Weight Loss and the Demon Drink

  And another thing…

“Oh, here we go again with another excuse…”

Before I let my Critical Voice hog my opening line, I want to jump in and say something fast, before I decide not to say it at all.

Something I haven’t readily admitted to, and this is a blog that is supposed to help me to be accountable, is that have been drinking waaaaaaaayyyy too much in the past year.  What with some of my  dear people popping of their mortal coils, me feeling sorry for myself for having all sorts of difficulties with all sorts of people and things, getting sick and “blah, blah blah”… I have had the odd alcoholic beverage to help me cope, which has sometimes led to the odd episode of being tipsy, tiddled, giggly, sloshed, smashed and so on (I am quite the Euphemism Queen these days, aren’t I?).  Mostly  it hasn’t involved me being raucously, screamingly drunk - it has been a quiet nightly habit after work, while waiting for dinner,  cooking dinner, eating dinner and so on.

I conclude that I have really been putting it away.  Sure I have eaten too much of the wrong thing too often, but I have also drunk a hell of a lot of the wrong thing much too often for my liver’s liking…and that of my stomach, thighs and arms.  If anyone reading this has shares in First Choice Liquor Stores, you may have noticed a dividend rise in 2010…

I do not look like this when I'm on the sauce, unfortunately

Alright, I admit, my food portions have been too big, and once I start on a bag of Red Rock Deli chips it is hard to stop, and I like  good chocolate, but generally I eat pretty well. I don’t eat junk food…honestly I don’t (although I do like Crust pizza), so what else has made me a fatty boomsticks.  Yep, you guessed what’s coming next….Vino, bubbly, a Cosmopolitan here and there…Remember that UB40 song “red, red wine/goes to my head”? yes it goes to your head, but what about your your stomach? We have all heard of beer bellies, well I have a wine belly. I’ve always been a girl who’d prefer to have (another) glass of red than a dessert and eschew nibblies and go for the champers instead, safe in the erroneous belief that I was on to some really clever weight management trick. But to my dismay have found out the following GEMS of information: There are many reasons that alcohol and weight gain go together including

1. Alcohol contains calories
2. Alcohol can lead to overeating
3. Alcohol can affect the body’s ability to burn fat

OK, number 1 I can cope with.  And number 2. Well, case in point: one night very recently I caught up with some good friends for Friday night drinks. It was a nice night, we sat on the back deck, the mood was good and the conversation interesting. I started off well, with a small glass of wine and resisted the brie and crackers, the hommus and the delicious looking dukkha served with lemon olive oil and fresh crusty sour dough.  All was well, one small glass was followed by another. As the laughter roared around the deck the wine began to flow as freely as the talk and before I knew it, I had that damn platter of sourdough in front of me and I was dipping and dunking as if competing in an eating competition! See…alcohol does not make for steely resolve, it lets the voice inside get loud so it ‘s yelling: “You haven’t eaten a thing for hours! One little bit of bread won’t kill you! Olive oil is healthy. Dukkha is delicious. Bugger it, hoe in!”

So that brings me to point number 3. Here is the news:

When we drink alcohol, our bodies convert it into this stuff called acetate,  which is burned BEFORE other calories we have consumed or have stored. So, as I have consumed more calories than my body requires (ie eating too much), then I store the excess as fat. Then when I drink, my body is receiving the bulk of its energy from the acetate in the alcohol, not from my very ample fat stores. Science tells us that alcohol inhibits “lipid oxidation”. This is the body’s ability to burn fat. In other words, when you have alcohol in your system, it is more difficult for your body to burn existing fat stores.

Well then, drinking alcohol delivers a double-whammy as far as weight loss goals are concerned, doesn't it?

What next then?  Easy…

Get off the grog,