I hereby declare The Summer of No Beer — no beer until I lose at least 10 pounds or Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest arrives, whichever comes first.
Since I graduated from college — actually since about 30 years ago — I gained almost 80 pounds. A couple of years ago I managed to drop down to about plus-40, but I gained 20 or so back.
A couple of months ago I started tracking my meals and weight on an app, but after some minor initial success the effort stalled.
Among other changes I switched to a well-known low-carb, low-calorie beer, but it didn’t help significantly. So when I ran out of beer Sunday night, I made a vow not to restock the fridge. I’ve been hovering around plus-60 for most of 2025, so I decided to forget the beer until I reach plus-50 or until this year’s batch of Oktoberfest hits the shelves, whichever comes first.
The crazy ultimate goal is plus-15. My knees hurt and I have some other medical issues, and I suspect the issues have much to do with the extra dead weight I have been asking my earthly vessel to carry around for a few decades, so I’d like to get down to plus-15 to see if that addresses the medical needs.
I’m making this declaration in a blog post so I have some accountability. I would like to be able to report progress when people ask, “How’s the Summer of No Beer going?”
I love Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest and Märzen beer in general. It usually appears for three months a year starting around Aug. 1. I chose the timing of this goal because it’s easily doable in six weeks if I take it seriously, and my knees are saying it’s long past time to be serious about this.
A long-term goal might be to eschew beer altogether except during the Märzen season. Treating beer as a seasonal treat like garden tomatoes might be my wisest course of action.
