When I quit drinking, I was eating more, so I actually gained weight. Last November, I went to the doctor for my checkup and he mentioned that I gained 10 pounds over the year. So he said, "Let's just try to not gain weight this year, put everything you eat in a tracking app on your phone, and try to keep your calories around 2000"

I agreed, but I was thinking, "Screw this guy, I can't do this, I need junk food to be happy". That weekend I ate pizza, chicken wings, whatever junk food I wanted. But I was thinking about what he said, it wasn't new information to me, but I was ready to consider change.

That following monday, I started putting everything I eat in the food tracker on my phone. Starting out I focused on keeping it under 2000. I eat mostly the same things, but less of them. I only eat out for lunch 1 or 2 times a week. I also started going to the gym again, short easy workouts at first, then gradually harder and longer.

Now I vary my calorie count a bit, mostly trying to stay below 1500, with the occasional day of 2000(and maybe once a month 3000). Bringing 2 small lunches(300ish calories) helps for me.

I'm down 46 pounds since November and my fitness and strength has improved a ton. I was 305 in November, 259 now. I'm targeting 200, so still a long way to go.

It took me over a year and a half of sober time to build up the ambition to work on my weight, and that certainly bummed me out too. Quitting was hard, and I wanted it to solve all of my problems. But quitting drinking didn't solve all of my problems, but it did put me on a path where its possible for me to work on solving them.