“Why give up drinking?”
“I couldn’t do that.”
“I only drink on weekends.”
I have talked on my social media channels about why I gave up alcohol and received a very positive response. Honestly, it’s the BEST decision I made quitting drink.
Why did I give up alcohol?
I knew that in order to achieve my fitness goals I would need to either cut back drastically or give up altogether.
I have always ‘enjoyed a drink’ probably a bit too much.
And it all came to a head around 5 years ago when I found myself living as a single woman due to my marriage breaking down. Prior to that, I had been consuming wine almost every night (imagine the calories!?!).
But I decided it wasn’t healthy mentally or physically to drink on my own, so I quit drinking at home but told myself ‘it’s ok to drink when I go out’.
Well, actually it wasn’t OK because I am one of those people that found it incredibly challenging to have just one drink.
This is known as an alcohol problem, and it took a friend of mine to point this out (she is a recovering alcoholic). So I listened and quit altogether.
This was easier than you might think because I was very motivated by my fitness goals. I had become almost addicted to exercise so I had switched ‘my high’ to exercise.
I had told myself I might have a drink on special occasions, but in that 3 years, I think I have had 2 drinks – one on vacation to celebrate a friend’s birthday and 1 on Christmas Day 2018. I didn’t bother on Christmas Day 2019 because as I said earlier, one drink doesn’t ‘do it’ for me. I find it easier to not drink than have one drink.
Why should you give up or cut back on alcohol?
Well I know it has helped me tremendously in terms of reaching my physical goals, more energy, fewer calories. And there is the issue that drinking can lead you to succumb to eating the wrong things.
And particularly when we get older alcohol can cause disturbed sleep which makes us retain weight. Alcohol consumption will also make it more difficult to lose belly fat. And importantly and this was the biggest motivation for me, it is harder to build muscle if you drink alcohol. That’s why most people in the body-building community do not drink alcohol.
And as I am always stating, building muscle will help you burn more fat and boost your waning metabolism as women over 40.
Should you have a drink at Christmas and New Year?
Yes of course, if that’s your tipple. I am not a killjoy!
But in the main try to live a life mostly free of alcohol if you want to meet those body goals. If you can have one drink a week, then great. But if you’re like me and find it difficult to have ‘just one’ perhaps you need to reassess things.
You can watch more on the benefits of quitting alcohol on my Youtube channel.ao