Late Weigh-In

Last Sunday I was 127 at my weigh-in. Yaaay. I’m hoping to be 126 (or preferably less) this Sunday, but we will see.

I’m having trouble balancing school, work, exercise, and getting enough sleep. You’re never too busy for portion control though!

The plan is still to get to 120 and see how I feel. I was 116 before, but I was doing a lot more cardio than weights then, so I don’t know if that’s realistic with extra muscle mass. I dropped down to about 113, but that was a bit too light. We’ll see. I’m just excited it’s coming off.

Today is also day 6 without booze.

I have come to the realization (for the millionth time) that I cannot drink every day and lose weight.

Even drinking just half a bottle of wine each day is too many empty calories and if I'm honest, with my tolerance I'm not even getting a buzz from it. I enjoy drinking and I don't plan to quit, but I think I'm going to quit for now.

Once I take the weight off, I'll see if it's something I can do in moderation, but I would really like to never return to drinking daily as it makes you FAT.

In Defense of Franzia

I would like to step forward to defend Franzia boxed wine. For about 18 dollars you can get 5 liters of wine which amounts to 6.5 bottles at around 3 dollars a bottle (if my math is correct and it's possible that it is not because I'm on my way to being drunk).

I was re-watching Shameless season 2 the other night (if I'm perfectly honest, it's almost like watching it for the first time because I was under the influence when I initially saw it) and I noticed Fiona and Vi were daytime drinking and having FRANZIA out of plastic tumblers. My first thought was, hell yeah! I totally do this! My second thought: Okay, wait- You're trying to say people ONLY drink Franzia if they're poor and couldn't possibly afford anything else?

Franzia is a very decent alcoholic beverage to have while on a diet and as I said, it's dirt cheap.

From Franzia.com:

Wine - Per 5 ounce serving	Carbs (gm)*	Calories (gm)*	Sodium (gm)*	Sugar (gm)*	Fat (gm)*	Protein (gm)*
Red Wines
Cabernet Sauvignon	5	105	7	1	0	0
Merlot	5	105	7	1	0	0
Chianti	5	95	9	2	0	0
Burgundy(1)	5	100	9	2	0	0
Chillable Red(1)	10	105	8	7	0	0
Fruity Red Sangria(1)	11	110	5	8	0	0
Shiraz(1)	5	110	8	10	0	0
Blush Wines
White Zinfandel	5	105	11	5	0	0
White Merlot	5	110	10	4	0	0
Sunset Blush(1)	7	95	7	5	0	0
White Grenache	8	105	12	5	0	0
White Wines
Chardonnay	5	105	7	1	0	0
Chablis	5	100	8	2	0	0
Refreshing White(1)	6	90	8	3	0	0
Rhine	6	110	10	5	0	0
Crisp White(1)	8	105	8	5	0	0
(1) Table Wine with Natural Flavors *Sulfite maximum is 200 mg/L for all types © 2008 Franzia Winery, Ripon, CA

Clearly, some of the varieties have a shitload of sugar in them. Run far, far away from the Shiraz or the Fruity Red Sangria. 10 grams of sugar? Yikes.

However: The Cabernet Sauvignon, the Merlot, and the Chardonnay have only ONE gram of sugar per 5 oz. serving and just 5 carbs. The Chardonnay is also 13% alcohol by volume and the Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon are both 12.5%.

I used to be a beer girl, but that stuff might as well be liquid bread. A 12 oz. Red Stripe has 153 calories & 14 grams of carbs. Even the low calorie beers suck. Beck's light, for example, has just 64 calories and 3.9 g carbs, but it's also less than 3.0% alcohol. Which means you'd have to drink approximately fifty bajillion of them to get a buzz.

I really shouldn't be drinking on a diet, but since I'm going to, Franzia is a pretty decent option. Some of the boxes recommend that you chill it, but if you don't have time I definitely recommend just pouring it over ice because that's how classy bitches do it.

http://www.franzia.com/faq-nutrition.shtml
http://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/red-stripe/jamaican-ale-beer
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/32/22869

Wine is Fine, But Liquor is Quicker

I slipped up a bit last night...I started the evening with a glass of wine, but I ended it taking a couple shots of Bacardi. While the shots didn't have that many extra calories, I ended up feeling super snacky and munching on toast with butter (kill me) and pork rinds*. I need to stick. with. wine. That said, I feel relatively slender still and I'm glad I didn't totally binge.

Can't take all the credit though. My boyfriend hid the peanut butter from me and wouldn't let me have it.

*In defense of pork rinds, they are super low-carb (which means they won't make your blood sugar spike and crash later) and do have 7 grams of protein in a serving. A serving has 80 calories. If you stick to an appropriate portion, the fat and protein can help keep you feeling more satisfied than say, 2 fat-free rice cakes for the same amount of calories.

Remember, fat in food does not magically become fat in your body. Excess calories (whether those calories come from steak, yogurt, bananas, granola, muffins, whatever) become fat in your body. 

Alcohol Calorie Counter

Oh, alcohol. If I'm perfectly honest, a big reason it has been tricky for me to lose the weight and keep it off is my drinking. You cannot drink regularly and lose weight.

Booze causes problems with maintaining one's weight for a variety of reasons:

• Alcohol simply contains a bunch of calories (About 65 per 1 oz. hard liquor, about 140 per regular beer, and around 75-80 per 4 oz. of wine, etc.)
  
• Your body burns alcohol for fuel before it burns anything else.
  
• You're more likely to lose your resolve about dieting if you're tipsy.
  
• Alcohol affects the way your body controls its blood sugar levels. This is why you get the drunchies and overeat after drinking/think a McDouble and fries sounds like a good idea at 1 AM.
  
• Alcohol is a diuretic and dehydrates you which leads to water retention the morning after.

This is a pretty decent calorie-counter for alcohol. You can type in how much beer, wine, liquor, etc. you drink per week and find out your extra calories for the month and year. It is from a website called College Drinking Prevention so I was skeptical that the values might be inflated as a scare tactic, but I checked and it's all accurate.

(So, in a month, I'm taking in about 4,200 extra calories from wine because I have 2 glasses of wine a night. That's pretty gross, but on the other hand, I used to take in around the same amount of extra calories from alcohol in a week so it's an improvement.)

Basically, even moderate drinking (what most countries report as healthy for a woman is no more than 2 drinks per night) is not conducive to being skinny and most people I know don't drink moderately anyway.

I really like using the calorie counter to remind myself how many calories I'm saving by not drinking or not having that extra couple drinks at night. It's also good to remind myself how many extra calories I am taking in when I do drink.

I'm working on cutting down even more...it's a process. This post has gotten long enough as it is, so I'll be doing a list of my favorite low-calorie alcoholic drinks & tactics I use to curb drinking later.