What's one non-nutritious thing you won't live without?

Ever since I gained a ton of weight where i got to more than 110kg back in my late 30's I have been a lot more sensible about what I consume. I also started to do a lot more cardio, even if it is just zone-2 cardio, than I ever did when I was mostly only weight-lifting in my 20's and 30's. I've managed to get back down to 85kg and I am pretty steady there.

I have noticed that just slight variations in my diet and exercise routine can result in me gaining a kg or 2 in just a week, which doesn't seem possible and mostly it is just bloating and water-weight but still, the scale doesn't know how to lie.

I've cut out all processed sugars and I try to limit my carbs to "the good carbs" 6 days out of 7. But there is one thing that I really refuse to eliminate from my life and diet and I have no intention of ever doing so, and that is beer.

I am well aware of the dangers of beer as it is nutrition-less and is the very definition of empty calories. Alcohol is meant to be bad for you as far as fluid retention and a myriad of other bad things in your body as well. For me though, my friends are pub-types and they can be counted on to be there every day and well, I like to be part of that. I am willing to do whatever else is necessary in order to maintain that part of my life but I also understand that balance is necessary. I found out in my 30's that there is no way to out-exercise a daily intake of a LOT of beers, but if you just do it in moderation, everything is probably ok.

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There's a lot of articles out there that try to showcase the health benefits of beer and since they are always going to be subjected to a great deal of scrutiny I believe that they are telling the truth. The difference is these "studies" are probably funded by the beer industry and when they say that beer is good for you, they don't mean 8 per day.

When I go to meet my friends at the pub and it is a normal day without special occasion, I tend to have 2-3 pints, which is likely more than you are supposed to have according to these studies. I don't care though. I often say that a big part of the reason why I exercise is so that I can maintain reasonably good health while still enjoying the things that I enjoy in life. I enjoy having a chat with my pals while the booze kind of makes us a bit more animated than we might normally be.

Maybe some out there can, but I can't enjoy myself as well in a pub style or party environment while drinking a diet Coke.

Each of my pints have around 200 calories in them and feature a wide array of "nada" as far as other nutritional value is concerned. So I make a deal with myself that if I am going to meet up with these guys and there is no actual reason for being there like a party or a birthday or something, I will need to burn at least 2/3 of the calories that I am going to consume with some sort of cardio.

The rest of my diet is pretty solid but not by really denying myself anything. I tend to enjoy home-cooked meals with whole foods so I'm not sacrificing anything here. We all know that fast food and value-meals are terrible for you and even when I was at my worst I was conscious of this. But beer is here to stay in my life and I am not going to let it go.

When I meet someone that is fat and doesn't drink very much I'm always kind of in awe about how that can happen but this is just because I have never had a sweet tooth in my adult life and that is where most of the super calorie-dense foods are. I can have a dessert never and that is just fine by me.

I would have to come down with some sort of liver failure to stop drinking beer and I feel that this is just fine. I call myself "normie-fitness" for a reason. I don't think that the changes we make in our lives to achieve health need to be so strict. I realize that I am never going to have an Instagrammable body with this diet but let's be real here, that was never going to happen anyway.

What is the one unhealthy thing in your life that you refuse to go without?