The First Sign of Change?

While I've only been following the BLE program for two weeks, I actually gave up alcohol, and to a certain extent sugar, in the beginning of January.  I began following the no sugar rule in earnest after I started read the BLE book.  "Dry January" was something that I had been hearing about from friends and reading about online for the last few years.  I decided to join the trend myself because I wanted to see if it made a difference in how I felt and if I could lose weight by abstaining from alcohol alone.  Let me stop there and say that I don't think I have an alcohol problem, but my husband and I do enjoy drinking wine, and for us it had begun creeping beyond a weekend indulgence and into a regular weeknight habit.  Not every night, but several nights for sure.

Abstaining from alcohol has not been that hard, so far.  My husband pledged to give up the weeknight  (M-Th) wine, so that has not been an issue at all.  We've been out in social settings several times in the last few weeks where everyone else was drinking wine, beer or liquor, but I was not really tempted and everyone seemed to understand what I was doing and no one tried to persuade me to "have just one drink, it won't hurt."  And, bonus for my husband, he has a designated driver and we're saving tons of money by not using Uber or Lyft.

What I have noticed so far is a very subtle change in my appearance.  I have not had any significant weight loss, only 6 lbs, but my face looks less puffy and my body feels less inflamed.  I think, based on what I have read and researched, that this reduction in puffiness and inflammation is directly related to abstaining from alcohol. I've also noticed that my back is not quite as achy in the morning as it had been for most of last year.  It still hurts all day, every day, but some of the intensity, and importantly the radiating pain, is diminished.  Again, I think that might be due to a reduction in inflammation. Now that I've upped the ante by eliminating flour and between meal snacking, maybe I will see some more significant weight loss and even more improvement in my chronic back pain.

How about you?  What do you notice as the first sign of change when you're watching your diet?