News & views | Why I’m not having a dry January

News & views

Why I’m not having a dry January

Many people, I know are giving up booze this month. It’s a perfectly logical reaction to an over-indulgent Christmas but one I don’t subscribe to myself.

For one thing the day job makes it next to impossible. I have to taste wine - and other drinks. I know I could spit them out but I like to taste them with food. That’s the whole point of this site.

I also think it’s wrong-headed because it perpetuates the myth that the ‘normal’ situation is to drink as much as you like. A bit like giving up carbs then going back to stuffing yourself with cupcakes and chips (not at the same time, obviously. Then you might have a problem.)

The ideal - and I admit I don’t always attain it - is to drink in moderation with a couple of alcohol-free days a week. That’s the 5:2 approach I adopted so successfully last year when I lost 24 lbs (11kg). (Yes alcohol, alas, is calorific too as you can see from this post).

The beauty of the diet - and I’m having a ‘fast day’ today - is there is no day on which you can’t think “but I can have a glass of wine/hunk of cheese/piece of cake” tomorrow. I reckon anyone can deprive themselves for 24 hours although that said I have friends who find the thought of restricting themselves to 500 calories, the 5:2 limit for women (600 for men) intolerable.

In the end though it’s what works for you. We winelovers could all do with drinking a little less, I suspect, just as we cheeselovers could do with not raiding the fridge quite so often but training yourself to cut down rather than cut out seem to me the ideal solution.

How are you planning to handle your January drinking - or not drinking?

How many calories are there in wine?

Image © gunterkremer - Fotolia.com

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