Expert: Clyde - 10/21/2007

Question
I am 53,and have been drinking heavy since I was 17,
Usually to get drunk,at least twice a month.
I am clinically obese,have IBS, high blood pressure and sleep apnea.
I havent had a drop for two months now-longest I've ever gone.
I have started exercising and eating right,but no weight loss or other improvements yet.I am getting frustrated but I am managing to hold on as I am basically stubborn!
When will my sobriety start paying off?  

Answer
Brent,
  Thank you for your question.  Although I can claim no expertise in the health issues you mention, I can speak to experience in the alcohol cessation.
  I remember being highly motivated for some changes in my lifestyle about two months before I stopped drinking.  I don't know why but I did.  Basically the change was in diet and in exercise.  I began a regimen of walking 2 miles a day at a fast pace.  Shortly thereafter I moved to four miles a day walking that in one hour. I was feeling better. If I remember correctly some part of that regimen included no alcohol because I gave it up for the forty days of Lent.
  I did start drinking again and was back to my drinking pace of maybe a 12 pack of beer and a pint or so of bourbon a day.  That is being modest as my drinking was always to get drunk and went from 3:30pm to 1:00 - 2:00 am in the morning every day.
  When I did hit a place of incredible shame and humiliation in my drinking I stopped completely never having picked up a drink in some 13+ years.
  I share that with you to let you know that I was a) motivated by something to make me more conscious of my health; b) feeling better probably in large measure to the fact that I was not drinking for a month and a half.
  I did not want to stop drinking so I didn't even acknowledge the fact that I was feeling so much better.
  Since I was motivated to change the exercise and diet, I continued that and added to it no alcohol!  Do you realize the calories in alcohol (these calories are pretty much empty calories and are converted to sugar by the metabolism of our bodies)?  I was probably ingesting 2,000 calories of these per day for years!
  One thing I have learned is that it can take the body 6 months to two years for the physiological damage done by alcohol to repair itself.  Body chemistry is way off and must re-equilibrate; enzymes are out of balance and I would suggest this affects metabolism; our nerve endings repair; many other physiological changes take place.  A very good book to read on this is "Restore Your Life" by Anne Geller.
  I was also so fascinated by realizing the drop in caloric intake and the fact that my walking was now burning calories that I began to chart this using a software program. I was amazed how many calories were involved.  Through this effort I think I put a tangible face on the changes I had made and it wasn't long before I noticed the pounds dropping off.  It all had to do with putting my mind on good thoughts of my health and lifestyle changes rather than on my loss of a very good friend - alcohol.

 I have been told that it takes a full two weeks for a healthy  diet to begin to show results in lost pounds.  I understand that pounds dropped slowly will return more slowly as well so dropping too quickly is actually detrimental.  Here, again, the body is readjusting to the changes and it takes some time for this to occur.
  I hope this helps and please write again if you have further questions.
Grace and Peace,
Clyde