Only a dozen

And now it is the first day of the rest of my life. A diet and a Hash bar crawl don’t exactly go hand-in-hand, but I have no control over the calendar. And the Hash anniversary only happens once a year, so what are you going to do except make the best of it, right?

I had a small bowl of homemade crockpot beef stew before heading out. It might be a tad carby, but it filled a void.

My first stop was at Hideaway to feed the girls and help Mhel celebrate her birthday. I only stayed long enough for two beers, then headed over to It Doesn’t Matter for the Hash bar crawl meetup.

I got the idea to take a photo of each beer consumed to help keep track of my caloric intake for the night. That’s beer number three.
And four.
Still at IDM for #5. The anniversary runs always bring in out-of-town Hashers. We had some guests that are world travelers and visit various Hash kennels along the way. They call themselves the Nomad Hash.
I enjoyed beer number six at the next venue on our crawl–Oasis, the new bar in town.
Still at Oasis for #7
What I look like after eight beers.
Beer number nine was at Sloppy Joe’s.
And so was #10. On a normal night, I’d have probably said, “that’s enough” at this point.
But the group moved next door to Alaska Club, and I tagged along to enjoy beer number eleven.
All good things must come to an end, and after my twelfth beer, I said goodnight and caught a trike for home.

According to my carb/calorie tracker, the damage from last night’s over-indulgence wasn’t all that bad.

I don’t expect I’ll be replicating that number of beers in one night again any time soon. Oh wait, today we have our special anniversary Hash run. I guess exceptions must be made as circumstances warrant. To my credit, even in my drunken state of being last night, I didn’t indulge my sweet tooth like I normally would. It helped not having any ice cream in the freezer to tempt me.

This morning, I tried out a second elongated dog walk.

It’s a bit shorter than Dog Walk #1 but has a little more uphill walking. My tracker says I burned 926 calories, so that cancels out those beers, right?
The Google-eye view of the dog walk

I am heading out for the Hash at noon today. Going to the the start of the long trail, but I will shortcut as needed to appease my leg/lungs. I have a visit with the doctor who will perform my sinus surgery on tap for in the morning, and then I’ll check on getting the MRI at Baypointe Hospital. I’m ready to turn the corner and start feeling like the young man who resides in this old temple of a body again soon.

And thanks to the commenters sharing some diet tips and offering support. Much appreciated!

5 thoughts on “Only a dozen

  1. I was wondering where the photos of Beers #1 and #2 went, but I guess you’re keeping those for yourself.

    If you’re eating, say, 1600 calories a day, then drinking another 720 on top of that, you’re probably overbudget. But yes, if your activity calories are sufficient, you might have incurred a caloric deficit. Again, though, weight loss is as much about minimizing insulin spikes as it is about reducing caloric intake, and twelve beers means twelve spikes in the evening, right before bed. Not good.

    Brian has the right idea, though, in suggesting an incremental change in your weekly beer-drinking schedule. There are plenty of dieters who reckon their calories in terms of weeks instead of days. This can be more bearable, psychologically, for some people. Maybe try setting a weekly calorie budget for yourself, with food and nonalcoholic drinks as one category, and alcohol as another. Or hell, just lump it all together to make life simpler.

    Whatever works.

  2. The 926 calories burned is from what exercise? Is that the daily amount? I don’t think it is possible to burn that many calories in a 1 mile walk. Everything I have read says that a person burns about 150 cal/mile walked.

    Anyways, the journey of 1000 miles miles begins with the first step.

  3. Brian, yeah, that doesn’t sound right. I honestly never paid attention to calories before. Looking at my phone app just now, and it is showing 370 calories burned, and I just woke up. So, it is tracking the natural expenditure as well as exercise. Yesterday’s total was 3141 calories, and that was after walking almost 14K. I’m going to monitor it a bit closer and see if I can make better sense of it.

  4. I need to read up more on the insulin spikes you mention. I’ve just thought of it in terms of calories and carbs. Even a no-carb drink like gin will have an insulin impact.

    I do intend to reduce my beer consumption as part of my weight loss strategy. I’m not sure if I’ll do the daily or weekly approach yet. Maybe both.

  5. Diets like keto, Atkins, and anything low-carb are predicated on the insulin problem. This way of thinking is called CIM, the carbohydrate-insulin model. Its explanatory power picks up where the CICO model (calories in, calories out) leaves off, specifically when it comes to explaining why following CICO always leads to frustrating plateaus in weight loss.

    I’ve written a lot about CIM and CICO on my blog, so you can search for those terms there. I’ll also see about giving you some video links to some experts so you know I’m not just blowing smoke.

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