The Beer Diet (standard:Creative non-fiction, 719 words)
Author: casio1933	Added: May 02 2008	Views/Reads: 3859/2	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Pablo's advice on a diet that really works

Pablo's Thoughts on Diet 

In the early sixties, Mom and Dad didn't drink much beer.   On vacation
at Myrtle Beach SC one year they were introduced to Country Club Malt 
Liquor.   It came in cute little seven-ounce cans and they liked it.  
Two six-packs lasted them the whole week. 

The ensuing years saw a dramatic increase in their beer consumption. 
Pearl Brewing produced the beverage in seven and eight ounce cans and 
bottles.  In Virginia it was labeled “Malt Lager.”  Mom, Dad and two of 
their friends attempted to drink more than Pearl could produce and had 
them working nights and weekends for many years before Pearl finally 
gave up and stopped production of the small containers altogether.  The 
big cans never tasted the same and ultimately resulted in a drastic 
reduction in beer consumption by the four close friends. 

It's with fond memory the four friends remember a trip to the beach in
the nineteen seventies.  They had carried thirty cases of the little 
cans with them.  They drank about twenty-three cases that week – an 
average of twenty cans each per day.  This was equivalent to sixteen 
regular twelve-ounce beers and about two thousand calories.  Not a lot 
of food was eaten. 

It was about this time Dad decided he needed to go on a diet.  He was
pushing two hundred and thirty pounds.  A beer diet seemed logical.  He 
didn't believe you could drink enough beer to gain weight.  His doctor 
more or less agreed but said it would play hell with his liver. 

THE DIET 

Dad had pretty much determined that it took about sixteen calories per
pound per day to maintain his weight (adult active male).  To lose 
thirty pounds he would need to consume no more than an average of 
thirty-two hundred calories per day (maintenance calories for 
two-hundred pounds).  This would equate to thirty-two beers per day.  
If he had a medium apple he counted that as a beer, a sandwich was 
counted as three beers, a regular meal was counted between five and ten 
beers.  Pretty soon he could only actually drink one or two beers and 
stay on his diet. 

Of course there were times when the thirty-two hundred calories were not
enough to handle a party or dining out with drinks.  However, 
thirty-two hundred was an average and translated to twenty two thousand 
four hundred for a week.  It was then, he started keeping track of 
calories by the week.  Some days he would have the equivalent of ten 
beers and some days twenty-five or thirty.  The trick was to never 
exceed the weekly number. 

It took about a year but he lost thirty pounds.  The following year he
lost another thirty and at a comfortable one hundred seventy pounds he 
found he was drinking almost no beer. 

If you don't like beer, the diet will work with apples (approximately
one hundred each) or any other food for which the caloric content is 
known.  Just substitute any other food calories for an equivalent 
number of apples.  The idea is to have a gauge by which you can easily 
monitor your weekly caloric intake. 

Some Tips: 

·Know or find out the approximate number of calories it takes to
maintain your weight for one week. 

·Pick the weight level at which you want to be in one year.  Focus on
the weight you want to be and not on the number of pounds you have to 
lose. 

·Pay attention to your total daily calorie intake – count that stick of
gum or the last bite of something left in the pan. 

·Don't give up any food you like, just reduce the portion.  If you think
you can't have something you like, you will find that at sometime you 
will “binge” on it. 

·Enjoy the parties and the occasional big meals.  Plan for them and
compensate in the days before or after – even if it means a day of 
fasting. 

·Develop a list of foods you like and the number of calories per serving
size YOU normally have – use it to determine the equivalent number of 
beers/apples/etc. 

If you're really serious about losing weight, this program will take
some planning and a lot of effort.  I think this is fun way to track 
your calories and calories are the only things that really count. 


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