Summer Update

At the start of the year, in an effort to kick-start my forever failing weight loss, I decided to go the month of January without any alcohol. And I made it, too.

For two weeks.

In my defense, those two weeks included two full weekends that I didn’t drink, even though I was making the wife drinks almost every night. (She doesn’t have more than one drink a night during the week, if any, and maybe two or three over the weekend.) So I felt like it was a sort of a victory, even though I didn’t wind up making it the full month.

Of course it didn’t do anything for my weight, either, since I didn’t change my eating habits enough to make any difference. I think it was that realization that led to me saying “fuck it” and having the first drink (then the second, then the third) that night; why was I bothering if it wasn’t magically making me skinny? I can be fat and deal with all the shit my brain throws at me all day long, or I can be fat and drown those noises out for a while. Easy choice, no?

I wrote a few months ago about how the wife and I started eating keto (low carb, high fat), and how it was helping with my weight loss. As of this morning, since May 2 of this year, I’ve lost 41 pounds and probably 6 inches off of my waist. I say “probably” because I didn’t have the heart to measure it when I first started, but I can see the pictures. I do know that I went from wearing size 44 pants that were too snug to now wearing some size 40s that are too loose, and one size 38 that fits about right.

I buy everything at Goodwill now because I don’t want to spend a lot of money on clothes that I intend to be too big for me in the near future, so sometimes my options are limited. On the other hand, sometimes I find some really nice clothes that seems almost a shame to have to “retire” as I continue to lose weight. Currently the plan is to get down another 25 pounds, which should put me firmly in the 36 size, maybe 34 depending on 1) the cut of the clothes and 2) my motivation to exercise (which has been much higher than in the past, though I’m still lazy and don’t do it nearly as consistently as I should.)

Before:

After:

Along with this new-found healthy eating lifestyle, near the end of July I told the wife of my intention to go the month of August without drinking. I can’t say for sure exactly why I chose to do it again; partly I wanted to see if it would help with my weight loss efforts (it has, at least a little), and partly I just wanted to see if I still have any will-power left (I do, at least for some things.) But the biggest reason I decided to do it was because of how apprehensive I felt just considering going a month without drinking. The hollow feeling of loss that washed over me when I thought of evenings and weekends without drinking convinced me that I probably need to do this.

The first weekend was okay despite the wife going to baseball games each night; I just distracted myself with other things, and made it through okay. I made it through the following week alright as well, though Thursday (the 11th) I had a really strong desire to have a drink. I would have, too, except my wife (not at a game that night) talked me down from it. Besides that really bad night, the rest of the time hasn’t been too bad.

I’ve gone 22 days now without alcohol, and more importantly I now know that I can make it the next 9 days. It will actually be 10 days because I intend my first drink to be on a Friday night, because I have a feeling I will get pretty buzzed. Yes, I will be drinking again once the month is over, but I plan to do better about showing some restraint, especially during the week.

Football season is starting soon, and in three and a half weeks my beloved Cowboys will be playing the hated Redskins (mwaw to Simplicity) at FedEx Field. My buddy Z (remember him?) and I will be going for the third year in a row, and this year we will have a special guest with us that could lead to some interesting shenanigans (and even if shenanigans aren’t in the cards, it will still be a good time.) Everything is going to be played by ear, so I won’t do much more than a tease here and there about it for now. But rest assured, I will write about that weekend one way or another!

Quick poll: I’ve written a few stories for the /nosleep subreddit that have gotten fairly decent comments and upvotes. Would any of you readers be interested in reading those stories here?