Alcohol
Tuesday night - 2 beers, Wednesday night - 1 beer, Thursday night - 0 beers. Do I hear choirs? Although my diet and exercise accomplishments this week have been good, I'm most proud of this. It was a long time coming. Not too difficult. I've been drinking a lot of Pellegrino and Perrier. The sleep has been bad to ok but overall I feel like a hundred bucks. Maybe it's the glow of pride but physically I feel a lot better and mentally I feel a zillion times better. A sense of optimism and enthusiasm has returned to some degree, I don't feel depressed, and the temper is much better. Physically the reflux is still an issue but I do recall that this gets worse before it gets better. Overall it just feels great to have a positive plan and to have started to execute it and to know where it's going.
Diet
Since I am now actively addressing the single biggest challenge to my dietary goals, I decided to go with it and play with carbs. I have tried long term low carb before (and probably will again) but in the face of relatively unchecked drinking those experiments are unreliable at best. I don't really think permanent low carb is a good option for me, nor is it necessary given that I am by nature a most slim and active person. If I had obesity issues it would be another story. But I do want to play with carbs and lose belly fat. So I decided to go very low carb the last three days and then will "cycle back" to carbs on the weekend. So....
I don't remember Wednesday's eating well, but yesterday:
black coffee in the early morning and again mid morning
around 1:30 - cheese omelette with 4 eggs, chicken thighs with collard greens and olive oil
around 6:30 - meatloaf, salad, and half a potato pancake
total carbs well under 50 grams
Friday
black coffee and tea throughout the morning
chicken thighs, spinach, fried eggs with olive oil
not sure what's happening for dinner but I will try to keep the carbs low
Exercise
I've been doing full body every other day with a mix of weights, weighted calisthenics and body-weight calisthenics. Mostly compound movements. I enjoy this but it's exhausting and I doubt I could do it if I am riding to work every day. I will say this, and it's the most important discovery I've made over the last month or so that I've only been riding once a week. I have been doing weighted squats and deadlifts for the first time in years, and even though my weights are quite modest (in the lower 100ish pounds give or take. For squats, it's whatever I can lift over my head. For deadlifts, the most recent max as 135 for 12 reps. Quite modest.) My legs are getting stronger. I could tell on the bike today. And I have purposely kept the reps as high as I can. No fewer than 10 and trying for 20 whenever possible. I think high rep squats are the key to leg strength.
On the non-lifting days I've been doing micro-bursts of HIT.
Friday, January 27, 2017
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Winding Down and Gearing Up
The alcohol titration project is going well, more or less according to plan. Last night I had three beers (I'm chasing them with Perrier or Pellegrino so I can keep drinking fizzy stuff but also keep with the plan). Tonight it's two. Tomorrow one. Then BINGO, that magic breakthrough beautiful horrific gleaming screaming groaning moaning write home go tell it on the mountain moment. Then the plan is to hold that steady flow for the week nights into the great and tender beyond. Weekends a tempered free for all. This plan will require tweaks.
For strength training I've done whole body every other day this week. Yesterday I had access to the gym at work, which has a modest amount of equipment. Might as well use it if it's there. The challenge is the make it difficult if the weights are not that heavy. I'm already progressing to some fairly heavy stuff (for me). This time I decided to do three sets of push, three of pull, and three of squats. I put the bench press machine on the lowest incline (about 35-40 degrees and after warmup I was able to do the stack (170 lbs) for ten solid reps. Then I dropped the weight two notches and did around ten again, then did the same thing again for my third set. For pulling I chose bent over rows on the cable machine. It was hard to use a heavy weight because I kept wanting to be pulled forward, so I kept the weight fairly light (around 100 -120 lbs) and did three good sets of as many reps as I could get with exaggerated and slow form. Rep range was 16-12.
Squats are difficult in this gym. I tried squats on the cable machine but couldn't really get it to feel right. I probably could have used the two 50 lb dumbbells (as high as they go in this gym) and done dumbbell squats for reps but instead I decided to pre-exhaust with the leg extension and leg curl machine and then do goblet squats immediately after. This worked well, and I was only able to do the squats with a 40 lb dumbbell, but I'm aware of the concerns about leg extensions and the knees, so I probably won't do this any more.
On the off days like today, I can't seem to do a complete rest, so I have been doing some light HIT. Today I took a light barbell (55 lbs) and did six bent rows followed immediately by 6 dead lifts followed immediately by 6 overhead presses followed immediately by six squats. Short rest, then do the same thing for five reps of each and so on until you get down to one. Pretty good stuff and I didn't feel like I created any problems for tomorrow.
Speaking of which, I am home tomorrow, so I'll probably do standard barbell dead lifts for weight and then push ups and rows with the weight vest on.
I've definitely done this before, but I'm starting to get interested again in a one set scheme. One of the things I have to repeatedly remind myself is that a lot of the videos I watch for ideas are made by young people, or people who are at least significantly younger than me (which counts for 35 year olds). And so much of it may not apply.
I do know that the older we get the more important strength training becomes, and that it IS still possible to build muscle (at any age), and it is important to get more rest and avoid too much volume. Brevity and intensity are best.
So I think I'm heading towards a one set per exercise per day whole body as often as possible while still making gains thing.
For strength training I've done whole body every other day this week. Yesterday I had access to the gym at work, which has a modest amount of equipment. Might as well use it if it's there. The challenge is the make it difficult if the weights are not that heavy. I'm already progressing to some fairly heavy stuff (for me). This time I decided to do three sets of push, three of pull, and three of squats. I put the bench press machine on the lowest incline (about 35-40 degrees and after warmup I was able to do the stack (170 lbs) for ten solid reps. Then I dropped the weight two notches and did around ten again, then did the same thing again for my third set. For pulling I chose bent over rows on the cable machine. It was hard to use a heavy weight because I kept wanting to be pulled forward, so I kept the weight fairly light (around 100 -120 lbs) and did three good sets of as many reps as I could get with exaggerated and slow form. Rep range was 16-12.
Squats are difficult in this gym. I tried squats on the cable machine but couldn't really get it to feel right. I probably could have used the two 50 lb dumbbells (as high as they go in this gym) and done dumbbell squats for reps but instead I decided to pre-exhaust with the leg extension and leg curl machine and then do goblet squats immediately after. This worked well, and I was only able to do the squats with a 40 lb dumbbell, but I'm aware of the concerns about leg extensions and the knees, so I probably won't do this any more.
On the off days like today, I can't seem to do a complete rest, so I have been doing some light HIT. Today I took a light barbell (55 lbs) and did six bent rows followed immediately by 6 dead lifts followed immediately by 6 overhead presses followed immediately by six squats. Short rest, then do the same thing for five reps of each and so on until you get down to one. Pretty good stuff and I didn't feel like I created any problems for tomorrow.
Speaking of which, I am home tomorrow, so I'll probably do standard barbell dead lifts for weight and then push ups and rows with the weight vest on.
I've definitely done this before, but I'm starting to get interested again in a one set scheme. One of the things I have to repeatedly remind myself is that a lot of the videos I watch for ideas are made by young people, or people who are at least significantly younger than me (which counts for 35 year olds). And so much of it may not apply.
I do know that the older we get the more important strength training becomes, and that it IS still possible to build muscle (at any age), and it is important to get more rest and avoid too much volume. Brevity and intensity are best.
So I think I'm heading towards a one set per exercise per day whole body as often as possible while still making gains thing.
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Never Say Never - Weight Lifting and Body Part Splits
For the last three weeks I've been lifting weights and doing body-part splits. Man Oh Man Oh Man you should never say never. I just all of the sudden felt like I needed a change. This has coincided with a largely weather-induced break in bike riding to and from work. So without the constant physical exhaustion I have felt that I could really increase the load in the other exercise arena. Interest moves around as you constantly search for something to keep you in the game and making progress.
So to bring this all together and to not feel guilty for getting back into things I said I was done with, I realized that changing things around is ultimately a good thing, not a bad thing, and can add to what you're doing. So I decided to play it fairly instinctively and to take a roughly two week block to work on strength training a certain way and then to move on to something else for the next roughly week or two.
I decided to use weights and body-weight calisthenics, and to do heavy weights and low reps and also light weights and high reps. I also decided to try different kinds of body-weight splits and days between workouts.
I also decided that on some workouts I would do multiple exercises per muscle group and in other workouts I would only do one, and I would vary sets and reps.
I started with an old school 70s bodybuilding routine. Day 1: chest and back, day 2: arms and shoulders, day 3: legs. Repeat. I did a mix of weights and calisthenics, barbells and dumbbells and machines, isolation movements and compound movements. Mostly I did low weight and high reps. Sets for a given exercise were usually in the rep range of 30, 25, 20, 18, 15, 12. Never fewer than 10. Very light weights, like 20 lb dumbbells for curls, 15s for lateral raise. You have to set your mind on the fact that the weight does not matter. It's almost irrelevant. What matters is proper form and to exhaust the muscle.
For the next cycle I did a push/pull/legs split. Chest and triceps on day 1, back and biceps on day 2, legs and shoulders on day 3. For this cycle I did higher weight and lower reps. So I may have done incline bench with 50s for 16 - 18 reps (the heaviest dumbbell my work gym has), dumbbell curls with 45s for 6 reps, etc. For one of these workouts I did weighted ring dips (30 lbs) for sets of 5 and weighted chin ups with 30 lbs for sets of 5. I also did barbell squats and dead lifts.
Now I've decided to go to an older old school body-building routine, which they used to do back in the 50s and 60s. That's full body every other day. I'm really excited about this because I really do prefer to do the whole body in a workout. But of course you must do fewer sets overall. Today I did weighted ring dips 20 lbs x 6, 10 lbs x 9, body-weight x 9; weighted ring chins 20 lbs x 6, 10 lbs x 7, body-weight x 9. I did one set of barbell squats with 75 lbs for 10 reps but only because I'm too tired from dead lift yesterday. I am most excited about this cycle because each body day I want to pick one exercise per muscle group and do three sets with weight in a reverse pyramid, and only compound movements.
So for this cycle I intend to pick and choose variations on deadlift, squat, bench press, dip, push up, pull up, row, and military.
I'm already thinking about the next split, which I think will be upper body one day, lower body the other.
Really the fun here is to be to a point where I have a lot of tools in my arsenal and on any given day I can pretty much start with an open mind and then come up with a plan that incorporates weights, body, different rep schemes, varying amounts of rest, and a whole lot of interest value.
So to bring this all together and to not feel guilty for getting back into things I said I was done with, I realized that changing things around is ultimately a good thing, not a bad thing, and can add to what you're doing. So I decided to play it fairly instinctively and to take a roughly two week block to work on strength training a certain way and then to move on to something else for the next roughly week or two.
I decided to use weights and body-weight calisthenics, and to do heavy weights and low reps and also light weights and high reps. I also decided to try different kinds of body-weight splits and days between workouts.
I also decided that on some workouts I would do multiple exercises per muscle group and in other workouts I would only do one, and I would vary sets and reps.
I started with an old school 70s bodybuilding routine. Day 1: chest and back, day 2: arms and shoulders, day 3: legs. Repeat. I did a mix of weights and calisthenics, barbells and dumbbells and machines, isolation movements and compound movements. Mostly I did low weight and high reps. Sets for a given exercise were usually in the rep range of 30, 25, 20, 18, 15, 12. Never fewer than 10. Very light weights, like 20 lb dumbbells for curls, 15s for lateral raise. You have to set your mind on the fact that the weight does not matter. It's almost irrelevant. What matters is proper form and to exhaust the muscle.
For the next cycle I did a push/pull/legs split. Chest and triceps on day 1, back and biceps on day 2, legs and shoulders on day 3. For this cycle I did higher weight and lower reps. So I may have done incline bench with 50s for 16 - 18 reps (the heaviest dumbbell my work gym has), dumbbell curls with 45s for 6 reps, etc. For one of these workouts I did weighted ring dips (30 lbs) for sets of 5 and weighted chin ups with 30 lbs for sets of 5. I also did barbell squats and dead lifts.
Now I've decided to go to an older old school body-building routine, which they used to do back in the 50s and 60s. That's full body every other day. I'm really excited about this because I really do prefer to do the whole body in a workout. But of course you must do fewer sets overall. Today I did weighted ring dips 20 lbs x 6, 10 lbs x 9, body-weight x 9; weighted ring chins 20 lbs x 6, 10 lbs x 7, body-weight x 9. I did one set of barbell squats with 75 lbs for 10 reps but only because I'm too tired from dead lift yesterday. I am most excited about this cycle because each body day I want to pick one exercise per muscle group and do three sets with weight in a reverse pyramid, and only compound movements.
So for this cycle I intend to pick and choose variations on deadlift, squat, bench press, dip, push up, pull up, row, and military.
I'm already thinking about the next split, which I think will be upper body one day, lower body the other.
Really the fun here is to be to a point where I have a lot of tools in my arsenal and on any given day I can pretty much start with an open mind and then come up with a plan that incorporates weights, body, different rep schemes, varying amounts of rest, and a whole lot of interest value.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Last Night's Progress, Things I Want to Fix
Last night I had six beers and two whiskeys. That's seven drinks and that was the plan because it is roughly one less than my highly estimated daily average. However, whiskey is not a good choice here because of the tendency to over-pour. I didn't measure shots. And I felt just as awful today as ever (not 7/8 as awful), so I'm not sure too much progress was made in last night's consumption amount so much as today's disclosure. This is the only forum where I'm sharing this information but at least it's a forum that's outside of my own head. Technically, anyway. The fact that no one reads it I suppose makes it still inside my head but the knowledge that anyone could read it at any time makes it feel like it's outside of my head.
Anyway, tonight the goal is six. That'll be easier I think because beer comes in convenient packs of six or some multiple thereof.
I have a more detailed post in mind about how all the physical problems I am experiencing, which seem to be separate and different are really one extended problem in my opinion. Or rather they all bloom out of one common root. So here I'll just list them. I believe everything I'm about to list comes primarily from alcohol abuse.
Anyway, tonight the goal is six. That'll be easier I think because beer comes in convenient packs of six or some multiple thereof.
I have a more detailed post in mind about how all the physical problems I am experiencing, which seem to be separate and different are really one extended problem in my opinion. Or rather they all bloom out of one common root. So here I'll just list them. I believe everything I'm about to list comes primarily from alcohol abuse.
- bloated stomach
- internal (visceral) belly fat
- all manner of digestive issues from start to finish, including acid reflux, unhappy stomach, IBS type of stuff, frequency of going, infrequency of going, likely leaky gut
- borderline or high blood pressure
- nearly constant allergy symptoms, such as itchy and watery eyes, scratchy throat, sneezing, plugged nose
- fluid in the ears
- asthma and wheezing
- cough
- mild arthritis
- mild depression
- moodiness and temper
I'm 51 years old. I'm about 6 feet tall and 186 pounds. I work out every day and am strong with a good amount of muscle mass. I look like a slim and athletic person in most places. My pants waist is 33 and that's a bit loose. So that's pretty good. But it's the part that's a few inches above the waist that is the problem. The spot where the top button of a two-button blazer or suit coat hits. That's the protruding problem. Everything bad is happening behind there. That's where the fat is being laid down, the blood pressure is going up, the acid is rising, the airways are constricting, and the future lower digestive distress is forming.
I'd like to be 170 lbs with a flat happy stomach. As I said my pants waist size is 33". I just measured and that's what I measure just at the top of the pelvis. But the spot a couple inches above the belly button is 39". Wow. It's very uncomfortable to put my shoes on. That, my friends, is bad.
Monday, January 16, 2017
On Alcohol, Drinking and Changing Habits
I've read a lot of books and articles and listened to a lot of podcasts and watched a lot of videos on drinking and health and exercise and quitting and behavior and habits. One thing I've noticed is that the message is one-sided and simplified and the positions are biased and hard-lined. People who are compelled to write or blog or vlog about drinking are biased. They are either teetotalers to begin with and therefore would never understand the allure (and are likely already biased against it without knowing much about what they're biased against) or they've been through the ringer with drink and have come out the other side an admirable foe. Or maybe they've been through the ringer with a family member. The message is largely that alcohol is bad anyway you look at it and it will kill you and it almost killed me. Drinking behavior is measured by arbitrary scales that smack of "degrees of badness", like "moderate", "heavy", "binge". If you binge, you are in serious trouble. Yet everyone binges. The preponderance of evidence that some level of drinking can in fact be good will often be cited but not dealt with in a rational argument. If it's always bad it can't sometimes be good. And good is defined by the number three or less for males and two or less for females per day. But save those all for the weekend and it's bad. Binge. Bad. It's odd to me that the facts that teetotalers don't live as long as drinkers and drinking is always bad and will kill you can coexist in same conversation.
The notion that heavy drinkers also live longer than teetotalers, which I've seen more than once and deserves to be googled, shall not be allowed to enter the room or even tap on the window. How would we deal with this? And how would we bring it up without seeming to advocate drinking? We are not advocating anything. We are trying to have a rational conversation.
Everybody Likes a Quitter
The preponderance of books and confessionals and testimonies and bleedingly honest videos follow a familiar and predictable line. Started at age 13, blackouts, fights, violence, stealing, property damage, poor judgment with vehicle, arrests, near death experiences, financial loss.... Then a wake up one day and never again sort of triumph. This makes great reading and listening. I also know it's exceedingly rare. The person who downed a fifth of Jack at age 13 likely had it in the cards to be on the far end of the spectrum. This narrative is extreme, and I suppose that's what sells books and attracts attention. But I think the majority of people who buy the books and listen to the podcasts aren't quite so extreme. I also know that successful quitting can be a gradual process done by one's own devices and can be a moderation in behavior rather than a hard stop. But that would be a boring book.
All Vices are Not Created Equal
My starting point here is health and fitness. If you know nothing on the subject and tried to research whether alcohol and health and fitness can coexist, you would get an equal number of extreme yesses and extreme nos. EVERYONE knows a glass or two of red wine with dinner is a ticket to perfect health. Yet chronic alcohol use ravages the body and WILL kill you. Two glasses of red wine a day is chronic alcohol use. Is it all in the amount? I just don't see how it could be that there would be a magic cutoff point where the same substance is physiological nirvana then absolute assassin. I know that the poison's in the dose, but still...
I read a lot of posts and watch a lot of videos by health and fitness people, muscle-builders, who discuss these things. I'm really interested in what the "golden era" bodybuilders of the 70s used to do. I also watch a lot of videos on fat loss, calisthenics, intermittent fasting and various other health topics that are currently in vogue. Turns out they do a lot of the same things. Relatively low carb diets, resistance training, hard work, consistency, self control, and ...... cheat day! A cheat day, or a break, or a day off, or a carb cycle or a periodicity whatever, seems to a key to success. The golden era bodybuilders spent Sundays eating junk. Cakes and donuts and pancakes the size of a table top. According to more than one account, they did this on Sunday and then on Monday were bloated and puffy and sick and miserable, but went back on the diet (low carb, high protein, relatively high fat) and by Wednesday they were back in shape. Ric Drasin talks about this a lot. He was there.
Some of the vloggers I follow try to spend the cheat day taking in as many calories as possible. They may start the day with a giant box of sour patch kids. The rest of the food choices follow this line. Ah, youth! This would kill me immediately. I don't think anyone older than 30 would do this and that says a lot.
Ok, fine. The cheat day keeps you in the game by allowing for one precious minute with all the evil vices you've spent the rest of the week avoiding in the quest for a small waist and abs and muscles self-actualization.
But what of alcohol? Let's say that I proposed to all of these venerable experts that my cheat day will be a case and a half of beer. Or maybe two chickens and two fifths of Irish Whiskey. How do you think that would compare? Would I be laughed out of the room? Run out of town on rail? What's the difference? Why is sugar squeaky clean and alcohol evil?
I watched a video recently where two old school bodybuilders from the golden era discussed alcohol and said that if you follow your diet and exercise programs diligently during the week and then go out on the weekend and drink yourself into oblivion, you will wipe out all your gains. Why? Because alcohol metabolizes as sugar. Yet, these are the same people who spoke fondly of the cheat day. And that cheat day was full of donuts and manhole-sized pancakes. (And according to some, pitchers of beer back in the day.) Uh.... ?
Alcohol will always be on the dark side. It's bad. It's dirty. It's not for Puritans. But, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would be much better off if I drank 6 beers a day or 6 whiskeys a day than if I drank 6 Cokes a day. I haven't drunk 6 Cokes in the last 25 years. I can't even imagine it.
But this observation will not fly with most. Coke is squeaky clean and alcohol is dirty. Even if they metabolize in roughly the same way.
And never mind the obvious fact that doing without either would be a golden ticket.
What's the Point Here?
I've been drinking every day for 30 years. Always more interested in the nightly buzz than the binge or blackout. I don't like to get really drunk. I don't like to drink all day. I sleep before I do either of those. I'm reasonably healthy and definitely strong. But in those 30 years my minimum daily requirement has roughly quadrupled. Something else is going on here besides a relaxation crutch. At this point I don't really care what that thing is as much as what to do in order to turn the progression in the other direction. Alcohol is stigmatized and only the extremely ill then recovered tend to end up blogging or talking about it on video. I can't identify with either of those. That's why I don't think I can put a name or definition to exactly what I'm grappling with here. And it's also why I can't get inspired by narratives I keep seeing and hearing on how they got from there to here.
Goal: To not drink alcohol every day and to not use it as a way to wind down.
Plan: Taper, then move to dry week nights and free week ends.
Method: Reduce consumption by 10% of the prior day until zero.
Reward: Don't worry about the weekends.
Long Term: Ebrace the raw, feel, be awake and don't worry about it, see how it goes, be honest, reassess. Practice not drinking and get good at it.
Tonight: 8 drinks minus .8 (round up to 1) equals seven drinks.
Tomorrow: 7 drinks minus .7 (round up to 1) equals six drinks.
The notion that heavy drinkers also live longer than teetotalers, which I've seen more than once and deserves to be googled, shall not be allowed to enter the room or even tap on the window. How would we deal with this? And how would we bring it up without seeming to advocate drinking? We are not advocating anything. We are trying to have a rational conversation.
Everybody Likes a Quitter
The preponderance of books and confessionals and testimonies and bleedingly honest videos follow a familiar and predictable line. Started at age 13, blackouts, fights, violence, stealing, property damage, poor judgment with vehicle, arrests, near death experiences, financial loss.... Then a wake up one day and never again sort of triumph. This makes great reading and listening. I also know it's exceedingly rare. The person who downed a fifth of Jack at age 13 likely had it in the cards to be on the far end of the spectrum. This narrative is extreme, and I suppose that's what sells books and attracts attention. But I think the majority of people who buy the books and listen to the podcasts aren't quite so extreme. I also know that successful quitting can be a gradual process done by one's own devices and can be a moderation in behavior rather than a hard stop. But that would be a boring book.
All Vices are Not Created Equal
My starting point here is health and fitness. If you know nothing on the subject and tried to research whether alcohol and health and fitness can coexist, you would get an equal number of extreme yesses and extreme nos. EVERYONE knows a glass or two of red wine with dinner is a ticket to perfect health. Yet chronic alcohol use ravages the body and WILL kill you. Two glasses of red wine a day is chronic alcohol use. Is it all in the amount? I just don't see how it could be that there would be a magic cutoff point where the same substance is physiological nirvana then absolute assassin. I know that the poison's in the dose, but still...
I read a lot of posts and watch a lot of videos by health and fitness people, muscle-builders, who discuss these things. I'm really interested in what the "golden era" bodybuilders of the 70s used to do. I also watch a lot of videos on fat loss, calisthenics, intermittent fasting and various other health topics that are currently in vogue. Turns out they do a lot of the same things. Relatively low carb diets, resistance training, hard work, consistency, self control, and ...... cheat day! A cheat day, or a break, or a day off, or a carb cycle or a periodicity whatever, seems to a key to success. The golden era bodybuilders spent Sundays eating junk. Cakes and donuts and pancakes the size of a table top. According to more than one account, they did this on Sunday and then on Monday were bloated and puffy and sick and miserable, but went back on the diet (low carb, high protein, relatively high fat) and by Wednesday they were back in shape. Ric Drasin talks about this a lot. He was there.
Some of the vloggers I follow try to spend the cheat day taking in as many calories as possible. They may start the day with a giant box of sour patch kids. The rest of the food choices follow this line. Ah, youth! This would kill me immediately. I don't think anyone older than 30 would do this and that says a lot.
Ok, fine. The cheat day keeps you in the game by allowing for one precious minute with all the evil vices you've spent the rest of the week avoiding in the quest for a small waist and abs and muscles self-actualization.
But what of alcohol? Let's say that I proposed to all of these venerable experts that my cheat day will be a case and a half of beer. Or maybe two chickens and two fifths of Irish Whiskey. How do you think that would compare? Would I be laughed out of the room? Run out of town on rail? What's the difference? Why is sugar squeaky clean and alcohol evil?
I watched a video recently where two old school bodybuilders from the golden era discussed alcohol and said that if you follow your diet and exercise programs diligently during the week and then go out on the weekend and drink yourself into oblivion, you will wipe out all your gains. Why? Because alcohol metabolizes as sugar. Yet, these are the same people who spoke fondly of the cheat day. And that cheat day was full of donuts and manhole-sized pancakes. (And according to some, pitchers of beer back in the day.) Uh.... ?
Alcohol will always be on the dark side. It's bad. It's dirty. It's not for Puritans. But, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would be much better off if I drank 6 beers a day or 6 whiskeys a day than if I drank 6 Cokes a day. I haven't drunk 6 Cokes in the last 25 years. I can't even imagine it.
But this observation will not fly with most. Coke is squeaky clean and alcohol is dirty. Even if they metabolize in roughly the same way.
And never mind the obvious fact that doing without either would be a golden ticket.
What's the Point Here?
I've been drinking every day for 30 years. Always more interested in the nightly buzz than the binge or blackout. I don't like to get really drunk. I don't like to drink all day. I sleep before I do either of those. I'm reasonably healthy and definitely strong. But in those 30 years my minimum daily requirement has roughly quadrupled. Something else is going on here besides a relaxation crutch. At this point I don't really care what that thing is as much as what to do in order to turn the progression in the other direction. Alcohol is stigmatized and only the extremely ill then recovered tend to end up blogging or talking about it on video. I can't identify with either of those. That's why I don't think I can put a name or definition to exactly what I'm grappling with here. And it's also why I can't get inspired by narratives I keep seeing and hearing on how they got from there to here.
Goal: To not drink alcohol every day and to not use it as a way to wind down.
Plan: Taper, then move to dry week nights and free week ends.
Method: Reduce consumption by 10% of the prior day until zero.
Reward: Don't worry about the weekends.
Long Term: Ebrace the raw, feel, be awake and don't worry about it, see how it goes, be honest, reassess. Practice not drinking and get good at it.
Tonight: 8 drinks minus .8 (round up to 1) equals seven drinks.
Tomorrow: 7 drinks minus .7 (round up to 1) equals six drinks.
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