<p>What happen to the exercise part of this thread?</p>
<p>The exercise part is probably walk to the nearest Costco and get your wine and cheese. I did drive to Costco and got wine and cheese and salami to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. I picked up Stag’s Leap Cab which is the wine that won against the French wine in a competition years ago. It was so popular that when I visited the vineyard years ago, the wine was sold out. I was surprised to see that Costco near me carries some very expensive Stag’s Leap wines recently.</p>
<p>I have started loosing again and besides getting my thyroid back in line, we walk everyday and especially after dinner. We have a non-pc way of reminding ourselves to keep to the weekend for wine. It’s Morman Monday, Teetotaler Tuesday, No Whine Wednesday; Still Thirsty Thursday and then Finally Friday. Seems silly but a way for us to remind each other with humor. The trick is not to have a weeks worth of wine on the weekend 
Since the kids are gone we had started having wine with dinners and soon it was an open bottle was an empty bottle. Weight was starting to add up. Needed the change. The combination is working, 10 lbs in the last 3 months. </p>
<p>Today, I chose 3.7 miles and a glass of red with a plate of broccoli and short rib braised with quince and wine.</p>
<p>"However, I have definitely struggled with my weight plenty because I love chocolate!</p>
<p>I think I’ve pretty much tried all the major diets - - WW, Atkins, paleo, etc.</p>
<p>I do like exercising, thank goodness, so that’s probably why I’m not huge. Did I mention I really love chocolate? Oh, and ice cream?"</p>
<p>@amaryland mom, there is a very easy way to stop the sweets cravings. I was always a chocolate/dessert/pastry person. Never a dessert I didn’t like, though I was pretty thin because of exercise. But that sure gets harder. However, my doctor prescribed me chromium supplements and alpha lipoic acid supplements. I don’t take the chromium anymore, because I don’t have the hard core cravings. But if I miss my alpha lipoic acid supplements, I start looking around for sweets again. It balances out your carbs. It’s not that you wouldn’t enjoy some if you had it, but you won’t run to the store for it, or eat the whole box. The chromium made even fruit seem too sweet for me. I would be in serious trouble if I stopped those supplements.</p>
<p>“I’m eating an egg white omeletie my husband just made. Don’t think I’ve ever had an egg white omeletie before - it’s good. Healthy too, right? (Won’t mention the reason for the egg whites is I used the yolks making a key lime pie)”</p>
<p>Okay, @swimscatsmom, that one gave me my belly laugh of the day!</p>
<p>“I was surprised to see that Costco near me carries some very expensive Stag’s Leap wines recently.”</p>
<p>How about Opus One at our Costco? I tried it at the winery… meh… not my glass of wine.</p>
<p>The exercise part of this thread for me: Walk several miles a day, weights twice a week, frequent bike rides and kayaking trips. In winter, I reluctantly break out the Nordictrak. When I’m totally consistent with those, and very careful with what I eat, I don’t gain weight. To lose, I have to get to probably about 1200 calories a day, and more exercise. That’s hard to keep up. :(</p>
<p>The NYT just posted a harder version of the seven minute work out: <a href=“The Advanced 7-Minute Workout - The New York Times”>The Advanced 7-Minute Workout - The New York Times;
<p>Here’s a nice set of four ab exercises: <a href=“4-Exercise Stability Ball Ab Workout - YouTube”>4-Exercise Stability Ball Ab Workout - YouTube;
<p>The problem with wine (for me ) is that it makes me so darn loopy quite quickly and sleepy. Then, in the mornings, it does have an effect on my face…looks so tired. For some reason, I can drink 3 or 4 bourbons (depends on the glass size and strength), not feel that loopy and don’t look too bad in the mornings. So, what’s up with that? I love drinking wine dining out!</p>
<p>To the OP: if you quit drinking wine during the week and replace it with water or herbal tea, you will cut roughly 120 calories per weekday out if your diet and save $2-5 (depending on how much you paid for that bottle and what kind of water or tea you bought). Add that up - 52 weeks times 5 times 120 - that’s more than 30,000 calories or roughly 9 pounds. Monetary savings are not insignificant either! </p>
<p>Perceptions of normal.</p>
<p>When I was a kid growing up there was rarely alcohol in the house, and if there was, it was one bottle of sweet wine for a holiday or what was left in that bottle afterward sitting in the fridge with no one paying attention to it for weeks or more afterward, lol. Eventually it would be discarded. I can not remember a single incidence of there being hard liquor in the house. General lack of interest in alcohol. To me that is normal. </p>
<p>Neither set of my grandparents drank, except occasionally at Christmas, my maternal grandmother would " permit" grandfather to have some apricot brandy in his eggnog.
( when I got married, I gave him a bottle for Christmas)
My parents served beer at their NYE card game, and occasionally my mother ( who was an amazing cook when inspired) would make Coq Au Vin or Beef Burgundy.</p>
<p>H was raised with both sides of extended and nuclear family that drank alcohol to point of having problems with it. Which I wasn’t really aware of, because we didn’t see them. I didn’t realize fully that he was an alcoholic, because many of the young men I knew drank regularly ( early 20’s)
He quit drinking about 20 years ago, and doesn’t have a problem with me having a glass of wine or beer when we go out or at home.</p>
<p>I learned about wine as an adult, ( Boones Farm doesn’t count) 
mostly at Ds school functions where wine was not only a part of the auctions,( have to get rid of the Chihuly somehow), but part of the back to school parent/ teacher nights when she was in middle/high school.</p>
<p>I think white wine has sulfites which some people might be allergic to?
( also Asian people may have a aldehyde dehydrogenase deficiency, causing a flush reaction)
When I was having hot flashes, just a couple sips of wine would bring it on, whereas hard liquor didn’t seem to.
Red wine also has histamines.
<a href=“Allergic Reaction: Symptoms, Treatment, Prevention & More”>Allergic Reaction: Symptoms, Treatment, Prevention & More;
<p>Patterns are really set when we are kids re: diet & exercise.
I never really liked sweets, ( compared to other children), probably because as the firstborn, my parents were very strict about it, but when the other two came along, they said " what the hell", and they both have more struggle with good eating habits.
Same with exercise, I loved to walk, and since I didn’t have even a bike or a car, that was how I got around, but both siblings had access to cars in high school and didn’t like taking the time to walk. </p>
<p>Of course we can change our patterning, but it takes concentrated effort.</p>
<p>Honestly, I can do without sweets. And the longer you stay away from them the less you want them. If we are out and H orders dessert, I am fine with one small bite. Just a taste goes a long way for me. But my one or two glasses of wine on a week-end evening? I won’t give that up - I look forward to it. Choosing a bottle of wine adds dimension to the evening and the meal. </p>
<p>OP here, thanks for all your comments! I have enjoyed it.</p>
<p>I love red wine. But I also love to be a comfortable weight. Too bad a glass of wine has so many calories. </p>
<p>I try to not drink wine during the week and only on weekends. But…my H drinks wine every night and he, of course, needs a drinkiing partner, or my D2 is visiting and both she and H are having a glass, so I must join them or we just got a new shipment (we belong to a wine club) and H is opening an interesting sounding bottle. Haha! But I do mainly keep it to weekends.</p>
<p>I also work out five days a week for 45-55 minutes. I do not eat sweets, red meats (except about 4 or 5 times a year), or full fat dairy (only skim or low fat). </p>
<p>I have also been gaining weight lately and it really makes me mad. What the heck do I gave to do? Eat lettuce and a carrot and no wine daily and increase my exercise to two hours?</p>
<p>I am able to maintain a pretty good weight by going to the gym 3 times a week, and eating “everything in moderation.” I typically ride stationary bike and do a series of weight machines in the gym. I also ride my bike when it’s warm, and walk fairly often, including up and down many flights of stairs multiple times a day at work. For many years I could eat and drink whatever, whenever, with no impact. Age and gravity are not my friends.</p>
<p>“I have also been gaining weight lately and it really makes me mad. What the heck do I gave to do? Eat lettuce and a carrot and no wine daily and increase my exercise to two hours?”</p>
<p>Bio-identical hormones help A LOT.</p>