The holiday season has now passed and I’m sure many of you indulged in your fair share of food and alcohol, which is to be expected. Don’t blame your results on what happens between December 15th and January 1st.  However, now is the time of the year to dial things in.  From January 2nd to the end of June there are few major holidays and well, patio season hasn’t started yet. Consider these next 6 months your opportunity to really make some headway with your fitness goals. One thing that will truly help with these is seriously thinking about cutting out or cutting down on the booze!

It’s no secret that consuming alcohol is fundamentally not healthy. It can affect concentration, reduce energy levels, increase depression and has been shown to affect long-term cardiovascular health.  Here are three positive changes you can expect to notice from giving up alcohol.

1) Increased Quality of Sleep

Many people mistakenly assume that because alcohol is a sedative, it actually helps them sleep. The truth is that it completely destroys the quality of your sleep.  Our bodies are working hard when we sleep.  Shortly after falling asleep, your body enters a period of slow-wave sleep (SWS, also known as deep sleep), which is the physically restorative stage of sleep. After that, a normal cycle includes a period of REM sleep, the mentally restorative stage.

However, when your body is sedated and working to process alcohol in your system, you miss out on the benefits of these stages and as a result, you have a lighter sleep even if the duration is extended. That being said, even if you sleep for a long time after drinking, you won’t wake up feeling rested and recovered.  Another thing many people don’t realize is that you don’t get stronger and fitter while working out. Exercise itself actually causes micro tears in your muscles and breaks them down. The true fitness gains happen as a result of the exercises, afterwards when your body repairs itself during sleep. In fact, 95% of human growth hormone is produced during slow-wave sleep. To reiterate the above, having alcohol in your system prevents SWS from happening.  What does this mean? If you drink at night before going to bed, you’re basically rendering any workouts you did that day useless.

2) Improved Digestion

Studies show that alcohol causes your stomach to produce greater amounts of gastric acid. This can irritate your digestive system, causing stomach pain, bloating, gas and other interruptions to your digestion. When your body is alcohol free, it digests food in a more consistent manner.  With that being said, the real secret to putting on muscle happens in the kitchen; so yet again, another reason to reduce or eliminate alcohol if you want to make progress with your fitness goals.

3) Easier to Lose Body Fat

It is well documented that excessive alcohol consumption is a common risk factor for obesity. However, drinking even small amounts can make it very difficult for you to lose body fat. No matter what type of alcoholic beverage you consume, the alcohol itself contains 7 calories per gram, almost double what most carbohydrates (grains, vegetables, fruits, etc) and proteins (meat, chicken, eggs etc.) have (4 calories per gram).

Additionally, calories from alcohol are often referred to as “empty calories” because they cannot be converted to glycogen and used as energy, therefore, your body can’t do anything with them.  

In our busy lives today, many of us use alcohol as our way of dealing with stress or even as a means of celebrating something positive that happened in our day.  It has probably become a part of your daily routine or a habit.  When consulting with members at Blended Athletics, I often suggest breaking habits by changing your environment, so if you are stressed, think about replacing alcohol with a workout and if you are celebrating something; well have fun and try to squeeze a workout into the mix to find a good balance.  After all, we are here to make the most of the life we have to live!