No alchohol in Feb. Challenge!!!! Sign up here!

I have found the challenges on here to be very helpful in my battle of the bulge so I thought why not take the one thing I am still struggling with and turn it into a challenge and maybe help some others as I help myself.  So here it is... for the entire month of February I want to challenge myself and you to be alchohol free!  I will be taking names until Feb 5th (because it's so close to the first) and will divide us into 2 teams. 

If you want to sign up please submit your current weight because every thurs. I am asking everyone to weigh in and admit to any *gasp* cheating.  Let's see which team looses the most weight and cheats the least...or not at all.

FYI-  I wanted to see exactly what alchohol does to your dieting efforts and was pretty shocked.

According to conventional wisdom, the infamous "beer belly" is caused by excess alcohol calories being stored as fat. Yet, less than five percent of the alcohol calories you drink are turned into fat. Rather, the main effect of alcohol is to reduce the amount of fat your body burns for energy.

Some evidence for this comes from research carried in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition [4]. Eight men were given two drinks of vodka and sugar-free lemonade separated by 30 minutes. Each drink contained just under 90 calories. Fat metabolism was measured before and after consumption of the drink. For several hours after drinking the vodka, whole body lipid oxidation (a measure of how much fat your body is burning) dropped by a massive 73%.

Rather than getting stored as fat, the main fate of alcohol is conversion into a substance called acetate. In fact, blood levels of acetate after drinking the vodka were 2.5 times higher than normal. And it appears this sharp rise in acetate puts the brakes on fat loss.

Not only does too much alcohol put the brakes on fat loss, it's also one of the most effective ways to slash your testosterone levels. Just a single bout of heavy drinking raises levels of the muscle-wasting hormone cortisol and increases the breakdown of testosterone for up to 24 hours [6]. The damaging effects of alcohol on testosterone are made even worse when you exercise before drinking [1].

The effect of alcohol on testosterone could be one reason that people who drink a lot carry less muscle. In fact, a 1993 study shows that alcoholic men have bigger waists and smaller muscles than teetotalers [2].

(I got this info from Christian Finn's facts about fitness)

still in -- even in the land of wine!  good luck going into the weekend, everyone!

Hello,

How is everyone?

I am so proud of myself. I did not drink at all this weekend. The scale was the same this morning, but my pants feel looser. Maybe it is my wishful thinking, but I will soon see.

I painted 2 rooms of my house this weekend to keep busy, maybe that's the trick. 

Congrats chpastor!  I'm on board as well.  I haven't had an alcoholic beverage since January 31.

I agree with the trick of keeping busy.  That's what got me through the first weekend.  I cleaned out a storage unit that I have had since my mother's passing 4 1/2 years ago. 

Now that I have come this far, I feel stronger and ready to incorporate other healthy habits.

Take care all and keep it up!

i agree with you guys- busy is best.  i'm getting more housework done so that's a good thing!

another 'dry' weekend :o)  it's actually easier than I anticipated, haven't noticed that the scales are reading any different but then they have become the bane of my existence anyway as they always read the same when I get on the bloody things!  better than the # going up tho of course.  Hope everyone else had an equally dry weekend and their scales were kinder to them :o))

Hi All,

Here's hoping that you're still on board the wagon;)  I just wanted to say Happy Saint Valentines Day and today marks our halfway point.

Good Luck and keep it up!

Just found this post, and half the month is over.  I'd still like to do it for these last two weeks, and maybe even the first two weeks of March.  Hopefully you'll accept me.  Otherwise, I will still try.  I'm new to CC, but have noticed that a lot of my calories are from alcohol.  I think I eat pretty good, and work out 3 days a week, which I'm working to increase to four, but CC says my daily intake should only be 1350, so alcohol is hurting me.  I'm losing weight, but know I could lose more.  Congrats to all. Can anyone tell me any good things they've noticed by going these two weeks dry?  I read someone say their skin looks better.

I have not lost (on the scale) since Feb. 5, but I feel less bloated which means my pants are less tight. I will feel much better when I go down 1 size (to a 10). Alcohol must cause bloating. Good luck. 

Four more days ... I am still alcohol free!

I am still in. Havent lost anything but the bloating but I feel much better and i have more energy. 

well made it for the month without a drop, so that's 2 months in a row now.  just debating whether to go for 3.  As far as weight wise I managed to get rid of a couple lbs this month which is great as it broke my 5 month plateau, but do believe that was thanks to eating a few more cals

hello to aLL and congratulations to you who went without drinking...

Hello also to thoughtsfeelsingsactions - what a great name.. desdcribes us as human beings don't you think.. or should it be "thoughts feelings actions stimulus response mechanism"

anyway, Ifeel a little bad that I sort of disappeared for the last two weeks or so.. I didn't drink, but I sort of went back to 'regular eating' after two weeks of simply not even feeling like eating. So, over the month I dropped about two pounds and stayed sober.
This next month I'm going to continue to not drink and I'm going back to keeping track of the tiniest amount of food intake on my 'food log'. I think possibly that was helping me to stay off the pigout syndrome.
zenja

I lost one more pound, which means 2 lbs. total, lost in February. This supports the theory that alcohol stalls weight loss, well at least as much as I was drinking. In January I lost 5 pounds while counting the alcohol calories but that is not healthy.  In March, I am going to continue not drinking. But if I go out for steak, I may have one glass of red wine and count it, but that's all.    

This losing business is a slow process. I am 153, down from 160. I want to be at 145, (maybe 140). Since I am 5' 4",  and middle aged, I will see what my metabolism will do.

I hope everyone else if well.

Yep I'll try it.

I have stalled out or increased slightly every weekend I've been drinking.  I loose it pretty quickly, but find myself working out twice as hard for the first three days of the week to make up for it!

Today I was 204.8  I always take the fractions they count too!  By the end of February I want to be 196.  Those few glasses of wine aren't worth getting in the way of my goal for March 21st 190.

I think I'm gonna do it! Since its in writing it has to be done now. I've been trying to lose a few lbs and the only factor that i havent been able to change is the drinking. I'm drinking less, but still having about 6 drinks/week is not more. And man thats like 6-700 calories (if taken with diet soda) - not counting the food you eat after!! I'm totally down for this challenge, and its a short month so it should work out quite well. :) Good luck y'all.

 

 

Starting weight 103lbs. (4'11)

 I shared this challenge with 9 of my friends.

They've been strangely silent . . .

Hope I still get invited to parties after this month is over! LOL

Thanks everyone for joining in together to do this.  Four days down, 24 to go.

Well here we are a lot closer to the endof the month,

only a few days to go, and I have a party planned for the 27!

Close enough right?