Four hidden ways alcohol is affecting your health

Is alcohol affecting my health? Yes and here are 4 hidden reasons why

For years I dabbled in exercise, mindfulness, yoga and even tried the occasional salad, but I could never get a decent run with any of these healthy lifestyle changes. Exercise routines would be cancelled on a regular basis due to hangovers. My diet would be blown as I craved stodge to get over the night before. Morning after anxiety, ironically, left me in no state to meditate. Combined with the general tiredness and lack of time my healthy lifestyle was almost non-existent. At this point I was 3 stone (42lbs) overweight, my body fat was 35% and my resting heart rate had moved up low 40’s to 67, I felt constantly tired and stressed. Oh, and I was showing early signs of calcification of my arteries. I was on a one-way ticket to a heart attack.

Then I quit alcohol for 90-days and everything changed.

This is such a key point. My health did not transform itself just because I cut out alcohol. It was all the knock-on effects that made the difference.

 

1. Motivation to exercise

For the first time in many years, with hangovers out the way, I finally started exercising on a daily basis. I suddenly found renewed motivation and energy to train. This fed a positive feedback loop. The more I trained the better I felt and the more motivation I had to train.

 

2. Better diet

With the fog of hangovers lifted I started to notice which food nourished my body and which ones depleted my energy. I moved from a salad dodging, meat eater towards a plant-based diet, which I still love to this day.

 

3. Improved mental health

Alcohol and mental health do not mix. My drinking would leave me feeling terribly anxious the morning after. This anxiety was starting to creep into my normal life. I was scared. BUT once I quit alcohol, I never had to suffer these feelings again. I totally understand alcohol is not a panacea for anxiety, but for me is stopped it in its tracks.

 

4. Deep sleep

Let’s not beat around the bush alcohol destroys sleep. Late nights deprive you of precious hours but the real damage is caused by poor quality of sleep. One of the biggest alcohol-free health advantages I noticed was improved sleep. It is sleep that drives all the wonderful health benefits above. Motivation to exercise, eat well and your mental well being are all improved with a decent sleep.

The healthy takeaway

So after 90 days, I lost 3 stone (42lbs) my body fat dropped to below 10% where it remains. My plant-based diet and lifestyle changes caused my heart rate to drop back to 42!! And I stopped/reversed the calcification of my arteries. When combined with improved mental fitness I am in better shape now at 42 then in my 20’s when I played professional football. And it was the one change, quitting alcohol, that ignited all the others.

So if you’re asking the question – is alcohol is affecting your health? Then the simple answer is yes.

But it’s not just because of all those negative health consequences that we now know are associated with even moderate drinking. It’s mainly because you are missing out on all the advantages that being alcohol-free offers from improved motivation to exercise, better sleep, more time, more energy, improved mental health and, very often, better diet.

So if you want to improve your health please consider taking a break from the booze. You don’t have to do it for life. Just try 30 or 90 days and see what happens. We have created a system that will make it as easy as possible for you to take on this challenge and win. Our daily emails, videos, group coaching sessions, audio course daily accountability with myself, and the best community on the net will support and inspire you to challenge glory and help you transform your health.

All you have to do is sign up to one of our 30,90 or 365-day challenges and we will do the rest from there.

 

Andy Ramage