Please note: My advice in this article is for women who bike that do NOT have a drinking problem. If you know or suspect that you are an alcoholic this advice does not pertain to you. This advice is for women who bike and want to lose weight and drink occasionally ONLY. For help and advice for alcohol treatment please consult the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse here.
Have you ever noticed that drinking and biking seem to really…I dunno…go together for some people?
Grabbing a drink with friends after a group bike ride, for example, is something that a lot of people who ride bikes do.
Additionally, when you think of it, there are so many biking events that include beer! In fact, one of my favorite bike events that I do every single year starts and ends at a brewery.
And, last year half of the Wednesday night group rides I led were out of, you guessed it, a brewery.
When we are thinking about losing weight riding bikes it is natural to wonder if drinking alcohol has a negative impact on weight loss. We might wonder if it’s OK to enjoy that “after-bike-ride-beer”, or if it is somehow setting us back.
I know that when I first decided to lose weight biking I did not want to even begin to think about reducing or eliminating alcohol. I happened to LIKE my red wine and margaritas, thank you very much.
Now that I am a few years out from losing my weight biking for the last time, some of my thoughts about drinking alcohol have changed, and others have remained the same.
If you are wondering if you can drink alcohol and lose weight biking, read on for my insightful tips on how you should (and should not) incorporate drinking into your biking weight loss plan.
Tip #1: Plan Drinks Just Like You Plan Your Meals and DON’T Cut Back on Food If You’re Drinking
The idea is to be just as intentional about what you drink as you are about what you eat. When I coach students in my program I always tell them not to forget to plan their alcohol.
This way you decide in advance from a place of what’s best for you and your body. If you leave it up to the version of you that is out to dinner for the first time with your significant other in MONTHS to make the choice…well…let’s just say her choices might be a little bit different from the version of you that is focused on your goals.
So, for example, if you are in the habit of just drinking through a night out without paying much attention to how many drinks you have, decide BEFORE you go out (ideally that morning before you have had the demands of the day) what you are going to drink and how much.
A lot of the time if I am going out to dinner I will have a cocktail with my appetizer and a glass of wine with my meal. I will make that choice before I even get to the restaurant so that when I do get there all I have to do is follow through with my plan.
Additionally, you might be tempted to cut back on how much you are eating because you are “spending your calories drinking.” Do not do this. I am never a huge fan of counting calories to begin with because it makes you feel like you have to be restrictive, but I feel like this is especially problematic when you are drinking.
We need nutrients to ride our bikes and perform our normal daily activities, so make sure that you aren’t replacing your food with alcohol when you are trying to lose weight.
Tip #2: Pay Attention to How Your Body Feels After You Drink
Now I am guessing many of you remember that first time that you drank too much and how craptastic you felt after.
Maybe you even promised yourself you would never drink again because you felt so BAD.
Now I will fully admit that I didn’t start drinking until I was much older, so I never had that classic moment that so many experience. I do know, however, how my body tends to feel the morning after I have had even just a glass of wine. Generally it’s not a great feeling.
I find that I am less alert and sometimes have twinges of a headache. I rarely feel absolutely terrible, but generally I feel worse than I do if I don’t drink.
It helps to remind myself of this when I am deciding if I want to drink in the first place, or if I am going to have another drink.
There were times where those thoughts were not really going to stop me from drinking. Now, though, because I am so much more health conscious than I was, I actually do think twice. I don’t want to feel like crap in the morning. I want to feel energized and ready for my day.
This doesn’t mean that I don’t drink anymore, it just means that I am doing it with the awareness that the next day I am going to feel less great than I do if I don’t drink at all.
Tip #3: Be Very Mindful of the Impact of Drinking on Your Sleep Patterns
Speaking of that next day, alcohol disrupts sleep. Big time.
I have a Garmin Venu 3S fitness watch that I love, and one of the reasons I love it is because it tracks my sleep.
I have never, not once, since getting this watch had a glass of wine or a cocktail at night and had as good a nights sleep as I do when I don’t.
Like it’s TEXTBOOK, my friends.
I talk a LOT about how sleep is the secret weapon to weight loss. It is SO beneficial for our body to get the rest and recovery that it needs so that we can lose weight.
If you are in the habit of drinking on occasion it’s probably not a huge deal, but if you have a glass of something every night you might be seriously impacting your sleep without even realizing it.
Tip #4: Be Aware That You Might Not Make the Best Food Decisions When You’re Drinking
Let’s be honest, that “eff it” attitude that we sometimes get after a hard day that causes us to dive headfirst into the pantry?
Well, imagine how much more likely you are to say “eff it” in regards to food when you’re drinking. It’s no secret that alcohol lowers inhibitions, and yes, that includes our decisions regarding what we eat.
Additionally, according to Performance Nutritionist Will Girling in this article from Bike Radar, “Alcohol increases your ghrelin [a ‘hunger hormone’ that stimulates your appetite], which is going to affect your satiety, so you’re going to feel more hungry.”
According to the article he goes on to say that alcohol can also make it harder for our bodies to burn fat and slow re-hydration…basically all sorts of not-so-great metabolic goings on that are going to hinder us reaching our weight loss goals.
Tip #5: Be Weary of a Very Restrictive Mindset When It Comes to Drinking
Now, after what you have read today, you might be tempted to think that you are going to just decide to quit drinking right now.
This is actually an awesome choice IF it’s what you really want. But, if it’s not, and you still want to continue to enjoy alcohol, my suggestion is to focus on cutting back first.
You see, over time, you will likely drink less and less as your mindset becomes more and more healthy.
For me, this was a very natural progression. When I first started losing weight biking the idea of cutting out wine and cocktails altogether wasn’t something that I would even consider.
Today, I find that I drink less and less often. I find myself getting excited when there is a mocktail menu with dinner and will often order one drink only, or none at all.
At night at home instead of opening a bottle of wine these days my husband enjoys a bottle of Saratoga sparkling water, and I love to pop open a Polar seltzer or a can of Spindrift for a special treat.
This process has taken about 3-4 years and it is what works for me. If you want to have success with reducing your alcohol consumption and you do not feel like you have an alcohol problem, then I think it makes a lot of sense to do it gradually.
Just like food, if you are too restrictive right out the gate and drinking is something you really enjoy, you might find yourself saying “eff it” and drinking more.
A Final Note
You can absolutely lose weight biking AND enjoy drinks.
Just like everything else with biking weight loss, drinking in moderation is a process that is best taken in small chunks.
Sometimes the feeling of relaxing with a glass of wine with dinner is occasionally worth the crap sleep and feeling a little under the weather the next day.
What you will likely find, however, is that the less you drink, the more you realize that you don’t actually need the alcohol to relax.
That it is a lot more about how you approach the idea of special events and what really makes them special, and what really helps you relax.
You will probably find yourself passing over the after bike ride beer and getting a seltzer instead. At least this is how it started for me!
As you practice being intentional about what you are going to drink, when, and how much, as well as how it makes you feel, you are likely going to start gradually making better choices in regards to alcohol.
You know, the choices that bring you closer to your biking weight loss goals.
Ride on!
xoxo
Stacy
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