Improvements

After a few days sleeping reasonably well and longer than in recent times, and a good long and breezy walk yesterday with my parents, I appear to be enjoying some clarity of thought and vision. Despite feeling like I could go back to bed for a few hours I definitely feel better and will continue with the routine of early to bed for daughter and I until we are back to normal.

For my birthday, my brother gave me a crate of 18 half-pint bottles of Stella Artois. My heart sank when he offered it to me because I've managed to reduce my alcohol intake quite considerably since the summer and I know how rubbish I am at not drinking when there's alcohol available. I've proven this by getting through sixteen bottles in nine days, along with eight bottles of Becks a friend brought round mid-week. 24 bottles in nine days, that's alcohol two and two-thirds bottles a day on average, which is less than a pint and a half. That doesn't sound right but put like that it's not as bad as I thought it was, although I dread to think how many calories that is. Actually, I just worked it out - it's around 2,650 calories. Christ, that's more than one whole day's calorie intake added over nine days.

I've made tenuous mental links in the past between beer and belly, and one of the reasons I think I haven't been putting on weight is because I'd massively reduced the amount of beer and cider I was drinking, but looking at it this way really brings a point home. Here's me worrying about stuff like crisps and cheese and fatty foods contributing the most to my porky figure, when alcohol seems to be a massive contributing factor and should get the same attitude and treatment - it should be an occasional treat and not part of everyday living. Even allowing myself two or three units a day looks like as many calories as a large packet of crisps and I've been working to cut those out of my diet too, at least bringing them back to 'treat' status as they should be.

I've proven recently that small changes can make a big difference. If I can recover my control over my alcohol intake, continue to eat more fresh food, more fibre and less fat and get back into the walking habit I won't have to work hard at losing my extra weight. Little steps, small changes. A journey of a thousand miles, and all that.