Healthy drinking

[Deadhead]

I am finding this a good thread! As a general rule, I don't drink 'on school nights'. Luckily I have been working from home during this pandemic, so nothing like furlough to throw me off this routine either. I tend to like a few (4-5ish) on a Friday or Saturday night. Might have 2-3 on a Sunday, depends on my mood. If I have one of my strong beers, the other one or two are weaker beers of around 3.0-4.0%. And water/squash too. I've been enjoying a lot of the 0.5% alcohol beers that have come out now too and am trying to include that as one of my 3-4-5 beers on a night that I am having a drink.
It's hard. I am female, so 'supposed' to drink less anyways. But, I like beer. I like experimenting and tasting new flavours. I like seeing what I can find, seeing what I can make and get right. As an engineer, I love the process of brewing as much as the actual beer. But as I get older, the fuzzy head/hangover becomes less tolerable.

 

[Old Geezer]

I’ve just ordered a kidney stone from Amazon

Should have let me know you could have had one of mine for free.

 

[Baz Chaz]

Posted this in the how many units thread, but thought it appropriate to post here as well.

Slightly different angle on this, I used to drink quite a bit, not every night, but most. Regularly split a bottle of wine with other half during the week, Friday Saturday Sunday, bottle of wine, few spirits. Holidays were all inclusive cruises, where food is top quality and drinks were poured out and seldom 'measured'.

Found I was just getting bigger and bigger, started feeling it as well. Last year was 64 and decided it was time to do something about it or I wouldn't be collecting my state pension!

Hated the idea of a diet, needed a fundamental change before it was too late, always thought I was pretty indestructible, had always been strong and reasonably fit and active.

Had a think about what was easiest way to cut down etc. Loads of stuff on TV or online, but needed something 'science' based that made sense. First thing, grazing, I was a terrible grazer, coffee always came with biscuits or cake. Portion size, whatever fits on plate. Supper, cheeses and biscuits. Wine/spirits beer, yes please.

July last year, decided now or never. It had to be a bit scientific for me, facts and not a just 'faddy diet'. So found out my Basic Metabolic Weight, which is the amount of calories you consume per day without doing any exercise. Mine (for my age and weight) was 1999. So, scientifically intake less than that, plus exercise = weight loss.

The way I did it, Monday and Thursday, limit intake calories to between 800 - 1000.
The rest of the week, limit myself to 1600 max.
Friday, weight recorded in the morning, then Friday was my day off, but don't go mental.

It was a bit of a pain at first, working out calories, but Mrs C helped, there's also an APP (My fitness pal) which links with fitbit watch, nowadays just takes a minute or two each day. But the biggest thing is not to con yourself or cheat or whichever way you want to call it. Yes you can have wine/beer bit of cake etc, but just add it to your daily intake and stick with it. I could trundle on for ages with the pros and cons ..... so rather than that I'll change direction a bit.

Since July last year, I have lost 39 pounds.

I still drink beer and wine, just not as much. I still eat what I want, just not as much. I don't graze and only rarely have cheese and biscuits for supper.

In July this year, I unexpectedly found a lump in my neck. 'Phoned GP who saw me the following day, then it hit the fan. I have cancer. The first sign was the lump, no other symptoms at all. Since then I've had a dozen consultations, 4 different types of scan, various biopsies and I had surgery last week. This is all being carried out, 'with curative intent' long way to go but can be cured.

The one thing that all those consultants/experts etc have continually said, good job you lost all that weight, the surgery etc will be so much easier for you and the outlook is so much better.

Seriously, it's only when the brown smelly stuff hits the fan you realise, you are not invincible. Luckily I took my head out of the sand just in time.

I think my timing was very lucky, starting this Way Of Life last year. Even with cancer, I feel tons better than I did, pretty sure I would've taken longer to recover from surgery and have given myself the best chance of surviving the next lot of surgery/chemo/radiation treatments.

 

[kelper]

I suppose if you have children between the ages of 8 and 20 there's always a need to be ready to pick them up in the car at all hours. Missed bus or forgot to get off the train...... Does that make you more restrained in your drinking? I never had children so I don't know.

 

[Doive]

Since the lockdown I've invested in a Keezer and three corny keg setup, plus my two King Kegs, so at any one time I have at least 4 beers on and one conditioning. To start with it was so easy to wander into the shed, grab the glass and pull a beer, I was drinking every day probably 3-4 pints, more on the weekends. Suddenly realised after a few weeks what I was doing, and made a conscious effort to restrain myself a bit. I use a small glass tankard that is ~450ml, and only half fill that each time, so 'a beer' is really half a pint. Most of my output is in the 5-7% range, and very drinkable (if I do say so myself), so quite easy to sit of an evening next to the keezer with a classic car magazine, some music, and a glass. I still do this, but only on a Friday or Saturday night, and try to ensure that I have 2-3 'dry' days during the week. Sometimes I find myself 'finishing off' a keg to get the next batch in for conditioning...

In truth I could do with losing a couple of stone at least, I've always been a large chap from a young age - first choice of prop forward during my school days! But as the years advance it becomes harder to lose. @Baz Chaz your methods sound very good, I would like to try that kind of restriction - I usually eat around 1,800 calories a day, but the weight stubbornly refuses to shift. Sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis, but your weight loss will no doubt help your body to fight and recover, hope things work out well for you

 

[Old Geezer]

Hey Baz Chaz hope everything goes OK for you with the cancer. Best of luck mate.

 

[Baz Chaz]

Hey Baz Chaz hope everything goes OK for you with the cancer. Best of luck mate.

Thanks Doive & Old Geezer,
I have every confidence we are going to beat this bugger, the point if my post was just how much of a better chance I have after losing the weight!
Just back in from an hour and a half walk, continuing with my plan, which incidentally might just involve a beer this evening, now I can swallow again !
Cheers

 

[pms67]

Yeah good luck mate

 

[Deadhead]

Best wishes @Baz Chaz !!

 

[DocAnna]

It's hard. I am female, so 'supposed' to drink less anyways. But, I like beer. I like experimenting and tasting new flavours. I like seeing what I can find, seeing what I can make and get right. As an engineer, I love the process of brewing as much as the actual beer. But as I get older, the fuzzy head/hangover becomes less tolerable.

Oh with you on these points, though now avoid drinking on a Sunday as well since I'm back in the office early Monday morning in Glasgow. I know it's not beer but I rather like seedlip with ice or tonic. It's not alcoholic but personally I like it if it's a week night and joining others for a drink. It's an acquired taste though so I suggest ordering it in a pub first since it's quite expensive stuff.

Anna

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

In my experience there are a few factors that can substantially improve someone's ability to maintain a behaviour change like cutting back drinking, cigarettes, chocolate or whatever.

The first is to help them identify specifically all the different things they want to achieve by making different choices about the behaviour in question, and how they will know when they are achieving them. These need to be specific, such as objective 1: "I will get better sleep. I'll know, because I'll be wake up feeling well rested and more energetic"; objective 2: "I will match my nutritional intake better to my body's needs. I'll know, because I'll be able to more easily do up my trousers round the waist" etc. These goals need to be made real, by the person taking the time to properly think of themselves having these different feelings and experiences that they can have.

The second thing - and perhaps the most important - is to help the person honestly and completely identify ALL the benefits that they are getting from their current choices around the behaviour. After all, if there weren't any of these then there would be no internal obstacles to be overcome. Even so, as human beings we are all great at identifying the superficial reasons 'I just like it, I suppose - it's just a habit' while hiding from ourselves the real benefits at a deeper level, like "I like the way it stops me thinking about the stresses of the day" or "it's a way I find I can fit in with a crowd" or "it's just something I associate with finishing work and starting my evening". It's extremely important that the person accepts that these are entirely legitimate things to want for themselves - not 'bad' or 'naughty'. Failing to acknowledge that is just setting yourself up for failure.

The critical step, IMHO the one that causes most people to fail; or at least, to make the whole behaviour change process seem like hard work - is this one: the person must take the time to identify specifically some other way (or ways) in which the benefits of the existing behaviour (from step 2) can be met - to at least the same extent or more - in some different way. The person then has to properly weight it up internally: if offered the chance to achieve the primary benefits they identified in step (1), while also committing to whatever different behaviours are necessary to achieve the benefits they've identified in step (2) - then would they go for it? Hopefully the internal answer will be a resounding 'wow, yes'. If on the other hand it's more like 'mmmm - maybe...' then the chances are that either the goals in (1) have to be made significantly more compelling, or that an important current benefit is missing so step (2) has to be repeated more carefully.

The final thing, and - if (1) and (2) have been done properly - the easiest, is to help the person to identify the 'moment of choice' about whether to do the new behaviour pattern or the old one, in all the different contexts that are likely to arise. For example, I find myself in the kitchen and without thinking about it I'm opening the fridge and reaching for the chocolate. I just need to trigger a moment's thought: do I want the immediate mouth-feel and sugar rush that comes from taking another square of chocolate, or do I want to feel better in ten minutes time when my mouth is clear from goo and I'm thinking straight without the sugar cash that inevitably comes after the earlier rush...? Of course, sometimes the internal answer is 'yes - I need the ruddy chocolate' and that's fine too - it's just a question of having slightly richer information to feed into your internal decision-making process that's all.

(in case you're wondering, yes I do have some qualifications in this area)

 

[kelper]

(in case you're wondering, yes I do have some qualifications in this area)

Do tell. I liked your post very much. I guess you are a counsellor of some kind? A bit of a move from engineering. I once gave up alcohol for over a year and lost 6 inches from my waistline, then I met this girl......

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Do tell. I liked your post very much. I guess you are a counsellor of some kind? A bit of a move from engineering. I once gave up alcohol for over a year and lost 6 inches from my waistline, then I met this girl......

Thanks!

Sure - I got really interested in NLP almost 20 years ago, and over about a 5 year period I qualified as first a practitioner and later a certified master practitioner. It's really useful and practical stuff and underpins a lot of good counselling and psychotherapy approaches - but it's unfortunately also got a bit of a bad name from the extent to which it's also been abused to design compelling advertising campaigns and for frivolous stage hypnotism.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I suppose as a result, I unintentionally ended up helping a lot of people at work (and outside work) to improve their interactions with other people and to feel more comfortable with themselves... I never offered this as any kind of 'service', it's just sort of happened.

 

[kelper]

I suppose as a result, I unintentionally ended up helping a lot of people at work (and outside work) to improve their interactions with other people and to feel more comfortable with themselves... I never offered this as any kind of 'service', it's just sort of happened.

And did it help you personally?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Oh my goodness yes. Massively. Part of the master practitioner qualification, in particular, is getting to understand yourself a lot better - and to appreciate when it's appropriate and inappropriate to deploy the various interventions available. That process took a long time to shake down thoroughly, but I undoubtedly came out of it with a much more secure and grounded out individual

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I also realised how much of a kick you can get by helping other people get themselves out of the mental traps that the modern work environment seems to throw so often in their path

 

[kelper]

If you can perform an act of kindness to a stranger, with no reward, it's very satisfying. There is something in the human psyche that makes this so. It's why other drivers ' let you in'.

 

[kelper]

What's NLP?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

You can look up the Wikipedia entry, but this link is probably a bit more accessible: Changing behaviour with neuro-linguistic programming - Personnel Today