On Moderation
Moderation is tough. A truer White Whine™ has never been uttered. Moderation gets me every time. When I was young, my struggles with moderation affected my bank account. Now that I’m older, it’s wreaking havoc on my health.
No, don’t worry about me. I am not announcing major health problems or anything. However, if I don’t change some habits, my health will become an issue in the next ten or so years. I weigh 45 more pounds than I did as a senior in high school. Granted, I was pretty skinny, but that’s a lot of weight. I wouldn’t mind losing half of that. 20-25 pounds over my high school weight wouldn’t be so bad.
So, I’ve been on this diet of sorts. No breads, flour, sugar, fruit, etc. At every meal I have beans, meat, and vegetables. I’m supposed to drink a ton of water as well. And, of course, I’ve had to cut way back on beer.
My wife keeps telling me that the diet leaves room for one day a week of decadence, but I can’t only have beer once a week. Instead, what I’ve done is cut back to like one or two during the week and a couple two nights every weekend. So, a little moderation will have to do. It’s worked, in fact, to the tune of eight pounds lost in two weeks. (Plus, I’ve been running fairly consistently.)
The key has been moderation. The key for maintaining whatever weight I finally level off at will also be primarily due to moderation.
Moderation is a tough thing to maintain. It’s easy to over-indulge, especially with things like beer and music. However, if you want to enjoy such indulgences for a long time, you have to take it easy.
With beer, I’ve got to get back to the quality over quantity factor. Of course, my large quantities also featured a decent amount of quality, but that’s not any better for my health. So, the focus has been on enjoying one beer at a time, letting it marinade a bit, and being satisfied with just the one.
With music, it’s just a matter of picking my spots. I can’t go to every show, but I can go to the ones I really want to see or the ones that don’t interfere with family time. I’ve seen a lot of shows over the years and I don’t need to see every one that passes through town. My LP purchases haven’t really slowed down. Although, I haven’t bought an album in a couple of weeks as nothing has really been released lately that piques my interest.
More moderation means enjoying what you have and not always longing for the next big thing. I’ve talked a lot with other beer nerds who hate the constant arms race that is beer purchasing these days. It seems every major release means there will be an inevitable race to the stores. Of course, it doesn’t help that some like to clear the shelves to feed their greed, but I’ll live. There will be other beers. There will be other shows and more records. Moderation is probably the way to go to insure that I still enjoy my hobbies.
Beer and Pavement 
Great Read. You are 100% correct about quality over quantity. Some nights I only have one beer, but it’s usually a good beer because I want to enjoy the taste. Kudos to droppin the lbs, you are doing it the right way, but follow your wifes lead and allow yourself the one day of debauchery or total deconstruction. It makes it worth it.
Yeah, I ate a reuben sandwich (my fav) on Friday and the following beers: Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel, He’Brew Genesis 15:15, Avery Collaboration Not Litigation Ale, and Nectar Humboldt Brown Hemp Ale. So, I think I actually do well with the debauchery bit. The difference is that I don’t want to eat/drink that way all day long. She thinks I should go to town for every meal in order to trick my metabolism.
I have been thinking about moderation a lot lately myself. Geeks (myself included) can’t seem to do anything in moderation. When we get into something, we get into it, obsessively. And we manage to justify it to ourselves and our peers. Hopslam only comes around once a year, so one six pack won’t do! And Radiohead only tours every so often, so I must go see them, yet again. Logically, I know I should use that $60 (or whatever the tickets will end up being) to go towards paying my car loan off. But there’s not any immediate reward, any payoff from that, like popping open the newly acquired beer or the live show experience. I also have cut down on beer–weekends only now, except for tastings or CBE events. I guess I still have myself to convince that this saving will mean I’ll get to enjoy something else in the future without having to fret over money or health. I have to wonder if the weekend debaucheries (food, beer, etc.) cancel out the sacrifices of the week before? Do we just come out even at the end?
I guess that’s the definition of a geek. We don’t do moderation. Honestly, on the nights I decide to drink, moderation is especially tough.