9.14.17// Alcohol

MetCon//

With a Partner for Time

Row 2k

34 Shoulder to Overhead 155/100

Row 1500m

24 Shoulder to Overhead 155/100

Row 1k

14 Shoulder to Overhead 155/100

If you don't drink, this blog post can still be beneficial. Just replace the word alcohol with your personal vice (cigars, fast cars, waffle cones, Juanita's, World of Warcraft, Harry Potter).

Everyone's relationship with alcohol is very unique. Healthy consumption is generally accepted to be up to a drink or two a day, and beyond that is considered excessive or abusive. Our relationships with alcohol are so diverse that even each individual's consumption patterns change often or seasonally. You might find yourself having a drink or two once a week or sometimes you pop open a beer daily after work. We can agree that alcohol is a regular part of our culture and many of our lives. We enjoy it and consume it for many different reasons. And really, if we have a general healthy relationship with the stuff, we should continue to do so. But if we want to drink, the key to a healthy relationship requires realistic expectations. 

The rules of alcohol// what to expect

Alcohol is a type of carbohydrate and for a whole host of hormonal and metabolic reasons, it makes fat loss incredibly difficult (don't read- carbs are bad- carbs aren't bad).

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, and again, hormonally not ideal for performance. Mondays in the gym can be the most painful!

Alcohol lowers your inhibitions, thus making moderation harder. Not only do I think I'm hungry after a couple of drinks, but I'll pay any price for a bag of chips and a tub of guacamole!

Alcohol is addictive- at different levels for everyone- a weekend of drinking makes you want a drink on Monday night too.

We develop a tolerance to alcohol. If you're drinking for a head change, it'll take more and more alcohol to get you where you want to go. Now refer to that first expectation you should have about alcohol. 

Contrary to popular belief, alcohol doesn't help you sleep. Sure it can make you sleepy, or make you fall to sleep, but your quality of sleep is greatly diminished, especially whenever you drink enough to help you fall asleep. You might as well have laid in bed awake for an hour longer trying to fall asleep. Alcohol-aided sleep is a wash because it's just about as good as too little sleep. 

There really isn't any nutritional or performance benefits to drinking alcohol.

What do we do with our realistic expectations?//

Everybody loves to cite the articles about how a drink a day lowers your risk of heart disease. The most common is wine, but I've seen it said about beer, whiskey, vodka, bloody mary's martinis etc. What really prevents heart disease? Exercise eating a diet of whole or minimally processed foods, vegetables and fruit! In the history of medicine, I'm willing to bet no doctor has ever said, "if he had just drank more wine, he probably wouldn't have had this heart attack." No heart attack survivor has ever been told, "you should just keep living the same way you have been, and just add a glass of wine each night."  If you have a drink every night because you think it's healthy, but can't be paid to eat a piece of broccoli or go on a walk, you're jumping over $100 bills to pick up pennies. Drink your drink a night because you like and enjoy it, just don't be disillusioned. 

Whenever you start to have the conversation with yourself justifying why eating or drinking something is ok, 1. Your honest self already knows the correct answer and 2. Your honest self rarely wins. "I deserve a drink (cookie, ice cream, cake), I've had a long day." 

Here are two ideas for whenever your false-logic-self wins. 

1. Buy your drinks one at a time. It's not the most economical, but those of you who know that you drink too much, it could be a great strategy to cut back. When you buy alcohol, buy enough for one sitting of moderate and non-abusive drinking. You bought a full case of beer? better have 12 friends to share it with, or all those left over beers are staring you down every time you open the fridge. This goes for your other vices too! It's much easier to eat just one cookie when it costs $2.50 from Pressed.  

2. Follow the 1.5 drink rule. Order or get one drink and fully enjoy it. Order another if you're asked, and fully enjoy half of it. Whenever you have half a drink, people usually aren't bugging you to get another.

There just isn't a secret hack to make alcohol beneficial for anything other than enjoyment. Gluten free beer is just gluten free, and still beer. 

Alcohol// Enjoy it. Stay away from it. Whatever you do, just have realistic expectations, and be honest about your relationship with it.