Life is Healthy

The beer belly guy decided he was going to lose his beer belly. He started a blog about his progress at the beginning of this year. He's been at it for a few weeks. He is a tall guy, 6'2" and weighs 280 pounds. He wants to weigh 225 and have a toned belly to boot.

He says he's developed the beer belly over the last five years by sitting too long in front of the computer, drinking too many beers and eating fatty foods. He used to be in uber shape before that. But he's got a very successful internet business now, he works from home, sets his own hours and has developed a lifestyle which encourages beer drinking.

He typically wakes up at 10:00am and by the time he's had his coffee and cigs, it is past 11:00am. Then he sits down to work at his computer until about 3:00pm. After that it's the bustle of two little kids and dinner to make. Then he gets back on the computer in the evening, with his favorite beer in hand and works on the computer till almost 2:00am.

Initially he vowed to give up beer for a full month. But now his goal is to maintain some regular beer drinking but still lose the belly. He's got less of a challenge in this regard then some people who've let their beer bellies get quite a bit further out of control. Hop on over to his beer belly blog and give him some encouragement.

Do you need more incentive to get out there and exercise today? Here's three beer belly pictures via Flickr.

There are many more great photos by people who don't allow republishing, so check them out at Most Interesting Beer Belly photos.

The photos here are by Malingering,Malias and LovingShiva

For people who are addicted to alcohol and need more than the moderate one drink per day, this can certainly lead to weight gain and make it almost impossible to achieve dieting goals.

If the typical beer or glass of wine is about 150 calories and a person develops a habit of drinking three drinks per day this can theoretically result in gaining 47 pounds each year!

So if you suspect your reason for gaining excess weight is due to an alcohol dependence, what can you do?

Some interesting research findings have been released recently about the kinds of foods you should eat if you want to reduce cravings for alcohol. Nutrition can be a key for beating the bottle.

There is often a close link between depression and alcohol consumption. Many depressed people drink to self-medicate against their depression. And studies have found that omega 3 is helpful for beating depression. Foods high in omega 3 include oily fish (sardines, salmon), flaxseed and walnuts. Folate is also very helpful. Foods high in folate (such as legumes) are recommended for depressed people. Legumes have an incredibly high nutritional value. They also contain more fiber per cup than almost any other kind of food.

Regular exercise has proven to be effective in treating depression.

So if you are trying to lose weight in addition to cutting your alcohol dependency, a little reading on nutritional recommendations may be very helpful.