Soubor October

notthereyet

Thinking of giving the drink a break for a while, just not enjoying it and the cost of it as well, mid 50s so starting to get a few health issues as well have to lose a stone or 2 anyone else want to go on this journey with me, good range of non alcohol beers and wines out there now so looking forward trying new things.

Jim_Hodge

Good idea. But non alcoholic beers and wines won't help with the weight loss at all. Personally, I'd do without rather than drink most 0% beers.

notthereyet

Ya Jim I here you, Friday evening after work and Sunday afternoons was my go to pub days so I will need to have something nice organised for these times just to break the habit.

j2

No offense but that sounds like you should quit drinking altogether, not just for a month. If you're in your 50s, overweight, and rocking out some health issues then adding alcohol into the mix sounds like a passing away in your sleep situation waiting to happen.

iptba

I was looking at the labels of some non-alcoholic beers recently and they were lower in calories (I think around 21-23 calories per 100ml versus 36 for normal strength beers).

Alcohol is quite calorie rich.

taxAHcruel

Yeah alcohol free beers are definitely lower in Calories. Sometimes 50% or even less. Brewdog IPA is a pretty good example: https://free-beer.co.uk/calories-comparison/

So switching from alcoholic to non alcoholic is certainly going to "help" lose weight. Especially as people in my experience tend to drink less beer when it is non alcoholic because it is not giving that dopamine edge. So you are drinking less beers as well as drinking beers with lower calories.

But it is still empty calories. That is - calories that you are taking on without any significant associated nutritional benefit. So while it is a good change - I would not rush to recommend it as a diet move for someone focusing on weight loss.

There are a lot of weight loss tricks I use in my own life. They work for me. That does not mean they work for everyone. I tend to drink more water when I am looking to lose weight because it suppresses appetite. I also tend to chomp a hard boiled egg about 45 minutes before any large meal because it similarly suppresses appetite and I tend to eat a lot less when I sit to eat. I also tend to up protein and down carbs. All of this works for me. Other people tend to find what works for them.

You've identified the important factor in taking something like alcohol out of your life though. Which is to find things to fill that hole and keep you out of the areas and habits that "trigger" you to want some of it. So finding things to do on those days/nights to fill in that time and get you out of the zone where you would habitually consider the beers is a great move. You'll find a whole world of stuff out there if you look around hard enough. I do not drink alcohol at all any more for the most part. I tend to fill my life with bow and arrow, horse riding, running, Jujitsu, Capoeira, growing things, and cooking.

notthereyet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121163148#Comment_121163148

Ya will stay off it till Christmas anyway and see than, I drive a truck most days so a very unhealthy occupation sitting down most of the day, regards the weight I am 6 foot and I was 13 stone in my 30s 14 stone in my 40s and now in my 50s 15 stone so I would like to get down to 13 stone again.

notthereyet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121163612#Comment_121163612

Ya thanks for such a detailed reply, my GP has put me on statins for very high colesterol and said to cut down the alcohol 1 or 2 pints a night over the weekend don't think I am going to bother with that nurseing a few pints at the bar on weekend so I am going to obstain from it completely till my next checkup in 12 weeks.

taxAHcruel

I would certainly recommend giving it up entirely as you have suggested. If you are starting to see medical issues then alcohol is a good thing to remove always. However the added advantage of removing it entirely - is that if the medical issues do not improve or even continue to get worse you could discover there is something else in your life or diet also causing those issues.

Whereas if you simply reduce the alcohol but are still having some - you are not in as good a position to do this. Total elimination of a suspect is always better than reduction of it.

As you say a completely sit down occupation is not ideal for health. However I know people in similar occupations. Once you balance the sedentary nature of your work with good motion in your free time - you probably will not suffer as badly with having a completely sit down career as you might fear.

So get moving any time you can. Bring resistance or weight training things with you as best you can fit in the truck. Kettle Bells and Resistance bands are probably some of the more space conscious items you could look at. Look into something that keeps you flexible and moving in new ways. Jujitsu might be a good one to look at because as someone who travels around for your work - you will find a lot of Jujitsu clubs are quite happy to have "drop ins" for training. For example I dropped in on the Sligo training myself recently. The first visit was free. After that drop ins cost me 15 euro if I was only training or free if I was giving a class myself or doing some teaching.

Running and walking is of course a good one too because wherever you park up for the night - you are probably going to be able to start going from there.

What you eat and how you eat is probably worth looking at too. My experience with Truck Drivers is that they cook at their truck and this tends not to lend itself to the healthiest of food options.

popa smurf

Packed it up myself a few years back,same as yourself mid 50s and had to cut down a bit, and I used this analogy that it was like a lad driving a ferrari and told that he could only do 60 km an hour with it, so the sensible thing to do is get rid of the ferrari. So I cut it out completely, no more highs can't wait to finish work on a Friday and get stuck in to the pints and lows back to work on a Monday. It was easy for me as I was busy and had a young family and I had plenty to do and got stuck in to kids football and stuff, you might think that johny behind the bar in your local and a few lads that you meet down the pub will miss you but the only ones that give a **** about you are you own family, wife and kids. Must say love the 00 Heineken I get small 6 pack of cans always have a few in fridge, pint glass some ice lovely in the evening, best of luck.

riddles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121167780#Comment_121167780

Plus one to all this - will be a year off it in November. Was getting ever more frequent gout attacks. For a good many years too doctor wanted me to get on statins. I had raised uric acid - this makes it hard to get cholesterol under control.

took alipurinol and cholcicine for four months got the uric acid under 360 and the cholesterol fell into range as well. Just on alipurinol now will see about tapering off that

sugar is next on the hit list post booze that crept up as alternatives.