Blog Archive

Overindulging

Posted by HIM on Sunday November 21st, 2010

Dear food diary I feel fat...

I'm not, it turns out. According to how I felt after my recent trip to the gym, I'm actually pretty healthy. Regardless of how much I go to the gym, I still feel guilt eating away at my confidence like David Hasselhoff at a hamburger convention. The problem is, like many gays, I have vices. Often these create the perfect circumstances for the WORST eating habits in the world.

Having a few too many drinks at the Odyssey, hitting Fritz on the way home for some poutine, sleeping in late, missing breakfast, feeling too hungover for lunch, then munching on some pizza because I'm not in the mood to cook. Too often my Thursday/Friday ritual looks something like this and it's a vicious cycle that wreaks havoc on my metabolism... But fear not Homorazzi has some constructive tips for breaking the cycle so that the Fritz you go home with is a nice German boy...

Read the full article below:

Getting more wasted = getting more waistline

Patrick at Homorazzi.com

There’s always a reason – and it’s always a good one!

“It’s my birthday”

“It’s my friend’s birthday”

“It’s the Olympics”

“It’s 12 O’clock somewhere”

“It’s Friday”

This makes it extremely challenging. I had told you about my fitness goals a couple months ago (so did Tommy), and I am meeting some of them, but I’ll tell you that with excuses for birthdays, the Olympics, my birthday, WinterPRIDE, I’m quickly realizing it’s been slowing down my progress considerably.

Drinking is a huge setback when it comes to dieting or fitness goals. Because alcohol has become such an integral part of the “social” aspect of our lives, it’s hard to overcome this obstacle. If you were to meet with your trainer or dietitian, and one of your main goals was to trip your waistline, chances are, they’d tell you to cut out drinking. Most people can’t do this, so they’re left with telling you to cut back.

So what does cutting back mean? Well, if you were to “drink in moderation,” as they say, that would mean no more than two drinks in a day for a guy. This would be what they call “social drinking” as opposed to drinking to get drunk. Obviously, its extremely difficult to do that all the time, nor can you cut it out completely…but it’s a good rule of thumb so that you don’t have to stay home and watch movies all the time to avoid being around people that are drinking.

Alcohol is considered empty calories and it’s estimated that it can slow down your ability to burn fat by up to almost 40%. What else happens when you’re out for a night of partying? You might end up at Denny’s or Fresh Slice Pizza. Alcohol increases your appetite, even though as you’re buying the meal your logic is, “This is a good idea because it will absorb the alcohol and I’ll feel better tomorrow.” It may or may not help with that, but your eight beers and the two slices of pizza aren’t going to help your abs situation.

So if you are going to drink…more than two drinks, here are some tips that can help with reducing the calories. Eat healthy the day of, and be sure to have a sufficient meal before you start drinking so you don’t pig out later, or get sick for that matter. Delaying your first drink helps as well. Waiting 45 minutes to an hour before your first drink means you’ll have that many less drinks over the course of the night. You can also try alternating your drinks, with a drink of water. Sometimes, after you’ve had a drink or two, you’re feeling loose and happy, and really, all you need is to have a drink of something in your hand to not feel awkward at the party. Lastly, what you drink is important too. Light beer over regular beer if possible, and non-sugary drinks over the sugar ones. This goes for your vodka too. You can have a flavored vodka if you want, but don’t choose the ones with sugar. Absolut Vodka is a good choice over Smirnoff in that regard.

A little food drink for thought for the day, as you look forward to the next weekend coming your way, and the looming summer months ahead where you’ll want to be hitting the beach.

Cheers! (in moderation)