Tell me why my bad habit is bad for me.
May 28, 2009 11:28 AM   Subscribe

I want to break my habit of having a few drinks at night, and I could use your help.

For the past few years, I've been in the habit of having a couple of mixed drinks at night, between dinner and bed. It tastes good, it chills me out after a long day, etc.

But I'm realizing that it is not a good habit; among other things, it's the biggest hurdle on the road to my weight loss/muscle gain goals. So I'm trying to give it up without feeling like I'm denying myself something awesome.

So, I'm looking for as many articles as possible on why alcohol is bad, why it stymies weight loss, etc. This kinda stuff has strong motivational value for me - the more of it, the better.

Also would value your anecdotal accounts of how much better things are for you without alcohol, how much weight you lost, how much more you enjoy things, etc.

Thanks!
posted by jbickers to Food & Drink (21 answers total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Here's a starter: Has some background on the calories in alcohol itself, plus the calories that you get by upping it from alcohol alone to a tasty mixed drink.

Another thing to consider is alcohol's effect on sleep. Alcohol's depressant effects only last while it's in your system, but once it clears, you actually get a rebound (which you're not always aware of because other factors may make you feel lousy and slow) and if you drink shortly before going to sleep, you may in fact have disrupted sleep later in the night.
Given that you want to lose weight and feel good, the improved sleep from not drinking before bed could make a big difference too.
posted by davidnc at 11:39 AM on May 28, 2009


1. Don't have booze on hand to make drinks.

2. Is there anything you can distract yourself with? Books? Cartoons? Lots of sex works, too.
posted by dunkadunc at 11:42 AM on May 28, 2009


According to this, the issue is not how many calories in what you drink, but rather that the way you metabolize alcohol makes the body turn towards burning alcohol for fuel first, and hold off on metabolizing fat.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:43 AM on May 28, 2009


The biggest things that kept me away from a few drinks a night was the fact that by using it to alleviate my general [and situational] anxiety, I was actually sort of postponing dealing with the anxiety as well as fucking up my sleep. I was also on a weight loss plan so I basically figured out how many calories [empty!] were in each sort of drink I liked and basically if I was drinking I'd take that out of my calorie allotment for the next day or two. Since you don't think you have drinking problem [I'm assuming] I'd start with cutting down, doing something like "two drink maximum" and maybe 2-3 days a week maximum, get used to it [learn to love sleeping better as you're not having drinking screw it up] and then it will become easier.

I wound up, over a year or two, losing an aggravating 30 pounds and through exercise and general decent eating habits, just being a ton happier with myself. Drinking at the outset sort of slowed getting that all going. Not a huge problem, but definitely one worth overcoming.
posted by jessamyn at 11:51 AM on May 28, 2009


You may have already done the math, but if you haven't: (Note, this is pretty fuzzy, as alcohol is metabolized very, very differently than other things, but hey, it'll be inspiring!)

Let's say you're having two rum and cokes per night. Each is roughly 180 cals, which is 360 extra calories per night. We can round that off to a nice even 2,500 extra calories per week.

To lose a pound (on average) you need to burn 3,500 calories. That means that if you change nothing else in your life except for stopping the drinks, and don't replace them with something with calories/compensate with something else, you can expect to lose about .7 pounds per week.
posted by SpiffyRob at 11:55 AM on May 28, 2009 [3 favorites]


Drink tea instead. In the summertime we usually make chilled green tea (any Japanese-style convenience store should have this) in a big juicer and keep it in the fridge. If you don't like caffeine, try chilled hoji-cha (roasted green tea) or mugi-cha (barley tea).
posted by KokuRyu at 12:44 PM on May 28, 2009


After 25+ years of having 2-3 glasses of wine, no more no less, every evening I quit 10 years ago. The most significant (and for me important ) consequence is the amount of additional reading (occasionally writing) I now do in the evening. I loved the slight buzz, the taste and how wine enhanced food. However, since quitting I have permanently taken off 8-10 lbs, sleep much better and have almost completely stopped watching TV in the evening. A known consequence of drinking is reduced inhibition> which leads to larger portions, more snacking and more frequent second helpings. Do I occasionally miss it--sometimes--but I would never trade it for the increased attention and focus I now have. I jog every morning. When I quit drinking I added a brisk but casual 15-20 minute walk in the evening right before or after dinner. This has some of the calming effects of the alcohol. However, being realistic, I am not aware of anything that mimics the delicious buzz that a drink or two can give. But I do know that my evenings are much more pleasurable, but perhaps not as mellow. Best Wishes.
posted by rmhsinc at 12:46 PM on May 28, 2009 [6 favorites]


I've recently kicked the habit of drinking 2-3 beers every evening. One thing that became apparent while I was doing this is that it's not just the mellow, alcohol, easy-evening-ness that I was used to, but also the calorie-intensity of the beer.

I found it hard to stop both things (alcohol and calorie intake, in the form of beer), but I found it much more agreeable to substitute a sugary soda when I ordinarily had an urge to drink beer. It's also way easier to stop after one soda than after one alcoholic drink, where you the desire is to not 'kill the buzz' until you go to sleep.

I wouldn't ordinarily give myself permission to drink a sugary soda, since before doing this I always drank diet soda. But I give myself permission to drink a sugary soda in lieu of drinking beer.

A side effect here is that this makes my evenings far more productive, in terms of getting work-work, hobby-work, or house-work done.

I imagine I'll elminate the regular high-calorie soda eventually, but for now it's agreeing nicely with me and its way fewer calories than the multiple beers.
posted by u2604ab at 12:51 PM on May 28, 2009


Do you snack when you drink? I found that I do, so when I am being diligent about my snackage, I also cut back on the cocktails so that was an extra motivation.
posted by pointystick at 1:00 PM on May 28, 2009


For me, the tough part was that, with regular drinking, my body got used to something sweet between dinner and bed.

I've tried to augment my cutting back with lemon-slice flavored, lightly-sweetened club soda, to help keep the sugar monster from growling.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:00 PM on May 28, 2009


Coincidentally, I read this link earlier, and it's a reasonable summary of the risks of what I've read and experienced. It's a slippery slope you don't want to go down.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 1:01 PM on May 28, 2009


Not sure if this answers your question. I recently cut way back on my alcohol intake by limiting the number of days I drink. Rather than cut out alcohol altogether, which would have felt like a hardship, I now drink only three nights a week. I drink the same number of drinks in an evening (about 3) but now drink about 12 fewer per week by not drinking Sun thru Wed nights. I works quite well. I still get to enjoy wine with meals, I still get to hang out in bars and drink. It hasn't been difficult to lose about 8 lbs over the last three months, almost exclusively by cutting down on more than 2000 cals of alcohol a week.
posted by johngumbo at 2:14 PM on May 28, 2009


As a future health care professional, I wish I had the time to look up some good scholarly peer-reviewed articles for you to take a look at. For reliable, truthful articles, I'd suggest looking at the NIH website. Also, see Google Scholar for some (possibly) free articles.

I myself am unintentionally cutting back on my beer and booze consumption since I started grad school yesterday. I know grad school sometimes increases alcohol intake, but I frankly won't have time in my accelerated program. Maybe once on Friday night or on my holiday breaks.

Earlier this week, I started a Navy Seals running program from a decade or three ago. On top of that, I'm trying for a hundred pushups, twenty pullups and, ultimately, a sprint triathlon swimming distance.

Good luck with both the alcohol stoppage and the weight loss.
posted by cothebadger at 2:55 PM on May 28, 2009


I have mostly cut out evening drinks. It's certainly helped shed some weight, and it makes my evenings more productive.

Half-way measure: when I do have a wee something, I have spirits unmixed. Scotch and water, rum on the rocks with a slice of lime, that kind of thing. No calories from the mixers, very few sugars in the drink, and the flavour intensity is such that I find that a lot more satisfying and feel little urge for another.

My former habit was about half bottle of wine most nights. What I realised when I stopped was that on the whole, I was mildly hungover a lot of mornings -- not a lot, but a definitely little. So my mornings are better.

Another tip: it took me about a week to stop feeling itchy at 6 o'clock. If you can tough it out for a week, it gets a lot easier after that.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:02 PM on May 28, 2009 [1 favorite]


Can you modify this behavior? Moderate alcohol consumption - especially red wine - can have overall a good effect on health (affects both morbidity and mortality), especially for men, especially for men with elevated BMI. However, the pattern of drinking is very important. First, it has to be light to moderate. What this means, is 1 to 2 drinks per day - but understand what a drink is: you are looking at 4-5 oz glass of wine... that's small. A smallish wine glass is typically an 8 oz, which means if you fill it to the brim, you're at the 2 drink maximum right there. Plus, and this is critical, we're talking 12.5% wine - the last 15 years, the strength of wine has steadily climbed. So, if you are drinking a stronger wine, you must cut down the amount to below 4 oz. Second, you must drink it with a meal - in this case dinner. Third, give your liver a break twice a week, which means, you can drink the 1-2 drinks (one small glass of wine, not filled to the brim) for five days a week (I drink Sat, Sun, Mon, Wed, Thur - my break is Tuesday and Friday).

The advantage of this is that you don't have to quit completely, you can derive health benefits, and it is actually a pleasant activity. Because I don't drink much, I can afford to buy all kinds of wines, and my palate has become quite discriminating as a result of exposure to so many different wines. Plus, I now actually prefer to drink with food.

The key however is to err on the side of less. The more research that comes out, the more it looks like a "U" curve - but with a strong emphasis on "less is more".
posted by VikingSword at 3:03 PM on May 28, 2009


I brew beer, and typically have a drink or two (or three) every night.

What keeps me a healthy weight and functional is brewing really light beers with enough flavor that I feel like I'm drinking beer. 2.5-3% alcohol English bitters, etc. I really like the ritual of beer after work, but the stuff I drank as a grad student (8%+ alcohol manly-man stuff) would have me snoring on the couch at 8 pm. I only drink while making or eating dinner (or mowing the lawn). I threw out the 20oz "pint" glasses and now use 12oz glasses and don't fill 'em up.

Keep the ritual, but make it less boozy. Use really flavorful stuff (campari or whatever) and smaller glasses. The ritual is more relaxing than the booze itself. Your body will get used to low alcohol stuff and pretty soon you won't know what you're missing. Except the extra 600 calories a day.

FWIW, I've got the same attitude towards other unhealthy, but good, things. A little good shit > lots of crap. Some good prosciutto with a ton of veggies is 10x healthier than a half pound burger, but almost as flavorful.
posted by paanta at 4:05 PM on May 28, 2009 [1 favorite]


I pretty much quit drinking for a year, and during that time I drank a lot of flavored seltzer, sometimes with a dash of juice, to mimic the beer or fizzy mixed drink mouth-feel. I definitely dropped a few pounds during that time.

Nothing really replaced wine however. When I'd have an occasional drink, that's usually what I'd go for.
posted by medeine at 5:02 PM on May 28, 2009


I kicked the late night munchies with the application of copious amounts of herbal tea and knitting, to keep my hands busy. Found that I wake up feeling much better, so I have motivation to continue.
posted by kjs4 at 7:04 PM on May 28, 2009


If it's at all a question of willpower, I would suggest you ask yourself, on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being the worst) how great the suffering is if you forgo a drink tonight. Think about that number. Sometimes quantifying suffering (the suffering of withdrawal or other things) can help.
posted by adamfaux at 5:16 AM on May 29, 2009


I've recently cut back dramatically on the amount I drink in the evening - I was previously drinking every night, only one or two each time, but it was a very entrenched habit.

What I do now is buy those mini single-serving bottles of wine (250ml each), and allow myself three a week. This means I can plan to drink them on certain nights, and because things are more thought through, I can budget the amount of calories accurately as they're a known size.

Also, it took me a good couple of weeks to lose the mental alarm at 8pm: "ping! alcohol time!", but drinking chilled ginger ale instead helped fool my brain for a little while. In time I progressed to diet ginger ale, then sparkling water.

For the record, since I've cut back (combined with counting calories as well though) I've lost about 10 pounds. Also, my skin's much better these days.
posted by cryptozoology at 6:22 AM on May 29, 2009


I drank one beer/glass of wine a night every night for about 12 years, then two a night for 4 years, then I was edging towards 3 or 4 a night for a couple of years. It was clear I couldn't do without it any more and I was falling plop into bed slightly drunk every night.

So I stopped altogether a year ago and I don't drink. I won't the rest of my life if I can help it (which I believe I can).

I thought of it this way:

-- If I practiced something for a half hour every single night for almost 20 years, I would expect I would become damned good at it. I did that with drinking, so I believe it did foul up my body and mind. That cumulative effect cannot have been good.
-- I do feel lighter and cleaner and more alert and more relaxed throughout my life now. Somehow my life seems simpler and more straightforward. I feel proud, too. This may seem silly but I don't think it is. I'm stubborn; I win.
-- I knew I was never going to drink less than I did, and almost certainly would drink more, and it was never going to get easier to quit, only harder.
-- I also knew drinking was a net negative now. If alcohol disappeared for me I'd be better off. So enough.

Good luck.
posted by argybarg at 9:53 PM on May 30, 2009 [1 favorite]


« Older Help me "negotiate" with Sprint.   |   Makeing allowances Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.