"I am not going to be able to drink for a while, which is good because I don't even know when it's been since I haven't had a drink," he tells PEOPLE. "It's been a long time."
Teresa and Joe Giudice
Gillian Laub (2)
"Definitely the whole year I drank every day a couple of bottles at night just to go to bed," he says.
With the stress of his wife Teresa being in jail combined with caring for the couple's four daughters alone and his reality television lifestyle, Giudice's drinking has continued to increase.
"For a solid year with all this TV crap and socializing with people every day and going here and there you are constantly drinking, so it will probably do me good," he says of going to jail.
"Going to the doctors and getting a check-up, my liver is still in good shape, and I don't know how that is."
RELATED VIDEO: Joe and Melissa Gorga Step Up for the Giudices While Teresa Is Behind Bars
While Teresa, 43, was aware of her husbands heavy drinking, she was never concerned that he was unable to properly care for their girls – Gia, 15, Gabriella, 12, Milania, 10 and Audriana, 6.
"He wasn't driving," she says. "He was never driving, he was always home."
Now as she prepares to say goodbye to him in the days leading up to his prison term, she is optimistic he will come out a healthier man.
"He's gonna get into – God willing – the right alcohol program," she says. "I want him to do a program, let's just leave it at that. He's not abusive or anything, thank God, but he drinks every day. That's not good. It's not good for your liver.
