Alcohol

August 11, 2012

75.6 pounds to go

To drink or not to drink?  This post comes at a good time since I just got back from Vegas and managed to drink enough alcohol to pickle an elephant on Tuesday.  It was the eve of our anniversary at the Ghost Bar, and drinking chocolate martinis while standing on a see-through floor 55 floors up seemed like a good idea.  More please!  

Any sane diet clinic, guru or nutritionist will tell you not to drink while trying to drop weight.  However, if you like a glass of wine with dinner and you plan on having alcohol as a small part of your life, not drinking now and starting at the finish line seems like a bad plan.  Again, this is not a race - this is a new lifestyle incorporation - so if you want to have a beer you better learn how to do it in moderation so as to not fuck up the weight loss.

This is not moderation.

So what is moderation?  A bottle of wine a night would not qualify.  Having a glass or two of wine every night would also not qualify.  However, having a glass of wine 2-4 times a week would qualify (4 is pushing it).  Typically this is what I do and it's on exercise days as to not steal from my basic nutritional needs.  Of course, once in a while we'll overdo it because we're human.  Damn straight get me another chocolate martini while I dance on this see-through floor!  What's my name again?

There are also two highly annoying qualities of alcohol.  First, it's full of empty calories.  Since we're dealing with something we want and not something we need, it's best to know what that looks like so we can set aside those calories to drink.  Between going out to dinner and having a drink at home, I never really knew what a serving looked like.  The size of the glass can be deceiving, and the more alcohol that goes into my system, the less I'm apt to care how it's affecting my calorie count.  And the better those midnight french fries are going to look.

Here are the gritty details:

Red and white wine has about 25 calories a fluid ounce.  So, an average 5 fl oz glass of wine is 125 calories. (Shown)

Beer is a sneaky bitch.  Craft beer can be loaded with calories. Bars will typically fill a glass to the brim which is slightly more than 12 ounces.  IPAs (my favorite) have on average 180 calories for 12 ounces.  I've seen some up to 240.  Porter: 190 - 220.  Stout: 190 - 320. Red Ale: 150-290. Heffeweizen: 150.  Pale Ale: 150-170.  Light (shitty) Beer: 95-110.

All calorie counters have hard alcohol by the fluid ounce, but most bars will serve you a full shot which is more like 1.5.  Shown is a single fluid ounce.  Vodka: 70 calories.  Scotch: 70 calories.  Baileys: 144. Sake: 40. Tequila: 70.

By the way, if you are into blended cocktails, give them a big sloppy wet kiss goodbye because they are worse than beer.  A 12 ounce pina coloda? Over 600 calories. Strawberry daiquiri: over 400 calories.  Sweetened martini drinks aren't horrible, but they're not great: cosmos coming in at 170 calories, lemon drop martini: 279 calories, chocolate martini: 260 calories.  

The second annoying quality is that alcohol gets a free pass to the front of the line with digestion.

Dial 1-800-I'M-BLOATED for club details.

No matter when you drink alcohol - when you're full, on an empty stomach (not recommended - hello barftown, USA), or beaching it on the couch after work, it's always going to be digested first.  So, if you had prime rib, loaded mash potatoes and ice cream for dinner and then start drinking your body will digest the alcohol and then all that butter.  As a rule, it takes an hour to digest every alcoholic drink so if you drink too much and it's taking to long for those mash potatoes to get their turn, they're probably going to book it to the nearest fat deposit.  I find if I just have one drink or half a drink, it digests quickly enough to let the dinner get to the front of the line.  However, after the 2 drink mark is when I start to have problems.  I've mainly switched my poison from beer to wine, but I'll still have a beer once a week as a treat.  I don't care what anyone says, IPAs are still the best!