Alcohol....Time To Cut Back?

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself why you drink? Or thought about how it makes you feel the day after you’ve had it, or the negative impact it might be having?

I have explored this more and more with my clients who are looking at increasing their health and getting in shape, and have seen an increase in the amount of those who are dramatically reducing the amount they drink or cutting it out of their lives completely.

Let me just start by saying that I never say to my clients, you have to or need to stop drinking. I simply explore with them the impact it has on their mood, behaviours, and ability to achieve their goals when working with me, which is ultimately to feel better, more energised, increase their health and improve their physique. Their decision normally comes as a result of this.

For many clients when I start to explore this topic with them it normally comes up as a result of me questioning a statement such as;

‘Im going to a wedding this weekend so I’ll have to drink’.

Or

‘I’ve got some work drinks this evening so I don’t want to but I’ll have to have one or two.’

I then normally respond with one word….WHY?

Why do you have to drink at either of these two events. Will anyone reeeally notice if you aren’t drinking? Are you actually going to upset people if you don’t drink? I would argue that no one really cares or would know if you had sparkling water in your glass or a gin and tonic! If you don't actually want to….then don’t.

If we can agree that this really isn’t an issue I then start to explore with them what their possible motives are for drinking. Is it for a feeling it gives you, or do you really like the taste? For about 90% of my clients it is normally linked to a feeling of relaxing, dealing with a stressful day, dealing with a situation or event they are anxious about, or because they don’t actually want to go to said event and are trying to escape it through alcohol ( we have all done this at a wedding or party before!).

The thing about using alcohol to deal with stress or anxiety is that it often just makes it worse! It might temporarily take the edge off but the next day it’s there again. However this time you feel even more knackered and possibly hungover! I put a lot of this down to the negative impact it has on sleep and recovery which then means stress tends to increase as well as our ability to cope with it (which often means people want to drink even more the next couple of days!).

Using simple tools like monitoring sleep and resting HR demonstrate this really well. You can also look at your log book in the gym or simply keep a diary or simply noting how you felt a few days after drinking. You can then decide if it was really worth it. Here is an example of my clients data comparing her recovery on the days she did and didn’t drink whilst away. Wednesday and Friday were alcohol free!

The last thing I like to discuss with clients is the impact it’s having on their behaviour. Does it help you make decisions towards how you want to look and feel or take you away from these goals?

Again for most people who are regularly drinking, I find it takes them away from their goals by adding in more liquid calories to their diet, reducing inhibitions and making it less likely for them to stick to the nutritious foods they should be eating, reducing sleep quality and so reducing the amount of movement they do, and increasing stress. This is not the active, strong, energised well recovered body we are going for!

That’s a lot of negative things about alcohol I've just said there and I’m not suggesting everyone should just give it up! I do have the occasional drink, and I enjoy the fun that can be had when everyone is a little less uptight and lets their hair down once in a while. However for me I and how I want to feel and perform each day, drinking regularly doesn’t work!

I think its important to question your own motives for taking part in any behaviour, but particularly alcohol if you are like most of my clients, very busy, with stressful demanding jobs, where time is precious, stress is high and sleep is already limited. And even more so if your aim is to become and feel fit an and healthy.

So I’ll leave you with this.Stop and think about these three things when it comes to alcohol.

Is this something that’s is going to help you increase the quality of your life and get you to your health and fitness goal ?

Is drinking just a habit you have got used to doing without thought?

Is drinking a coping mechanism for you?If so, maybe there are some others you could consider that don’t come with as many negative effects?

Have a great day!

Lizzie

One Percent Club

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