Stopped drinking, lost 10 lbs

Were you really an alchoholic though?

I gave up when I realized I didn't enjoy. I don't know what I was thinking when I was drinking. And apparently (so I've been told) alcoholism isn't a genetic trait.

I’m an introvert, so I loved booze since my first high school party. I always hated hangovers, but it was worth the price for a while.

As I’ve aged it went from fun to a crutch in social situations. Then a way to deal with stress, which was abundant. The weekends were chilling by the pool after my workout with my friends and a 12 pack. It eventually stopped being fun.

booze is boring wrote:

Were you really an alchoholic though?

I gave up when I realized I didn't enjoy. I don't know what I was thinking when I was drinking. And apparently (so I've been told) alcoholism isn't a genetic trait.

Alcoholism certainly has a genetic component.

From a medical point of view, a drink a day is an alcoholic.

From a running point of view, any alcohol is bad for you.

Alcohol also suppresses production of your HGH which does lead to wt gain and makes one, more injury prone.

I went from drinking 6-10 beers a week, to 6-10 beers a year, basically only during parties, camping, whatever and a hard limit of 2 per event. I also lost a bunch of weight and bloat and became a better runner. Sleep better, recover better...

I do still enjoy 1-2 non-alcoholic beers a day.

Beer has almost a comically high amount of calories. A strong IPA can have 300+ calories in a pint. Drink 3-4 of them and you're around 1000 calories just from a few pints of liquid! Plus all the other negative effects of the actual alcohol.

Yeah I fell into the trail running culture of drinking IPAs after every run. Wine on weeknights. Saw a pic of myself at Zion in Utah and was astonished seeing my dad body. Buff arms and calves and a spare tire for a stomach. Uggh. Now I look way better and can actually get up for early morning runs. Best decision ever and dropped lots of weight. Waist size is normal now and I can’t blame “muscular legs” for a larger pant size.

Al Koholik wrote:

I’m an introvert, so I loved booze since my first high school party. I always hated hangovers, but it was worth the price for a while.

As I’ve aged it went from fun to a crutch in social situations. Then a way to deal with stress, which was abundant. The weekends were chilling by the pool after my workout with my friends and a 12 pack. It eventually stopped being fun.

Anyone who downs a 12 pack (I assume you meant by yourself) on the regular has a problem with alcohol. Good of you to cut it out.

Flagpole wrote:

Al Koholik wrote:

I’m an introvert, so I loved booze since my first high school party. I always hated hangovers, but it was worth the price for a while.

As I’ve aged it went from fun to a crutch in social situations. Then a way to deal with stress, which was abundant. The weekends were chilling by the pool after my workout with my friends and a 12 pack. It eventually stopped being fun.

Anyone who downs a 12 pack (I assume you meant by yourself) on the regular has a problem with alcohol. Good of you to cut it out.

Why would you assume he meant by himself when he literally says "with my friends"?

I took 6 weeks of the sauce not long ago.

It felt like I was cheating. Lol. I could eat like a idiot and still lose weight running 20mi a week and doing physical labor.

Usually drink 3 to 5 ipas maybe 4 times a week. May as well just eat 3 or 4 huge donuts before bed. Haha

I drink at so many parties but am very active, so I burn it off. Drinking can be very fun, but don't do it alone.

I'm Steve the Addict's wingman and we go absolutely wild.

Ironically, your post reminded me to put more beer in the fridge. But years ago I was commenting to a friend at our running group that I wasn't losing weight in the buildup to our marathon. She said I needed to cut out the alcohol. I never drink much and was having maybe 3-4 beers a week at that point. But I took the suggestion and started ordering water at restaurants instead of beer and figured why not cut out soda too. Cutting out the calories from beverages helped take the weight off as much as the increase in mileage: 4 beers = ~600 or so calories = 6 miles, ~10% of my average weekly mileage.

no assumption needed wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

Anyone who downs a 12 pack (I assume you meant by yourself) on the regular has a problem with alcohol. Good of you to cut it out.

Why would you assume he meant by himself when he literally says "with my friends"?

Not every weekend, but not out of the ordinary to drink 12 Miller Lites starting early afternoon and finishing around 11pm. Average was probably more like 8-9 on a Saturday. It was way too much and I don’t miss it.

I went through an IPA phase as well, where 5-6 would get me loaded.

I’m done and looking forward to hopefully the best training year in about 12 years. I focused on running and weight for the board, but I’m a much better husband and dad as well which is way more important.

no assumption needed wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

Anyone who downs a 12 pack (I assume you meant by yourself) on the regular has a problem with alcohol. Good of you to cut it out.

Why would you assume he meant by himself when he literally says "with my friends"?

I assume his friends brought their own beer. He thought it was turning into a problem. Depending on the number of friends, a 12 pack isn't a problem. Even we go with the bare minimum that "friends" can mean (2 others), that's 4 apiece. Doing that once a week isn't really helpful, but it's not necessarily indicative of a problem.

Al Koholik wrote:

no assumption needed wrote:

Why would you assume he meant by himself when he literally says "with my friends"?

Not every weekend, but not out of the ordinary to drink 12 Miller Lites starting early afternoon and finishing around 11pm. Average was probably more like 8-9 on a Saturday. It was way too much and I don’t miss it.

I went through an IPA phase as well, where 5-6 would get me loaded.

I’m done and looking forward to hopefully the best training year in about 12 years. I focused on running and weight for the board, but I’m a much better husband and dad as well which is way more important.

Yeah...ok...so I assumed correctly. Good for you for stopping that nonsense.

vaccinated wrote:

booze is boring wrote:

Were you really an alchoholic though?

I gave up when I realized I didn't enjoy. I don't know what I was thinking when I was drinking. And apparently (so I've been told) alcoholism isn't a genetic trait.

Alcoholism certainly has a genetic component.

From a medical point of view, a drink a day is an alcoholic.

From a running point of view, any alcohol is bad for you.

I bagged most of my PRs when I started drinking red wine. Could have been better sleep, quick calories, or anti-oxidants. But worked for me.

Many accomplished athletes drink regularly - it's not necessarily bad for running. Could bad for other things, of course.

Why is a drink a day classified as an alcoholic and a run a day is not classified as an addict?

Al Koholik wrote:

I’m an introvert, so I loved booze since my first high school party. I always hated hangovers, but it was worth the price for a while.

As I’ve aged it went from fun to a crutch in social situations. Then a way to deal with stress, which was abundant. The weekends were chilling by the pool after my workout with my friends and a 12 pack. It eventually stopped being fun.

Similar situation and the same thing happened to me. When I quit, I lost 25 lbs without changing a single other thing. Fast forward 15 years and I went from a 5:28 marathon by my former boozing self at age 32, to a 3:13 this year at age 47.

I haven't had a drink in 15 years, don't miss it (99.9% of the time) and I've never felt better.

congratulations. sounds like a plan.

A lot of beer talk here but anyone hit the stronger stuff regularly? I don't like beer as much as whisky, gin and tequila. Hangovers suck especially when I washed everything down with wine the night before. Ugh.