Alcohol Minimalist: Change Your Drinking Habits!

You're listening to breaking the bottle legacy with Molly watts, Episode Seven. Hi, I'm Molly, after a lifetime living under the influence of family alcohol abuse, spending more than 30 years worrying about alcohol and my own drinking, believing I had an unbreakable daily drinking habit, I changed my relationship with alcohol forever. If you want to change your drinking habits than breaking the bottle legacy is for you. My goal is to help you create a peaceful relationship with alcohol, past, present, and future. Each week all focus on real science and using your own brain to change your relationship with alcohol. Nothing has gone wrong, you're not broken, you're not sick. It's not your genes. And creating peace is possible. I'm here to help you do it. Let's start now. Well, hello, and welcome or welcome back to breaking the bottle legacy. I am your host, Molly watts, and I am coming to you from a fairly whatever January day here in Oregon as far as the weather goes, but it is January 18. And first and foremost, I want to wish my father, Craig Hugh curry, a very happy 93rd birthday. So if you're curious about my dad at 93, who is still playing golf three days a week and living independently, then I suggest checking out my previous podcast called live happier longer. It's all about building the habits of a happier, longer life. And it was inspired by watching my dad's life as he has continued to age with optimism. My dad has endured five different open heart procedures or procedures, including two open heart surgeries. And he's had prostate cancer. And of course, he took care of my mother who died of alcoholism for 40 years. So he's really done all of that with a very positive attitude. And most importantly, he's still here to talk about it. So he's definitely got that secret sauce, so to speak, of longevity, and positive longevity. And I shared all of that, and all of those habits that he has over on live happier longer. So definitely go check that out. Back to a habit that may not be serving you. Much like it didn't serve me and that is the habit of drinking. And when I was first writing out my podcast plan, so when I decided to do breaking the bottle legacy, I put together a podcast plan. And this episode this this episode after kind of the first four and then having a couple of expert episodes, I had planned on doing the first episode talking about my life as an adult child of an alcoholic, and kind of a stories and lessons I learned and stories that I held on to. And trust me, that episode is going to be great and it is still coming. However, I wanted to publish this podcast now in January because for the first time in my life, I am doing dry you weary. And I wanted to to share with you not only how it's been going, but why you too, might want to take a month long break from drinking. So to be clear, I've greatly reduced my drinking in the last two years. And in 2020, I had already put alcohol free days into my plans throughout the year. And there were relatively few, a few days honestly that I consumed ever more than two drinks. So it had been you know, I definitely had been working on it. While 2019 was focused on reducing that daily intake from three to four drinks per day down to two and then eventually, you know, lowering that 2020 was all about adding in alcohol free days and still reducing even more. But it wasn't until November of 2020 that I did my first quote unquote mini break I called it which was 11 days. And it was prompted by me realizing that I was very aware of my post drinking anxiety that I experienced after my birthday celebration. And again, not didn't go crazy, but I had had like four four IPAs. And what was amazing about it What was that I literally woke up in the middle of the night. Another effect of the alcohol poor sleep insomnia that you get in the middle of the night when you drink. And I asked myself the question, what if you really felt better if you didn't drink for multiple days? And I decided right there and then to get myself Have until Thanksgiving to be all alcohol free. It's about 11 days. And what did I learn? Well, I learned that I actually did feel better, I slept better. And it was simply not nearly as hard to give up alcohol for multiple days, as I had been trying to convince myself it would be, I had even still, you know, as someone that had changed my relationship and really had worked on it and was very much changing how I drank, I still had this ongoing conversation with myself that, you know, these thoughts that always came up that I just could not imagine taking a long extended break from drinking, haven't ever done this folks in more than 20 years, right now, since I was last pregnant. So anyway, even when I decided, you know, that even the mini break, which gave me confidence, and I wanted to try to commit to dry, you're weary, even during the whole month of December, I wavered on that. Until right until the last week. So now it's past the mid month, I've been doing dry weary for 18 days. And the reason that I wanted to talk to you about reasons that you might want to change your daily drinking habits or take a break from, from drinking all together for an extended period of time, is I want to share what these breaks have provided for me. So I have said that I am at peace with my relationship with alcohol, because I absolutely understand what alcohol does and does not do for me. And I no longer use alcohol to try to buffer away negative emotions. And I don't have anxiety about it as if you know whether I'm going to drink how much I'm going to drink whether or not I'll become an alcoholic, like my mother, like all of those things are gone. But what this break has helped me realize is how much better I can feel without alcohol in my system at all. And that's really what I want to share with you today. If you're a habit drinker like I was, it's possible that you don't believe that you need to change your drinking, or you have a lot of talk about that in your brain, right? Because you might not drink to the point of intoxication. And that was me 95% of the time. Typically, you might not feel hungover most mornings, again, that was me pretty much 99% of the time. And of course, you're able to still keep up your fitness habits, your job responsibilities, people around you don't question whether or not you're drinking more than you should, again, me at least 90% of the time. And if you've listened to episode number four, all about how much alcohol is safe, you might believe that you are managing your alcohol in a way that is consistent with your own risk reward analysis. And you're good. So that's perfect. I hear you and I get you because that was definitely me. I didn't change for so long. Because I was unaware how much I was impacted by alcohol, even when I wasn't intoxicated, and consequently hungover. So when I decided to do dry, you're weary, I promised myself to really pay attention to how I was feeling and how my body was reacting to the change. Also in this is no surprise if you've listened to previous episodes, I did some research on the science of taking a break from alcohol. And was there science that supported the benefits of taking a break? Well, yes, my friends, it turns out that there is science. And along with my own evidentiary experience here, I'm going to share five reasons you might want to take a break from alcohol. All right. So again, you know, over the past two years, I have taken steps not all at once. So when you're considering changing your relationship with alcohol, I'd say here are some steps that I took to get to where I am and get to the point where I actually wanted to take a 30 day break. First and foremost, like I said, reduce the amount of your drinking on a daily basis. I'm going to be talking more about that in future episodes about exactly the steps I took and the plan quote unquote, that I followed, but you want to reduce the amount you're drinking on a daily basis. Number two, you're going to add in some alcohol free days and continue to cut down those daily amounts. Again much like you know like I said, I I tried to toss in some alcohol free days in 2020 Quite honestly folks, that was the first time 2020 was when I first started to add in alcohol free days. Prior to that, I was focusing on just reducing that number of how many how much I was drinking on a daily basis. But I was a habit drinker a long term habit drinker daily for more than 20 years. Well, I mean if you take out my pregnancies, really 30 plus years, almost 40 Another So again, my the next step that I took was I took a mini mini break seven to 10 days, I think it was 11 days for me but you know I'd say take a mini break, right? And then when you're ready after you've done all those steps, you doesn't have to be you don't have to wait for dry where you don't have to wait for dry. July, you don't have to wait for sober October, take a full month break. I did do it during January because and you know, there's nothing wrong with waiting either I did it because I wanted to be involved in a support group and a support system. I'm a part of a Facebook group called dry weary. And you know, it's just nice to have other people that are cheering you on and are doing the same things with you. So, again, I, whatever works for you. But my, my advice is, and I'm going to give you some solid reasons why you might want to take a break from alcohol altogether. All right. So here we go. Number one, you will sleep better. So if you want to understand just how important sleep is to your overall health, then let's first set that record straight sleep is essential to survival and it is critically important to your overall health. Sleep science is still a relatively new field, especially when it comes to understanding its importance and brain function. But as anyone and I'm assuming all assume that's likely everyone who has had a poor night of sleep can testify to the first thing you notice when you don't sleep well is you feel tired, forgetful, irritable, and you're just not at the top of your game. It's hard to concentrate when you are sleep deprived, and you probably will suffer from mood swings. Here's the thing, it's not just your brain that suffers. If you consistently aren't getting enough quality sleep, you are increasing your chances of heart disease and stroke and increased blood pressure, which isn't a great combination, because drinking alcohol also raises your blood pressure. Lack of sleep leads to weight gain, and a weakened immune system. Sleeping longer, seven to nine hours has actually been proven to linked to longevity and living longer. And we even discussed how sleep might help prevent Alzheimer's back on the live happier longer podcast, it's episode six. I'll link that in the show notes. So if you're still not convinced, you can go listen to that. I'm also going to include a link here in the show notes as well to the American sleep Association, where you can find a lot of information about the importance of sleep as well as learn more about the prevalence of sleep deprivation. So right about now, you're thinking but wait, alcohol helps me get to sleep. And you know, you're not completely wrong there. Alcohol is a depressant. And the whole concept of a quote unquote nightcap came about because people realized that a strong drink made them slipping. And the only issue is that they didn't understand the inverse reaction of putting a depressant into your into your brain externally. And what happens is that the alcohol is depressant action is is then counterbalanced by your brain's reaction to that depressant, and it spikes in stimulants A few hours later. And if you listened last week to my interview with will Porter from alcohol explained in the book he does a wonderful job explaining detailing how alcohol impairs our sleep. I'm going to read that from you to you from alcohol explained right here. If we allow these cycles of sleep to occur naturally, the result will usually be that we wake up feeling refreshed and ready for the day. In a natural cycle of sleep, you will have six or seven cycles of REM sleep. However, when you drink, you typically only have two. The reason for this is that when we drink we go into a very deep sleep. For the first five hours or so you will be forgiven for thinking that this is a good thing as we would usually associate a deep sleep with an invigorating and refreshing refreshing sleep. But this is not the case. The initial five hours of orso of drinking sleep do not have enough REM sleep. The other problem is that after the initial five hours or so the deep sleep ends and the rest of our sleep is very fragmented. This five hour period is very important as this is when alcohol withdrawal starts to peak. And it's that alcohol withdrawal when alcohol is leaving your system that your brain is spiking the stimulants to counterbalance the depressant action. Another quote from alcohol explain. I know that many drinkers claim to sleep better or to at least have no worse sleep when drinking. But the simple fact is that if they drink they will not be obtaining the good quality sleep they need. Even if you go spark out for eight or 10 hours. Your body will not be going through the sleep cycles it needs it will not be getting enough REM sleep and it will not be able to go into deep sleep after about five hours, you may wake up feeling what you think is fine. But the inescapable fact is that you would feel that much better had you not drunk the night before. You also need to bear in mind that the ill effects of sleep deprivation are accumulative. Most people will be able to go a night or two without having a proper sleep with minimal noticeable ill effects, particularly if they are young. Indeed, if you are sleeping well, then an odd night here or there will have virtually no negative impact at all. However, over consecutive nights, the problem will increase, the less sleep you get the worst the symptoms become. So that's all from alcohol explained. And again, I'll link that in my show notes as well this week. So I track asleep my sleep wearing a Fitbit. And I know that it's not a perfect gauge, of course, but I want you to know that I got my highest sleep score ever, after one week of being alcohol free and jammy January. And I've also noticed, on a night when I did wake up and have insomnia, clearly not alcohol related. I still got a decent sleep score and had more periods of REM sleep when compared back to previous nights when I know I had had even just one drink. And while the impact is likely desk dose dependent, it is important to note that any amount of alcohol will interrupt your natural sleep cycles and over time, the sleep deprivation can lead to serious health issues. So reason number one, you will sleep better. Okay, reason number two, you might consider taking a break from alcohol is that your liver will thank you. So I have or had a goal, a gallstone. I had a gallbladder attack for the first time in 2017. And a De Niro thought I was dying, it was so painful. I felt like I was having a heart attack honestly. And during the subsequent ultrasound, which also viewed my liver. The report said that I had mild or moderate fatty liver deposits. So if you're not familiar with fatty liver disease, it is a precursor to cirrhosis. It can be caused by drinking too much alcohol, but there is also non alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is prevalent among amongst menopausal women like me. So bottom line is that in my case, I couldn't determine which was causing it because I did drink alcohol.And in 2017, I would have been considered a quote unquote heavy drinker. And I was regularly consuming three to four standard drinks per night. So even this knowledge didn't stop me from drinking at that point. And truth be told, told most people with fatty liver disease don't even know it. Unfortunately, for up to 30% of the people with fatty liver disease, the disease will progress and cause swelling and scarring in the liver. And then you've got real problems. So the thing is that what's great about the liver, is that most of these changes are it before you get to cirrhosis and and scarring. Fatty Liver is highly reversible, and the liver can be calm, completely normal again. It's a very tolerant and forgiving organ. And one of the things you'll learn from going on a break is that even after only a few weeks of going alcohol free, the liver has takes on positive changes. It can focus on its other jobs such as breaking down other toxins produced by the body and metabolizing fat and excess hormones that need to be broken down. Of the many benefits. This is according to Ted Hale who is a personal trainer. With experience in nutrition and health account counseling, he says of the many benefits of abstaining from alcohol. The main one is that you allow the liver to cleanse itself out and build up many of the enzymes you lose when you drink. Reduced liver enzymes can also cause fatigue, and you gain energy with abstaining as well. What I have noticed, and I believe it's a result of my liver functioning better is that my metabolism is better. So I have hypothyroidism and my metabolism is a huge deal to me because of that. I have not been able to lose weight very easily at all in the last eight years. And though I have not been focused this month on a better diet, I have not been exercising as regularly as I'd like. I still actually dropped a couple of pounds. And I believe that's really because my liver is healing and is simply able to prioritize digesting what I'm eating. If you don't know this when you drink alcohol, your liver stops everything else that it's doing. And it focuses on metabolizing the alcohol. So if you have a tendency to snack after you've been drinking, which most people do, your body is not going to be able to process that. That's why it stores the fat. And it's one of the reasons you develop fatty liver disease is because your liver stores that that excess fat, because it can't process what it's that while it's processing the alcohol. So anyways, that's definitely something. As a side note, factoring in alcohol free days during the week actually, again, allows your your liver to recover. And so it's really good for your liver health in the long run, even as you're you know, considering taking a longer extended break, factoring in alcohol free days will give you better liver health. All right, so that's one and two. Reason number three, you will have reduced anxiety. So we already stressed driven, anxious societies these days. I mean 2020 Hello. And quite honestly, I've said it before that I had kind of gotten to a point where I accepted my state of anxiety. As a natural consequence of my life as an adult child of an alcoholic and someone who drank more than I until intellectually believed was healthy for me. I lived for 30 years more or less, believing that my anxiety was simply unavoidable. What I did not understand and what reducing my alcohol intake and adding in alcohol free days has allowed me to notice was that alcohol was physically causing my anxiety. Again in alcohol explained William Porter shows us how the brain is constantly seeking a state of homeostasis. Essentially, alcohol provides us with a feeling of relaxation. However, the brain and the nervous system reacts to this by releasing stimulants and becoming more sensitive. With the result that when the alcohol wears off, we are more anxious and unrelaxed than before we took the drink. When you consume alcohol, the chemical balance in your brain is disrupted. Every one is different, but most people feel more relaxed and less inhibited. After a few drinks. The feel good chemical called dopamine is released in a greater supply into your brain, resulting in a greater sense of satisfaction than you had before drinking. Alcohol is effectively tricking your brain, you pay little regard to the age old fact that what comes up must come down. The next day your brain is trying feverishly to correct the chemical imbalance from the night before. And what do you know, anxiety arises? I've really noticed this. And as I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, it was this feeling of anxiety that I could actually attribute to drinking when I had learned about the science of alcohol and the brain. And I understood that my brain had released chemicals in an attempt to counterbalance the depressant, I had introduced it through alcohol. That whole understanding reading that from alcohol explained really made me aware and I was able to really notice a difference every time I drank more than I wanted to the next day I could feel. And that's why some people use the terminology anxiety. That's where that comes from. The other part of feeling less anxiety, and just go back to reason number one was getting is getting better quality sleep. I guarantee you that being constantly sleep derived by alcohol also creates a brain that registers more stress and anxiety, anxiety. So Number reason number three, you will have less anxiety, I guarantee it. Reason number four that you might want to consider taking a long term aim or longer break from drinking, say a 30 day break like I am, you will have more time and energy. Maybe you're not like me, and maybe you can drink a couple of drinks every night and still get things done. But honestly, I have been so much more productive this month. And I have to believe that it's not because I'm just not I have to believe it's because I'm not just vegging out with a beer and the TV. Now, I'm not opposed to having a drink and relaxing in the evening. So don't let's be clear on that. Especially if you just stick to one drink. But what you may not realize is how even that one drink while technically not a terrible decision for your health is taking away time from you. So I've always been a die hard morning person. So nighttime for me has never been a time when I've been incredibly energetic. And while I still haven't been able to convince myself to work out in the evenings, yet, I have been able to write record podcasts, and to take care of household chores that I typically just don't tackle at night. It's something that is so easy to ignore or miss and obviously you can zone out watching television without alcohol. But for me it was a daily habit that went hand in hand and drinking even one drink simply means I'm done for the night. Like I said absolutely nothing wrong with that and sometimes is it it's exactly what I want to do. But here's the trade off, there are a limited number of hours in the day. And when I drink, I am giving up a significant number of them, as far as it applies to getting things done that I really want to be doing. So right now I feel more energetic, likely because I'm getting more sleep. And it's also because I'm doing more. When I get more done, I feel more energized to do more. So it's a win win kind of thing, right? All right, reason number four, you'll have more time and more energy. Reason number five, that you might want to consider taking a break from alcohol for, say, a 30 day period of time. It allows you to really evaluate your relationship with alcohol. And I actually talked with will Porter about this last week, if you listen to that episode. This is really where the value of an extended break has been proven to me. If you would have told me at the beginning of 2019, when I first started working on my relationship with alcohol, that I'd be happily peacefully and gratefully be experiencing dry you weary, I simply would not have believed you, I would have said it was impossible, I would have told you that I couldn't give up beer for a whole month, I would have told you that it wasn't worth it. And I probably would have told you that I didn't need to. Now in 2021, as I have worked on my drinking habits and changed my thinking about alcohol for the last two years, I know that I am not only capable, but it is truly making me question how much and how often I will drink in the future. Do I even really want to drink given how good I feel. Now, a benefit that is often cited cited for participating in dry your weary is that past participants report drinking and drinking less in the months after dry are weary. And I can understand how that will be. So I held on to the belief that I needed alcohol to relax and unwind after work for years, like literally 30 years. And honestly could not imagine living an alcohol free life. And as you've heard, and if you listened to previous podcasts, I'm not exclusively alcohol free. And I don't I'd like like when I think of being completely alcohol free for the rest of my life, I get this anxious feeling. And I know I'm not the only one, I get this kind of like, Ooh, I don't want to never be able to have that again. And so that's where the peace for me comes. I don't want to tell myself, I can never ever do something because I know that when I feel like that it creates anxiety. But what I realized is that my thoughts about alcohol were not true. And that by changing them, I was able to break an unbreakable drinking habit and create a peaceful relationship with alcohol. My peaceful relationship continues to evolve. And I am empowered by the complete control I feel. There's absolutely nothing hard about this anymore for me. And I hope that by sharing all of this with you, you know, you can do the same, you can learn to do the same. It is what I want more than anything is for you to not worry about not feel like you're out of control with and be able to be at peace with your relationship with alcohol. So in summary, here are five reasons you might want to change your daily drinking habit and take a 30 day or longer break from alcohol. Number one, you will sleep better. Number two, your liver will thank you. Number three, you will have decreased anxiety. Number four, you will have more time and energy. And number five, you will be able to evaluate your relationship with alcohol. In the show notes, I will be putting links to the articles, books, podcast episodes I've mentioned. And you know, and to the Facebook group. If you haven't already checked it out, I would invite you to go to Facebook, search for groups. It's called breaking the bottle legacy change your drinking habits. We would love to have you there. And if you have questions, I would love to answer them. Please email me at podcast at Molly watts.com. Again, if you haven't left a review, last I've got lots of calls to action right here. Right? Please go there. And, you know, take 30 seconds and helps other people discover the podcast so I would really appreciate it. All right. I hope you have a great week. Next week you will be hearing from David Nutt. The author of drink question mark the new science of alcohol in your health. He is a neuro Pharmo pharmacologist and a psychiatrist is an expert in addiction from the UK. Pretty darn cool that I got to speak to David not. And anyways, it's gonna be great. So I hope you're having a great January I'm excited to come into the end of January and tell you all about my completed 31 day break from alcohol. So hope you stay with me and until next week, choose peace my friends. Thank you for listening to breaking the bottle legacy. This podcast is dedicated to helping you change your drinking habits and to create a peaceful relationship with alcohol. Take something that you learned in today's episode and apply it to your life this week. Transformation is possible you have the power to change your relationship with alcohol now, for more information, please visit me at www dot Molly watts.com