As many of you know, I’ve been off the hooch for years now. I hated the way alcohol made me feel and I was tired of hangovers and empty calories. In the first months of the pandemic, I did think about alcohol, and there were even a few days where I considered getting some of those takeout cocktails restaurants were offering. But I stopped myself and it’s been months since I seriously considered drinking. I’m proud of myself, but I also acknowledge that this was a hard pandemic, and many people fell off the wagon. Liquor sales skyrocketed for a reason – a lot of people were drinking and some people were drinking more than they used to. Gwyneth Paltrow was one of those people. To my knowledge, she’s never been on the wagon, and she’s always enjoyed a glass of wine or a cocktail (she even does Instagram ads for alcohol). But during the pandemic, Goop was drinking every damn day.
Gwyneth Paltrow has revealed she ended up indulging in booze and even carbs during the last year, as she quarantined with her family. The actress-turned-entrepreneur dubbed her drink of choice a ‘Buster Paltrow,’ which she named after her grandfather and contains “great quinoa whiskey”.
Gwyneth told The Mirror: “I was drinking seven nights a week and making pasta and eating bread. I went totally off the rails. I mean, who drinks multiple drinks seven nights a week? Like that’s not healthy. I love whiskey and I make this fantastic drink called the Buster Paltrow, which I named after my grandfather who loved whiskey sours. It’s this great quinoa whiskey from this distillery in Tennessee with maple syrup and lemon juice. It’s just heaven. I would have two of those every night of quarantine.”
Gwyneth insisted she was “not, like, black-out” drunk, but she admitted she still craves a cigarette when drinking. “I miss it,” she added.
I think two strong whiskey sours every night for a year is probably enough to make her question whether she has a problem. But would someone get blackout drunk from two whiskey sours? It depends on their tolerance, the strength of the “quinoa whiskey,” and how big those “drinks” were. Like, was she filling up a Big Gulp cup? Anyway, as I said, people were drinking a lot during the pandemic and it’s okay to give yourself a break about it, but it’s also okay to acknowledge that you or someone else might have a problem. In Gwyneth’s case, it sounds like she caught Covid, recovered slowly, and then spent eight months in a whiskey-and-pasta downward spiral. How gauche.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red, WENN and Instagram.
Pretty much everything about her annoys me but yet I still click on the story LOL.
Same.
Goop is my favorite hate read on this site, guilty.
SAME. Love to hate her. And the 90s nostalgia is AMAZING because she was my everything in that era.
So now everyone is googling quinoa whiskey with lemon at a Tennessee distillery.
I have to admit, aside from my favorite drink, frozen margarita with premium white tequila, I kinda love Irish coffee with all the bells and whistles with a really good whiskey. It’s unfortunate I don’t partake because of my husband, I don’t keep anything in the house.
I swear I looked up for a second, thinking: she HAS to have something Goopy in order to ‘fess up” to drinking. And there it was, in print, “quinoa whiskey.” Hunh. Massive eye roll.
Yup. Money is being made as we speak.
Yeah even her whiskey sounds high maintenance,whatever.
I don’t drink alcohol, but I can totally sympathize with the carbo loading. Not only soothing, but easy to keep in the pantry. I’ve been pretty much living on pasta and bread and cheese for the past year.
We always knew she was basic with a little quinoa and gluten-free, egg-free, mindfulness enriched pasta. So exhausting..
“Mindfulness enriched pasta” made me spit out my coffee – you owe me a keyboard, Chic!
My drinking definitely increased during quarantine, mainly bc in the beginning we thought it would only be two weeks or a month and it was kind of like “eff it” and then it just became a habit (a bad habit.) I took the month of January completely off as part of the Whole 30 and it really helped to reset my thinking and to take a step back from it. Also drinking is $$.
But I will never apologize for my love of carbs, especially pasta, lol.
I have been trying to get started on a Whole 30 and keep failing. It isn’t the alcohol even, it is just so hard after this past year. I have done it before and felt so great, but did it with friends and it made things so much easier. I know elimination diets are not ideal, but it really helped to jump start my mindfulness. My downfall is bread. I just love it!
As a European, and Italian, I find the “avoid carbs” weird, to say the least. And uless you have a health condition I find the Goop eating carbs hilarious.
I’m the same Eleonor! Just have the carbs and the wine if you want it (unless it causes issues obviously!). Lets face it this pandemic has been hard on all of us so maybe it’s time to just ease up a bit and eat the pasta and cake if you want to.
Yeah!!!
I’m also a European and so very, very, very lucky to live in beautiful Canada.
The one thing I do not understand is the fear of carbs in North America.
I’m the Queen of Carbs every day regardless, if there is pandemic or if there is no pandemic.
Bread, buns, bagels, baguettes, potatoes, rice and pasta are a food groups in our house, same as when I was growing up in Europe.
I never have a problem with my weight ever, although I do only eat vegan all the time.
I do buy great, freshly baked bread/buns/baguettes and bagels from a lovely, family owned medium sized bakery, luckily they never closed their doors during the pandemic.
I never drink alcohol, because I do not care for it and never did.
If all alcohol would disappear from the face of the earth tomorrow, I truly doubt that I would even notice.
Same with smoking never tried it, never will.
I rather spend my money on good quality ingredients and develop vegan recipes in my kitchen, I’m a huge, huge foodie and love creating tasty and healthy meals.
My vice is very dark organic chocolate, at least 80%, I don’t have a sweet tooth, but rich dark chocolate is a must for me and I had plenty during covid.
I drank less during the pandemic than ever (i enjoyed my cocktails, margaritas, or a few/several glasses of wine with friends over hours of time). My stress went down in many ways, as I wasn’t organizing social activities, sports, etc and I started to going to bed earlier, so a drink just wasn’t on my radar. I noticed how much clearer my thinking is, especially without wine. Now, I’m strictly weekends, and tequila neat, rocks, or mixed with sparkling water if I want a drink. I feel SOO much better making that change and while I occasionally miss the social aspects and the beauty of wine, I do NOT miss how it affected me the next day.
I also have cut way down on pasta, which was my absolute fave comfort food. I miss that way worse than wine 😂
Unfortunately I can relate. Drank way too much and gave into all my comfort food cravings. I made a lot of lasagna.
Trying to shed those extra alcohol, bread, cheese and pasta pounds put on during quarantine. It’s hard to reset but doctors orders.
My father-in-law has a couple of rum and Cokes every night, and pretty much had for years, with the only change being that he switched from Diet Coke to regular this past year because “eff it, I’m almost 70 with a battered leg from a car accident in my twenties, why the hell shouldn’t I drink regular Coke?!” and he definitely doesn’t have a problem. It’s just his unwind. And two drinks will use up a single can of Coke.
I worry more about all the “Mommy Needs Her Wine” drinkers out there than I do the ones who have a couple of whiskey drinks a night. Wine drinkers seem to drain a bottle and not get a sideways glance.
All that said, leave it to Gwen to even drink insufferable-sounding whiskey. I’m amazed her recipe doesn’t include moonlight vagina bitters or something…
I switched from wine to vodka tonic or similar drinks, which allows me to control the amount of alcohol in the drink. I basically just make them really weak, and it has made a big difference in how I feel the next day. I can have two and feel nothing. I didn’t realize how foggy wine made me, it really is different. And yeah, the whole “It’s Wine O’Clock Somewhere” and “Rose All Day” culture has taken hold in a certain demographic and it’s a little out of control.
My husband is German and alcohol has always been a staple in their household. Like to the point where his mother insisted that black beer would help my milk let down when I was breastfeeding. They also insist that a shot of bitter whiskey will cure a stomach ache and a shot of gin will cure a cold. His dad has beer with dinner and vodka or gin after dinner, every single day. He will start drinking in the afternoon on the weekends. I’ve even seen him have a shot of vodka with breakfast on vacation. I’m pretty sure he is a low key functioning alcoholic. He’s 90 now and in amazing health both mentally and physically so I’m not going to judge his drinking habits. But I am very thankful my husband didn’t pick up his father’s love of alcohol.
Well, my grandparents were pretty hostile to drinking alcohol, but they also swore that bitters would help an upset stomach, so there may be something to the bitter whisky for a stomach ache remedy.
(It must depend on the type of bitters.)
Agree with all of this. Daily drinking does not indicate a “problem”. It is very very common in most cultures. Alcoholics have a problem, a disease. But lots of people who have drinks every day are not alcoholics.
She’s so cool and relatable y’all! She also preaches about wearing sunscreen and clearly does not.
Yeah, I think this is BS… She’s too much a control freak for me to believe this
Yeah I found myself drinking a lot more neat scotches.
Trying to cut back, lol.
I did have to cut out the huge bowls of cacio e Pepe I would make at midnight. It’s like my tummy deflated as a result. 😂
Can you imagine trying to get sober during the past year? Sure, there are zoom meetings, but damn, I think it must be extra challenging to quit drinking while isolated. I salute all those who did it.
I did this. My intake increased to almost every day during the first 6 months of the pandemic. Then I quit completely in October and haven’t had a drink since. I also quit weed, but that’s a whole other story. In a strange way, without the pressure of social drinking (though I certainly drank at home after work alone too) it helped.
all of this, yes. drank and still drinking too much, and all the carbs. i’ve gained so much weight and feel mentally and physically shitty. time for some changes i guess 🙁 sigh.
I’ve gained so much weight too. My drinking skyrocketed and I was never much of a drinker. Losing my dream job and dealing with a mother with health problems has put me in a spiral of self destructive behavior. I’m visiting friends next month since we’re all vaccinated and am so anxious about them seeing my weight gain, I’m thinking of canceling.
Please don’t cancel! Maybe seeing friends will help. Getting back to normal a little bit might be just the thing you need.
Sorry to hear about you difficulties @SP.
Gaining weight during times of stress is not a moral failing— it’s Nature’s way of storing all available energy supplies in the expectation that you might be face starvation conditions soon. In relatively stable modern conditions we might face ongoing stress but never cycle into deprivation, so Nature’s “helpful” survival strategy becomes its own source of stress.
From that perspective, would these friends be supportive about what has been happening in your life? Could they have been going through similar things with similar responses? Unless they are friends in name only, focused on superficial things, do go.
First of all, thanks for the support. I’m visiting my long term bff and her family. We’re going to the beach (her in-laws have a house there, so not a resort type of thing). They’re all athletic and fit. They love me I know, but I suffer from body dysmorphia and an eating disorder along with depression and anxiety. I doubt I’ll cancel bc the flight is non refundable. It’s just causing me a lot of stress. It will work out. Thank you again ❤
@SP I also spent most of my life w/ BD and ED and only became one of the fit types w/ a habit of exercising every day over the last decade. The topics I previously obsessed about (and assumed everyone else did) just went away. All to my surprise.
You should definitely go, and try to be kind with yourself. Being athletic and fit means they have learned other habits for channeling their stress and they will be secure enough to embrace you as you are, though be prepared for possible concern about your health and well-being. With your own mother being ill and you in the caregiver role, having an extended group concerned about you is not a bad thing.
I am right there with you Dina!
EVEN CARBS!!!! *clutches pearls*
She’s really so “in touch” with us little people.
Well, that quinoa whiskey from Tennessee is $65.98 a bottle. And we know that she wasn’t scarfing down cheap white bread and dry boxed pasta from the regular grocery store. Oh, this woman.
When I started the online search for the whiskey I didn’t even have to type in much. The Google machine knew and it filled in the rest for me. That’s how much it’s being searched right now!
She is annoying. I knew that bottle would be ridiculously priced
Drinking and exercising increased dramatically in Stacyland
It’s not about “would it make her drunk”, the problem is that after a while, you can’t be without the two drinks every day.
I had a pizza and red wine spiral (I’m Italian, so it was good thin pizza and excellent wine, of course) – I drank a bit more than I should have, I ate a bit more than I should have, I’ve put on some pounds… And now that lockdown is lifted I’m having zero issues in getting back to a lean, mostly alcohol free diet. Lockdown was hard.
Here in Italy red wine shelves were often half empty during lockdown: my American family told me that in the US the empty shelves were the ones for toilet paper… I’ve always found this funny, for some reason. ^__^
I’m a bit iffy on quinoa whiskey but I would def try that cocktail. In general, I think I’ve done less casual drinking in the past year+. I bought an exercise watch last spring and, though it’s not as accurate as an Oura ring, seeing my energy levels and sleep after even one drink absolutely makes me think long and hard before I have that drink. Also, I love cocktails but never have ingredients at home, so I’m waiting until patio drinking with friends is an option again.
I went through 3 or 4 months of drinking wine every night. A glass while preparing dinner, and a glass with dinner. Sometimes another glass after dinner. Then I noticed that if I had a glass of water in front of me along with the wine, I always went for the water and that I wasn’t really enjoying the wine anymore. So I stopped the wine when my wine stash ran out.
I do miss drinking wine while preparing dinner, but I feel so much better. And my skin looks better. And I’m eating less calories.
We all were, Goopy.
After I turned 30, I always had a hangover after drinking and when my husband quit drinking because he knew he had a problem, I quit too and never looked back. I am envious of people who can drink and feel fine the next day, it sounds delightful.
I think she’s exaggerating. Not to say we all didn’t eat during lockdown, but everything about her projects she’s an unhappy control freak , and she’s always bragging on her discipline…I kind of think she’s embroidering somewhat
Her drink sounds good actually, but I continue to be put off by the Goop. And that frou-frou “dress?” Lord.
I have successfully reduced my drinking to, oh, a monthly glass of wine? But that hankering is definitely still creeping around. So I recently decided to try Ritual zero-alcohol whiskey, which is basically a noxious herbal bouquet that, when added to any mixer, imbues it with the smokiness and “bite” of a whiskey beverage. I find that it convinces my lizard brain that I *am* unwinding with a whiskey, and I’m like, “ha ha! Stupid brain! You’re so easy to trick!” I’ve really enjoyed making it part of my pre-bedtime routine, and I’m excited to try all the other new NAH cocktails out there.
Thanks for the tip! I really like the idea of cocktails but whenever I drink at home I just get way too sleepy and it’s always a gamble whether it’ll trigger a headache. That could be a fun way to have an evening cocktail without falling asleep at 8pm.
Love you all here on CB so much. Gwyneth, well, whatever 🙂 but I know people that have had issues before with drinking and are picking it up too much again during Covid. Or have started smoking again, eating too much, etc. I also know a few people that really have and are using this time to really take care of themselves better than ever before. With me, I was used to walking miles a day everywhere I went almost, and doing my Pilates but I somehow just stopped, and I feel awful about it. Always been in shape, not now. But hey, I refuse to beat myself up for it. I just won’t. And slowly, I will get back to it. And I absolutely refuse to pick on anybody else about what they may not have done perfectly either. Let’s give each other a break, this was an extraordinarily difficult situation and let’s just be proud, happy and thankful hat we are making it through. We did our best. Yeah, we need to take care of ourselves and should, but not the time to judge each other. Glad Kaiser stayed strong for her but is understanding of others. Now, more than ever is the time for that. LOVE to all here!
I have a couple of glasses of wine every evening. I also exercise A LOT and eat a very healthy diet, including *GASP* carbs, but most of the time I make sure they’re whole grain carbs so at least I’m getting some nourishment from them. I make paella with brown rice, I made lasagna the other night with leftover turkey, zucchini and eggplant and brown rice noodles. Haven’t gained any covid weight so everything in moderation seems to work for me.
Also Goop is insufferable…quinoa whiskey…GMAFB.
You are my hero for being able to do all of that without gaining weight! I bow down.
Same and I’ve lost 5 or 6 pounds this year. Have wine every night plus eat pasta at least one night a week and make homemade sourdough, bagels and brioche buns (turkey burgers!). It’s about moderation eating healthy and exercising. Fad diets are a waste of time.
Celebrities: They’re just like us!
This is the most relatable Goopy has ever been lol. We drank way too much March-August, when I started taking the booze to my office and locking it in my desk Monday-Thursday. I’d bring it back home on Thursday for the weekend (I was only going in for a few hours on Mondays & Thursdays). Two weeks ago, I finally gave up the extra bread I’d been eating. It made me sad but I’ve already lost 2lbs so maybe that’ll be the ‘thing’ haha.
Honestly, if she would admit her foibles more often she would so much more popular. It’s sad she feels she has to stick to “Little Miss Perfect.” I have no problem with her being beautiful, thin, blonde and rich. It’s the narcissism that makes my teeth itch.
I love carbs, but hate alcohol.
I rather spend my money on travel instead of alcohol.