It’s not just the fact you are giving up alcohol that will make you feel better mentally and physically, its everything else that comes with it that will transform your energy, mindset and even your finances.
Sleep
For a start, taking a break from alcohol can massively change your sleep habits. Many people are unaware that when you have just a couple of drinks at night, you destroy the quality of your sleep and it’s the quality of sleep that matters, over the quantity. We are designed to sleep in beautiful 90-minute sleep cycles, however when you drink it’s like throwing a grenade at your sleeping pattern. Not only will you miss the important REM sleep that you require to feel refreshed and reset for the following day, but you will be mainly in the light sleep phase, meaning you wake up regularly. Basically, those couple of evening drinks are causing you to wake up fighting with the alarm clock and starting your day on the wrong foot. You are then less likely to exercise, more likely to make less helpful food choices and the list goes on.
On the flip side when you take a break from alcohol your body will be ready and waiting for you to drop back into those 90-minute cycles and you will notice the positive difference very quickly, and making those helpful choices feels so much easier. Sober sleep is one of the biggest wins you will experience during a break from alcohol and its one of the reasons I stay alcohol-free as I never want to go back to those long, dry mouthed, anxiety driven nights ever again!
Time
It’s not that we don’t have enough time in life, it’s just that we waste so much of it…. and alcohol consumes more time than we like to admit. Once you have that first drink you can usually write off the rest of the evening in terms of getting anything productive or meaningful done and then the morning is often unused time as well. Essentially, we lose our evening and our morning which is 2/3 of our day!
Contrast that with an evening of not drinking which means you can do something with your time, go to an evening gym class, read a book, learn something or meet a friend. You then get a good night’s sleep which means you beat the alarm clock and can do things for yourself before the word awakes. I went from someone who claimed to have no time whatsoever, to someone who wrote a book every day from 5am-7am before work. It really is amazing how much time alcohol consumes, plus all the time we spend thinking about what to drink, when to drink, how much to drink, then the time we spend buying the drink and drinking the drink and recovering from drinking the drink!
Health
The calorie content in alcohol is something we all like to ignore, but when you stop drinking you quickly notice the difference. The average bottle of wine has over 600 calories, with your average pint of lager coming in at over 200 calories which is a significant chunk of anyone’s daily consumption. You then add on the spontaneous meals out and the hangover food choices and you quickly find yourself in a calorie surplus.
When you stop drinking you stop consuming the high calorie drinks, plus the idea of a greasy pizza is also less appealing than it was when you were hungover. This has a positive impact on your choices, your health and most importantly, how you feel about yourself.
Mental clarity
One of the biggest things you will notice when you stop drinking is how much clearer your head feels. All the problems you have been catastrophising suddenly don’t seem as challenging to deal with. Your mind calms down and you start to view things through a much clearer lens. You are able to make some important life decisions which you might have been avoiding and the world seems like a much more peaceful place to live.
Finances
With the cost of alcohol higher than ever, you will soon notice the difference in your back pocket. Add in all the extra costs of a night out, and you will find yourself with more than a few quid spare at the end of the month. This money can be saved for holidays, or invested, or simply spent on something that will contribute more positively to your life than alcohol does.
Being present
Although we might be physically present in your professional and personal life, often we are mentally distant, especially when we have a hangover, and regularly drifting off into our own world, instead of being present and focusing on the task or the people around us. When you take a break from the booze you will find yourself being much more present and mindful of wherever you are and whatever you are doing, bringing improved productivity professionally and having a hugely positive effect on your personal relationships.
Matt Pink, better known as the Better Life Guy on Instagram has amassed a strong online following since going alcohol-free in April 2020.
Over the last 4 years Matt has created some of the biggest alcohol-free events in the UK including the infamous “No Booze Cruise” in London which has sold out 3 years in succession. Matt is the author of the Amazon best-selling book Better me, Better you which was published in 2021 and is the co-founder of the Dryy app which currently has around 20,000 members and the founder of the men’s only community “Off the sesh”.
Matt is a fully qualified coach and dedicates every day to helping people all over the world to take a break from alcohol.
