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Counting Drinks

A long time ago, I was talking to a health professional (the person wasn't a doctor or nurse, but had a heck of a lot more training than me. I don't remember what his official title was) about my diet. Like pretty much every person in that field does, he asked me if I drink at some point. Yes, I do. No, I don't drink that much. Well, what about sugary drinks? Yes, I have one of those every often. No, it's not very often.

For the most part, I actually try to eat healthily. Sure, I enjoy burritos, wings, and beer, but that is hardly my every-day diet. The same extends for any carb-heavy drinks, including both beer and soda. I will maybe have a couple of beers when I go out, and I almost never drink soda. The person sitting opposite from me was not convinced, however. He didn't quite call BS, but he had a facial expression that seemed to indicate otherwise. I think he thought I was lying to him.

Well, there's not much I could do about convincing him in the span of a few minutes. But, I could prove whether I was right or not in my assertion that I don't consume that many drinks (science!). So, I started counting. I just wanted to have some data so I could see whether I was fooling myself or not. This, however, has led to hijinks.

First of all, I only started by counting the alcohol. I figured that was the bulk of it, so I only tracked that. That number came out to about what I expected (somewhere between three and four per week). If an average week means going out to dinner twice a week, and having a drink or two at said dinner, that more or less accounts for it. Sure, some weeks involve less drinking and some weeks involve more drinking (I don't binge), but it all averages out to more or less what I expected. So far, so good.

At some point, though, I figured I should start counting the sugary drinks, too. That one surprised me a little bit. While I don't drink soda, I do tend to have not-water with my meals more often than I realized. Let's say I'm sitting down for lunch at a Thai restaurant. I'd have a Thai iced tea fairly regularly. Or a mango lassi at an Indian restaurant. I probably go out to eat two or three times a week, so that number was higher than I expected. All in all, my average jumped up to a shade under six when I started counting those drinks.

Well, this would not do. And since I was actively tracking the number, I could start doing something about it. If I knew I had already shot up to four early in the week, I would intentionally slow down for the rest of the week. Maybe I'd have water at lunch instead of a flavored beverage, or maybe I'd just eat something else altogether. It wasn't a huge sacrifice, and no one even noticed that I was making a change in my diet (that's probably for the better, I didn't want any more "uggh" sounds thrown my way). Sure enough, the number started to come down, and it's a lot closer to five than to six these days.

This, however, has led to all manner of mental anguish and internal debates. I don't count tea towards the drink count, so I also don't count unsweetened ice tea. They're the same basic thing, with the only difference being the temperature. I will, however, count lemonade. That's usually pretty sweet and it has sugar added in. Okay, so where does an Arnold Palmer (iced tea + lemonade) lie on the scale? Does it depend on how sweet it tastes? Or is it more like my failed vegetarian meal with a single dollop of oyster sauce? I actually like having Arnold Palmers at lunch time, so I have this discussion with myself quite often. I usually base it on the sweetness, but it's always a tricky proposition. (As an interesting aside, I can never seem to pronounce that properly. The "ah" sound in Palmer always seems to give me trouble. It's like a verbal version of words that I always type incorrectly)

Also, I'm fairly competitive. If I see a way I can challenge myself or improve on something, I'll try to do it. So, I want to bring that number down, without being a drag (to others or to myself) at social gatherings. Decisions, decisions. I actually remember thinking, "well, if I have a beer with dinner tonight, then I'll have to make sure I don't have a sugary drink at lunch tomorrow." It's like I put myself on Weight Watchers without realizing it. Great, now I feel self conscious about my weight.

All in all, this counting thing has been good for me, so I'm not really complaining. But still, be careful with that science stuff. Sometimes it leads to all sorts of interesting side effects.

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