I am approaching my third week of not drinking beer. I'll just say right up front that Erik's claim of 7.5-8 beers a night would have been slightly cutting down for me in the past few years and this is the longest I've gone without beer in about 13 years. I don't necessarily want to get in a pissing match but that is pretty much inevitable when it comes to beer consumption.
Anyhow, on a typical evening that I had to work in the morning it was usually 10-12. I'd stop at the bar on the way home from work for 3-5 and then at least another 6 pack when I got home. Evenings that I didn't have to work the next day but didn't have anything too eventful going on it would be more around 15 or so. Nights that I go out to shows or other party type atmospheres I could approach 20+. And then there's the MDF caliber drinking a couple times a year that I could reach 30+ in a day. Like I said, not trying to brag, just laying some foundation. I also had the excuses that I never called into work hungover (hell, I was named employee of the year in 2011), I'm pretty active, never been violent or anything like that. I've posted here many times about the 'marathon' walks that I go on all the time so I figured that I was getting some decent exercise. But, as constantly buzzed that I was, I wasn't stupid enough to not notice that not much was changing. Nothing catastrophic happened in my life but I think it was the combo of a slow day at work a month or so ago where I went back and watched every video in Erik's fast food thread back to back, as well as the shit that Hashthrash is going through, that I realized it might be a good time to pay a little closer attention to my health. I will say straight up that I haven't yet planned to give up beer for good (I fucking LOVE beer), my main goal goal goal is getting in shape, which for me is losing a bunch of weight while toning up a bit and getting the cardiovascular thing a kick in the ass (I apologize up front but I won't be posting any shirtless pics). Maybe I'll treat beer like Ross treats burritos, find and achieve a target weight and if I go over that target weight then I don't deserve any beer until I'm safely back below. Yeah, sounds stupid but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. While I have started to exercise more I also figured I could be somewhat of a guinea pig for Riley's frustration with Erik that cutting out the empty beer calories is the ultimate first step. In the last two weeks I've already lost over 10 lbs and counting........
So for Erik's claim that his doctor told him not to quit, well I'm no medical professional but that just sounds pretty dumb to me. I will say that the talk of people who drink this much having hardcore DTs and even seizures was in the back of my head, but I didn't feel like waiting any longer. I kind of planned ahead about a week and a half or so. The first week, on the work nights I had 5 or 6 at the most. Then it was the old lady's birthday weekend and I drank pretty close to usual but not quite as much. The Tuesday after that weekend I went to the store and bought a 6 pack. I drank 3 that night, 2 the next night, and had my final 1 beer that Thursday. That was it for tapering off. That Friday I didn't go to the neighborhood tavern like usual so it was kind of a weird feeling but I also didn't have ANY kind of withdrawls or uncomfort (I will admit that I've had a tiny bit of green help). After that I decided to jump right in to my temptations. That Saturday I went to a show and ended up with 4 or 5 of my heaviest drinking friends, amongst many other friends, and pretty much all of them automatically offered to buy me beers. There were quite a few confused and surprised faces when I smiled and said no. The next morning I went for a walk and stopped at the neighborhood tavern to play some pinball. Even though it was 11:30am the bartender's first instinct was to reach into the cooler to grab me a beer. Again, more confusion when I said no. I didn't even have to purge the house of any temptations. I have a couple good German and Belgian beers sitting right there on the top shelf of my fridge as well as two 6 packs of PBR that a friend left behind. Not tempted in the least.
So Erik, it is MORE than possible for you to cut down/quit. After hearing my stupid story I hope you won't make any more excuses. Don't do this for us, do it for you!
This is enspoiler'd because I ramble too much when I post shit like this and the thread is about Erik, not me.
