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April 27, 2005
Yes, But Can I Still Drink Beer?
Or eat chocolate, or have the occasional hamburger at a summer cookout, or soft pretzel in New York, or hot dog at a baseball game?
Sure you can. But don't kid yourself about the calories.
One of my big challenges as I drop my calories lower and lower is the temptation to pretend that if I'm having a "night out," it's all the same so I can just eat anything. It's fine to eat less than perfect food some of the time, since it's really the average that counts. But don't pretend that your 1600 calorie dinner with drinks and dessert is a 700 calorie dinner.
If you drop your calories and maintain adequate nutrition, you're probably going to live longer. You'll certainly look and feel better, and you may find yourself laughing at macronutrient ratio jokes that were definitely not funny a year ago. But you're not going to have an easy time sticking to a lower calorie level if you're constantly throwing your body off by feeding it poison in the form of excess sugar, alcohol, carbs, and saturated fat. We all have different experiences... my CR is flexible enough to allow me to go out to dinner and eat like a normal, albeit small, person, yet I'm a faithful weigher of food at home. Other people find that if they don't maintain a consistent calorie level, they can't keep to their lower calorie targets.
I'm hitting the point where it's getting difficult... it's easy to maintain my calorie level and weight right at 105, which is where it's been since November. But when I try to drop below that, I get hungry! It takes more planning and more focus to go to lower calorie levels, yet I want to do that because I believe that greater longevity benefits will be the reward.
So I'm constantly experimenting, and deciding what I am and am not willing to give up. For instance: do I really need to drink a margarita, ever? No, I don't. Not even on the patio at my favorite Mexican place in spring with my friends and the fountains flowing and the salsa music playing while I eat salsa from a spoon instead of on a tortilla chip. Nope, not worth it. But give up wine? Never!
Desserts, I never liked much anyway. I mean, I enjoy a creme brulee from time to time, but I don't miss them when I don't have them. Beer with Aubrey de Grey however... that's a different story. I feel like my quality of life would be significantly diminished if I could not drink beer with Aubrey de Grey. We pick our battles.
So you can have anything you want... but you can't have everything you want and expect to reap the life and health extending benefits of CR.
Now about that beer...
Posted by april at April 27, 2005 1:33 PM