I read recently that the whole concept of giving up alcohol for January as a detox for the liver is a waste of time, as a) most people don’t last a month and b) the benefits are minimal. Apparently you’re better off having at least 3 alcohol-free days per week, and only drinking in moderation on the days you do drink. Now to my mind that’s perfectly sensible, but there’s no way I drink on 4 days of an average week anyway, so telling myself not to drink for 3 days a week is too easy! But then perhaps I’m coming at it from a slightly different angle anyway.
For the past few years I’ve had alcohol-free (or nearly alcohol-free) Januaries as I’ve felt that the Christmas and New Year period is so full of booze that my body needs a rest. It’s not like I spend the whole of December binging on wine, but between the work drinks, Christmas parties, champagne, brandy butter (oh brandy butter!) and occasional whiskey it’s very easy to consume far, far more than I’d normally drink. The first year I did it I was shocked because I lost half a stone in weight – and I wasn’t on a diet! That was purely alcohol weight…pretty frightening really.
So I’m not ‘detoxing’ (and certainly not in the juicing sense) but I will be going mostly alcohol free this month. We don’t go out very often nowadays but as we don’t really drink at home it just means having soft drinks when we do go out to meet friends. I didn’t drink while pregnant apart from a couple of glasses of champagne at a friend’s wedding so I’ve barely touched alcohol in 2010 to be honest; I’m hoping that it won’t be too difficult as a result and that it will also have a positive effect on my weight loss. After all, as lovely as the occasional glass of wine is, it is really just empty calories!
I haven’t been to weigh in since 20th December due to all the driving around the country and I also haven’t been nearly as active as normal – I’ve done far less walking for a start, but I’m hoping that because I’ve been good and not gone over my points (despite a fair bit of indulging) I’ll still have lost a few pounds by the time I get to my meeting next Tuesday. If I can have lost 7lbs in the three weeks I’ll be very happy as that will take me to 11st 10lbs, which is exactly 2 stone less than my starting weight.
So hopefully by February I’ll be well past 2 stone down and can indulge in a celebratory glass of red or two!
Pippa and Polly 