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The Sobriety Movement
Health | January 03, 2018
There’s a new health trend on the horizon, and as crazy as it sounds, it’s actually very good for you.
Weight loss and diet fads come and go all the time. Remember the Master Cleanse? Or Grapefruit Diet? It’s fun to look back all the crazy things people have done to look good. Hopefully we’ve all moved on knowing better that the solution isn’t as glitzy or complex as it’s made out to be!
However, things are changing up a bit, and this time, it’s not insane.
The Sobriety Movement is all about reducing or eliminating alcohol from one’s lifestyle. People who are addicted to drinking need this the most, but even those who are trying to cut back would still benefit.
For one, by abstaining from alcohol you can expect a better brain. You’re less prone to making poor judgments and having trouble functioning. Both memory and cognition will be much sharper. As a result, you’re less prone to suffering from serious mental health problems, such as depression.
Another incentive to take a break from the booze? Your appearance!
Hair loss, persistent acne, and chapped lips are all linked to alcohol consumption [1], which have all but disappeared for many Sobriety Movement participants. If you have any of these issues, it wouldn’t hurt to experiment by staying away from alcohol for a while to see if they improve.
And listen up ZGYM members! Are you having trouble losing weight, building muscle, or recovering from my workouts? Your night drinking may be the culprit! Turns out, binge drinking delays healing [2], lowers protein synthesis (aka, MUSCLE GROWTH) [3], and messes with your body’s ability to burn fat [4]! As if those reasons weren’t enough, excessive drinking can mess your quality of sleep [5] and immune system [6].
Not to mention the fact that it’s easy to lose track of how many drinks you’ve had, which can add up to a ton of sneaky calories. (Making it quite a pesky hindrance when it comes to losing or maintaining your weight!)
So connect the dots: if you’ve been having one too many drinks and are experiencing any these symptoms, it may be time to cut back or completely get rid of alcohol.
The benefits are huge:
Better sleep, immunity, and recovery.
Clear complexion, healthy hair, and weight maintenance.
Improved memory, focus, and cognition.
And all it takes is being sober.
For a short time, try to do a detox from drinking. Resist the temptation and try to observe your body’s response to the removal of alcohol. And if after a while you end up – for example – in an unexpected social situating and happen to have a drink or few, make sure to take note of what happens. If you think you can get by with an occasional drink or two, that’s fine! Just know that going overboard and bingeing isn’t going to do you or your body a lot of favors.
Instead, I’d suggest you treat your alcohol as I do when it comes to my meal plans. Avoid the processed, high sugar cocktail mixes, and opt for those lower in sugar. (Guilty as charged, I actually have 5 Low Sugar Alcoholic Beverages and Cocktails that you can make in moderation if you do need a good ‘pick me-up’.)
Otherwise, there’s no need to go back to drinking if sobriety makes you a better and healthier person! If you’ve gotten tremendous benefits from avoiding alcohol, then not a single reason or person in the world should convince you to have a drink. Stand your ground, and if anyone asks, tell them you’re doing it for your health. Explain how much better you feel, and see what happens. Who knows, maybe you’ll have converted another person to the movement!
Sources:
[1] http://vivaglammagazine.com/10-lesser-known-ways-booze-impacts-your-body/
[2] https://champagneliving.net/10-lesser-known-ways-booze-impacts-body/
[3] https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/teen-bigalcohol.htm
[4] https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/md19.htm
[5] https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/how-alcohol-affects-sleep
[6] https://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/diet-tips/ask-diet-doctor-alcohol-and-immunity
Private Member |
st. peter, minnesota, usa
I’m happy to hear of the health benefits! I decided to be a teetotaler when I was a teenager, for the sole reason of avoiding losing my ability to make the best decisions (I saw plenty of examples of people regretting what they did while drunk). I am 42 now, and am still sticking to that decision.
Has it impacted my social life? I doubt it. I don’t like hanging around in bars or night clubs, and I don’t like sitting around in a house with food just talking. My friends have to want to go outside and do active things, which becomes less common as I age, so I find fewer and fewer friends each time I move to a new area, regardless of drinking status. 🙂
Private Member |
I did a sober January back in 2014 and have never gone back to drinking! I was a heavy binge drinker for almost all of my 20’s. I’m now in my early 30’s picking up the pieces of my life. It wasn’t easy to quit, but totally worth it.
Private Member |
I love that you wrote about this. Over the last year or two I’ve began to realize what a detriment alcohol is to my life. I’ve finally quit drinking 99% of the time and will only have some on holidays (Christmas Eve and New Years Eve). I’m much, much happier without it and I’m glad I finally woke up to how it was dragging me down. I would feel lethargic for a couple days after drinking which would often interrupt my exercise program. And of course my diet would go completely out the window when I’d drink. Life is better without alcohol.
Private Member |
cherry hill, nj
I stopped my crazy drinking over a year ago. I do indulge with a single glass of high quality wine at holidays and my birthday, but I was really out of control prior to that. I have always struggled with depression, I even had post partum depression, but I refused to take medicine for it. So, I tried to ignore it, then tried to treat it with exercise, light boxes, diet, faking happiness, etc. Between the end of 2014 and summer of 2016, we moved three times for my husband’s job. Two of those moves were from the US to London and back. My husband lost his job eight months after his company moved us to London, and so, they moved us back to the US. Overseas moves are very stressful! LOL My husband was unemployed for nine months until he found a job in a completely different region in the US. I felt like I had no agency in my life, because I was just “following” my husband and we never put roots down long enough for me to find a job of my own. This was a stressor on our marriage. This feeling, combined with my untreated depression, led me to drinking copious amounts of white wine.
I woke up one day and I didn’t like who was staring back at me in the mirror. I was tired of limping along through life and not being a participant in life. I made an appointment to see my doctor to discuss my options. After decades of trying to “treat” my depression myself, I started taking an anti-depressant. After a few weeks, I felt like I didn’t need booze anymore. I had more energy, I was sleeping better and I think I was just an all-over more pleasant person. I think once the anti-depressant hit therapeutic levels, I no longer felt that despondency that drinking dulled for me.
I am not saying every who drinks is depressed, but those two were intertwined for me. I couldn’t tease them apart until I got help for the underlying cause. But I do feel physically better for not drinking. 🙂
Private Member |
burlington, ontario, canada
Hello Zuzka, would you be willing to do a similar article on the downfalls of drinking too much coffee?
Private Member |
Alcohol’s definitely a tough one to quit. The side effects of habitually drinking drove me to limit it to occasional events. It was almost harder to tell my friends that I wanted to stop drinking, since it had become our main focus after a while. They’ve finally accepted the fact that I’m trying to be healthier lol