Could You Or Someone You Love Be An Alcoholic?

A lot of us grow up around people with alcohol or drug problems and fear that we, too, may have those issues. Hopefully we won't, but here are a few questions to ask yourself. I can't tell you whether the answers make you an alcoholic; only a doctor or therapist can do that. However, these questions can at least give you an idea of where to start the conversation.

-Do you drink in the morning? We've probably all made the joke about it being 'five o'clock somewhere', but it's usually when we're at a wedding or taking a celebratory drink. However. It's not normal to start the day off with a drink or be a regular for a Mexican restaurant's lunch margarita special. 

-Can you have 'just one? Some of my 'fancier' friends will have a glass of wine with dinner. My father-a very 'un-fancy' guy-will sometimes drink a glass of red for his heart. However, note the word 'a'. They stop after one. Alcoholics might try to, but they'll  often end up taking a few nips off of the bottle when no one's looking. Which leads me to my next point-

-Do you drink in secret? Do you remember what your parents would say when they caught you sneaking a Blow-Pop? 'If  you feel the need to hide something, it usually means you shouldn't be doing it.' The same principle applies here. We often hide things from others because we don't want to hear what they'll say about it. If you're scared to death that your husband will get mad if he sees you, there's a problem. 

-Do people tell you you drink too much? I'm not talking about your Mormon coworker or Baptist mother-in-law. Some people think *any* alcohol is too much. But do people who normally don't have an issue with people drinking tell you you drink too much, or that they're worried about your drinking? You might shrug such things off as someone 'being a stick in the mud' or being hyper-vigilant because of a bad experience they had. It's possible that these things could be true and that they're the one with the problem. However, that doesn't necessarily discount what that person says. You should at least think about it if more than one person says something or if the concern comes from someone close to you.

-Have you had problems at work or home because of drinking? Have you found yourself missing work or coming in late because of last night's bender? Do you wake up feeling as though someone is going at your head with a jackhammer? Has your performance slipped? Have you missed important things in your family's life because the hangover was so bad you couldn't get out of bed?

-Do you lose entire blocks of time from your memory? I'm talking about total 'blackouts', where you honestly can't remember anything you did while you were drunk. This normally happens when someone gets so wasted that it damages their memory and/or consciousness, which is why you'll hear stories about things like a woman being taken advantage of or someone doing a table dance and not remember it the next morning. It's one thing to do that once when you're in college, but to do have it happen on a regular or semi-regular basis is a problem.

I've baby-sat enough drunk people to know that it is not something anyone should have to do on a regular basis. If you think you or someone you love may have a drinking problem, please seek help. You're worth it.

Is What You Drink Ruining Your Nutrition?

Have you found yourself stuck in a weight loss plateau with very little options? Getting frustrated with the work you have put into your weight loss goals thus far with little or no results? It happens to everyone, usually at the very start of any weight loss plan you lose a few pounds, feel fantastic about what you have already achieved and then it hits you. You are stuck with the weight you are at and having trouble getting that scale to go down any further. One simple way to begin to break that cycle is to look at what you are drinking.

Believe it or not what you are drinking on a daily basis can be one of the culprits freezing your scale. Many do not realize the huge amount of calories they are allotting themselves each day through beverages. Does this mean you must drink water everyday for the rest of your life to stay fit and trim? Absolutely not, it simply equates to monitoring it much closer.

For example, many people have a drink schedule that looks something like this: they awake to a fresh cup of coffee, they then continue to another when they arrive at work or perhaps even get one of those frothy coffee drinks at a nearby shop. Next, they have a soda with their lunch, with maybe even another to follow suit during the rest of their workday. When they arrive home at dinner time, they have yet another soda or iced tea with their meal. Certainly they will become hungry once more before they settle in for bed for the evening and this could be another soda, glass of wine or maybe even a beer. Once you begin to look at all of those from a distance and add up those calories, the results can be shocking.

One soda for instance is over 100 calories, some are even over the 200 mark per serving. If you get yours from a fast food place you can instantly double that calorie total as the sodas they pass out are larger in size than what one would receive by drinking it in a can from home. Those calories add up all day long and some even result in drinking over one thousand calories per day which is unnecessary for a healthy diet. If you find that you are one of these people, start by cutting back on the drinks that are high in calories and substitute them for water as much as possible. Your body needs water to function properly and if you do not care for the taste of it, then invest in one of the fruit flavored varieties or place a slice of lemon in your water. For soda lovers, replace yours with a diet version immediately. At least those do not contain calories or they contain very few and that will greatly decrease the amount of content you are taking in each day. Track your progress with your new drinking plan and in a just a few days you will notice the difference when you lose additional weight and get out of your weight loss plateau.