Hi All,
It's 7 months since I gave up booze and I just thought I'd share some thoughts on it for those wanting or thinking about giving up for weight reasons.
- It was easer than I thought. But a mindset shift was needed. What I mean by this is that to give up drinking, I accidentally started thinking of myself as a non drinker. I had changed my job and the people I now work with the most are either tee total or infrequent drinkers. As I see this as the team I've felt like I belong with the most, it helped me start to think of myself as a non drinker even before I gave up alcohol.
- I didn't lose as much weight as I expected. Sorry about this. It might differ for you but all I lost was 3lbs. It came off and stayed off but it wasn't a stone or more that I've heard others lose. I have no idea why. Logically it should be doing more but it isn't. I think that's worth being honest about though because some people may think it's a magic bullet.
- Sleep massively improved but not immediately. I had always been able to tell both with sleep quality and quantity which nights I'd had alcohol just from my watch stats. But after a few weeks of sobriety, I noticed that subtle shifts were happening. If I look back at data I can see my average deep sleep has gone up by 30 minutes a night as has the total sleep. Although I do point out it wasn't a magic weight loss bullet, good sleep is proven to help weight loss (or rather bad sleep really works against it) so it might still be helping now without my realising.
- It wasn't a magic wand for everything. I still get stressed. I still have mental health problems as I've always had but they're milder. When I struggle, the time I struggle for is shorter. There is some bravery needed to face some of life without that crutch but it's rewarded.
- I still crave it but not as often as you'd think. And not even the times you'd think. Birthday, Christmas and holidays all passed with no desire to drink. I still sometimes think on a really bad day that I'd like to escape my mind for a while. Apart from that, going into a brewery tap room I used to frequent has been the only real pang I've had but I coped. I don't drink the 0% brews. I know many do but for me I think it would maintain the craving longer. Instead I buy myself really nice (and slightly expensive) tea and sparkling water (bog standard, I don't understand "posh" water). The thought of lasting through family Christmas without a drink was what delayed me stopping for years. (My family are very difficult to be around.) This year we had a joint Christmas which I was dreading. I was the only person who came out of it sanity intact I think. Everyone else fell out with each other and I just made better decisions because I was sober.
- I can tell the GP to f- off when he talks about healthy eating. The one aspect of my diet which was always a problem on weight loss was alcohol. Other stuff I could limit fairly easily. Not sure it will lead anywhere but it's quite reassuring to think "look, this has to be perimenopause related now" and to have done pretty much everything else I can on my weight. (I'm now doing intermittent fasting, the 24 hour fast 1 time a week method but before giving up alcohol it seemed pointless as I knew this other thing was working against my weight loss or at least my GP could claim it was doing so.)
Anyway, thought I'd share. I think this is for life. While it's not been the wholehearted magic bullet I thought it could be, I see no benefits in returning to those ways. Just in case anyone else is thinking about it for weight loss or other reasons.