Body Math: Food vs. Drink

Calories. Love 'em, hate'em, love to hate 'em... need 'em. I track what I eat through an online food journal called "My Plate" on the livestrong website
When I began to lose weight, i figured i ought to eat less than the daily recommended calories. I ought to eat less than 2000 calories. I figured, that was how much i had been eating all along anyway, right? wrong. so very very wrong. When i wrote down the calories i consumed each day (and I've never imagined myself a glutton of any sort), it turned out i was consuming anywhere between 3000 and 4000 calories daily. In what? Not chocolate cakes and McDonald's burgers... none of the usual suspects. I was easily wracking over 1000 calories every time i visited harmless seeming restaurants with my friends: a lovely little Chinese restaurant called Hunan garden (sesame chicken and brown rice), chicken quesadillas from Chevy's a couple of times a week, a little Thai curry... perfectly unassuming and tasty food.

But, to be honest... food was a smaller part of a larger consumption addiction. Anybody who conjures up an image of me as the social being I love to project completes the picture with a few Malibu and sprites (age 13 to 15), red red wine (age 16 to 18), corona light (age 19-20), long island ice tea (age 21), the return of the red (age 22-23), gin and tonic (age 24-24.5), water?! (age 24.5- present). I love social scenes, friends, people! a long conversation over the phone- occasion for some drinky-drink, a study session- celebrate the work almost accomplished with some "drank"!

I don't think there's anything wrong with alcohol. In fact, a glass of red is good for you, right? "A" glass. People love to dish out pearls of wisdom, going on and on about moderation. But here's the thing: I have a strong propensity towards compulsiveness. There is almost nothing, nothing, i have ever done in my life that i can say i did in moderation. From working to loving to drinking to partying to watching episodes of The Wire to you name it... when I commit, I commit. So, naturally, I was incapable of having "a" glass of wine after a hard day's work as i sat on the couch and chatted with my housemates... I'd have 4. And what that translated into over the course of time, was about 1000 to 1500 extra empty calories each day in pure alcohol. For the curious: gin and tonic (180 calories), corona (150), glass of red (160-ish) and the ever so delectable long island iced tea (780 calories). Now, apparently, if you eat on average 100 calories extra each day, over a year that can amount to a ten pound gain. So... it's not too surprising that by the time i was 24, I was over one hundred kilograms, social... but well... listening to doctor's telling me that i had a heart murmur, brought on by being technically obese at my weight. I've never told anybody that... I've been embarrassed. Every doctor I visited told me to lose weight. It made me thirsty for a nice cold glass of something delicious that would allow me to laugh the world and my so-called problem away.

As a 2010 new years resolution, I quit drinking. I was already 40 pounds lighter, eight months in. And to be real honest... I decided to quit drinking bent over a public Kenyan toilet looking at the contents of last night's dinner and drinks, the morning after a night I will never ever forget. It was gross. I was done. Turns out, I'm already a "liberated" and fun-having person whether i have a glass in my hand or not, so it wasn't all that challenging. I can still party till the break of dawn (inspired by a little red bull or some coffee) and make the kinds of mistakes I loved to make when i was intoxicated. I never blamed it on the alcohol... I knew it was me all along!