Weight and booze

Rye93_2

Hi Everyone,
I've posted on this forum alot recently and sorry for not helping other's. Just don't what to advice to give when reading through.

I wanted to ask if anyone has been in a similar siutation and if they had any advice. For the past 5-6 years, I've been a regualr drinker. I would have a routine of working from Monday to Friday without a drink and come Friday, I would buy myself 8 cans of lager and on the Saturday, maybe 12. I would'nt drink on a Sunday due to work the next day. Drink has never interfered with my work life and I would'nt let it. However, I've noticed recently with lockdown and working from home, I've began to drink in excess. I'm sure i'm not the only one, but I've notices the weight gain. Espicially, my stomach, hips, moobs etc. I feel I could do with a complete break from drinking and I start with the best intensions, but out of habit, I still have a drink. I've read articles online, but nothing gives me the motivation. 

Any advice would be appeiciated as I would like to change this to make myself a better person and keep making the bad things in life a habit.

[Deleted User]

We've all got crosses to bare, no one is perfect. I found myself a bit like you overdoing it. Bit desperate but who really wanted to know during lock-down you couldn't go to a diet club physically though I did wonder how people who needed Aa were getting on . I envy my friend who gets a bottle of wine at crimbo and puts it in the cupboard under the sink because they hate the stuff where it's still there weeks and months later! My liver tested fine but cholesterol was up. Just stopping thinking about some of the stuff that consumed me during lock down was good. Change what you can leave the rest. I found the only way to stop was to change the routine/concentrate on something else and I've got into calorie counting, in all the years of so called dieting it was something I had never done - I became serious about getting the weight of to the point where enter in an expensive treatment means I'm not going to continue drinking as it is just not logical. 5 weeks and I've lost just over a stone. I'm sure you can reach a better place too 🙂

Rye93_2

Thanks for getting back to me. It's great to hear that you've lost a stone. I hope it's going well for you and I hope you continue to make the progress you set out to make, but please be safe while doing so. Thank you for your advice and I will take this on board. I think I need to do some soul searching and just get a grip of myself. I hope I can get the motivation soon to get this right and who knows, I can get on to achive my other goals. Again, thank you for your advice and insight. It is appriciated it.

turbotnator

I think it's good to find other things to do with your time if you have a habit of drinking. Because it's that feeling you're looking for when you drink, it might be useful to instead go for a walk or run every time you want a drink. Eventually, you'll start to associate that desire with exercise rather than drinking, and exercise is one of the best natural highs you can get!

Best of luck, keep us updated!

Doshwaster

There is a really good MSE support group for curtting down drinking at
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5987723/giving-up-cutting-down-alcohol-thread-part-16

I have have put on some weight while working from home but the one thing I've been wary about is drinking too much as it's very easy habit to fall into. If anything during lockdown I drank less than usual as I'm more of a pub drinker and even now that they are reopen I've only been out a handful of times.

Rye93_2

Thanks for getting back to me everyone. I hope your doing well in youselve's with the current situation. I think that's a very good point in regards to going for a walk or run whenever the temptation hits. I will try to to do this. Also, maybe to stop drinking in the house and treat myself to a pint or two at the end of the month at pub once I have achived a monthly goal. I suppose I just need to give my head a shake and grow up really. Again, thank you for your responses and I will take this on board to make things better.

maxpayen

i used to drink a bottle of wine every night, sometimes a bottle and can of beer too, ive done this for long, like a couple of years.
basically two weeks ago i quit drinking completely, because im not as lonely so dont need it, but i have not lost any weight. a bottle of wine is supposed to hold 530 calories, so i thought i would lose weight, i havent exchanged booze for food either.
i wanted to know what your experiences with alcohol and weight are, does weight drop off if you stop drinking?

onlyfoolsandparking

maxpayen said:

i used to drink a bottle of wine every night, sometimes a bottle and can of beer too, ive done this for long, like a couple of years.
basically two weeks ago i quit drinking completely, because im not as lonely so dont need it, but i have not lost any weight. a bottle of wine is supposed to hold 530 calories, so i thought i would lose weight, i havent exchanged booze for food either.
i wanted to know what your experiences with alcohol and weight are, does weight drop off if you stop drinking?

Give it time, 2 weeks in the grand scheme of things is nothing. the benefits of not drinking are massive not only losing weight but reducing risk/s of high blood pressure, liver damage, pressure on kidneys to name but a few. There definitely are a lot of calories in alcohol and they're not 'good' calories either they are the worst type SUGAR!!

Sugar is the worst food for our bodies, it has long been thought that fat was the enemy but that has been disproved, fat is actually good for us in small amounts our bodies actually need it, sugar it doesn't need, keep up with the not drinking, start a calorie deficit diet with plenty of variety and you will lose visceral and subcutaneous fat, NOT weight, fat and that is the key to success. 

MoneySeeker1

following this with interest - as I'd pretty much given up drinking (not that I had that much anyway) prior to Lockdown.

Come Lockdown and it's gone up - only to the extent of being 1-2 bottles of wine a week - but I'm not happy with it and think I shall be struggling a bit to get back to my own "new normal" of very rarely having any booze until Life is back to normal and am worried they may be planning on extending Lockdown as far as into next year even - agh!!!!

So - all thoughts on how to manage without extra booze to one's own Normal - whilst we wait/wait/wait for Life to get back to Normal (ie like it was last year) welcome.

gettingtheresometime

Like many when lockdown happened our alcohol consumption rocketed to the extent we started on boxes of wine because they didn't make a noise when they hit the recycling bin!
However as normality kicks in, we've gone back to not drinking on a school night, drinking fizzy water instead and if we do fancy a drink, we've gone for the little, single glass bottles of wine. One of those satisfies the craving and if you buy them when they're on offer, they can work out cheaper than the standard size bottles.

MoneySeeker1

Valid point - though I must admit I wish they sold those half-size bottles of wine in this area - then at least it would be possible to restrict Lockdown drinking to having more than 1 drink - but not more than half a bottle.

I think a lot of "coping mechanisms" are needed all round. I know I've learnt why animals in zoos "pace" a lot - as, if the weather is too bad to go out for a walk and concentration is as missing as it has been for 22 weeks now - realisation is definitely there that I've found myself "pacing" round my cage in the zoo (aka my home). Managed to persuade a more cautious friend into us both going to an "unofficial" party (with none of the Lockdown restrictions - yay!). That should help for a bit...