Friday, April 29, 2016

30 Days Without An Ale or Bier...

...and I must say, it's about time I enjoy one or three tonight. I have been on a lower carbohydrate diet (note, I did not say low carbohydrate diet) during which I have cut out all candy (with the exception of maybe 5-6 lemon drops), all cake, all cookies, all chips, almost all pretzels and even a lot of my normal bread and other carbs intake. Back on April 13, I wrote up a post about this all in which I admitted I had one hard cider in the first two weeks of my diet. Now, that wasn't like I was being a teetotaler, I was still drinking hard spirits (no carbs) but yes, I even had cut back on them. back then, it seemed I had not lost a pound but I should point out that hen weighed a few days later, I was down 3 or 4 pounds. Not much but a start.

I have not weighed myself since back then and have absolutely no clue if I have lost any additional weight since then and I have not been exercising regularly, hell almost none at all as far a cardio goes and except for the fact I have been doing yard work a few days a week and going to home depot to pick up some heavy stuff another day or two per week, I would have almost zero exercise. before  go on much more, let me clarify something, while I have not weighed in lately to see if any poundage has come off, I am pretty sure I have lost weight so yes I do have a clue. Today, while putting down lumber and concrete blocks for a raised garden bed, with the shoveling and pushing around soul that went with it, my pants just about fell off three  or four times. I'm guessing I must have lost another pound or three. Not more than that mind you because I am still a fat slob but that is all it takes when I am not wearing a belt for my pants to start wanting to drop off. I have also noticed my face looks thinner or at least less rotund.

I guess that is all well and good. It would even be okay, I suppose, if I had not lost a pound. The main purpose of my diet was not so much to lose weight as it was to lower my blood sugar. I truly have no idea if that has been lowered or not, that will require a trip to my doctor for a fasting blood test. My guess though would be that I have had to have done so. If I get tested and the glucose levels have not gone down, I was border line diabetic, then something is amiss with the test or with my glands (the adrenal glands can cause diabetes when not functioning properly and once addressed blood sugar returns to normal). I imagine though that I was borderline diabetic because I glommed down high sugar and high carbohydrate snacks like a nonstop eating machine and did little exercise to burn it all off. Even when I started regularly exercising for several months, the levels did not go down much. So, in an attempt to avoid diabetes, here I am eating a lower carbohydrate and sugar diet. I hope it is working and sooner or later, maybe when we get back from Alaska in early June, I will have the appropriate tests to see how I am doing.

Tonight though, I am cheating on the diet. I just had a nice soft pretzel with some horseradish mustard on it and am still enjoying a V-Twelve Ale by Victory Brewing Company. As the name implies, it is 12% alcohol by volume. That is one heck of an alcohol level for a an ale and I must say that this particular Belgian style abbey ale lives up to what it says on the bottle's label - Liquid Luxury. It is one of the most delicious ales I have ever imbibed. I am not going to go into all that ritualistic yuppy-leftist tomfoolery, or right leaning-smug-snobbery, stuff about it tasting like it has hints of berries and nuts with an after taste of allspice and apples but I will say it is an excellent and great tasting ale. It comes in a 1 pint 9.4 fluid ounce bottle which is just enough to catch a bit of a buzz from one and a decent buzz from two, especially after the potato vodka and moonshine cherry cocktail I enjoyed before popping the cork on the ale. I strongly recommend it. If I can find more of it on my next trip to Costco, I will buy several of them.

Anyway, I figured that after 30 days of dieting (I started it on march 30), whether or not I have lost even a single pound, or have lowered my blood sugar or not, I was long overdue for a good ale or bier and this one is certainly as good as I could have wanted after that long of a drought.

If you ever want to check out some good beers and ales, I recommend Victor brewing Company. While I have only had five of the brews they offer to date, every one so far was excellent. See what they offer here: http://www.victorybeer.com/beers/.

All the best,
Glenn B

1 comment:

Glenn B said...

Lest I neglect to mention them, I have also had about half a jar of Moonshine Cherries in that month, definitely the most sugar I have had in my diet in 30 days.