DryJanuary. Observations as of day 19 (now day 43 and done)

[Alan_Rath]

You realize there is a fundamental law of nature we could describe as “conservation of wine consumption”. Your abstinence is hurting the rest of us. Stop it.

[Jay_Miller]

@Dennis Kanagie

@Kirk.Grant

Peter, I’ve really liked reading this…thanks for sharing.

Agreed. Between your healthy turn and Jay’s 38 day and counting abstinence from wine purchases I’m getting inspired and motivated!

…okay, not really… but I did think about taking the junk off the treadmill for .76 seconds this morning.

39 now.

Unfortunately abstaining from wine purchases seems to have done nothing for my weight.

[Dennis_Kanagie]

@Jay Miller

@Dennis Kanagie

@Kirk.Grant

Peter, I’ve really liked reading this…thanks for sharing.

Agreed. Between your healthy turn and Jay’s 38 day and counting abstinence from wine purchases I’m getting inspired and motivated!

…okay, not really… but I did think about taking the junk off the treadmill for .76 seconds this morning.

39 now.

Unfortunately abstaining from wine purchases seems to have done nothing for my weight.

Never helps my waistline either. Might even raise my blood pressure.

[jcoley3]

@Peter Hirsch

Ok. Update for those thinking about doing this. It’s day 29. I’m down about 7% of bodyweight. No wine to date. I’ve logged about 125 miles on my treadmill/elliptical, also lots of weight sets (light weights, lots of reps), a giant day of shoveling snow last Sunday, and 2 days snowboarding.

observations

1. I guess it is a habit. I’ve lost the ‘habit’ of having wine every day. While I still like wine and would like it with dinner, etc, I’ve lost the ‘need’ for that habit every day. I miss wine at meals and out at dinner, but not just sitting around at home after work, etc.

2. And now I’ve worked out in some way 28 of the last 29 days. This has now become a ‘habit’. I was going to pass this morning as I had a busy early morning. Instead I got up 1 hour early and went for a run anyway. Interesting how something can become part of your daily routine over the course of almost a month.

So, 3 days to go and I have the option of a glass of wine, and I have 14 more days to go before my annual physical. Need about 3-4 more lbs and I’ll be good.

I haven’t followed my vitals as closely, but I’m down a notch plus one belts and some jeans that stopped fitting now fit quite well.

I think Sunday or Monday night may be my reintroduction of wine.

[Peter_Hirsch]

Kirk and Dennis, no problem!
Alan. Sorry. Stopping soon (14 days)!
Jim. Congrats on going the month. For ITB, that’s incredibly hard!

Robert. No problem. I don’t have many of the details you’re looking for, I didn’t check the ‘before’ and ‘after’ for many of the stats. I’m pretty healthy, wouldn’t call myself ‘fat’, and I stay pretty active over the year. I usually try to stay around 165-168lbs, and when I get up to 170, clothes get a little tight. This holiday season I overindulged a little and hit 172.5 as of the morning of 1/1/2016. I decided to try to make a 6 week run at this to see what I could do. Cut out all carbs, I’m eating about 1300 - 1500 calories a day and burning maybe 600 - 1000 calories a day from exercise (running, elliptical, weights, stretching, etc). So most days given that my resting usage is around 2000-2100 calories, I run a deficit of 1300 or so calories. So it takes me about 3 days (maybe a little less) to lose a pound, and I seem to be holding to that. Again, I don’t think I had any blood pressure issues, nothing like that. Just a desire to see if I could get down to the mid or maybe high 150s. Last time I was 155ish was probably 1994 as I was giving though to the NY Marathon and started to train. Never got beyond the half marathon stage, but that was enough to drop me from closer to 180 down to 155 or even less. A good year, 1994! To your other question, my sleep is really improved. I’m falling asleep faster and sleeping longer and waking up less at night. All this is if I stop drinking water by 6pm or 7pm or so, say at least 3 hours before going to bed. It helps!

So, to summarize. I weigh myself at the same time of day, at the beginning of each day, to keep it consistent. Starting weight was 172.5. 4 weeks in I’m 160.6. Goal weight after 6 weeks is 159-157 (somewhere in there. I dream about 155 but I think too hard). Sleeping better and I hope other metrics also better when I see my doc (though they seemed fine on my last visit). I am going to try to go as close to ‘cholesterol free’ as possible from Feb 5 to Feb 12, trying to get a better reading there.

[jcoley3]

The biggest challenge was passing on a Bordeaux dinner last night - and that has always been the hardest part about doing it in the past - some cool event was on the schedule. I suppose I could have gone, but who wants to have dinner with a guy who has a spit cup?

I was able to push a Burgundy event into February, otherwise, I might have cracked!

[Peter_Hirsch]

Yep. That’s one of the easy parts about being a ‘civilian’. There just are not many people going out in January, at least in NY. After December, it’s somewhat barren, so easier than in other months to stay away from large groups of happy drinkers.

[Alan_Rath]

@jcoley3

The biggest challenge was passing on a Bordeaux dinner last night - and that has always been the hardest part about doing it in the past - some cool event was on the schedule. I suppose I could have gone, but who wants to have dinner with a guy who has a spit cup?

Actually, at our wine group dinners, many of us have spit cups. And dump buckets on the table. It’s taken for granted that a) there are too many wines to drink everything you might pour in your glass, and b) for those of us driving, it’s imperative not to be drinking that much.

[Peter_Hirsch]

@Alan Rath

@jcoley3

The biggest challenge was passing on a Bordeaux dinner last night - and that has always been the hardest part about doing it in the past - some cool event was on the schedule. I suppose I could have gone, but who wants to have dinner with a guy who has a spit cup?

Actually, at our wine group dinners, many of us have spit cups. And dump buckets on the table. It’s taken for granted that a) there are too many wines to drink everything you might pour in your glass, and b) for those of us driving, it’s imperative not to be drinking that much.

Another advantage of NYC. No need to spit! Cabs and Uber, everything close.

[jcoley3]

@Alan Rath

@jcoley3

The biggest challenge was passing on a Bordeaux dinner last night - and that has always been the hardest part about doing it in the past - some cool event was on the schedule. I suppose I could have gone, but who wants to have dinner with a guy who has a spit cup?

Actually, at our wine group dinners, many of us have spit cups. And dump buckets on the table. It’s taken for granted that a) there are too many wines to drink everything you might pour in your glass, and b) for those of us driving, it’s imperative not to be drinking that much.

If it was a private dinner, that’s what I would do. This was a public event, and the restaurant is pretty famous for overpours and overserved wine dinner customers. Discretion the better part of valor in this specific case in more ways than one.

[mattcitrang]

Help me here. How is one night of binging going to ruin your diet (if it’s only one night)?

[jcoley3]

It won’t. It’s more about making the commitment and keeping it.

[mattcitrang]

OK

[Peter_Hirsch]

yep. Commitment and follow through. For me, I’m much better with an on or off switch. The dimmer gets me in trouble…

[Jeff_Wolniak]

I am also on day 29 of being alcohol-free and meat-free and I feel GREAT! I feel sharper, sleep a lot better, and have more energy throughout the day. There’s certainly the urge to have some wine, but I have little desire for meat.

As for my body composition, I have seen some positive changes. I measured for a baseline on January 6, so representing three weeks I am down 6.4 lbs, 3.94 of which is fat. More importantly, I have lost a combined 5.5 inches the last three weeks.

I’m going to stick it out until Super Bowl Sunday and reward myself with a really nice bottle during the game.

[Chuck_Miller]

@Jeff Wolniak

I am also on day 29 of being alcohol-free and meat-free and I feel GREAT! I feel sharper, sleep a lot better, and have more energy throughout the day. There’s certainly the urge to have some wine, but I have little desire for meat.

As for my body composition, I have seen some positive changes. I measured for a baseline on January 6, so representing three weeks I am down 6.4 lbs, 3.94 of which is fat. More importantly, I have lost a combined 5.5 inches the last three weeks.

I’m going to stick it out until Super Bowl Sunday and reward myself with a really nice bottle during the game.

What are you going to drink in the second half?

[Dennis_Kanagie]

@Chuck Miller

@Jeff Wolniak

I am also on day 29 of being alcohol-free and meat-free and I feel GREAT! I feel sharper, sleep a lot better, and have more energy throughout the day. There’s certainly the urge to have some wine, but I have little desire for meat.

As for my body composition, I have seen some positive changes. I measured for a baseline on January 6, so representing three weeks I am down 6.4 lbs, 3.94 of which is fat. More importantly, I have lost a combined 5.5 inches the last three weeks.

I’m going to stick it out until Super Bowl Sunday and reward myself with a really nice bottle during the game.

What are you going to drink in the second half?

A chateaubriand milkshake.

[Peter_Hirsch]

Funny about meat. I’m on a very high protein, very low carb diet. I seem to have no ‘craving’ for red meat. I’ve avoided it almost completely, and not for any reason other than it doesn’t hit me as something I want to eat. And I really want lots of salad. Wondering if this has something to do with the lack of carbs, with maybe the difficulty the body has processing big red meat, that it’s telling my ‘brain’ not to eat it? In my ‘normal’ life, I love steaks, chops, barbecue (wow do I live barbecue), but for this month I’ve basically lived on skinless chicken breasts, fish (still mostly boring!), turkey. And a whole lot of salad and vitamins and protein powder and twice a day fiber.

[Dennis_Kanagie]

@Peter Hirsch

Funny about meat. I’m on a very high protein, very low carb diet. I seem to have no ‘craving’ for red meat. I’ve avoided it almost completely, and not for any reason other than it doesn’t hit me as something I want to eat. And I really want lots of salad. Wondering if this has something to do with the lack of carbs, with maybe the difficulty the body has processing big red meat, that it’s telling my ‘brain’ not to eat it? In my ‘normal’ life, I love steaks, chops, barbecue (wow do I live barbecue), but for this month I’ve basically lived on skinless chicken breasts, fish (still mostly boring!), turkey. And a whole lot of salad and vitamins and protein powder and twice a day fiber.

Okay, you lost me now. In a previous life, I was a velociraptor. I can’t switch to a rabbit’s or near-vegetarian’s diet. Maybe I’ll start my own program on February 1st, where I don’t change what I eat or drink; I just watch my portions and just start actually exercising instead of being sedentary.

[Peter_Hirsch]

Hey Dennis. I get it. I generally eat red meat 3-4x a week. Love steaks, etc. If it comes from a cow or a pig or a sheep, I’m in! That’s what’s so odd about this. I’m not eating less (really almost none) red meat because it’s on the diet list, I’m eating less because I seem not to want it. Has to have to do with the lack of carbs? I’m also just not very hungry most of the time. Eating less than 1,500 calories a day, on some days well under that, but I’m not hungry even after a 1,000 calorie workout in the gym. The protein thing seems to work…