Love Love Love Beer Beer Beer

I love beer. Writing that does not begin to convey the relationship I have with beer. Over the years, beer has marked many occasions in my life and feels like a good friend. If I have a long day or I’m working hard, beer is often my reward. Each year as Christmas inches closer, my husband and I try and enjoy every seasonal microbrew we can find. One of the reasons I started running was to balance my fondness for this drink and maintain my weight. I am sure that if I give up drinking, I would probably lose weight. I don’t drink every night and try to only have a few on the weekend, but if I’m on vacation all rules are off. Holiday beer can average 200 calories for a 12 oz. beer. So when I drank three Celebration Ales last Saturday, I drank 600 calories! 642 to be exact. That was spread over the entire day, but 642 calories is a lot of extra calories. 

So while I am participating in the Holiday Booty Challenge, I have decided to try and scale back my intake of beer. The challenge started on Monday, November 19, and the goal of the challenge is to get us through the holidays with no weight gain. My goal for the challenge is to maintain/increase my fitness level during the challenge AND improve my diet by getting at least 7 servings of fruits or vegetables a day. I am generally a pretty healthy eater, but eating 7-9 servings of fruits and vegetables has been challenging. As for the beer, it has been a vacation week for me and I have definitely not deprived myself, but starting tomorrow my beer challenge begins. No beer. Ah, that’s a bit severe. Let’s say less beer. Only one per WEEKEND day and none during the week. That’s a beer relationship I can strive for. 

Saturday: 1.5 mile walk with the dog - rest day

Sunday: 2.8 mile run, 1 mile walk, 10 minutes stretching