in middle school I dropped 20 lbs doing nothing else. I can drink 32 oz of water in four hours. I've been trying to make sure I pace myself when I'm having something to drink, by mixing in kombucha or sparkling water between beers/glass of wine. But sticking with darker, stronger flavored beers isn't a bad idea. I love wheat beers but I can pound one pretty quick if I'm not paying attention. I'm all about that liquor on the rocks life though hahaha.

    When I'm tracking (which I've been not great at) I think I'm netting around 1400 calories. But I burn anywhere from 2000-2500 a day, so I'm actually eating a good deal more. I think I just keep falling into the rabbit hole of have one drink > get a little tipsy so I have another > eat something stupid because now I'm two drinks in. Drinking is also very heavily involved in my social life, and I live with roommates so we're always grabbing beers out of the fridge together in the evenings when we're home.

    Anyway, thank you! This is all good to think about!
  • RosieRose7673
    RosieRose7673 Posts: 438 Member
    edited June 2016
    thelovelyLIZ wrote: »
    RosieRose7673 wrote: »
    I worked in the restaurant industry for about 8 years. I didn't really watch what I ate or drank during that time. I just worked out every so often and made a half assed effort to watch what I was eating.

    That was a few years ago. I gained and lost weight since then. However, my boyfriend does manage a wine and cheese bar currently. He always brings home stuff. I always ask him to bring home dry red wine. It takes me a while to drink that as opposed to some sweeter chilled white wine. The dryness helps me not want to drink it fast/have another. I don't know if you have cheese to go with the wine, but I always go for a REALLY strong tasting cheese that I can only eat a few bites of.

    As for beer, maybe go for the really dark heavy beers. Those may be higher in calories but often I don't drink it too quickly and want another.

    Also, you seem to be very active. So you don't need to go and do 1200 calories or what not. You do have wiggle room for your alcohol!

    Edit: I just noticed you also work in the liquor industry. If you don't like rocks or neat drinks... Learn! Those would definitely be lower calorie drinks!

    I do wine and cheese as an evening snack sometimes- I usually try to go for maybe 1-2 oz of a hard sharp cheese since they are higher in protein.

    I think a big issue for me is I've just always consumed a lot of liquids. As a kid I drank nothing but soda and when I quit soda in middle school I dropped 20 lbs doing nothing else. I can drink 32 oz of water in four hours. I've been trying to make sure I pace myself when I'm having something to drink, by mixing in kombucha or sparkling water between beers/glass of wine. But sticking with darker, stronger flavored beers isn't a bad idea. I love wheat beers but I can pound one pretty quick if I'm not paying attention. I'm all about that liquor on the rocks life though hahaha.

    When I'm tracking (which I've been not great at) I think I'm netting around 1400 calories. But I burn anywhere from 2000-2500 a day, so I'm actually eating a good deal more. I think I just keep falling into the rabbit hole of have one drink > get a little tipsy so I have another > eat something stupid because now I'm two drinks in. Drinking is also very heavily involved in my social life, and I live with roommates so we're always grabbing beers out of the fridge together in the evenings when we're home.

    Anyway, thank you! This is all good to think about!

    I can totally relate to the grabbing beers in the evening. I live with my boyfriend and we tend to do that. We just moved into a new larger apartment, so he decided to get a mini fridge for the living room to stock with beer! Oh boy!

    Yeah! I'd say definitely try the dark beer thing with your roommates. Work it into your calories. You may find that you just want to drink one dark beer for ~250ish calories instead of 3 or 4 ~150 calorie lighter beers!

    Edit: horrible autocorrect! what the crap!
  • thelovelyLIZ
    thelovelyLIZ Posts: 1,227 Member
    RosieRose7673 wrote: »
    thelovelyLIZ wrote: »
    RosieRose7673 wrote: »
    I worked in the restaurant industry for about 8 years. I didn't really watch what I ate or drank during that time. I just worked out every so often and made a half assed effort to watch what I was eating.

    That was a few years ago. I gained and lost weight since then. However, my boyfriend does manage a wine and cheese bar currently. He always brings home stuff. I always ask him to bring home dry red wine. It takes me a while to drink that as opposed to some sweeter chilled white wine. The dryness helps me not want to drink it fast/have another. I don't know if you have cheese to go with the wine, but I always go for a REALLY strong tasting cheese that I can only eat a few bites of.

    As for beer, maybe go for the really dark heavy beers. Those may be higher in calories but often I don't drink it too quickly and want another.

    Also, you seem to be very active. So you don't need to go and do 1200 calories or what not. You do have wiggle room for your alcohol!

    Edit: I just noticed you also work in the liquor industry. If you don't like rocks or neat drinks... Learn! Those would definitely be lower calorie drinks!

    I do wine and cheese as an evening snack sometimes- I usually try to go for maybe 1-2 oz of a hard sharp cheese since they are higher in protein.

    I think a big issue for me is I've just always consumed a lot of liquids. As a kid I drank nothing but soda and when I quit soda in middle school I dropped 20 lbs doing nothing else. I can drink 32 oz of water in four hours. I've been trying to make sure I pace myself when I'm having something to drink, by mixing in kombucha or sparkling water between beers/glass of wine. But sticking with darker, stronger flavored beers isn't a bad idea. I love wheat beers but I can pound one pretty quick if I'm not paying attention. I'm all about that liquor on the rocks life though hahaha.

    When I'm tracking (which I've been not great at) I think I'm netting around 1400 calories. But I burn anywhere from 2000-2500 a day, so I'm actually eating a good deal more. I think I just keep falling into the rabbit hole of have one drink > get a little tipsy so I have another > eat something stupid because now I'm two drinks in. Drinking is also very heavily involved in my social life, and I live with roommates so we're always grabbing beers out of the fridge together in the evenings when we're home.

    Anyway, thank you! This is all good to think about!

    I can totally relate to the grabbing beers in the evening. I live with my boyfriend and we tend to do that. We just moved into a new larger apartment, so he decided to get a mini fridge for the living room to stock with beer! Oh boy!

    Yeah! I'd say definitely try the dark beer thing with your roommates. Work it into your calories. You may find that you just want to drink one dark beer for ~250ish calories instead of 3 or 4 ~150 calorie lighter beers!

    Edit: horrible autocorrect! what the crap!

    My roommates had their own fridge when we moved in, so we have a full size fridge filled with nothing but beer. It's an issue hahaha. I do drink dark beers, but since it's gotten warmed I've been moving away from them.

    I think I also just need to figure out a system to cut myself off after 1-2 drinks hahaha. And be more diligent about having "dry" days.
  • GerardCornielje
    GerardCornielje Posts: 19 Member
    Hi, I work as an entertainment manager/entertainer in the hotel industry and know what you're talking about! I put on 30 kilos over the last 8 years, mainly because of 'social drinking' with our guests. A few months ago I started really getting dizzy going up the steps to our apartment and had a wake-up call: if I go on like this, I won't see my youngest daughter grow up. I decided to call it a day from one day to the next and slowly picked up exercise as well. Now about 3 months later I lost almost 21 kilos and spend about 1-2 hour a day exercising before work. I feel rejuvenated. Because of my work it's hard on one hand: all those nice buffets and tempting drinks....on the other hand...living in a hotel I can also make the healthy choices and go to the gym 20 meters away. I have now gone to 'the other side' and really enjoy the healthy living again. Good side of my job: the hotel I work in is huge and I walk at least 20.000 steps a day and about 20 floors of stairs. Now it is going a lot easier. My conclusion out of this experience is: go hard on yourself and quit completely with the unhealthy habits. After a few weeks it will feel natural and you can have the occasional glass of wine again. Log everything you do and eat to see what you are doing to yourself. I bought this Garmin Fenix 3 HR watch and it was the best investment of my life: it makes the whole thing fun. I need to go another 9 kilos and I'm certain I will make that within the next few months. I got a second lease on life and I won't screw up again!
  • dykask
    dykask Posts: 800 Member
    @GerardCornielje Fenix 3 HR is a totally awesome watch! A bit expensive, but I'm glad I got it too! I agree it give the visibility to make days more fun!
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,111 Member
    I don't but my partner is a chef. When we moved in together we started eating every night together and both gained. I also switched jobs at the same time to a desk job. He gained 50lb and I gained 30lb. Now we are both trying to get back on track but he continues to bring home tons of leftovers from catering jobs. I haven't found a great way to deal with it yet
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