Consuming Alcohol after VSG

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20358306
I don't know if anyone else has posted about this article before, but I found it very enlightening and wanted any input that you might have.

I have always loved red wine.  I was a very social red wine drinker before my VSG and was concerned about my ability to go out with friends after not only giving up the eating part of my socialization, but perhaps my wine drinking as well.  Wine tasting was a monthly event that we did!

My surgeon cleared me for alcohol early on, in small amounts.  I had 1 oz of red wine probably a several months after surgery.  I had no taste or desire for it.  However, after I hit goal, I was enjoying a 1/2 glass with my meals on the weekends.

I did notice how differently alcohol affected me after surgery.  I can get a quick buzz after a glass.  If I  consumed a second glass, I'd be inebriated!  I could honestly say that my memory would be affected during that period, and that really freaked me out, to the point that I've considered not drinking any more. Perhaps, because of the small amount of alcohol  consumed, the buzz passes just as quickly.

Hubby thinks I'm overreacting.  He feels that it's just my lower body weight, and that I'm not used to how drinking affects me at this weight.  Well, it's been over 4 years!  You would think I would catch on.  I mean, I'm no lush.  I don't drink during the week, and I'm not polishing off a bottle when I do.  But my body reacts like I have!  Well, this article helped me see that I'm not nuts.

Has anyone else have this happen?  I have been in maintenance a long time , probably longer than many here, but I'm always willing to learn.  So whether you are a newbie, or an old timer,  chime in!

I've posted on this subject twice over the last 2 days of the daily maintenance thread.  I like to have a glass of wine and i find myself turning down social occasions because I will drink.  I hate this and i have to find some balance with it.  I don't want to give up the enjoyments of life and strangely enough the food thing is so easy for me.  I almost never go off plan and if i do it is planned. So yeah back to wine.

I get buzzed easier but it doesn't sustain, so if i have 2 glasses of wine over dinner (yes i eat with food, one of the enjoyments, strangely enough it doesn't allow me to eat more or more frequently) it's about the same as before except for that immediate hit, which goes away pretty quickly.  I had the capacity to drink a lot before surgery and i don't think that's gone. 

I'm 14 months out.  I had decided that i was going to drink at 6 months.  however i had not met my goal (still have not working on that last 10lbs) so i drank Christmas day, St. Patricks day, My birthday, like that.  then i gave it up because i was having hangovers, something I'd never had before.

Then i spent the summer in Europe and well people just get offended if you don't drink, so i had wine almost every day and after the first week the the hangovers went away.  It also didn't impact my weight at all.

The thing is I want wine in my life.  I do not want to go to a Michelin rated restaurant and not have a glass.  Social functions the same.  Now i never open a bottle at home, i think that's a cultural thing. But  pre surggery i used to host monthly wine tastings and i've stopped that. Let me tell you, i'm plenty resentful of that and i want to find a way to incorporate them again but it seems like a far away dream.

I think the biggest thing is that i feel like the food thing is my life now and i like it.  Not drinking i don't want to be my life and the only reason I'm not doing it is that i do not know how to incorporate it yet.

That is the road I'm trying to sort out right now.  Well maybe not right now but when these 10lbs are gone i have to get to a life i enjoy living.

So i guess I'm looking for guidance, tips or just a way not to feel deprived or isolated.

Oh and i want to ask, do you drink quickly?  Because except for that initial buzz which lasts maybe 20 minutes i don't feel like there is any change in how the alcohol affects me.

While in Europe I did go out on a yacht and drank probably a bottle over 6-8 hours as did the other guests.  We were all about at the same level, except i felt less buzzed than them. It just goes away really quickly but the enjoyment is the same. I may though drink slower than before surgery.  Probably because for the most part doing it with food, but also i think I'm more careful because i don't drink as often and I'm always want to be prepared, in case of surprises.

I understand you completely.  I have found that eating is a curious thing for me.  Every time that we go out socially, I always share with my husband.  My friends know that I am now a "taster", so they all offer for  me to sample their meals.  When it comes to ordering though, it's always the same thing- hubby wants me to choose for a change yet I can't really say if I would prefer one thing versus the other. I just don't really care what we are eating.  Once the food does come out, I do enjoy eating the food, but I'm just not fixated on having one thing versus the other.

Every now and then I will get a pang for the old days, where I could eat a plateful of something that tasted really delicious, but my sleeve won't allow it.  It doesn't happen often but that is a small price to pay for the life I lead now.

Wine is a very social part of my life.  We go over to friends homes, and have a glass.  We go out to dinner and have a glass.  We enjoy wine, as do our friends.

As to your question, I do drink much slower, and I'm sure it's because of my VSG.  Once the buzz hits, I usually stop drinking.  It does pass quickly.  But if I continue to drink, I WILL suffer the effects more than my friends do.  I don't really drink anything fast anymore.  At the gym, if I drink water too fast while spinning, I will feel nauseous.  So I've become used to sipping on most liquids. 

As for guidance I can offer, I believe that any time you disallow anything from your life, you will feel deprived.  Forbidden Fruit.  You never knew you wanted anything so badly until someone said you couldn't have it!  So I have found my life to be a practice in moderation.  For example, I rarely have things like a Snickers bar, but I have had one or two since my surgery.  I prefer to have a glass of wine, so I will on the weekends.  I try to stick to plan during the week, but allow myself to slack off on the weekends.  I do, however, track my foods even on the weekends, warts and all!  And I weigh every day, come hell or high water.  I know my weight fluctuates daily, but it's that continuous upward trend that I want to avoid.  It's easy to do so by keeping my eye on it.

I won't disallow it because it's connected to so much that i enjoy in and of my life. 

It hasn't been a huge problem but every time I turn down a social situation i feel like i did back in the bad old days of dieting.

I think for this reason incorporating it back in for maintenance will be interesting.

Years ago when i would be dieting i would not go out to dinner until i got a handle on the diet and i would realize that part of the reason i went off a diet because even then the lack of food wasn't what would derail me it would be the curtailment of my social life.  So I'm cognizant of it and i figure for the next 10 Last 10, slow 10, lbs) I have an opportunity to figure out how to sort this one out.

It's definitely interesting to me that you're still grappling with it six years later.   But I'm thinking even if i couldn't drink as much, the idea that i could still drink would be a good thing.  Maybe not.  I don't really know how i would handle it if my experience was like yours.

I'm glad you posted this here. It's given me food for thought.

I think drinking post WLS is a slippery slope, because of the transfer addiction aspect. It is a real problem with Gastric Bypass folks and I have read more postings from VSG folks that alcohol can be problematic. I didn't drink any alcohol until I was 15 months out and I found that it burned my stomach on occasion and lowered my inhibitions, and I ate more than I wanted to. I had some alcohol on Thanksgiving, Christmas, a retirement party, and at one dinner, while on vacation. It is something that I don't want to have in my life frequently, because the weight gain issue and risk of a transfer addiction.

I just decided that it wasn't worth the risks for me.


gail

Yeah i don't think i was addicted to food and like i said and the original poster was saying it's more than a glass of wine, it's a lifestyle. I guess addiction is addiction and the thinking is, if you are prone to one then you may be to another. It seems like sound thinking but sometimes it's not an issue or at least the issue. Maybe I'm addicted to socializing, what i do know is that it is the one thing i am not prepared to give up. I know there are people who do it and alcohol is not involved. For me it enhances the whole experience. I also know that i don't feel deprived of food but i would absolutely feel deprived if the parts of my life that work have to be cut off because of VSG. It's counter-intuitive to me and that i think it's dangerous.

 Hi, I am such a cheap drunk. I'll have 1/4 glass of white wine and that's it for me.
I enjoy have a vodka seven, but takes all night to drink. I didn't have alcohol until I was two years out.

Linda

 I would think that if you are this far out, nothing will change this problem for you unfortunately....and I'd imagine you have already tried spacing out your glasses of wine further to avoid feeling inebriated, sipping very slowly and also making sure you've eaten some dense protein prior to drinking. Just like before surgery, an empty stomach leads to getting drunk pretty quickly, whereas a steak keeps me full and the alcohol doesn't have as much effect.

I know for me my tolerance to alcohol didn't change much (I can still drink 4-6 mixed drinks in an evening)....the only real change is that the buzz does disappear quickly, so I would have to drink more drinks to maintain a buzz than I did prior to surgery...and if you are out, that becomes an expensive problem to have....

As far as the weight loss issue goes, it didn't hurt me and I dran****asionally from early out...sometimes it was a few weekends in a row, then I'd go a couple months without drinking..it's never been an issue for me, addiction wise or adding too many calories to stop weight loss or gain anything back. But I also make sure I'm active during the day and evening of drinks...I never drink except for socially and it is fun to go have a few drinks sometimes, it is not something I would banish from my social life...

 Just read the research article...interesting how it says the alcohol actually lasts longer in our system when many on here including myself feel like the effects wear off faster than pre-surgery...

 I have found over time that my reaction to alcohol has gotten very close to what it was pre-op. Which means I get drunk on very little but I can at least drink a Cosmo now when before I'd be smashed on 1/4 of one.