A California father said he was drinking as many as 12 beers per night as well as a glass of wine with his wife.
Kobzoff said he eventually dropped several pants sizes and lost 53 pounds by stopping drinking.
It said that he didn’t have a rock bottom moment that propelled him to stop drinking.
“It sort of built up over time. Alcoholism runs in my family, so I started drinking when I was 15. It was normal to go drinking every weekend, which eventually turned into every day,” he told the news outlet.
Kobzoff didn’t really consider himself an alcoholic. But now he does.
“I do admit it now, but it feels weird to say it. I just know that I can’t drink. I would be scared that if I did, I'd go back into the same cycle,” he said.
“I just didn’t like who I became. I didn’t like what it did to my body. I had actually tried quitting two years ago—the day after I went to a wedding, drank everything in sight, and threw up for 24 hours. But I only quit for a month. I gave myself that finish line of 30 days, and just went back to drinking even more. I‘d get up to a 12-pack a night, and then my wife would come home and I’d have a glass or two of wine with her. I just felt so crappy every morning on my drive to work.”
After drinking, Kobzoff said he would eat candy and gorge himself on sweets.
“I went to town on sweets, for sure. My body was missing all that sugar. I just went through bags of candy. Starburst, jelly beans, and anything sour. I also went to soda, which was a big calorie replacement for the beers. That lasted for about a month,” he added.
Kobzoff also described a sense of elation that came from not drinking.
“I would be in a store, standing in line when all of a sudden this overwhelming feeling of being so happy would come over me. I physically felt happy to the point where I'd almost cry. I never felt anything like that before,” he noted.
After running, he started lifting weights. “I never used to be able to do sit-ups. But eventually I started deadlifting, squatting, and bench pressing, and before long, I had a six-pack. So I tried to see if I could do some sit-ups, and all of a sudden I could bang out 60. It’s pretty cool to do as many as I want,” he said.
But he also stressed that it wasn’t about losing weight.
He added: “They’re very young. Work is easier, I’m more confident. I can stay up later and get up earlier without wanting to die. I don’t plan on what and when I should eat just so I can drink more without getting a hangover. I don’t wake up choking on regurgitated red wine in the middle of the night in my nose. No more heartburn. I always drive, my wife doesn’t have to drive me home whenever we go out. My hair doesn’t fall out. I can do pullups, sometimes I have abs, I can outrun my dog if he gets out. I don’t have white tongue or a bar tan. I don’t stink like a sweet and sour bar mat.”
