Alcohol

[Slim]

An easy way to work out the amount you've had in a glass of wine is to weigh the glass empty, then weigh it once you've filled it. I've just had 229 grams of Sauvignon Blanc which, because the density of water is very close to that of wine, is close enough to 229 ml. So at 11% strength, that's 2.52 units.

I had a beer yesterday and the day before and didn't really feel it (at about 1.5 units). But I can feel the wine kicking in a bit. It's making me feel chemically relaxed, languid. It makes me feel like I want more. A single beer didn't do that.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Dry Jan ending tonight. As always a struggle in the first half then not too bad for the rest of the month. I don't think I can ever give it up but at least I can control it. Went a bit off the rails during Covid.

It always is strange to me how the Americans always seem to bring up how many years sober they are during interviews or are introduced as x years of sobriety. Some of them only drank for a few years to begin with.

Lockdown was dreadful. I was living alone having just developed quite a serious illness for which the treatment had to cease due to the restrictions. I was in a lot of discomfort, couldn't read due to the condition and to compound things the TV aerial packed in. I'd always been prone to a weekend binge as an outlet when work wasn't going so well as was quite usual, but lockdown was something else.

The Tesco delivery was a welcome sight and the ABV type of purchases increased as the weeks passed. Beer to wine. Wine to spirits. I quickly realised that the hangovers were becoming more of a withdrawal process, so I decided to nip things in the bud. I didn't have another drink for 235 days and was a bit relieved when I did to discover that it wasn't going to be an issue.

It was more of a frustration at the time that some event had stopped me going dry for an entire year, but I suppose there's no medal at the end anyway, and the only pat on the back would be from me. If we ever have to lockdown again I definitely wouldn't drink.

[Slim]

Keeping a spreadsheet has proved to be quite a useful exercise. I have a cell showing total units for the most recent 7 days. I feel I've drunk very moderately in that time, and yet I've consumed nearly 13 units. One more Moretti would have taken me over the recommended max. Actually I more usually drink slightly stronger beer than that.

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To be fair I have drunk every day for the last six, which is not usual.

[Slim]

An easy way to work out the amount you've had in a glass of wine is to weigh the glass empty, then weigh it once you've filled it. I've just had 229 grams of Sauvignon Blanc which, because the density of water is very close to that of wine, is close enough to 229 ml. So at 11% strength, that's 2.52 units.

Just had the last glass out of the bottle, 120 grams of it.

So the combined Sauvignon Blanc weight according to the scales was 744 grams. An AI tells me that the density of dry white wine is 0.992 g/mL which means that I did actually weigh exactly 75 cl of wine, the actual bottle contents. Remarkable. The scales must be very accurate.

But I need to adjust the figures very slightly, at the moment they assume that Sauvignon Blanc is the same density as water.

And with that done, I've now consumed 14.05 units over the last 7 days, a little more than the recommended max.

[Slim]

Pretty modest consumption this last week, with the moving 7-day total standing at 5.99 units. Averaging just over 1 unit / day since Jan 24th.

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[Slim]

And a pretty moderate first month of monitored consumption. Don't think I've been close to the recommended 14 units max for any 7-day period.

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[Slim]

And another month later, still drinking very moderately I'd say, at a rate of less than 1 unit per day overall.

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[Slim]

Years ago I remember that George Best had implants surgically inserted in his stomach to help him stop drinking (although they didn't work). The idea is that if you drink alcohol, they interfere with your ability to metabolise it, making you ill rather than drunk.

Well it seems that the method has moved on a bit now, because a friend of my wife has just had one inserted subcutaneously, under the skin of her bum. Apparently she's hoping to save her marriage and family. I'm very fond of her but for as long as I've known her, she's been a sort of black hole for alcohol products. More than once I've had to help her to a car after she's been round, because she's hoovered all the Prosecco (she wasn't driving of course).

Fingers crossed it works for her. I'm told it hasn't been hard to go without so far.

Interestingly she went to Dublin to get it done. Cost £800.

[captainkurtz]

Fair play to her for recognising a problem and working to save her marriage - hope it works out for her.

[Nickslikk2112]

Managed to neck down almost a week's worth of booze at my niece's wedding yesterday. I can't drink like I used to and it was bloody fizzy lager.

I'll get back to smaller quantities of good quality, trying to find an excuse to miss the birthday party I'm invited to next Saturday...

[Slim]

So I've recorded every drink for three months now. In that time I've consumed 14.658 litres of alcoholic drinks. 101.99 units of alcohol in total.

If all of those drinks were poured into a large container and stirred thoroughly, a blend of various beers, various wines and a little bit of Scotch whisky - the resulting concoction would have an alcohol strength of 6.96% ABV.

Ove the three months I've averaged 1.11 units per day which is very moderate I think. Though in the last seven days I've consumed 14.78 units.

[Slim]

So four months in and apparently I've consumed a bit more alcohol in the last month than I did in the previous month, because my overall intake over the entire period averages at 1.28 units per day. Still not particularly of concern.

I have consumed 158 units in that time, as follows:

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Probably makes more sense to account in "wine", "beer", "spirits" than individual brands.

I see I spelled "vieille" wrong, will fix that.

[Nickslikk2112]

So far this year I have consumed 527.8 units of alcohol, compared with 554.1 this time last year.

That's 3.615 units a day, Way too much for the Nanny state, but hey-ho.

[Slim]

Unsurprisingly a week on holiday has kicked up my alcohol intake somewhat. I've now consumed 198 units since Jan 24th, though that's still only an average of 1.34 / day.

21.76 units over the last 7 days, so I'll have a few days off now. Not had a drink since Wednesday. Definitely need to keep that going for a bit.

[Slim]

Been playing with Google Sheets this morning and I now have a graph of my 7-day rolling average alcohol units consumption, from 31st Jan (first day when 7 days of data were available) to Jun 18th (most recent drink). Living on a cruise ship with not much else to do but go for a drink certainly whacks up the intake.

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