Recovery Wellness – Maintaining Healthy Weight in Early Recovery
I wish I didn’t have to be the one to tell you this, but it is common to gain weight when you first quit drinking. I know, you are thinking, “Wait a minute. What about all those empty calories I consumed? A bottle of white wine has like 600 calories! And mixed drinks have 150 calories each and I used to knock back eight or nine of those a night!”
I don’t mean to put words in your mouth. Or thoughts in your head, but I’ve been there and done that and I have some tips to help you navigate the early days of your sobriety with the top button on your pants firmly buttoned.
Or not. The first thing I want to say is that giving up any addiction is hard enough without worrying about how you look while doing so, so give yourself a break. I gained 20 pounds in the first year I quit drinking, so I was pretty much wearing stretch pants – but my body did begin to regulate itself, with a little more self-control and a lot less processed sugar, and I am back to my fighting weight now. But I’m not going to lie, I was pretty unhappy about how I looked for almost two years… If I’d known then what I know now, I would have approached how I rewarded myself for my sobriety differently.
Here Are Some Tips for Keeping It Off in Early Recovery:
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- Treats or Tricks? When I first stopped drinking, I told myself I could ingest anything but alcohol. I felt that giving up a three bottle of wine a day habit was enough. If I wanted a party bag of mini-doughnuts or a pie (like the whole pie) or the “Hungry Lumberjack” cut of steak at a restaurant, I believed I should do that. After all, I was sober and eating minimized my cravings. Now I say treat yourself, but make sure you counteract the food with exercise and be aware of the types of calories you are consuming.
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- What Do I Do with My Hands? And my mouth? I was so used to having the oral fixation of wine and the glass in my hand, I felt like an important part of who I was had been cut off. I think I took up eating as a hobby to fill the void. My advice? Carry a walking stick as an affectation, chew sugarless gum, or better yet carry a bag of crudité and crunch celery all day. You’re smart – come up with something to plug the bottomless hole…
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- Lord Have Mercy – I Have an Appetite! When I drank, I was never hungry. I sipped my dinner and nibbled a cracker here and there. All of a sudden, I had a farmhand’s appetite and I could actually taste the food. I say, wonderful and enjoy the pleasure of eating good food, but take it easy – farmhands are hoeing fields all day, n’est-ce pas?
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- My Body is Starving for Nutrients! After years of neglect, your body is trying to heal – hold on to nutrients, vitamins and good fats as a sort of “MAYDAY” response to the need for basic repairs. Also your body slowed its metabolism in “starvation response” to the long term deprivation. Give it time – it will take some time to regulate your body’s ability to process food efficiently.
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- Beware of Ye Olde Eating Disorders… Like the Hydra from Greek mythology – you can cut off one head and it grows back two. I know it happened to me. I quit drinking only to foster a long dormant eating disorder. I developed a food addiction and a transference to processed sugar. These transfer addictions come out of nowhere! It’s not fair, but being aware and watchful can stop a new bad habit in its tracks.
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- What Happened to All That Frenetic Energy? In my drinking days I felt like I was shot out of a gun. Dancing, running, exercising, talking a mile a minute, burning calories like daylight. I was a morning person and a night person. When I got sober, I got tired. Heavy drinking increases levels of acetate (the chemical found in vinegar) in the brain, and spurs that crazy energy. I can sleep now after a lifetime of insomnia – that’s the silver lining. Sip one of those yummy vinegar drinks in the health food stores if you want to boost energy.
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- I am Craving Sugar!!! There is a lot of sugar in wine and liquor. And often we blend our alcohol with juice or sweet mixers, wreaking havoc on our blood sugar stability. Say after me – protein, good fats and roughage. Say it again.
Let’s face it, we got ourselves into this mess because we didn’t really have all of our life skills finely-tuned and in proper working order. Eating and our relationship with food is just another thing to learn to manage, control and ultimately enjoy. Recovery is a process (or a moving target depending on how you are looking at it on any given day). We are all learning to develop self-esteem and to be mindful of our real needs. That is what it is all about: identifying our needs and taking the proper precautions to moderate the impact. Have fun out there – treat yourself, try a new recipe, but always add a pinch of temperance to the mix.