Lifting my head carefully from the pillow, I feel like I’m going to vomit.
The room is swimming before my eyes and I feel so bad that I can barely reach out for the glass of water next to my bed.
I would love to pretend it was the flu or something else worthy of sympathy.
But my condition is self-inflicted, right down to the two bottles of wine I happily drank in the sun the day before.
The only thing I knew would make me feel better was food — specifically junk food — so I started eating the kind of menu that would make a sumo wrestler proud.
It started with two mozzarella and tomato croissants at 6:30am, thanks to Deliveroo, and ended with a Pot Noodle at 10pm.
In between, there were fruit gummies, pies, and chocolate.
O next During the day, still feeling the effects of the wine, I ate even more junk food, starting with a bacon sandwich for breakfast, a cheese and salami baguette for lunch, and fish and chips for dinner.
I calculated that I must have eaten more than 7,000 calories over the two days – a huge increase from my norm of around 1,200 per day.
The drink’s attack on my body resulted in almost a week of feeling unwell.
Emotionally, I hated what it did to me. I was exhausted and even my bones hurt. Oh, and I gained 5 pounds.
Some of them weighed water and fell within a week, but the other three remained, and this soon increases.
Maybe I felt so bad because I don’t drink regularly. 99% of the time, I am extremely healthy.
I walk 10,000 steps a day, swim for half an hour every morning and only eat between 12pm and 8pm. My drink of choice is sparkling water with lemon juice, or a green juice made from spinach, kale, ginger and lemon that I force myself to drink, even though I think it’s disgusting.
So I find comfort in knowing that I’m not the only one who occasionally falls.
British women top the list of the world’s biggest drinkers. A report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development indicated that 26 percent of us consume at least six drinks in one sitting every month.
The latest available figures show that binge drinking among middle-aged women increased by 57 percent between 2016 and 2019. I can’t help but worry about the toll this will take on our bodies. Unlike our generation, young people seem to have woken up to the dangers of drinking.
No harmful effects as a student
Alcohol charity Drinkaware surveyed more than 5,200 young adults aged 18 to 24 across the UK and found that an increasing number of them are giving up drinking, rising from 14 per cent in 2017 to 21 per cent in 2023.
I’ve always had a tendency to binge eating, which is classified as drinking more than three liters of medium-strength beer or five small glasses of wine at once.
As a student, I didn’t feel any negative effects. I cleaned up after drinking beer all night.
In her 20s, ladette culture exploded, with celebrities like Zoe Ball and Denise van Outen proving that women could party just as much as men.
At that time I worked as a journalist and if I joined The office with a Diet Coke and a bacon sarnie, my colleagues knew what I had done the night before.
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This would be followed by chips, chocolate and more sandwiches until I got home.
But my metabolism was fast back then and I rarely grew past a size eight.
I also had a lot of time periods where I didn’t touch a drop of drink.
When I was pregnant with my children – now 17 and 14 – I was teetotal.
And in their early years, I rarely drank – I couldn’t face a hangover with two excited boys needing my attention.
I started eating my way
menu that would make a sumo wrestler proud.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017 and stopped drinking completely during treatment.
Most recently, I gave up drinking as I prepared for a hysterectomy in February — and for weeks afterward, to give myself the best chance of healing.
Even though I was plunged into menopause, I felt better than ever.
My clothes hung loose on me, my skin glowed, and I felt in balance.
Despite this, I’ve been out a few times since then, telling my husband Brian, 52, who works in marketing, that he’s on duty.
With my friends, the drinks will flow. At our age, we face teenagers, aging parents, menopause, work worries and friends getting sick.
FALLING OFF THE WAGON
So it’s good to let it all out and laugh. But the next morning, I really suffer.
Daily swimming goes out the window and Deliveroo comes in the door.
My friends laugh at how much I can eat and demand WhatsApp lists of what I make fun of.
But I hate falling off the wagon. I feel sluggish, my clothes are tight, and my face is swollen.
At my age, weight increases alarmingly quickly and decreases painfully slowly. And I’m very aware of the health implications.
Technically, I’m not lying when I tell my doctor that I rarely drink. But who am I kidding?
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A bottle of wine contains ten units, so by drinking two a night, I’m well above the recommended 14 per week.
And the attack on my liver is worse when it’s such a concentrated amount.
I want to be one of those people who has a glass of wine with their meal and then goes home.
But that’s just not how I operate.
Even though it’s rare for me to have an outburst, I know it’s not good for me — and my scale agrees.
So, I think the binges will become more and more distant – until they finally stop completely.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
