I stopped consuming alcohol on September 1st 2019, and let me tell ya, I feel amazing now! I wanted to see how even one glass of wine could effect my food cravings, fitness gains and the intensity of my workouts.
It's been 4 month since the last time I had any type of alcohol in my blood, and I noticed a big change in my energy levels day to day. I am more creative and more emotionally stable. I train consistently not because I have to (which was my mentality before), but because I truly enjoy moving my body, it makes me feel alive.
My relationships with food has improves so much! I embrace intuitive eating now, because for the first time in my life I can clearly "hear" what my body wants. I still eat occasional pizza slice or a piece of chocolate, but after having some I feel like "ok, I am done now". And then I stop and feel satisfied.
I started practicing yoga principles (Yama/Niyama), one of them is non-violence: no harm toward yourself, and no harm toward the other creatures. Everyone knows that alcohol is harmful for your body. No matter how hard these companies, which produce alcohol, work to cover up the facts (uploading articles with titles like "wine is good for you"), we all deep down now that it isn't right. That's why we don't allow our children to drink alcohol, because it's potentially dangerous for their development.
When I used to consume alcohol, I could never stop in the middle of a chocolate bar. I couldn't feel any satisfaction even after finishing one. It was just never enough.
Here is the video, where I go deep into this subject.
Alcohol consumption is especially bad for those individuals, who are training and trying to lose weight.
Here is what’s going on:
1️⃣Alcohol dehydrates your body – it is a diuretic. You will experience dehydration symptoms (headaches, tiredness), especially if you are not drinking enough water as it is (at least 1 gallon). Add to it 45 minutes of an intense workout, and you will definitely suffer from dehydration.
2️⃣ Alcohol consumption causes an increase in insulin secretion which leads to low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), and that leads to sugar cravings, that potentially are hurting your diet.
3️⃣Anabolism, or protein synthesis is negatively affected by alcohol. This decrease in protein synthesis doesn't just slow down muscle growth, it also hurts recovery, because less protein is going to repair muscle tissue.
4️⃣Alcohol negatively effects your sleep. And good sleep is essential to the post workout recovery.
In the end of the day we all make a choice to live a "hard life" or to live a beautiful life, where you do not need external things (like alcohol) to relax.
Happiness and peace live inside of all of us, but it's hard to tap into that eternal source, when you block your senses with constant distractions: alcohol, social media, news, other people's opinions.
That’s why you need to think twice before ordering a glass of wine/beer at the bar.