Alcohol. The effects and why i am choosing to have a break.

It is a short term high, with long term effects and risks. We need to focus on decisions in the short term. Here's my thoughts on alcohol and a decision that may change my life.

Feb 15, 2025

I’ve just returned from an epic annual boys trip, 10 years travelling to Queenstown to watch the NFL Superbowl. Its a trip we all look forward to every year, I look forward to the company, the jokes, just hanging out with some great mates in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Though as I get older i’m not enjoying the alcohol as much. To be fair and frank, im not really sure why anyone drinks anymore. I do enjoy a social beer, I love the taste, and the social element of sitting around just talking of a couple of quiets. Though what i’m not enjoying is loosing the following day and feeling like well just… shit. Ive been on a bit of a health journey for the past few years, trying all sorts of things to find my niche, and what motivates me to be healthier.

I, like everyone else struggles, with the consistency, I can go hard with exercise for a few months and then it’s like I get bored, and fall off the band wagon. It’s a vicious cycle.

Im coming to realise that there is a few things that seem to cause me to fall off the healthy wagon.

Sleep

I touched on this topic last week, but recently I discovered when I start to work later, and deprioritise my sleep, I gravitate towards poor eating habits. A piece of chocolate won’t hurt, I tell myself, this quickly turns into a strip, 2 x strips, a biscuit turns into 4, or a beer turns into a few. This sends me off the rails and down a rabbit hole of unhealthy choices. So i’m learning to prioritise my sleep. 8hrs per night is the minimum I need to feel ok in the morning, id love to have the ability to wake up naturally but working an early shift, thats not an option, so bed early it is to compensate, and allow my body to wake up after sufficient rest.

Negative thoughts

These creep in from time to time, causing another trip up, as I feel like I fall into an endless spiral of meh, maybe tomorrow, or I don’t need to exercise today, I worked out twice as hard yesterday. What i’m learning is when I wake up, yesterday happened, great, but today is a new day, act like it DIDN’T happen. Do the mahi(work) today and act like it’s Day 1. Manifesting positive change, and thoughts is key to ensuring that I stay on track. Im aiming to make sure I have 50.01% positive thoughts per day, and flush out the negative thoughts, or at least learn to ignore the negative ones.

Now this brings to me to this weeks topic

Alcohol

After going cold turkey for a few months, an event crops up, I want to drink with my friends, so I have a few, it turns into more than a few, it turns into a whole day of drinking! Only to wake up the next day, feeling rotten and wondering…why? Why do I do it? Yes it felt great at the time, though I know i’m about to loose a whole day to moping around, feeling horrid, and thinking…should I just give up altogether? I have had this thought a lot recently, as Im learning to take my health more seriously. It’s even more prevalent when i’m the “Fat” one of my group. Everyone else seems to drink a lot and still maintain their physiques. Bad eating habits are likely the contributing factor, yet I feel like I struggle with it more than most.

I’ve learnt that Alcohol can disrupt your sleep in a dramatic fashion. Rem and deep sleep is the most important sleep patterns we fall into, it’s where we dream and it’s where our body does most of its repairing and regenerating. Unfortunately alcohol has a drastic effect on this, often disrupting your sleep patterns, causing you to wake up feeling blah with the dreaded hangover. Don’t get me started on when your body gets poisoned and violently tries to expel the previous nights drinking session…from both ends! I recently listened to a leading psychiatrist comment on alcohol and its effects, and he said that there is empirical scientific evidence that alcohol is the leading cause of 7 x different cancers. So much so that the US Surgeon General is about to put a health waring on ALL alcoholic drinks warning of the dangers. If you haven’t seen what we do in NZ, a similar concept with horrific images of the results of smoking put on all cigarette packets.

One thing that is an issue with drinking alcohol is the poor decision making. I don’t know why but people take risks, say things they shouldn’t say to loved ones, or just make a poor decisions, like drinking and driving! We all have these poor choice moments, and usually live to regret them. Learning to understand that the decisions, in the short term, what seems like a good idea at the time often ends up having long term consequences. I link this back to my health. Yip a weekend of drinking was fun, but i’m sure its going to take weeks to burn off and recover from the excess calories, and will be harder to work out for the next few weeks, whilst I try to rid this social poison from my veins.

Long term effects of drinking cant be good either. Even minor drinking has effects on the human brain and the capacity to remember thoughts, and can be linked to various health issues i.e Dementia. From my research the highways of the brain are most affected, causing decisions that you would not normally make to be clouded and misjudged, almost like a clogged artery. It’s even a known that alcohol dramatically shrinks your brain. Shrivelling it up like a prune. This affects your mood, impulses, decision making processes, and causes brain fog. The more I learn and read about our bodies, why on earth would we damage the only thing that is keeping us alive. Our brain controls everything that we do. It’s the core thing that we literally cannot live without. Speeding up the aging process of the brain, and risking alzheimers or cancers does not sound like a fun way to go out.

I also don’t like loosing a day anymore, im hooked on being productive and trying to get more done in a day. So spending a day or two recovering is getting beyond me, i’m trying to squeeze more into each day and think it’s far more exciting learning, being more creative and growing.

I have friends that I have discussed my intentions or thoughts on giving up drinking. Some of them are very supportive of it, others not so much. One of my friends once told me, if you're not going to drink then maybe you don’t attend events anymore. Huh? I’m not sure if this was because i’m calling them out for their drinking habits, or that they have another reason that is not clear. Peer pressure can be hard to overcome, and very difficult to confront. My thoughts are , let them. Mel Robbins coined this phrase, and essentially means as it reads. If thats what they want to say or think, Let Them. You cant control them or their thoughts. So Let Them. In the short term it will feel horrible and may upset you, but let them. It’s not your burden, and its not anything you did. Sometimes we flow thru friends and whilst we are still around them and want to see them, you should ensure your health comes first. Don’t succumb to peer pressure, especially when it comes to alcohol. Im trying to get my head around why I worry about what my friends think, i’m sure they really dont care, and its probably more of my brain worrying about what they may think than what really matters. Like my health.

Money

Money is important to everyone, it’s what makes the world go round. It enables us to have a better life, and it enables you to enjoy things, experiences, and life. This is a big factor for my thoughts on giving up. Im excited by watching my money grow with investments, and spending money on things that will return more than invested. These days id rather buy a tool, to enable me to build something that I can sell. Investing in the laptop im writing on, was one of the best investments i’ve made in years. It enabeld me to launch my own website, a T Shirt business, and this blog. It enables me to vent, to record my second brain thoughts and produce videos for my you tube channels. This is just one example and I could go on.

So why do we choose to spend money on drinking?

It is a short term high, with long term effects and risks. We need to focus on decisions in the short term, today, that are beneficial for tomorrow or next weekend not chasing those that are short term highs.

Whats the plan, well id like to take a year off, to see for one, can I do it? Can I give up for a year. What does this look like, will it make a big difference, and whats holding me back from making the leap. This post is my first step in taking that leap, and learning to cope without it. I’m not addicted, well I don’t think so, I don’t drink most weeks, or weekends. I only tend to drink on occasions, though these are normally big milestones, concerts, birthday parties, weddings and my annual trip with the boys. Though i’m sure I can have as much fun without it, save money, enjoy my health, my ability to change and adapt without alcohol.

Ill keep you posted!

The Wrap

And that’s it for this week!

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