Reduce Your Alcohol Craving Pt 5 – Long Term Freedom
October 27th, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized — Addiction Recovery AuthorThis is the fifth and last article of the Reduce Your Alcohol Craving series.
One thing that I noticed when I first started taking mega doses of B Vitamins and calcium is that I calmed down. Later, I lost my taste for beer. While it made me unpopular in some circles, I suddenly had more energy and mental focus for other things like reading non-fiction and hiking. I am not saying that a few pills changed my life and made me more popular, intelligent or stronger. But, I did feel calmer and could think more clearly. I still had to work at improving my health and fitness and leave that mind-numbing job (as a Morse code operator). It was no free ride. This is why you have to pick up the momentum and keep working at improving your health.
Stage One: Stabilize Blood Sugar
Have you ever noticed how heavy drinkers (marijuana smokers and some drug users) crave sweets after a binge? Their bodies are trying to stabilize their own blood sugar. The alcohol and sugar (and tobacco) cause large fluctuations with blood sugar and a rollercoaster ride with the adrenalin glands. The users are constantly trying to recover from this low blood sugar. Therefore, get off of the sugar roller coaster and minimize the sugar. (See Annex A. So you don’t think that you eat much sugar?)
A typical drinker eating pattern can go like this:
Breakfast: Coffee, cigarettes, orange juice, toast.
Snack: Coffee, doughnuts.
Lunch: Coffee, fast food hamburger, fries, pop.
Snack: Pop, chocolate bar, chips.
Supper: Hamburgers, mashed or boiled potatoes, mixed vegetables, pie.
Snack: Chips, pop.
The above is just an example. Some heavy drinkers can afford high quality food with cocktails during their “power lunches.” Nutritionally, they fair better than the lower income drinker. At least, in their youth they do.
A more sugar-stable eating pattern goes like this:
Breakfast: Water, oatmeal, three egg whites
Snack: Peanut butter on whole grain crackers or chicken fingers
Lunch: Chicken or salmon salad
Snack: Protein shake
Dinner: Water, lean beef, stir-fried or steamed vegetables
Snack: Water, slice of turkey breast
Here is a simple solution, but people still complain that this way of eating is “Too bland,” “too much hassle” or “too expensive.” This translates to: I LIKE my cravings. That is the cravings holding on. As you eat better, your sense of taste will improve. Besides, just sit down with paper and pencil and do the math. This way of eating is far cheaper in the long run. What can be more important than your health??
Keep taking your supplements as best that you can. The nutrients will help you when you miss meals or eat low-value foods. Everyone back slides occasionally.
Stage Two: Avoid Allergic Foods and Substances
If you have not done so already, take the alcohol biotype test in chapter 1. If you are Addicted/Allergic Alcoholic, you have to minimize wheat, sugar and most yeast products from your diet. This was very difficult for me as I was brought up on white bread and had read several books claiming that wheat products were an important part of a balanced diet. (At the time of this writing, the Canada or American food guides insist on at least 12 daily servings of grain products such as bread.) After years of research and self-experimentation, I finally accepted that wheat products were not in my best interest. It was hard to give it up. Sandwiches, dinner rolls, bread sticks, toast, bagels, pizza crusts and English muffins were part of my food culture. Even part of my catholic upbringing insisted on eating “the staff of life” and one’s “daily bread.”
It is the gluten portion of wheat that causes allergic reactions and even Celiac disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome in many people. Gluten is also what gives wheat flour its stickiness and ability to rise and form breads and pastries. The most popular type of wheat, durum, is very high in gluten. Fortunately, there are types of low-gluten wheat such as kamut or spelt. There are also low-gluten grains to replace wheat such as: rye, rice and sprouted grains.
Stage Three: Clean out
By cleaning out your body, you make it stronger and more sensitive to the offending substance, like alcohol. I know that when I have worked long hours, ate lots of processed food and missed sleep, I could drink more beer than average. The more impurities in your body, the more difficult it is to remove substance cravings.
Cleaning out can be as simple as just eating low-sugar, low allergy foods than going “cold turkey” with vegetable and water fasts for a few days. Beware of extremes. They can be very uncomfortable. I once came off of a night of drinking hard alcohol and decided to clean out by just eating fruit for the day. It was brutal. For a day, it felt like a bad flu. I had the shakes, the running nose, sweats, shivers and overall weakness. Not a nice experience at all. Fortunately, I grabbed lots of sleep that day and felt better by the evening. This is why I am not a big fan of “cold turkey.” Taking supplements, eating good, exercise and saunas can you clean out gradually and less painfully. As the saying goes: Hard by the yard, cinch by the inch.
A martial arts friend of mine decided to “dry out” from a heavy drinking lifestyle. (Yes, even athletes, scholars and artists can be heavy drinkers.) He moved up to northern B.C. for a couple of months to work at a mill. He put himself on a diet of yogurt and fruit for several weeks and worked out daily. According to him, one day he just started throwing up some kind of black stuff. He felt fine afterwards and moved back south to the city.
An effective tool to use in cleaning out is exercise. Exercise is simple. Not always easy, but simple. Breathing deeply, moving and sweating removes toxins from the body, stabilizes blood sugar and helps take your mind off of your problems.
Exercise always seems to conjure up images of shame and pain. It does not have to be public embarrassment amongst a crowd of spandex-clad people or grunting with weights. The simplest method of exercise is to find something that you like to do and then stick with it. Even a simple 15 minute daily bike ride to the grocery store or video shop pays off big dividends. It is developing that habit that makes the difference.
Stage Four: Rebuild with Nutrition
To stay on track and get stronger, follow the supplement plans for making alcohol safer (Chapter 4) and the low-sugar eating plan (Chapter 6). This way, your body can repair the damage done by the alcohol.
If you do not have much money, at least take extra B vitamins and fish oils.
Alcoholics tend to be malnourished. (I recall my step-father’s former bachelor pad’s refrigerator onlycontaining roast beef leftovers and half a bottle of scotch.) Just visit skid-row and observe what the addicts and alcoholics eat: starchy, sugared junk. The stores in these areas (you know, the ones with the barred windows) will be selling mostly canned goods, doughnuts and candy bars.
Most of the city drop-in centers are not much better. During a university field trip to the Winnipeg Detox Center (often referred to as “the drunk tank”) I noticed that the cafeteria served almost exclusively doughnuts and coffee. I asked the administrators about a possible vitamin program. The response was that such a program was too difficult to monitor and too expensive. (Since when is a hard-boiled egg, an apple or bowl of rice more expensive than a cup of coffee or a doughnut?) It is amazing how many institutions, like schools, the military and health care, push coffee and starchy foods, but avoid higher nutrition foods. Some mental health institutions make it a policy to guarantee a resident’s (patient’s) right to have coffee and sweets several times per day. Better nutrition was considered “too expensive,” while coffee was absolutely essential.
Heavy drinkers often comment that they have no appetite or that they can go for long periods without eating. When they do eat, it is often starchy, low-nutrient foods. These junk foods cause a temporary high and then a drop in blood sugar. Fatigue sets in and the sufferer needs another quick energy boost, usually in the form of alcohol, cigarettes or high-sugar food.
Keep your body strong with regular meals of high protein foods, multiple B vitamins and minerals. Minimize the junk food, especially anything made with white flour and white sugar. You can do this without becoming a “health nut,” or “fitness freak.” When your body feels better, so does your mind.
Good luck.
Doug Setter holds a Bachelor’s of Foods and Nutrition. He has served as a paratrooper and U.N. Peacekeeper, has completed 5 full marathons and climbed Mt. Rainier. He consults clients in weight-loss, muscle-gain, stomach-flattening, kick-boxing and personal protection. He is the author of Stomach Flattening, Reduce Your Alcohol Craving and One Less Victim. Visit his website: http://www.2ndwindbodyscience.com
