Alcohol becomes sugar. Stopping makes your body want sugar (in addition to your brain wanting alcohol). Thus why many newly-sober people get a sweet tooth.
But regardless, any craving can substitute for another, yours could be jalapeno poppers.
No idea if these brands are any good or not, but Iām glad to see the increasing popularity of NA drinks in mainstream stores.
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My vote, because I like to play with peopleās lives, is to order a beer and enjoy it, but make sure you donāt finish it. Can you do that?
I could but why would I do that? 
Have you (almost) ever not finished a drink?
Had two 4.5% beers at happy hour over about 90 minutes. Came home and drank some water and then had a cup of tea before bedtime. I had a slight craving to go grab one of the remaining beers in the fridge, but reminded myself i will sleep better without it.
Pretty happy with the overall outcome as well as how i am feeling this morning.
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Proud of you, bro! That is some heavy lifting!
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Had a couple drinks with dinner last night, so a total of 4 for the week. Thatās at least an 80% reduction from 2 weeks ago, likely more than that one you factor in the higher ABV of some of what i had been drinking.
I actually slept in until around 7 yesterday and today. Last night i was pretty awake/ alert until nearly 11, i assume since i slept in later and have been getting better sleep. I know on prior Saturday nights i would have struggled to get much past 9. I just drank tea, listened to music, and worked on sudoku puzzles until i started feeling tired.
So i havenāt quit alcohol like title of the thread advertises, but do feel like i have had an improved lifestyle this weekend from cutting back, and with better sleep, increased energy, and reduced anxiety, feeling improved health benefits from it as well. More fun and more enjoyable overall, which i think is the real point of the thread since we often think of alcohol as something that enhances most things. Iām finding the fine line where that is no longer true to be much nearer 0 than i would have said even a few days ago.
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New low weigh-in, Iām down 26 pounds. Iām now lightly dieting (1600-2100 calories/day) and working out (2-3 miles cardio every day or two.) 1600 isnāt exactly ālightā but I probably stay around 1900-2000 most days. Today is 6 months sobriety.
Was hoping to drop 3 more, which seems to be on pace. I think Iām the lightest Iāve been since high school. Certainly since early college. But not starving myself, and feeling good.
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And thereās absolutely nothing wrong with being a regular or occasional drinker who keeps an eye on their drink.
If youāre that person who can have a beer or two most days or maybe nothing, perhaps a small technical ābingeā of several drinks with a DD through the course of a party, awesome.
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I am looking forward to the āeasyā weight loss. I was pretty stable beforehand, but also about 25 pounds heavier than I achieved about a year into COVID after some pretty dedicated consistent daily running.
I will not make it back to my early college weight, that was ~20 BMI. I bottomed out around 23 during COVID. I was drinking mostly whisky then, the lack of carbs definitely help (but way too easy to overdo it).
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Not everybody gets it, but the more you drank and the less you replace it with food (as is commonā¦)
I probably used to eat around 1800 calories and drink 1100 daily. But if you also burn 500 calories a day thatās only 2400ā¦ which for a lot of people means slight gradual weight gain.
Remove all the alcohol, and exercise even occasionally, and youāve flipped the script dramatically. Of course if you only drank 450 calories that will be less extreme but the safe money is that you will lose weight.
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I can have 14 drinks a week and be an āoccasionalā drinker according to the internet. I think that is where I initially startedā¦but ended up double thatā¦oops.
I feel like I am establishing a pretty clear line between drinking at home and drinking socially. The challenge will be when those two cross and we have guests over. I think the key will be to only purchase what is expected to be consumed that evening, and lock away the leftovers. Although if I am not regularly drinking at home, even this may not be so much an issue. I have had the same 4-5 beers in my fridge for 10 days now and havenāt touched any of them.
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I may have been at 450 during the weeknights, but blew through all that on Friday nights and the weekends. There should be an easy 3500 calorie weekly savingsā¦so right as long as I donāt replace it with other calories.
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3500 is precisely the caloric deficit recommended to lose 1 pound. If you didnāt replace you could expect 4 pounds lost in a month. Though for myself, if my body is really calling for that 100-calorie fun-size candy bar before bed I donāt sweat it as long as I donāt start eating 2-3 of them every day. (And early in recovery I ate 2-3 scoops of ice cream every day!)
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I snack on dry cereal, I am weird. I did find myself eating a few more snacks Friday night thinking I had plenty of calories to spare, but thatās been it so far. I did drop around 4 lbs a few weeks ago when I was sick initiallyā¦I assumed most of that would come back as my guts filled back up to normal levels, but itās only come back slightly, so I am thinking a couple pounds of real weight loss so far from just the beer calories. That tracks fairly well with the calorie difference (including two weekends worth of beers). Plus I was more active generally on top of that.
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Now down 7-8 lbs since ~11/22. I have been more diligent about actually getting in a decent walk/jog/run each day, so between the reduced calories and exercise, I guess I am running closer to a 1000 calorie deficit each day. I guess Iāll eventually need to start eating more, but assume I will hit a plateau in another 15-20 pounds without changing much. That would put at a really good weight.
Energy/attitude has still been pretty awesome and consistent, even if some nights the sleep hasnāt been. I am just not sure I can regularly sleep more than about 6 hours.
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6 hours may be what your body needs.
The brain takes around 90 days to adjust to changes fully, so you may find yourself sleeping more as your body adjusts.
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Good to knowā¦I have always been an early riser and never slept in much. 6 may not be the right number, but it wonāt be much more than that. I think I just need to accept this. 5:30 in the morning is not a bad time to get things done, especially some exercise for the day.
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Officially passed 30 pounds lost. I didnāt think I could get to this lighter-than-high-school area, and I think another 10 pounds can healthily be shed. Thatād put me just below the midpoint of a āhealthyā BMI.
Iāve been upping the exercise from daily walks to jogging (1-4 miles per day, not consistently running the further stretches) and Iām beginning to see definition returning to my legs, albeit Iām still noticeably weaker than I used to be.
I think I hit my first major incident of PAWS (post-acute withdrawal syndrome). I donāt seem to have gotten PAWS terribly, but the other day I was overcome with lethargy, nausea, shaking. It went away completely after about 5-6 hours and I was able to function throughout, but felt like Iād just had 6 cups of coffee wear off at once. All better now.
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