Still here, moderating

I'm still lurking in the background and reading all of the wonderful blogs that are of a similar topic to mine.

I remain undecided on the moderation topic, but am trying it out for now.  After my 31 days were up I had a few days of heavy drinking then a few days of non-drinking.  I was worried to go down the slippery slope back to my pre-31 days off so have been keeping an eye on things.  Now that I have tasted the sober life it's become easier not to default into a bottle of wine because I'm bored on a Saturday.

We went to Paris for part work/part long weekend away (wine and cheese, ooh la la) then it was a week away in Gran Canaria (wine and tapas, si).  I make it a strict rule not to drink at work events.  So even with 2 nights of extravagant dinners and plenty of French wine, I ended up being the only person out of 14 not drinking, while the rest of them hurried to get their fill on the company's expense. 

Gran Canaria was just for a week of hols.  It's interesting being in another culture that is not so over the top about drinking like the UK.  As I speak Spanish we ventured further afield and were often the only non-locals in a location.  When you ask for a glass of wine there, they give you the same sized glass of wine as the locals would get.  I estimate it at 1/3 of the size of a UK sized glass.  It puts it into good perspective as we whittled the days away drinking Spanish style in the shade of an umbrella under sunny days.

Coming back with the usual holiday weight and knowing that we're coming into the holiday season of parties and endless food, I've made the decision to enjoy party days (at a moderate level) and on the remaining days to make them no alcohol, mostly vegan and heavy on the exercise.  All three tie in together so nicely once they get rolling.  As I did much of those during my month off I decided to up the game and give up caffeine.

So far 2 party days have passed successfully, OH's family does a Chinese meal out and he had his big company party in central London.

OH admitted in advance that he was worried about the company party.  I told him that it was a 'work' event and fell under my 'work' category so he didn't need to worry.  Am so happy to report back that I made him proud!  At the pre-meetup of his department in a nearby pub, the others had 2-3 pints and I had one.  When we arrived it was dazzling, all the party dresses, all the drinks!  I had a glass of fizzy, then a second and then switched to their non-alcoholic mocktail. 

It was quite clever of them, they had an alcoholic version and a non-alcoholic version, they looked the same and were served in the same glasses.  However, they were laid out at opposite ends of the bar and the alcoholic ones had 2 cherries but the non version had a lime bit.  So if you wanted to ditch the lime, no one would know that you were not having what they were having.  Both were based on pomegranate juice.

Around this time all his younger colleagues were flitting around higher than kites.

The doors opened for dinner.  There were 10 of us at a table and 6 bottles of wine.  As I don't drink with dinner I wasn't really bothered.  I did have a glass of wine while others enjoyed the desert but then we went to go dancing.  A number of his colleagues were now a bit of their gourd as the meals were fancy but tiny.

As we needed to get the 11.30 pm train we picked up an open but almost full bottle of wine (i.e. it would have been thrown out) and sneaked it out of the venue and enjoyed a glass on our long train journey home. We ended up giving the remainder of it to others who had been at the party as they had an even longer train journey home.

So glad I cleared the 31 days as that set the foundation to have a moderate night.  I need to keep an eye on it, to keep the alcohol days in check and keep the non-alcoholic days just that.

As I was typing this, OH just called, he's braved town to shop for Christmas presents.  As I didn't drink last night and we need to go to his house tonight by car, he was checking if I still had not opened any fizzy and could he stop by the pub on the way home to have a drink with his sister?  In the old days he would not have bothered to check as the assumption would have been that I would be well into a bored Saturday afternoon and halfway through a fizzy bottle.  So proud of myself, that I could tell him to go ahead and stop.  As a substitute for my boring Saturday I had a nap instead and it was so much better than an afternoon of alcohol.

Non-alcoholic wine review

After a bit of googling, I was excited to try Tesco's non-alcoholic South African Chenin fizz due to the great reviews like this:

http://metro.co.uk/2016/02/09/tesco-is-selling-alcohol-free-fizz-they-say-is-the-closest-ever-to-the-real-thing-5634766/

Technically it is a 0.5% level so I waited until after my 30 days off to try it, purist that I am.  I went with the white one but they also had a pink one.

My thoughts on this as an alcohol-free substitute:

• I like fizzy things and will easily drink a litre of fizzy water on a Sunday dinner while others are drinking wine.  My personal favourite is Tesco's Ashbeck as I love a lot of fizz in my water.  When I opened this bottle it has a high amount of fizz.

• At £2.75 a bottle it's easy on the wallet.

• It's nice to have something different than water and a festive cork to pop.  It comes with a nifty resealable plastic cork. 

• I've never been a fan of South Africa white wine, it's a little too sweet for me.  This bottle was extremely sweet, I couldn't get beyond a glass of it.  If you are a fan of sweet wines, dessert wines, I think this would be worth a try.

If you are in general cutting back on alcohol, calories and cost, this one may be a nice substitute. I have friends who are absolute non-drinkers so even a less than 1% wine would not be acceptable to them.  However, for those looking to reduce alcohol consumption, this may be one to try, especially for sweet wine drinkers.

For now I'll stick with my non-alcoholic fizzy grape drinks.  Asda has discontinued my favourite but Co-op does an ok one, as long as I water it down a little more with fizzy water or ice.

Edit: I served it to my other half without commentary, but mentioned that it was a non-alcoholic wine.  He has quite a sweet tooth and could eat chocolate all day.  He had two glasses of it with dinner and thought it was quite nice as a non-alcoholic substitute to the usual offering of cola that most of our non-alcoholic friends endure.  As we always have a few friends who are minimizing alcohol due to driving later in the evening or to limit sugar/calories, he would buy this one again to have on offer at gatherings.

Non-alcoholic drinks

We did a bbq this summer and a number of non-drinkers were attending so I made a load of non-alcoholic drinks.  Most of these recipes came somewhere via the internet but at this point I no longer know the original sources, but I can tell you I am not the creator.  As people asked for the recipes after the bbq I had added my observations to the original recipes.  

Sangria Me Not!

Serves 8

2 cups boiling water
2 black tea bags (or 2 teaspoons loose-leaf tea in an infuser)
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups pomegranate juice
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 orange, sliced into thin rounds
1 lemon, sliced into thin rounds
1 lime, sliced into thin rounds
1 apple, cored and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
3 cups carbonated water

Pour boiling water over tea bags and cinnamon sticks and steep for 5 minutes. Discard tea bags and stir in sugar to dissolve.

In a large jar or pitcher, combine tea, cinnamon sticks, pomegranate juice, orange juice, orange, lemon, lime, and apple. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour and preferably overnight.

Just before serving, stir in carbonated water. Serve in glasses over ice.

On this one, I made it early in the morning to give it a few hours for the flavours to mingle.  

Cape Cod Strawberry Basil Soda

Makes about 6 (8-ounce) drinks

1 pound strawberries, trimmed
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup loosely packed basil leaves
1 cup sugar
Carbonated water

Juice strawberries using a juicer or blender.
If using a juicer: Juice strawberries according to manufacturer's instructions. Discard pulp.
If using a blender: Place strawberries in a blender and pulse until smooth. Strain through a sieve, pushing juice through with a spatula. Discard solids.

Pour strawberry juice into a liquid measuring cup. Add water to reach 1 cup if needed. Pour into a small saucepan with lemon juice, basil, and sugar.

Heat mixture over medium heat until boiling. Simmer 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain syrup through a sieve into a clean container and discard solids.

To serve, spoon 2 tablespoons of syrup into an 8-ounce glass, top with carbonated water, and stir. Taste and add more syrup, if desired.

Can refrigerate syrup up to 1 week.

This smells absolutely divine as its cooking!

Front Porch Sparkling Rosemary Limeade  Ended up not doing this one as I forgot the rosemary. 

makes eight 5-ounce servings — or more, depending on dilution

1 cup lime juice (from about 6 limes)
3/4 cup sugar
Peel of 2 limes
Two 4-inch sprigs fresh rosemary, plus more to serve
4 to 6 cups chilled sparkling water

Stir the lime juice with the sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Lower the heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the lime peel and the rosemary sprigs. Simmer for another minute, then turn off the heat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Strain out the lime peel and rosemary and mix with the chilled sparkling water in a sealed jar or bottle. Taste and add more water if you want a lighter flavor.

Serve over ice with a small sprig of rosemary muddled into the drink.

Escape the Heat Wave Frozen Hot Chocolate

Hot chocolate tastes just as good, if not better, when it's not hot at all. In a saucepan, mix together a half cup of unsweetened coca mix and ¾ cup of sugar. Create a paste by very slowly adding a quarter cup of milk to the cocoa/sugar blend and stirring. Add two cups of milk over low heat until all of the ingredients are blended well, and then pour the mixture into an ice cube tray and freeze overnight. While you're at it, place some glasses in the freezer so they'll be nice and frosty tomorrow. Once the ice cubes are ready, place them into a blender along with two tablespoons of low-fat milk, and blend the ingredients. Pour the mix into the frozen glasses and serve immediately.

Cocoa is sold as a powder in the US.  Here we used Asda Extra Special 40% Cocoa Solids baking bar.  The squares are pre-marked at 5 gram weights, so we used 65 grams.  If doing again, I would increase that. We used the green cap milk, it probably would have tasted nicer with full fat as the base milk.

New Orleans Mockarita – Ended up skipping this one, but still want to make it! ‘Limeade’ in the States would be similar to Lime squash.

A mock margarita, or a "mockarita", has most of the same ingredients as a margarita - just skip the alcohol! For a perfect non-alcoholic frozen drink recipe, place six ounces of limeade concentrate into a blender along with a half cup of orange juice, and 2/3 cup of unsweetened grapefruit juice. Begin blending them together slowly, gradually adding about four cups of crushed ice to the mixture. The drink should have a slushy consistency by the time you're finished. Serve in a margarita glass. For the classic treatment, rub the rim of your glass with a lemon or lime wedge, and dip the rim into coarse salt or sugar granules. This drink is a real showstopper.

Taste of Carolina Frozen Strawberry Lemonade

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen (or fresh) strawberries (about 24 strawberries)
1/2 cup crushed ice (or smallest cubes possible)
1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
3 packets of sugar substitute or 2 Tablespoons of sugar (or to taste)
3/4 cup water

(Optional)
1/4 lemon, sliced, for garnish
1 Tablespoon of ginger, fresh or dried (finely chopped)
A few mint leaves

Directions:

1. Allow frozen strawberries to thaw slightly.
2. Before placing ice cubes in blender, crush large chunks by sealing securely inside a plastic zip bag and rolling over the bag firmly with a rolling pin.
3. Combine lemon juice, strawberries, sugar substitute or sugar, crushed ice and water in blender jar. If blades get stuck, add more water.
4. Blend on high with lid tightly secured until smooth and thick.
5. Pour into glasses and serve immediately. Garnish with a slice of lemon & sugar the glass rim, if desired.

As it was so hot, we didn’t crush the ice here, figured it would melt too quickly if so.

Alaska White Sangria

Ingredients

For the Berry Grape Ice Cubes:

• 1 pint fresh blueberries
• 2-4 cups white grape juice, preferably unsweetened

For Mixed Berry Sangria-By-The-Glass Mocktail, per glass:

• 4 Berry Grape Ice Cubes
• ¾ cup white grape juice
• 2-4 fresh whole basil leaves
• 2 large or 4 small fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
• cold sparkling water

Freeze a few blueberries in grape juice in ice cube trays.

Add ‘berry ice cubes’ to glass.  Then the other ingredients.

We couldn’t find plain grape juice and were not sure how well the fizzy grape would freeze.  So we used just water in the blueberry cubes.  Instead of grape juice we found ASDA Extra Special Non-Alcoholic grape juice which was quite tasty in itself!   As that was already fizzy, we only did a slight dash of the sparkling water.  For mixed groups, to make an alcohol included version, substitute pinot or chardonnay for the white grape juice.

The last minute off- piste add to the menu:

·         Asda cranberry/blueberry juice

·         2 teaspoons of lemon squash

·         A few blueberries, raspberries, strawberries

·         Dash of fizzy water

·         Loads of ice

 

As these are all American recipes, they need to be converted to UK measures.  There is a degree of uncertainty among sites as to exact conversions, so take these loosely and don’t be afraid to adjust.

Volume

When measuring liquid, cooking measurements are quite straightforward:

Metric	Imperial	US cups
250ml	8 fl oz	1 cup
180ml	6 fl oz	3/4 cup
150ml	5 fl oz	2/3 cup
120ml	4 fl oz	1/2 cup
75ml	2 1/2 fl oz	1/3 cup
60ml	2 fl oz	1/4 cup
30ml	1 fl oz	1/8 cup
15ml	1/2 fl oz	1 tablespoon

Sugar (caster and granulated)

US cups	Metric	Imperial
1/8 cup	25g	1 oz
1/4 cup	50g	1 3/4 oz
1/3 cup	70g	2 1/4 oz
1/2 cup	100g	3 1/2 oz
2/3 cup	135g	4 3/4 oz
3/4 cup	150g	5 1/4 oz
1 cup	200g	7 oz

Day 31, the numbers are in

So I met my month goal of abstaining from alcohol.  I waited at midnight for balloons and confetti to fall from the ceiling, but alas none.  My OH asked if I was waiting up until one minute after midnight to have a glass of wine.  While technically allowed under my rules...no.  In particular as today was stats day at the gym.

On the last Thursday of each month I use their fancy scale and record the results.  I now have a track record going back to December of last year.  September's numbers were brutal as I was only 2 days into the challenge and my numbers were the worst or second to worst since I started running them after a summer of decadent living.

After 30 days of no alcohol (and no Pringles too, in my attempt to knock out junk food at the same time) I was excited to see what had changed.  I'm pleased to say that everything improved.  Here are the actual results (height 5' 5", age 41.5):


Sept weight:  59.6 kilos      Oct weight:  58.6 kilos
bmi:  21.6  vs 21.3
bodyfat:  30  to 27.8
muscle mass:  39.6 to 40.2
bone mass 2.1 to 2.2
metabolic age  33 to 29
visceral fat 4.0 to 3.5

Some thoughts on these numbers:

1. weight - I lost 1 kilo in the first week before the 7 days count was reached and kept it off since.  That bloated squishy-ness was gone by day 5.  I messed around with the diet this month trying to get the right amount of calories to support the increased exercise.  I expect to continue to inch it down another kilo over a few months.

2. bodyfat - pleased this went down.  This puts me squarely in the 'normal' range.  Now to take it down a little further so that I have some abs.

3. muscle mass - a little increase.  I'm more of a cardio person, so we'll take that.

4. metabolic age - the scale puts together a number of factors and comes up with this one.  I've previously been down to 27 so headed in the right direction.

5. visceral fat - that's the layer of fat cushioning the liver etc.  This one was the primary driver of this month's challenge as my earlier numbers were always 3.5.  Just the summer binging had put it up in the 4 range so a good indicator to make a change. 

I feel the lack of alcohol was a positive influence in my situation.  Without it I had more energy to focus on the sports side and to get the food choices right.

I'm planning to have wine this weekend but I'm also planning to do the Saturday morning 5k.  I'd like to try for wine to be a just Saturday or Sunday thing but we'll see.  I may also just do this one month on/one off tempo as I like the routine of not having alcohol, once I get going.

Day 29

Nothing much exciting to say, mid-week routine, work and gym.  Tuesdays are one of my favorite sessions at the gym, the instructor is hard core and energetic.  I feel my physical performance is so much better than it was four weeks ago.

I had originally planned tomorrow as day 30, to have a lovely wine on Friday evening, day 32.  OH's sister wants to try out an Italian restaurant that just opened on that evening.  I'm not overly fond of Italian wine/beer, so decided to delay my deadline another day, until Saturday.  Plus, we had an enjoyable time at last week's 5k run so we decided to try it again for a faster time.  So it seems that glass of wine will be Saturday night instead as I don't want to impact my sport performance.

This is precisely what I was wishing for by quitting for 30 days, that I'd be more of a 'person who does things and occasionally enjoys a glass of wine' instead of planning my days and activities around wine o'clock.

Day 26

We did the local park run this morning after at least two years of me suggesting it off and on.  Ours is a popular location and it was an anniversary event so very buzzy...balloons, costumed runners, the works.  I don't really do mornings in general or athletics in the morning in particular.  9 AM found us pounding the pavement with 500+ other healthy, morning-happy folk.  This is one thing that this (almost) month off of alcohol has given to me, just so much more energy and a 'get up and go' attitude. 


We then stopped in at OH's pub for a full English breakfast.  I am not so fond of his pub in general as it's a smelly, sticky place and their wine is cheap so I didn't drink it even when I was full on drinking.  Not much of a beer drinker either as it always made me feel bloated and burpy.  But he was pleased as punch to be in his pub, sans beer as it was not yet even 10 AM, but getting to tuck into a large plate of food.  I stop in as a one off every 6 months of so and at that time of day when the windows are open and the sun is shining in, it was a good morning.

Now on to tackle administrative paperwork and to get to the post office as Sat afternoon is the least busy time of the week when I can get there.

Day 24

Haven't had much to say, continuing on the path.  30 days will be next Wednesday but I have a good set of gym classes on Thurs and Fri at lunchtime so I'm extending it out until next Friday which makes 31 nights alcohol free.

I've convinced my other half that we should do the free weekly 5k run in the park on Saturday.  It starts at 9 AM and I've been saying for years that we should do it.  Now that I've made it through 3 alcohol-free weekends I'm looking to up the ante on weekend four.  Quote from OH:  oh, 9 AM is a little early, so will need to take it easy on Friday night at the pub.  He's been indirectly dialing it down, since I'm not drinking wine on the weekends and his best work colleague is abstaining until Dec 1 so no boozy lunches.  His weight has dropped two kilos, ha!

Sidenote, I'm not a big fan of alcohol free beer, wine etc.  I'm not a beer drinker in general and alcohol free wine seems sickly sweet as do most alochol free drinks such as J20. For anyone in the UK, I find that a nice alcohol free alternative is "Marks and Spencer Sparkling Mexican Lime and Lemongrass Presse".  We enjoyed it last night in the fancy wine glasses, it's sold near the sodas.  I think it would be lovely at a party, pop a little party umbrella in it and maybe dress it up with some strawberries chopped up and frozen in ice cubes.