Liquor, beer and diet

I know that when my stress levels go through the roof and I've already worked out so much that the only reason I stopped running was because my leg gave out and I had to sit on the curb for ten minutes before I felt like I could walk home, reading, watching movies or television shows, writing, drawing, playing Fallout 3 -- any form of escapism, really -- help me out a lot.

Instead of drinking alcohol, make yourself a mug of Earl Grey tea (I really like Republic of Tea's Earl Greyer) and watch some episodes of something on Netflix. If you feel like you need to eat something when you're watching stuff, or drink alcohol, sublimate those urges by picking up something else to do with your hands, something productive like knitting. You're not actually hungry, and you don't actually need alcohol -- you're just bored, a creature of habit, or you legitimately have an addiction you need to kick.

I looked at your diary. I hate to say this, but that's not just "a few drinks."







This Wishing you all the best!


I can't even imagine what you're going through, and antidepressants do have side effects...but three or four or six beers, or five or six or seven shots of whiskey, night after night, are going to cause their own problems that have nothing to do with weight. Your weight loss will likely stall pretty bad, though. Maltose, the sugar in beer, is one of the two or three worst for causing weight gain.

From Dr. Weil's web site: "When you're trying to lose weight, alcohol also works against you because the calories it supplies are 'empty' - they provide you with no beneficial nutrients. Another consideration: alcohol can also slow the process by which your body burns fat. The alcohol calories you consume aren't stored. Instead, they're converted to acetate, a type of fuel that the body burns quickly. As a result, you burn off your alcohol calories before you burn the fat you are trying to eliminate by increasing your exercise and cutting back on your food intake."

I do hope things improve for you.

I'm sorry to hear about the stress your under! I too like to drink and its hard when counting calories and trying to lose weight On days where I know its been rough and I could use a drink to wind down, I try to eat lighter in calories (not necessarily less food) to help compensate.

I agree with ttxqiu in that you need to get your mind on other things when you're stressed out and might grab that beer. Tea is great for relaxing and watching some movies or shows on Netflix is great too!

For myself, getting my mind off my troubles usually involves just browsing the internet or playing a game or app on my phone. I love looking at photos so I use an app called Tadaa on my iphone; its like instagram, but with less teenage girls and their duck faces XD and there's some really great photographers on that site It definitely has me hooked and I can spend hours on there looking at peaceful photos, sunsets, nature, flowers, beaches, you name it, and I end up forgetting about the beer I wanted to have

I hope I've been helpful in some matter, and I certainly hope things get better for you. Feel free to add me as a friend if ya ever need someone to vent to :flowerforyou:

I'm really sorry for all you're going through. It sounds tremendously difficult. Who wouldn't need a few drinks at the end of those roughest days?

Unfortunately antidepressant or not you're self-medicating. Fortunately it isn't every day. But I bet it doesn't really help you all that much. You just so desperate for _something_. (Again my heart goes out to you.) I'm not a psychiatrist but my personal opinion is that antidepressants aren't appropriate for normal reactive depression or anxiety. Used over the long term they can cause more harm than good. If you had a brain dysfunction that caused you to be depressed no matter what was going in your life I could see the point. But even then prescribing the right meds are hit and miss- mostly miss. Current data implies antidepressants aren't as effective as we hoped.

That being said there may be some merit in getting something to make coping a little easier other than drink. You should at least talk to your Dr. to get info about anti-anxiety or other aids. But also look into support groups and getting more out of whatever support network you may have. You need to have someone you can confide in and unload on regularly. I'm sure you've heard all the standard coping tools though.

As far as the alcohol there are some nights when you're essentially having whole meals worth of empty calories. Not great. Theoretically if you are under your daily goal you should be OK. But when you drink at night it disrupts your sleep quality. Even if your calories in/out numbers look good this will slow or halt your fat-loss. Poor sleep will also make it harder for you to cope with tomorrow's stress.

Best of luck.

I feel for you! Poor woman.

I don't have any advice to give:( I see you've become dependent on alcohol to escape. I wished there was a way to ship your stepdaughter away at her mom's for a while, to adjust her entitled attitude. Try to reach out for support, from your daughter or your husband?

Don't shoulder everything on your own.

So, from someone who self medicated for a long time. (I wont go into reasons) I can tell you this: I slowed way down on the drinking (3-4 beers a night to 3-4 beers a week to 3-4 beers a month) and dropped 2-3 pant sizes, and 30 pounds in like 3 months. I started running after i dropped the first 30 and have pretty much quit drinking and dropped another size. I'm not going to go into lectures of if hyou are drinking too much or not, thats your thing. I can tell you that I've been there( for different reasons) and my out look, my health, my life has soooo benifited from not drinking. I will still have a glass of wine once in a great while, I love red wine, but nothing like I used to. Feel free to friend me if you want some open non-judgemental support.

I'm no expert, but what you're talking about sounds more to me like anxiety than depression. I have anxiety, but it isn't a problem for me every day so my doctor prescribes medication I take only when I'm having a hard time, which isn't very often for me anymore. In my opinion, it's better than being on antidepressants, which I was for several years, because you still feel normal 99% of the time. I just wanted to let you know that medicine for this kind of thing doesn't have to be a bad thing and I hope you're able to get the help you need to get through this difficult time.

Maybe you can drink but less ... for example, drinking a rum with coke (zero, light, diet, i've no idea what's the name of sugarless coke in other countries haha) but you put just a tiny bit of rum, you know, just for the taste, and all the rest of the glass with coke.