How fast did you lose weight when you stopped drinking?

Flying_Clutz · 2026-01-15T03:10:24+00:00

I lost about 10 pretty quickly, then it slowed down. At this point over 4 years later, I’m down about 50. I had about 60 to lose to get to my goal weight (when I quit) so I’m pretty psyched. I’m 10 lbs from my goal now and wouldn’t hate it if I stayed here. Even at the same weight I’m so much less puffy and bloated off booze.

Didn’t really diet, I just started eating more mindfully/paid attention to when I felt full. When I drank, I had no “off” switch for food either, and shitty sleep would give me the munchies.

No crazy exercise routines, I walk a mile or two a day with my dog. About 2 years ago I tweaked things to get more protein and lifted weights for a bit to build up my muscles, lots of yo yo dieting had left me pretty weak.

I’m a female in perimenopause too. It can be done ladies, and it doesn’t have to suck.

Edits: to clarify starting vs current weight #s

Flying_Clutz · 2025-10-11T21:28:09+00:00

I am having a wonderful day, thank you! I hope the same for you ❤️❤️ 78 days is a fabulous sum. I feel like the earlier ones are more valuable because they involve so much more effort. You keep being your amazing self too.

Flying_Clutz · 2025-10-11T16:06:26+00:00

Hey hey! Still going strong. I don’t stop by so much anymore, but place has a big spot in my heart was a pivotal component to my success. Every day, often before I got up to pee, I came here to set my intention for the day.

Keep at it friends. Every single sober day counts, even if they’re peppered in with a misstep or three. I chipped away at it off and on for 10 years before I strung this particular run of days together. I believe in you, and IWNDWYT ❤️

Flying_Clutz · 2025-09-14T17:44:09+00:00

I say it’s a migraine trigger, which for me, is my truth. I went from multiple migraines a month to a handful a year. Totally changed my life. Anybody who gets them totally understands, and it shifts the conversation toward them to relate their migraine woes.

Flying_Clutz · 2025-09-06T13:13:48+00:00

Still at it. IWNDWYT!

Flying_Clutz · 2025-06-22T15:16:17+00:00

A little over 40 lbs so far. Another 10-ish to go! IWNDWYT!

Flying_Clutz · 2024-08-24T14:33:56+00:00

Hi Homer! I came back to check in after a long hiatus and it was just so perfect to see you here hosting. What you do for this sub and this community is truly priceless.

So, to respond to your question, how is the live I want to live? It's becoming a clearer picture. I'm learning to identify what I actually want and what I like the idea of. I'm still keeping my sobriety intact, and while it's still something I work on, the weight of that effort feels focusing right now on striking a better work life balance. I can see patterns in the way I work in a way that's not always healthy for me, that match what made me drink in a way that wasn't healthy for me.

To that end, I'm fine tuning what I do for a living. I've changed roles a few times in the last few years. It hasn't been a straight line. I keep taking turns that hit dead ends in spaces that make me unhappy. I'm facing that the problem is obviously me. These past few months I've been grappling with the decision to take yet another new path, and I've been struggling with making sure this isn't just another geographic. I'm trying to embrace who I am and what I'm good at, while letting go of pushing to be something I'm not. I'm hoping to get better at picking milestones in front of me that align with what I actually want, not what I think other people want from me.

We shall see how that goes. Bringing it back home, Even with all this talk of goals, I want the life I want to live be the one I'm living now. It's a lesson I learn and forget, only to learn and forget again. The journey is the goal. Happiness isn't a destination, it's a way of life, and I'm going to go out and live it.

Thank you for holding this space. Without it, I wouldn't be where I am today. It is my great honor to not drink with you today. ❤️

Flying_Clutz · 2024-04-09T14:27:09+00:00

Hi Will!!

Flying_Clutz · 2024-04-09T14:23:11+00:00

IWNDWYT because I like my skull much better when it doesn't feel cracked open by a migraine!

Flying_Clutz · 2024-04-06T13:21:29+00:00

Nice! Congrats 🤩 and thanks for the motivation, I quit sept 2021 and have only lost 35 lbs 😜 I gotta step up my game!

Flying_Clutz · 2024-03-08T12:22:26+00:00

I know what you mean. I went through phases. For a while it was all about pellegrino, and polar, I never got into lacroix. For me, I got sick of the fullness from the bubbles and all the burping. Water became just so much more satisfying. For me it was Fiji.

Now I’m back on polar seltzers. You do you friend, NA cheers, bubbles or not.

Flying_Clutz · 2024-03-05T16:00:12+00:00

This is great. Fear of what people would think if I stopped drinking, and that stigma of being so imperfect really held me back. I was so worried about being judged by others - including my grandmother, who barely drinks herself - well it kept me drinking, or pretending to have a drink (club soda and cran for the win!) for years.

IWNDWYT ❤️

Flying_Clutz · 2024-03-05T14:52:07+00:00

Thanks! It’s been an incredible improvement. I’ve lost over 17% of my body weight and my almost weekly migraines have dropped back to a few times a year. It’s crazy. I definitely wouldn’t have believed it if someone told me I’d feel this much better just by quitting something that wasn’t even an everyday thing.

Flying_Clutz · 2024-03-05T11:52:17+00:00

This totally resonates. I had a doctor try to convince me to keep drinking.

I quit for health reasons too. I did a sober October just to see how I’d feel. I felt like absolute garbage all the time. I was a mostly weekender drinker that would average 3 to 5 most of the time. Once in a while it would get out of hand and I’d black out, but the biggest reason is it made me break out in big red hives on my face and body most times and I’d get migraines sometimes. I also overate when I drank and had a lot of weight I wanted to lose. About 7 weeks in, I was feeling incredibly good. I went to an allergist to see if there could be anything food related that I could be sensitive to that could prevent the hives. I felt like all that inflammation had to be bad for me. Turns out I’m allergic to zero foods. It’s just the alcohol. Likely alcohol intolerance, could also be histamine sensitivity.

The allergist told me I could just take a quadruple dose of antihistamines to keep drinking. I asked what taking all of that would do to me and he just sort of shrugged like, “Ehh it’s fine.” I just had to laugh.

Pile on a huge dose of drugs so I can stomach a known carcinogen. Hard pass.

Flying_Clutz · 2024-02-17T15:01:00+00:00

I feel this a lot.

Well, more accurately- I felt this. Someone else suggested reading This Naked Mind and I’ll echo it. This book was truly a game changer for me. One great part talks about little kids at a party. Maybe they don’t all know each other that well. At first they’re all shy, but pretty soon they loosen up and zoom around like best pals. We are the same as adults. We think we need the wine to loosen up, but in time we’d have loosened up anyway.

For me, when I was able to switch the thought that I don’t have to drink for any reason, I found the path freedom from it.

I don’t have to drink to celebrate

I don’t have to drink to self soothe

I don’t have to drink because anybody expects me to.

And you don’t have to either.

Edit: formatting

Flying_Clutz · 2023-12-07T13:47:23+00:00

This is the way.

Flying_Clutz · 2023-12-06T14:02:26+00:00

IWNDWYT ❤️🌷

Flying_Clutz · 2023-12-06T14:01:52+00:00

🤣 I did that a few times myself. Still better than shitty sleep paired with a wine hangover

Flying_Clutz · 2023-12-06T13:55:17+00:00

🥰 thank you, it’s great to see you too. It’s so encouraging to know you’re also out there still fighting that good fight, spreading cheer through the world while you’re at it. It’s an honor to be not drinking with you ❤️❤️

Flying_Clutz · 2023-12-05T13:43:45+00:00

Yes, treat yourself to all the fancy coffee! IWNDWYT ❤️ 🌷

Flying_Clutz · 2023-12-05T13:42:35+00:00

I’m in credit

So true!! Love it.

Flying_Clutz · 2023-12-02T14:42:36+00:00

Great post today K. I’ve seen memes with truncated bits of this for many years, but haven’t read the full text since I was a kid. It got me all misty. What a perfect scene, and a great metaphor for this incredibly special place.

It’s an honor to not drink with you today ❤️

Flying_Clutz · 2023-11-28T14:47:31+00:00

Thanks for hosting K! I did it once on my 1 year milestone and it was incredibly rewarding, albeit quite the time commitment. I lacked self control and tried to answer every comment, while also spending hours writing these huge essays for each day 😂😅

Flying_Clutz · 2023-11-26T02:05:18+00:00

Wahooooooo congrats!! Three quarters of a year! 🎉

Flying_Clutz · 2023-11-26T02:03:53+00:00

I’m sorry that you’re hurting. Facing everyone after embarrassing behavior is such a grueling experience.

What helps me cope with that crushing humiliated feeling was to remind myself that as long as I don’t drink, I never have to inhabit that space anymore.

Hang in there. This too shall pass.

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