re: Dry January 2023?

The fun thing about removing alcohol—
I got off the “wagon” as it pertains to my eating this weekend. I still tracked macros. The plan for Friday was pizza and cookies—did that. Went over my target calories by like 500-600.

Great workout Saturday morning. Had deer cheeseburgers and made s’mores by a fire with the kids Saturday. Something I’d never let myself enjoy when drinking bc I saved my calories for drinking. May have had the deer burger but with no bread.

Yesterday-made homemade strawberry shortcake with my daughter, made Gouda grilled cheese sandwiches with soup for lunch for kids and I did the picking at their food the entire time thing. Mexican restaurant for dinner and Cold Stone ice cream afterwards. Got my own ice cream for the first time in years instead of just taking little bites of theirs. Actually ate chips and salsa, ate a fajita on a tortilla instead of just eating the meat, etc. Never went over my macros Saturday and Sunday—felt like I was really indulging, too.

Woke up today and still weigh less and feel a ton leaner with no bloating. It’s amazing the effect that consistent drinking and the subsequent removal can have. Sleeping great too.

Isn’t that sad! I will say I only did Rita’s at specific fancy type Mexican places where I knew exactly what they were putting in my margarita on the rocks. I honestly enjoyed my Diet Coke with lime pretty much as equally as I would have enjoyed a corona light x2.

You’re right about it being stressful to save calories for alcohol. I knew there were days my body needed the nutrition but also knew we had an event or planned dinner “out” where I’d no doubt have wine or the like. My version of being good was essentially stealing proper nutrition my body desperately needed for functioning as well as workout recovery. But I sacrificed that to be “normal” when going out for a girl’s night, dinner date, whatever.

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I actually really like kombucha it’s like N/A sour beer. I like mango and ginger infused ones

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I'm on my 5th annual Dry January, and Kombucha is where it's at for helping my cravings.

Another thing I do is brew a lime ginger ale. Do you have a kegging setup? It's stupid easy if you do. I juice a couple pounds of ginger and a dozen limes, then throw it in a keg with a goodbelly probiotic shot, a packet of US05, and a half pound or so of sugar. Top off with water to fill the keg. Let it ferment/carb in the keg for a week, then throw it on tap under 20-30 psi. You may need to bleed pressure a couple times during that week.

ETA: The ginger ale comes out to about 0.5% abv, so basically zero. Orange juice has just as much alcohol.

I drink diet tonic water with a twist of lime sometimes so some n/a gin could be good. Looks like the price is as much/more as decent alcoholic gin tho? I’m gonna have to pass on that lol

Our city water is excellent (I can brew with it with minimal salt adjustments) so I just fill kegs and pressurize

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It's been a problem in my life for a decade and a half.

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Same. And I’ve followed your struggles. 11 days is great man. You’ve been lucky from a health perspective.

I can give my anecdotal evidence on alcohol and fitness. It’s pretty damn obvious not drinking poison is better than drinking poison. That said I’m all for someone enjoying a few drinks.

From a fitness perspective, I have tracked the calories in and calories out along with kcals burned.

777 will probably disagree with me here but the source does make a difference. I’m better off having those 400 kcals come from any source but alcohol. I lost far less weight, and in particular fat, while drinking. Again, with all else being equal.

I’ve read studies that show you simply don’t burn fat when ETOH is available to burn. So every drink you have is an hour of your liver just trying to eliminate the toxin.

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Why go through true brewing processes? Why not just juice and carbonate? I’m curious why you go through the step of fermenting it? Does it add flavor?

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Fermentation adds tons of flavor. It's a lacto and sacch ferment, so you get all the flavors that both of those produce. You also get all the probiotics from the lacto ferment

I missed the good belly part. Sounds interesting. I do my sours that way. I haven’t been drinking much and haven’t drank in January yet. Maybe I’ll give that a brew.

Azimuth Check

How is everyone doing? first couple of days (started the 3rd) were different because I got out of my routine.

Down a couple of pounds and tracking on fitness goals. Feel great.

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Day 15 sober

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Nice.