Shifting your fitness focus on alcohol

When and how much you choose to drink effects your fitness goals

This article may surprise you and be a fresh take that you usually see on health and fitness sites.

The goal of this article is that I to help you understand a few things, so you can make the right decision for if, when and how much you choose to drink.

We can be pretty bad at estimating the amount we drink, funnily enough, that tends to get worse the more we drink. Sure you might not be in the college binge-drinking stage anymore. Still, alcoholic beverages tend to add up quickly throughout the week.

Maybe you like enjoying a nice glass of wine with dinner each night. How big is that glass?

Or how about the tasty liquor you like to have on the weekends. It might pack a serious punch but do you still count it as one drink?

It can be effortless to be consuming way more alcohol than you think.

Once you get into heavy drinking, the health impacts start to get gloomier. These include kidney disease, heart disease, depression, increased inflammation, hormone disruption, liver complications, muscle damage and even weight gain (or stalled weight loss).

We are going to stay away from the implications of excess and extended consumption. Instead, we'll focus more on the immediate trade-offs when it comes to your lifestyle, weight loss or being physically active.

Let's start with what happens in your body when you have that drink,

Once swallowed, about 20% is absorbed in the stomach, the remaining 80% in the small intestine.

In your bloodstream, it then travels directly to your liver. One of the organs main jobs is to convert substances like alcohol that enter the body into less-harmful elements for us to enjoy a relatively safe 'buzz'.

As your body prioritises burning calories from alcohol first, the drinking of alcohol blocks the normal fat-burning process in your body. Well, your body can only effectively process about one drink per hour.

So, simplistically, every drink you consume equates to an hour, you STOP BURNING FAT and START STORING FAT.

Two drinks, 2 hours.

Three drinks, 3 hours.

You get the idea of why it can mess with your results.

Additionally, it gets in the way of other bodily processes. Such as the absorption of nutrients in food and the production of insulin.

Drinking alcohol rarely comes without a meal or copious snacks, which tends to be rich high caloric food. Also, a lot of alcoholic drinks have excess sugar. Combined, this means left unmonitored you could easily add hundreds, even thousands, of excess calories to your diet!

Drinking can also disrupt your sleep cycle, decreasing your quality of sleep.

You may fall asleep quicker. But drinking can also make you snore by relaxing the tissue in your throat, mouth and nose which can stop air flowing smoothly.

During the night, you'll spend less time in the more restful, Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep stage.

No matter how long you're in bed you'll probably still feel tired and sluggish the next day,

Affecting your ability to get up the next day to do that workout or at least dialling down the intensity of the exercise, you'll be able to do the next day!

While it can have a temporary positive impact on our mood, it is a depressant. So it can affect our thoughts, feelings and actions. It affects serotonin which helps mood regulation and can contribute to feelings of depression and anxiety and issues with stress management.

It is essential to understand that all alcohol consumption comes with some risks. I am not telling you to avoid it at all costs, but if you are trying to lose weight, it is a good idea to limit or altogether avoid it!

If you are going to drink, do it for the right reasons. Not because there are claims that drinking is "good for you" or you want to escape your stress if you do choose to drink, make sure you do so mindfully and not just mindlessly chugging.

There are trade-offs to consuming alcohol.

Take a minute and think about these trade-offs the next time you are about to reach for a drink. If you still feel like you want it, enjoy it. If not, skip it!

But it's fun drinking alcohol! (Yes, you got me there.)

The relationship between alcohol and fitness isn't always easy

Often times, we tend to separate physical wellness from our emotional. In reality, our quality of life, enjoyment, and social connections are essential parts of health.

So let me as a health and fitness professional say it;

Just like many others, I enjoy drinking,

For much of the world's population, whether it be beer, wine or spirits, alcohol — is part of life.

There are benefits to be gained:

• Pleasure: Alcoholic drinks usually taste pretty damn good to us.
• Leisure: A drink in the right circumstances can help you feel relaxed. Like a well-enjoyed meal, a good glass of wine can be a prompt to get us to slow down for a minute.
• Social connection: It can contribute to social bonding moments when you all chat, smile and laugh together, adding to a sense of community. Which, in turn, adds to your joy, health and thus longevity.

So what if we forgot about the potential health benefits of alcohol. What if we shifted our focus, so instead of being "healthy or. Not". It's about trade-offs.

You see that alcohol is just one of many factors that affect your physical fitness and health. There are plenty of ways to keep increasing your quality of life without taking away the genuine enjoyment of an occasional wine or good whiskey.

Only you know what you're willing or not willing to trade.

It may even be as simple as a list of "yes" or "no" answers.

• Saying "yes" to that six-pack on your stomach might mean saying "no" to that six-pack at the drive-thru.
• Saying "yes" to a happy hour might mean saying "no" to your workout the next morning.
• Saying "yes" to prepping for that marathon might mean saying "no" to boozy weekend lunches.
• Saying "yes" to better quality sleep (and focus, and mood) might mean saying "no" to your nightly wine when having dinner.
• Saying "yes" to moderating your alcohol consumption might mean finding a way to say "no" to triggers that make you drink more heavily.

Or instead of an all or nothing approach, you can scale it.

• Drink more slowly and mindfully, without decreasing your total alcohol intake.
• Perhaps you're trying to lose some of that belly fat, so you'll drink a little less, but not stop completely.
  
• Or, maybe you're willing to abstain during most social situations but not quite ready to endure your partner's workmates without a Gin on hand.

If you drink, because it genuinely adds real pleasurable value to your life and you are willing to accept the trade-offs, then in my mind there is nothing wrong with that.

However, if you are drinking because;

• you're too stressed
• it's become a habit
• other people don't want to drink alone; or
• it's "good for you".

Then it is not a benefit-driven choice, and that is something I do not want to see for you.

Regardless of whether drinking factors into your health and fitness goals or not whenever you're ready, here are two ways I can help you:

1. Click here to join my Fitness group and connect with a community of people who like you, want to learn how to succeed with more ease with support and accountability.
   
2. Join the Pain-Free Strength Strategy. This strategy is how you can work with me for less pain and more power in 12 weeks. Click here to book a call to see if we're a good fit and how we may work together
   

For more information, talk to Recalibrate about finding the best personal trainer in Melbourne today on 0408 077 093

Talk Soon,
Gaz