Just on my seventh beer-free day here.
I hadn't been deep in the sauce like some of the stories I've read, but it had definitely become a bad habit that had left me overweight and feeling unhealthy after a few years slipping back into it.
I wasn't getting particularly drunk, wasn't passing out at night, wasn't having blackouts or anything like that - but it was persistent heavier-than-is-healthy drinking. Like four or five cans of beer almost every night as the kids went to bed, and that going up to six or seven from Thursday to Sunday. I stuck to lower alcohol lager (3.5-4%) to try to mitigate the impact, but it was still, of course, far more than is healthy (I guess it was an average of eight units Mon-Weds and 10-12 Thurs-Sun - so around 70 per week!). Once a fortnight or so I'd somehow end up having around 20 units and feeling absolutely **** for a couple of days. Basically, I was in a rut. I couldn't think of what to do in the evening unless I got some beer in, and I felt I had to get at least four or five in so I wouldn't worry about running out (this was a warning sign that things were not in control!). This had been going on since around mid-2015.
I was more than a stone overweight, flabby, and feeling generally lethargic. My mental health was deteriorating noticeably as well.
When we went on holiday last month I resolved to use it to be more active and to drink less. I only had a couple of beers each night, and swam about a mile a day - and started to feel a lot better.
Unfortunately, my first week back at home (and back at work) I fell right back into my old habits and did no exercise at all and drank the same old amounts again.
Then last Monday I caught sight of myself in the mirror (I'd been avoiding full-body mirrors for some time...) and resolved I had to change.
That was the last night I had a beer, and I've been back on my intermittent fasting diet and lifting weights again to try to improve things.
Had two almost sleepless nights at first, but I already feel ten times better than I have done in a couple of years.
I hope I can keep it up this time. I think I need the pull of exercise and physical improvement. Whenever I've quit over the past two years without weight lifting I've always relapsed. As my wife says, I'm all or nothing! So I'm counting calories and macros, timing meals, drinking protein shakes, recording workouts. No desire for alcohol at all right now and I feel healthy, alert and happy. I need to remember that, and to remember how lethargic and grotty I feel when I have beer every night!
Probably my first real test will be when I have to get the evening train home tomorrow - I pass an offie on the way to the station and it was my habit to start the evening with a beer or two on the train if it was leaving after 5pm...
How do people find alcohol free beer? been drinking way to much lately and want to look at cutting back.
I never found it helpful. I'm not sure how generalisable this is, but for me drinking alcohol-free beer just meant I was thinking about beer and actively trying to deny myself the alcohol. The beer-like taste always kicked off my desire for more (proper) beer anyway.
Some of it tastes quite nice, but generally the more well-regarded ones I've found a bit hoppy for my liking (can't remember the names now, though).
UPDATE: Well, I successfully avoided the temptation of train beer on my two early evening journeys this week, which I am pleased about. Also feels good making an estimate of the money I've saved just in 10 days or so of not buying beer all the damn time...
