My Hat’s Off to the Men who Instituted the Beer Ban! Because… I once was a 99-Kg Weakling… Do you now feel as I? Or, are you back on the Beer?

[JohnBarleycorn]

Have you greatly reduced your beer consumption, as have I?

I am grateful to the local government for encouraging me to reduce alcoholic-related diversions. And as a result, I now tip the scales far less than I did just weeks ago. Yes, my fellow Chiang Mai brethren, and other farang of Thailand, I now possess 10-kilograms less subcutaneous fat than I had this past April. I no longer jiggle so much when I walk, and I go up and down flights of stairs with the greatest of ease.

No doubt, my triglycerides are also not what they used to be, poor things.

Yet, I happen to know that some of you out there are now downing beer, and loving it, just as you did before the Great April Beer Kibosh.  How do I know?  Well, because it now sounds to me just the same as it always did, about 4:30 AM, when the trash collectors normally come to collect the trash. The sound of those beer bottles being manhandled in the still hours of the morning is unmistakable.  Yes, we did enjoy a brief period of time when we could sit outside just before dawn and revel in this stillness, and listen to the birds sing, too.

But now, the sounds of empty beer bottles clinking have returned. Why they don’t sell beer in less-noisy bottles, I am sure that I do not know.  Coke comes packaged in plastic bottles.  And so why not beer?

Each morning, listening to the beer-bottle clinking, I wonder if the recent Thailand-wide beer ban has had any long-term effect on farangs’ beer consumption, or Thai people’s beer drinking for that matter.  How many good farang have said to themselves, “Why the heck am I swilling this beer, day after day, both increasing my girth and reducing my productivity, and causing me long periods of general malaise in the mornings?”

Before the ban, I did buy 10 bottles of LEO beer, and kept it in my room. But then I thought, “What is the point of drinking it when, at the moment at least, you can’t have another, and another, and another?”

So just the thought of this kind of insanity caused me to lose the pleasure of beer drinking, most abruptly. And I stored my beer in the bottom of a cardboard shipping carton for safe keeping. It’s still there, in fact.

And, I continue to wonder how many of my fellows have likewise lost the lust for our beloved golden-yellow brew with its tiny bubbles drifting up from the bottom of the stein and foaming at the top so beautifully?

Sure, I still love to look at a beautiful jar of suds, because it truly is a thing of beauty, almost as beautiful as a brew of Chinese green tea.  But I am not about to put the 10 kilograms of yellow fat back on, so fast. I don’t want to again become a 99-kilogram weakling.

I am sure there are others who are going my way. I bet there are many but you just don’t hear about it

I also bet that, by next month, I will be another 10 kilograms lighter without all that beer in my gut.

If I lose enough weight, maybe I can get a job as a male model for senior apparel ads, or maybe I will be hired as model for Viagra, for example.  Of course, you can be sure that, however much I earn from future modeling gigs, I will not be tempted to spend one baht on steins of beer; beer, such a beautiful liquid fit for the gods, and especially for men. as well as women of course.

 

Edited May 21, 2020 by JohnBarleycorn

[Salerno]

TLDR ... and that's just the title 

[JohnBarleycorn]

26 minutes ago, Salerno said:

TLDR ... and that's just the title 

TL;DR....and yet, Gone with the Wind was cherished by many.

[ChipButty]

You definitely need a beer you've got to much time on your hands

[northsouthdevide]

The way you're going, soon, you'll be able to cut your own toe nails ????

[Don Mega]

Trying the shed the kg's put on during the Songkran week off.... way way too much beer consumed.

[Oldie]

I liked my beers but I didn't stock up despite I knew that the ban will come. Wasn't easy at the beginning but since then I never touched alcohol again. I lost 3 kilo and my blood pressure is back to normal without pills - about 120. Before I had 180+ and this with pills. I am aware that not everyone liked the ban. But I am really grateful that the government forced me into this experience.

[bermondburi]

The thing with drinking beer, or any alcohol for that matter is that it can become habitual. I will regularly go a month or longer without drinking because I know it is good for me. 

 

Can get into a good exercise regime, make an effort to eat better. That all seems to go out the window if I'm drinking. 

 

It's good to give your body a break once in a while, whether it's one day, one week, or whatever. 

[JohnBarleycorn]

19 hours ago, ChipButty said:

You definitely need a beer you've got to much time on your hands

Exactly!

You are so correct!

If I drank beer, then I would be far less productive.

My productivity would sink so low that everybody here would be able to rest easy.

But then....

Would you not miss me?

[JohnBarleycorn]

17 hours ago, northsouthdevide said:

The way you're going, soon, you'll be able to cut your own toe nails ????

I wouldn't go THAT far....

[JohnBarleycorn]

14 hours ago, Oldie said:

I liked my beers but I didn't stock up despite I knew that the ban will come. Wasn't easy at the beginning but since then I never touched alcohol again. I lost 3 kilo and my blood pressure is back to normal without pills - about 120. Before I had 180+ and this with pills. I am aware that not everyone liked the ban. But I am really grateful that the government forced me into this experience.

I am really very happy to hear this.

In my case, as I mentioned...I had beer in my abode but decided not to drink it.

Not really THAT difficult.

Basically, it's just a habit that is usually fairly easy to break.

Like you, I feel better losing weight than I do drinking beer.

Blood pressure down, too, as you say.

I am grateful, too.

I knew that I couldn't be the only one, and I was right.