215.4 ... Whining About Wine

Recently our wine tasting group met. I didn't go. I wanted to go because I enjoy the folks that gather at these events. And, not only is the wine good, the food that is provided by the participants is wonderful. Why didn't I go? I have learned that drinking wine isn't just about the wine. It is about what happens to all of my good intentions when I combine wine with food. Suddenly, I don't care how much I eat.

I didn't always like wine. In fact, I didn't like wine for many years and rarely drank it or any alcohol. About 20 years ago, that all changed. We left Boston for a year to live in California. In Massachusetts, you couldn't buy wine (or any alcohol) in grocery stores. You had to go to what were called package stores. California was way ahead of Massachusetts on this score. Grocery shopping became a totally different experience. I would go to the store and select whatever I was going to cook for dinner and then I would head to the wine section the chose the wine of the night. I am not sure why I suddenly developed a taste for wine, but I did. By the time our year was over, I had put on about 15 pounds. I don't think I thought too much about why I had done that. In my unique and amazing brain, which I have referred to in a previous blog, I probably attributed it to too much sunshine, or some equally preposterous cause. By the time we moved back to Boston, I was hooked.

Then about eight or nine years ago, I developed a lot of leg pain from back issues and guess what? Wine was my medication of choice. I couldn't take a lot of painkillers due to other health problems, so as it approached 5 PM every evening, I knew my fix was at hand. I did have some control. I rarely had more than two hefty glasses each night. Three was my limit. But do the math! A hefty (do you like that word used here?) glass of wine can contain up to 150+ calories, and I was drinking more than one! No wonder my weight went up.

So, when I decided to seriously undertake this weight loss program, I knew I had to let go of the wine. It wasn't easy at first. I was like a smoker giving up cigarettes. You want to talk about irritable, grouchy, and my husband has a few more adjectives to use to describe my behavior, I was that and more. But I did it, and after about 2-3 weeks, I was no longer obsessed every night about NOT DRINKING WINE. In fact, now I rarely think about it. Oh, occasionally, I will whine about not drinking wine, but I think it was a necessary change to make.