Liquid diet

I have been lazy about putting up posts lately.  I think that needs to stop.  So here, without further ado, is a NEW post!! (applause).

On the 15th of February I started a diet.  Diets, for the most part, are the bane of beer drinkers.  At least for beer drinkers that like good, flavorful beer.  I bought a book that had the alcohol, calorie and carb count of a lot of beers. Of course it doesn’t have some of my more eclectic favorites but you can’t win them all.  I bought this book to find out the “nutritional” value of the beer that I was drinking, since beer does not have a label on the side saying as much.  This was the worst book I have ever bought in my life, and I even bought Dianetics.

It really amazed me how many carbs and calories my favorite, everyday drinking in mass quantity beers contained. (To be honest, I knew that beer was all carbs.  But, when you have only an allotted amount each day to consume, the numbers seem to be that much worse).  I mean I am giving myself a good amount of carbs a day and to think that ONE, yes ONE, PBR has about 1/10 of that amount really makes me angry.  That means that I could only have one PBR a day, and that is if I eat really light and healthy foods.  Miller High Life has even more carbs than PBR.  I don’t even want to go into the calories.  I mean this is just outrageous! I seriously just contemplated not eating.  I would rather drink my calories and carbs if it came down to it.  My girlfriend usually doesn’t appreciate this too much.  Something about not being healthy…blah blah blah.   I now understand the phrase “drinking your dinner”.  I have done it, on a few occasions now.  It is amazingly satisfying too.

Most of those in the book are all standard, run of the mill, everyday beers that anyone can get from any grocery store.  There are a few pale ales and bocks mixed in, but the picture was clear.  I was not going to efficiently lose weight and still keep drinking.  If all of these lagers were that bad I couldn’t even imagine the malty beers or the IPA’s or the Imperials…I was at a crossroads.  Either quit the diet, quit drinking beer or just constantly cheat on the diet with beer.  Now the first option was definitely the best option in my mind.  It was winning all the votes in my head.  The second option meant death, so it was dropped really quick.  The last option was plausible, just not as wonderful or as good for me as the first.  So as I was about to give up (diet not beer) I came across a literal (to me anyway) lifesaver.

Before I go any further I want to throw something in here.  I know everyone is thinking “hey dummy, just drink light beer…duh!”  I too said that to myself at first.  This is where this book came in handy.  You see light beer may have almost half the calories and a significantly less amount of carbs as normal beer BUT…yes the big BUT…the alcohol percentage is lower.  Not by too much in some, but enough to make a difference in my mind.  For instance; a Budweiser has 145 cal and 11 grams of carbs and it sits at %5 ABV, whereas Bud Light has 110 cal and 7 grams of carbs but it is only %4.2 ABV.  That is a difference my friends.  This stat is pretty consistent throughout the normal/light beer world.  Okay, now I can continue

I give AB a lot of trouble but, yet again, they have helped me in a bind.  You see they have a beer called Bud Select (just called Select).  Bud Select is a really special beer to me now since it has given me an out, so to speak.  This beer has only 99 cal and 3 grams of carbs and it still %4.3 ABV.  I guess technically it is a light beer, but it has the highest booze amount out of pretty much all the domestic “lights”.  The only beer that is less in cal and carbs than this is Michelob Ultra, and that is still only %4.2.

At first I was taken aback at the flavor, or lack thereof, rather.  After realizing that it was one of the only options I could drink and still be on my diet and still get decently drunk without drinking around 20 of them, (which defeats the diet part anyway.  I mean if you can get drunk off 6 Budweisers, but they are too bad for your diet, why drink a slightly lighter beer if you have to drink double or more because of the lesser alcohol content?) , the taste got that much better.  It actually started growing on me.  Of course I get harassed by my friends but when I am looking my best at the beach…err..the front or back yard this summer, they will be jealous.

Cheers!!

Here is the link to the book that I found, neat stuff all the way around…just cover up the carb column in the beer section ( I now have..heh heh heh)

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