Shoutout and congratulations

I'm a bit late in this but I really wanted to congratulate Bobby from Bobby's Body on his total transformation from in his words 'from an almost functioning alcoholic' to getting his life, body and health under control.





The work that he put into controlling his drinking, and turning his un-healthy body into something that anyone would be proud of.

It's a pretty amazing achievement to go from what is a grossly unhealthy lifestyle to a long term healthy lifestyle! Although Bobby said he was not going to start another blog he loves us all and did relent and start Bobby's Vanquish!

Thinking about his transformation I must say I feel a tinge of jealousy with the total lack of progress I seem to make, or the cyclical up and down of both my healthy eating habits and workout regime.

This time last year I was at the gym six days a week and I was really pushing my body hard and seeing the results. This year things have seemed to have gone haywire in this respect. But in my defense I can say that I have been going to the gym, but the lack of gym focus is inversely proportional to my workload. Work is busier than it has ever been we are getting far more clients in and out of the door and the financials are healthier.

An interesting related conversation happened in the office yesterday, one of my clients an attractive 40 year old married father of two was in my office for a workshop. Somehow the concept of substance abuse and alcohol came up and we started chatting about our alcohol taking and whether this made us or our respective friends / partners alcoholics.

Both of us drink every night as do our partners, we will call the client Smiles because he has a hot smile. Smiles said his friends know that if they come to their place for dinner etc they will be handed a glass of wine on entry and will most likely end up having to leave their cars and get a taxi home.

It kind of sounds like us, except most people are not stupid enough to drive to our place for dinner, they either live near by or catch a taxi for obvious reasons.

Because we drink every night we both wondered whether this was in fact alcohol abuse, the thought of not drinking every night (at least one drink) is a scary thought for me. I use a drink as the end of my work day, and don't generally have that first glass till either 8pm or when I have finally finished everything I can get done that day.

I know lots of people who will start drinking at 6ish and continue working on till 1am, I personally can't do that or I would probably a) write gibberish, b) tell my clients to fuck off, or c) all of the above.

So is this what represents a problem with alcohol? Every now and then we go outwe will have more than enough drinks to get drunk, not falling over drunk, but drunk enough to get silly and do stuff that I would not normally do.

I always thought that an alcoholic would pretty much start drinking in the morning / lunchtime and would drink till passing out.

Or is an alcoholic someone who has no off switch once they do start regardless of what time they start?

I turned to my trusty Wikipedia for a definition and found:

Alcoholism is a term with multiple sometimes conflicting definitions, but
with no formal recognition of the divergence of meaning. In common and
historical usage, alcoholism typically refers to any condition that results in
the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages despite negative personal and
social consequences. Medical definitions describe alcoholism as a disease which may
result in a persistent difficulty in controlling alcohol consumption. Alcoholism
may also refer to a preoccupation with or compulsion toward the consumption of
alcohol and/or an impaired ability to recognize the negative effects of
excessive alcohol consumption. Although not all of these definitions specify
current and on-going use of alcohol as a qualifier, some do, as well as
remarking on the long-term effects of consistent, heavy alcohol use, including dependence and
symptoms of withdrawal.

While the ingestion of alcohol is, by definition, necessary to develop
alcoholism, the use of alcohol does not predict the development of alcoholism.
The quantity, frequency and regularity of alcohol consumption required to
develop alcoholism varies greatly from person to person. In addition, although
the biological mechanisms underpinning alcoholism are uncertain, some risk
factors, including social environment, emotional health and genetic
predisposition, have been identified.

Source

I think at the end of the day you have to decide for yourself whether you are an alcoholic and if you are you need to do something about it! For me, I know I use alcohol to 'self medicate' or relax into many social situations and at times I drink too much, but on the balance I do not believe I am an alcoholic.

Labels: health, shoutout, work, workout

7:30:00 AM