Heavy to Moderate Drinker - Thoughts

Another Drink - Tasnadi Erika Dreamstime Free Photos


Click here for free photos from Dreamstime


One for the road, yet you don't get on the road until three or four later. Sounds familiar? It is to me. Whilst I'm a different drinker to when I was twenty and probably a more controlled one, I still advance from one or two drinks to five or six without thinking or even with any resistance. When I'm sober, I can cringe at my lack of control but as soon as I start I want to get happy (pissed).

Why can't my sober self moderate my drinking? Well, I've been thinking about this a lot over the pass couple of months.

First I think a lot of it has to do with how you perceived drinking as a child and how you started drinking.

When I was a kid, most of the adults in the house drank (I live with my grandparents, their friend and my dad). They drank to relax after a day's work. Guinness was their favourite and they drank in moderation. We were allowed to try and I enjoyed the fact that the head on Guinness made me sneeze. Anyway, I'm getting away from the point, to me, drinking booze meant that you were an adult. This was very strong in my mind and as I think most people can remember, every kid wants to grow up (that's until they've grown up and then many want to regress). So I think drinking is a very adult thing to do.

I drank some drink throughout my childhood but it wasn't until I was fifteen, coming on sixteen, that I really started to drink. It was very much an escape into another world. We had 'Mad' nights, where the intention was to drink as much as possible and go mad. Drinking gave us excitement and release as well as stories. Getting sick and nursing handovers didn't really matter that much, when you were telling a friend an anecdote from the night before.

The believes behind our drinking;

• The more, the better.
• It's cool to drink.
• Getting wasted gives experiences.
• Getting drunk is the point.
• Drink and be happy.

This basically drove my drinking habits through till I my thirties. In fact, moving to London added some new believes like

• Eating is cheating
• Halves are for 'poofs' (Well, I think this one is throughout the UK).
• Cheer up, have a beer/drink!

I do drink differently now to when I was in my early twenties. Then I just drank to get drunk (I fooled myself I was socialising) and achieved it 100% of the time, sometimes I ended up being sick. As I’ve got older I’ve cut back a little on drinking, I definitely drink less often and to a lesser extent. I still drink fast and without pause between drinks, though I now occasionally drink water with alcohol.

How to change to be a moderate drinker?

I need to disassociate ‘the more the better’ with ‘some is good but a lot is bad’. In an academic sense I know this to be true but when I’m in a bar, this is not what I think. I kinda go on autopilot, drink a drink, finish, get a new drink. Repeat until I feel tired (which I do now I’m older) or drunk.

I can work harder on replacing the thinking ‘the more the better’, with ‘some alcohol for a good time but a lot makes me feel bad.’ Perhaps, I can put this message in my wallet to remind me when I'm drinking.

I’m not sure why I drink so fast, perhaps it’s to get that ‘goodness’ from feeling tipsy. And I haven't come up with a way to try and tackle this yet.

I believe the area where I can make the biggest different at the moment is to wait between drinks. This is part of my drinking pattern that I believe is the easiest to break. There’s no need to get another drink straight away. Perhaps, I can set a stopwatch for 30 minutes so that I get a break between drinks or I just replace a ‘drink’ with water. I think if I wait, I'll feel anxious at first but it's a point in my habit that can be changed. If I wait it out enough times, it'll become a new habit.


I think working on these two points will help me moderate my drinking, once I’ve started. From my experience so far, I’ve found it easier not to drink than to drink a little. Now I want to solve that problem, by changing the habit of my drinking.

Are you in a similar position? Do you want to moderate your drinking? Do you have any suggestions on how to moderate (not give up!)?

Thanks for reading.

From a sober Chris - good night.

March Aims

Healthy Girl eating an apple by Petar Neychev of Dreamstime


Check out Free photos on Dreamstime here





Since the beginning of the year, my health has been going in the right direction. I haven't stuffed any colds this year, I feel that I have more energy and I'm doing more exercise. I've cut down drastically on the sugar in my diet and I've learnt a lot about health that I didn't know before.

There has been set backs, like the teeth incident last month, but even that has turned out to be positive as I took the opportunity to learn more about what people could do to take care of their teeth. Also, I'm still drinking too often to get drunk.

From this the experience of the last two months and from what I've read, I'm confident that if you want to be healthy, you can. It's up to you!

Here are the targets for this month


• To maintain a sugar free diet.
• To experiment with low carbohydrate diet. At first, I want to take notes on the effects of eating or not eating carbohydrates on the teeth.
• To backup internet research on teeth with conversations with professions from the industry.
• Read up and publish a blog on Vitamin D
• Cut down on the number of days I drink, especially the number of days I drink more than 3 pints (UK measure)
• Exercise 14 times. I also want to include swimming and tennis this time.

February Review

Philbate Dreamstime Free Picture

For free photos, click on this link to Dreamstime

An eventful month, even though it's the shortest month, it actually seems like a very long month because so much has happened.

The highlight was the bungee jump, I also had trips to Macau and South Taiwan, finished working and I've got my first Extended Licence picture sold for a whopping $28!

Health highlights; It's been a month of long walks (mostly urban), some runs, a worrying toothache and resulting swelling on my left cheek. I've stayed mostly sugar free and kept my tea/coffee count respectful, though I've probably drunk the most alcohol in a very long time. I've done some more reading on 'cavemen' eating and a lot of reading on teeth care.

The details

Sugar

3rd Feb - a friend bought me a Starbuck's Iced Choco-Coffee concoction with sugary cream on top. After drinking, I felt a headache come on.
14th Feb - Had ice cream. After eating this, I felt a rush of energy, though it could've been the two coffees I had as well (or a combination of them both.
19th Feb - Had a sweet soft tofu dish with condensed milk. No after affects.

It feels good not to have sugar and I now like saying no to offers that contain sugar. I will continue this and hopefully, get a completely sugar free month.

Tea and Coffee

Most days I've kept to 2, though there's been 2 or 3 days when I had 3. Towards the end of the month I had a lot of green tea on some days.

Alcohol

10 non-drink days
7 moderate drink days
12 heavy drink days (more than 3 pints)

It looks bad and my excuse is Chinese New Year. I know excuses are lame. Despite the 12 heavy drink days, I think it was only 2 time that I suffered a hangover. I'll definitely drink less this month (March).

Physical Exercise

10 Long slow walks - though these walks were urban and contained many stops as I was taking pictures.
5 Runs - The runs were between 15 and 20 mins. I've started including 'sprints' with the runs to vary the pace and it's more fun.
1 Bike Ride

I've started taking care of my teeth more.

As well as brushing twice a day I now;

Floss once a day and usually carry some with me.
Swill water around my mouth after I finished eating.
If I'm at home, I finish my meals with a lump of cheese.

The swelling on my cheek was a bit of a scary but it prompted me to go to the dentist and also to do a lot of research about 'teeth care'. I've came across some very interesting information, some of which I've already posted. I've come across other information, which claims that teeth can heal themselves and also they seem to have a more detailed view of what causes dental decay. I'll digest this information and share that post with you this month.

January Health Round Up

Dreamstime Free Photo


Check here for your link to Dreamstime Free Stock Photos









Late, but I spent the weekend away at Sun Moon Lake with my girlfriend.

January Health Round Up

The (refined) sugar free month. Nearly but not quite.

Known times I had sugar

• Two bread rolls made by my girlfriend.
• 26th Jan - baked beans that come with an English Breakfast
• 30th Jan - last day teaching at a school. My youngest class presented me with a cake. After group hugs and a lovely card with letters from all the students in that class, I felt I couldn't say no. Also had a cup of cola that day.


I feel healthier but I'd find it hard to say why. I'm definitely feeling better now than at the start of the month. Also, I can see a lot easier what effect drinking has on my energy levels.

Around about the 11th I had a persistant headache. I felt bad as I haven't had any sugar but I still wasn't feeling that good. I checked a Patrick Holford book on nutrition to see what he said about sugars. I discovered from this that its not only sugar that affects the blood sugar levels. Many other things do as well, so from that review, I cut down on caffeinated drinks. It was cold and I was drinking 7 or 8 cups a day. I now drink only two. My replacement drinks for the other teas and coffees has been boiled water. It's good and it keeps me warm.

An indirect benefit of having a ban on a certain type of food, is that you get to say no more often. I quite enjoyed saying no to sweets and it feels good.

Conclusion

Being sugar free is good and I think I've got a health boost from it. I intent to stay sugar free.

Fitness

I did strenuous training five times. I went running 3 times and walk for more than 3hrs two times. I think I can do more.

Alcohol

I had 16 non-drinking days
I had 6 moderate drinking days
I had 9 heavy drinking days

Drinking days were a little up from normal. I turned 40 in January, which I think accounted for some of the increase.

On the positive side, I've been much more consistent with drinking water whilst drinking alcohol, especially at home. It's starting to feel more natural now.

That's my health round up. I think I succeed in having a lot less sugar than normal and I feel confident that this will become a habit. I'm also happy that I've changed my caffeine habit to something more moderate. I see that I don't do enough exercise and would like to do more.

Free Photos Dreamstime

2010 Health Targets

Keep aiming for the target and you'll get there


I know, I've posted them a few days late but here they are.

My approach to adopting these targets won’t be to do them all at once. Instead I will introduce them one at a time. I want to make them lasting habits and I believe that changing habits is a difficult process. So that's why I'll do them one at a time until I feel that they are established habits. Also, I’ll record on an excel spreadsheet how I’m doing with the targets.

Physical Goals

• To do some form of strenuous exercise (more than walking (though walking two hours plus I'll include as strenuous) five times a week. Currently, I do this about 1-2 times per week. I plan to make this a focus in either March or April.
• To do some muscle work, not much, but some, to build up my chest. My girlfriend thinks that I’m like a dinosaur, because all my power is in my legs and my arms and chest are puny. I might make this a focus later in the year. I'll see how my body is after establishing a five times a week exercise regime.
• To do introduce a new sport into my regime, probably tennis. Currently, I go for a run and swim.
• To learn to scuba dive. I plan to do this in either February or March.
• To learn to dive down whilst snorkeling.


Dietary Goals

• Return to eating a lot of vegetables and doing more home cooking. In February, I’ll do a lot more of this.
• To cut out sugar from my diet. I see sugar as far more harmful than fat. I remember reading somewhere that sugar has no nutritional value. Also heard people talking about ‘Sugar Blues’, a book that sees sugar as an additive drug with many side effects. This will be the focus for January. I’ll cut out soft drinks, cakes and sweets, things that obviously have sugar. I’ll check some products for sugar, but I live in Taiwan and my Chinese isn’t that good. I won’t check at restaurants to see if sugar has been added to their cooking.


Drink Goals

• To become a moderate drinker. By this I mean I can drink two or three glasses for enjoyment and then stop. I also want to get into the habit of spacing my drinks with a glass of water. I’ll keep a track of this by recording the days I don’t drink, the days where I drink moderately and heavily (more than 3 pints). This will be a focus in May or June.
• I want to stop drinking all soft drinks that have ‘refined’ sugar in them. I stopped last month, except for drinks that replaced alcoholic ones. I want to stop all together and only drink water or 100% fruit juices as replacements for alcoholic drinks.
I want to increase the amount of water I drink.

Mental Health Goals

• Be more positive
• Be more focus on what makes me feel excited. I'll publish the things I want to achieve this year in a blog post (in January). Also, I'll make a poster of them for my computer table, so that I'll see them everyday and I'll keep them in mind.
• Follow a low information diet as recommended by Tim Ferriss 'The 4-Hour Working Week'. I currently don't read the news, except for headlines on Yahoo. I used to do the crossword as well but now, I'll only do it if someone else has started one. Not reading the news is a habit but a shaky one at the moment. Also, I want to sort out my computer usage, so that it focuses on my goals and not on wasting time. This will be a focus in February.

Personal Introduction

I’ve been denying it for a long time but next year I’ll definitely be middle aged. Next year I’ll be 40 and it’ll mark a watershed for me, as I don’t think I can deny my age any longer. I look younger than my age but I’m definitely feeling the changes. I feel tired sometimes for unexplained reasons, the hangovers are harder and I’m getting unexplained aches much more often than I used to.

My health history (some at least)

I had a hearing problem when I was young, with an abscess in one of my ears. It was pretty bad as I had to wear a hearing aid. I think my hearing is ok now but nothing spectacular.

Generally, I’ve been about the right weight or a little underweight for my height. Currently I’m 173cms and 68Kgs. My weight has been in a range of about 62Kg to 73Kg for the past 10 years.

Physically I’m ok. My big toes hurts sometimes (on and off for about 10 years) and I get unexplained aches and pains sometimes. Other than that I walk a lot and do either running or swimming once or twice a week. The exercising has been a relatively reason phenomena, maybe the last two years and it’s been on and off.


I had, what many people consider to be, a very healthy diet, consisting of lots of vegetables, moderate amount of meat, fish and seafood. This has changed in the last few years as I now live in Taiwan where eating out is much cheaper than London, where I used to live. My diet now, consists of lots of seafood, meat, still a reasonable amount of vegetables, some fruit and Chinese food (with whatever additives they add to it). Also, my tooth is much sweeter than it used to be.


I consider myself to be a heavy drinker, though I drink a lot less than I used to. When I was young, I drunk very often and most of the time I got drunk. It wasn’t very healthy and the frequency of my drinking has declined as well as the amount. I now drink about two times a week, getting drunk about once a week. Earlier this year I didn’t drink for a month and I felt much better after that – more lively and alert.

Also, I drink a lot of soft drinks periodically. I’ve cut down a lot recently on this and I want to keep it this way. Also drink a lot of coffee and tea, probably too much.


I generally consider myself to be positive but when reading my diary, I can see that I can be very negative towards myself often.

I’m currently in a three and half year relationship with Stephanie.

In the next post, I’ll outline my main goals with health. Feel free to introduce yourselves, especially if you are on a similar quest has me.