The 50lb challenge

You know all those blokes you see at beer festivals who seem to drink buckets all day, hardly eat a thing, yet still look ten stone wet-through and would blow away in a mild breeze?

I'm not one of them.

I remember being a svelte teenage, all gymnasting and badmintoning and cross-country-running-ing. A gallon of cider at the weekend, burn it off through the week. I remember student days of Guinness and chips, slowly worn away by the eight-mile round trip to lectures.

Now I'm the wrong side of forty. Drinking some of the best beers in the world. Every night. Having been stuck behind a desk all day. And so it's all gone south.

It's at times like this that I remember the advice given by Dean Wormer to Kent Dorfman:

"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son".

Nothing much I can do about the last two. But the belly's gotta go.

So - here's the challenge. I'm going to shed fifty pounds. For every pound avoirdupois I lose, a pound Sterling goes into a pint pot. When there are fifty nuggets in there, they get given to the Stroke Association.

And I'd like you to help me. I'm going to need some exercise. So... brewers, need a brew-bitch for the day? Publicans, want someone up and down the cellar steps fetching mixers? I'm all yours. All I ask is a generous pledge towards the donation pot.

You can mail me at the address here, leave your details below or Tweet me @simonhjohnson.

I'm not going to stop drinking beer, of course. But from now on, less is more.

13 comments:

  1. Good idea. I would like to lose 50 pounds. Probably could lose near double that if I was ever to be a really skinny kid again - but that's not likely. I have added exercise and backed off beer myself. Not sure any real weight has been removed but I feel a lot better. Good luck!

    Alan
    A Good Beer Blog

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  2. Care to share with us how much you weigh at present?

    Some of those who drink like fishes and yet are whippet-thin may be diabetics. And the really heavy-drinking types, those who'll be drinking 9 pints on Friday night and 12 or more on Saturday and Sunday, often scarcely eat at all.

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  3. We need to sort out a date for a hike somewhere, either in the peaks, lakes or up here!!

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  4. Alan - cheers. I'm feeling better already :-)

    Anonymous - Care to share with us your name?

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  5. I'll join you. I used to only drink at weekends. OK, when I did it was for 13 hours on a Friday and Saturday and about 8 hours on Sunday. Now it's spread over the week and this is a bad thing.

    I used to cycle a lot and if I went to a pub I would make the effort to cycle a few miles there and back. I've recently started to do this again including cycling 15 miles to a pub a few times.

    If you've got a bike and fancy a trip to a pub sometime I'm your man.

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  6. I'll join you. I used to only drink at weekends. OK, when I did it was for 13 hours on a Friday and Saturday and about 8 hours on Sunday. Now it's spread over the week and this is a bad thing.

    I used to cycle a lot and if I went to a pub I would make the effort to cycle a few miles there and back. I've recently started to do this again including cycling 15 miles to a pub a few times.

    If you've got a bike and fancy a trip to a pub sometime I'm your man.

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  7. @BeerReviewsAndy - I think we need to get some Axe Edge and take it up, er, Axe Edge Moor.

    @Alcofrolic - Funnily enough, the bike is coming out the shed this weekend. I'm planning a run down to Burton from Derby in the near future...

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  8. I couldn't help noticing the ironic link between this post and your previous post.

    I hate to point out the obvious, but might that apparent fondness for cow sandwiches be just as responsible as the office job, the beer and the ripe old age?

    (I can just about get away with wisecracks like that at a mere 38 years young.)

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  9. Hearty - yes, there's a correlation between platefuls of dead, burned animal and my over-bearing expansion. Giving up bacon on a semi-regular basis is actually a damn site harder than giving up beer.

    I'm already looking forward to my next bacon sarnie and a burger in about three months time...

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  10. Just have to say a HUGE thank-you to all those who've sent me good wishes via the social interwebs and those who've offered sponsorship too.

    Tonight will be my first Friday night without a beer since... the nineties perhaps? Gulp...

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  11. come on down! my missus is fed up of shovelling our mash tun anyway ;-)

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  12. Good luck, I'm sure you'll lose it in no time.

    BeerBirraBier.

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  13. It's hard work so I wish you good luck. I've lost 47 lbs so far although I still drink beer, just less of it these days.

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