Some interesting ideas, there, I'll toss in a couple of things that have occurred to me. The first thing to say is that Mrs h-c and I have never drunk during the week: having to get up at the crack of dawn just isn't any fun if you're feeling bleary and befuddled from the night before, particularly if you've got to go to work, so we've always restricted our drinking to the weekend. I have calculated that, in doing this, I probably average about 10 - 12 units per week. I can see the DN raising a sceptical eyebrow when I say this to her at my reviews, but I'm pretty sure it's an accurate estimate and in doing this we never got into the habit of pouring a drink every evening, which makes it much easier to be restrained.
I like a glass of scotch, accompanied by a bit of water (for a single malt) or diet dry ginger (for the cheap supermarket blend that I normally drink). I used to just slosh some into a glass, so had little or no idea of the amount of alcohol that was imbibing. I now keep a 25 ml shot glass to hand, which holds roughly a pub measure; about 1 unit of alcohol. At first I thought the drink that resulted was a bit insipid but I've got used to it now, and it probably goes to show how much alcohol I was drinking before I started measuring it.
Having said all that, I love both Scotch and red wine, so I can't see myself ever giving up alcohol completely. What I have had to do is to give up dessert wines - which I used to love - and fortified wines like port and sherry, because of the high sugar content. I was never a great beer drinker, but I will occasionally have a bottle of Mexican lager, particularly if we're having a BBQ in the summer, which I know is not good from a carb point of view, but sometimes you've got to indulge a bit, haven't you?
Also congrats on the low carb diet - so much better then a low fat. Finally, excellent to see a reference to a gerund!!!
