I've lost 4 lbs in the month I've been sober, which is a very small amount considering how big I've gotten from drinking. I have 18 lbs I need to lose to be within a medically healthy weight range, and 43 lbs I'd like to lose, so 4 lbs is depressingly low considering I've been paying a ton of attention to what and how much I eat, and I've been working out daily.
I think men lose weight a whole lot easier when they quit drinking than do women, for whatever reason. All those threads about "Oh wow, fat is coming off me now I'm sober!" are by men, and men chime in to say it happened to them too, and women lament that it did not happen to them, it seems to me.
At the rate I'm going, I won't be the weight I want to be for almost a year, at the earliest :/ But I'm not going to go on any crash diet, so this is how it's gonna be.
I know this sounds shallow, but this is more about health than looks for me ... My joints hurt, and I know it's because I'm overweight. I'm not young, but I do feel I'm too young to be having freaking joint pain. Plus there's all the studies linking being overweight to so many medical conditions ... I would never have let myself become overweight while sober. I literally let all things slide when I'm drinking.
Ugh.
On another note, I've been having this fun thought.
Whenever I have a thought that includes the words "drinking," or "drink," or something like that, I substitute "being a gullible idiot."
So I have the thought: "I wonder if it would be nice to have some beers this Saturday night."
And then I deliberately follow it up with: "I wonder if it would be nice to be a gullible idiot this Saturday night."
When are you going to say "Yes" to "Should I be a gullible idiot?" Never. That's when.
And the answer to the substitute question is always the real answer to the original question, so ... it works quite well.
Because for me, drinking is being a gullible idiot. It's the world--cultural convention, liquor companies, the way I was raised--that have programmed me to believe that drinking is one thing, when in fact it is another. And I pride myself on not buying into BS.
So. That's my new game. :p