I'm not drinking much lately

I've always averaged about 3 glasses of wine a night, 6 days a week. For years. I don't drink beer or the hard stuff. I spent about a month in the middle east with no alcohol. I've been in Asia for a couple months now and its a beer culture, but I hate beer. I grab a bottle of french red here and there, but the quality is pretty bad unless you spend $30 a bottle at a grocery store. The domestic red wines are atrocious.

So.... I'm not drinking nearly as much as I used to. Surprisingly, I don't see any drop in my weight or any obvious health differences. I keep hearing people say they feel so good after not drinking. I'm not seeing that at all. What am I missing?

 

Probably because the “drinking” you are referring to (and haven’t been doing) isn’t really in the same category as the “drinking” people stop doing when they make those comments.

A few glasses of wine have actually been shown to have positive health aspects. And that’s not enough alcohol to really hurt anything.

Alcoholic drinks (mixed drinks, beer) have A LOT of calories. Plus alcohol desensitizes the hypothalamus, which negatively impacts its ability to process Leptin (the satiety hormone).

That’s why people end up eating a shitload after drinking a lot (and also why people get the munchies and eat a lot after smoking weed; THC also desensitizes the hypothalamus).

Because of the added calories and desensitized hypothalamus, people that drink a lot tend to put on weight.

Contrary to popular belief, too much alcohol negatively impacts sleep. It is a sedative, so it helps you initially fall asleep quickly, but it disrupts REM sleep. So while it might make you fall asleep, the quality of sleep is shit.

But a few glasses of wine a night isn’t enough to bring all of those detrimental factors into play. Because of that, you aren’t noticing a big difference by not drinking that wine.

 

Desensitized Hypothalamus sounds like a new age Sesame Street character who slings racial and homophobic insults at kids passing by.

 

I received a bad diagnoses on Nov 10th during a general checkup. I had been feeling a little off, and it ends up my blood sugars were at 220 and my cholesterol was over 200. I knew I'd been eating and drinking too much but had no idea it was that bad. Doctor put me on a crash course of medicines and I completely changed my habits. I've never been heavy but I felt sloppy, if that makes sense. 6' and 196 pounds at the time.

My doctor kind of freaked me out so I took this very seriously. Gave up every bit of junk you can put in your body, and as far as drinking goes, cut back on my bourbon in a huge way and switched to Coors Light when I did have a beer. Yeah, it's horrible but you can get used to anything. Well, at my 3 month visit back on February 10th, my blood sugar is down around 105, and I tipped the scales at 178. I can't empathize how great I feel. It wasn't one thing that brought this change, it was everything.

 

I’m in a similar situation but for me it’s blood pressure and cholesterol. I’m 42, 6’0 and 185 and in decent shape, but my numbers have been high for years so I just started medications because it was starting to worry me. 325 cholesterol and 160/100 bp. Hoping the numbers will come down enough that I can eat a cheeseburger again someday. Stopping drinking for a few days dropped the bp by 30 points so that would be an easy fix but I like the drinks.

 

You didn’t stop drinking for yourself, you stopped drinking because it wasn’t available.

You’re probably spending more time and mental energy lamenting that you can’t get a decent wine than you are doing something *other* than lamenting your lack of wine options.

I’ve been dry** for four years now. Funny how that coincides with other events, ain’t it? In that time I spent probably the first six months being down about the lack of social opportunities that are seemingly lost because you can’t sit at the bar with your buddies after a days work and bullshit.

After that? I found myself much more at peace with the lack of social bar interactions, and found other things to do to occupy my time and my mind.

** I tried to have a drink on my 50th, got two sips in and left it. I did, however enjoy a celebratory shot on February 1. Been a long time since I sat at a bar at 1PM and tossed one back.

 

I wrote off beer 20 years ago. Just can’t enjoy it. Leaves me bloated and feeling like crap. i rarely drink hard stuff and always mixed. Wine I don’t touch.
Alcoholic drinks could disappear tomorrow and I’d be perfectly fine.

 

I'm confident that was a satisfying day that justified a bit of a celebration. Been there, done that. Eyes forward to the future and those kids

 

Only fucking way to fly.

 

I have never really been a drinker. Hate wine and Beer, it just doesn't taste good to me. I do like some of the "vodka based soda drinks" from Canada, Smirnoff Ice, is made with Vodka in Canada (malt based in the u.s SUCKS), Mike's hard makes an awesome cherry freeze drink, that tastes like the red portion of the red/white/blue bomb pops (also vodka based in canuckistan). Watermelon Red Bull and Tito's is pretty darn good.

but, at 55 I started to get some gout flares, and had to "give it up", even though it was only a few times a month, and never to excess so, no real loss, or change in my lifestyle. I found it was triggering flares. I am still getting the flares, even after the diet, and no drinking. been self medicating with help from the medical spouse but, I really need to go in, and get this under control... SO PAINFUL. to the point of not being able to sleep, or put a show on, until I break down, and take prednisone to knock it out of me. Ski

 

Interesting... I had no idea there was a coorelation between drinking and the munchies. That explains a lot of the weight gain.

So, you're saying I'm a rookie drinker?

 

I'm not following...

I have plenty of access to alcohol (except for the month in the sandbox). I spend a lot of time in airport lounges and there's always booze available.

Are you saying my change in social status has something to do with it?

 

The one thing that helped me slow down drinking was moving.

My old neighborhood might as well have been a frat house row on a college campus. All the houses had pools, and they all had heated garages with foosball, dartboards, etc. All the wives were excellent cooks.

I bet I drank 50beers a week when I lived there, it was baaad. College bad. I'm a social drinker.

If I can do anything for myself for 2023, I'd really like to get off blood pressure meds.

 

i cut down big time last year when my goal was to drop 40 lbs. i did 35 and also gained 5 back by today, stabilizing now.

i enjoy a beer or glass of wine here and there but the daily (3-4 beers, sometimes more or even clear stuff on weeknights) is completely gone. flavored waters, Heineken 0,0% and others do it for me.

i have 3-4 real beers over at friends and i feel very off the next day.

haven't gotten hammered since, guess that wouldn't be better either.

what was the thing about age and wisdom?

 

I can’t speak for you or anyone else.

Just sharing my story and how long it took for the actual feeling better to materialize. It wasn’t overnight, and admittedly I was doing a lot of “work on myself” during that period as well.

If feeling better is what you’re after, stick with it, and it’ll come.

 

This. If you’re insistent on not drinking at all, I’d take resveritol to give you the benefits of wine without the alcohol

 

Public health authorities over here just dropped their recommendations to 2 drinks per week. Over that, risks of health issues dramatically increase. I'm not there yet, but I want to slowly reduce my intake also. I never drink on week days and will have a few on weekends, but that's it.

 

I think my cats drink more than 3 glasses of wine a night

 

I did "dry January" and I didn't really feel any better physically. But I am a nazi about my sleep and I've found that having more than 2 drinks in an evening makes my sleep quality shit. Repeat for a few weeks and that is why people feel great when they cut back. I'm usually only a social / weekend drinker anyway- my job is demanding and with long hours, if I drink a few every night, I'll be exhausted at the end of a trip. Sucks getting old.

The main reason I did Dry January was because I was sequestered for work in Dallas for 45 days- I wasn't going to be able to touch a motorcycle until the week before Daytona. So, I control what I can control, which was my diet and fitness. I don't know that it will pay many dividends for a 12 lap Twins Cup race, but at least I did everything I could and I can remove that from my psyche when it's time to grid up. At least nobody will "out fitness" me on race weekend!